Series 9 Episode 5 Discussion

[lwhite53]

Loved this ep (as opposed to the last two) probably because of all the subtext -- Anna and Levi Cohen so focused on the safety of their country it destroys their relationship. Clearly a cautionary tale for Harry and Ruth. Also, the through line about the issues between father and daughter can't help but to have resonated with Harry -- poor chap had a lot to think about this ep.

Liked the relationship set up between Dimitri and Anna . . . and then his mis-reading her so badly. Really nice acting by Max Brown.

The little red boxes are gone!! Replaced by boring grey ones (a metaphor for lives lived in the shadows, maybe?) I was partial to those red boxes as they highlighted the whole "spy false identity " thing.

Harry and the HS are entertaining once again -- "Just checking out the new Home Office app . . . it's worth a download." Apparently, not to SHP! But the HS does get a little flustered when the fate of "the leader of the free world" is threatened on his watch. Take a chill pill, Mr Towers -- it's Sir Harry and his minions to the rescue. That's one death I doubt will ever happen on spooks.

I enjoyed the plot: an Israeli suckering a Syrian in an assassination attempt on a sitting American president, with a Lebanese trying to stop him -- the kind of triple bluff that spooks does so well. Also, and interestingly, the Palestinians had no part in any of it. A true-to-life commentary, I think, on what happens too often in the Middle East.

Ruth's spiel to the journo (I see pics, I read things, etc) harks back to H's "I sit in meetings . . ." speech to Ruth in 5.3, re a second date.

Loved that Ruth was the one who translates the Arabic from the notebook, not Tariq -- apparently wonder boy really was recruited only for his techie skills. Parallels nicely with Elwan's "The Arab will like dates, they think." Wonder if we'll ever hit a situation where Ruth's language skills will come up short?

Ruth, it seems, has also become the grid's op chief -- she's taken over all the briefing duties and runs all the ops. It's like they've split the section leader duties between she and Lucas.

Great H line to R: "Flick to the last page, Ruth." You can almost see her going through the steps in her head, making the connections and getting the answer.

Not terribly happy about the way the Lucas-John/Vaughan-Michael/Maya sub-plot is happening -- the pattern seems to be 55 mins of main plot action and then 2-3 mins of "what's happening to Lucas' love life this week." They're obviously dragging this story out until the end of the series, which I wouldn't mind if it wasn't so obvious. And what the hell happened to the Chinese snatch team with Lucas' pic (from last ep)? Surely they're still around somewhere.

The next part is total speculation, so I'll put it in spoiler tags.

Series 9.5 Spoiler: show

I had the terribly strong sense as I watched this ep that Ruth is being set up as "the ultimate betrayer." Some of the parallels between Ruth and Anna are striking: a life focused on keeping one's country safe; no real personal attachments, even to those who one should be close to; being sacrificed and left out in the wilderness; someone who's a part of the inner circle and trusted; one's entire being always caught up in the "mission."

I was really struck by Anna's lines to her father: "Don't pretend we did this together. We both want it. We both worked for it. There is no together." In some ways, this would seem to be the opposite of what R says to H: "We can't be more together than we are now," but is that really so? Was R really saying the same thing as Anna -- all we really have in common anymore is the mission? And then, Anna tried to scuttle it and lost herself "quietly in the world." Lucas and Harry's discussion about Anna could just as easily be about Ruth, who clearly isn't the same person in s9 as she was in s8.

Please shoot this down, as I am not at all happy at the prospect.