Series 9 Episode 6 discussion

[NightOwl]

(26-10-2010 09:21 PM)lwhite53 Wrote:  Hot damn -- this will certainly get added to my 10 favorite eps list!! Wonderful tension throughout, great "spy stuff" happening (R passing H the note, Tariq throwing the computer, Malcolm giving Lucas the wrong file -- with a smile and handshake, voice synthesis, Malcolm calling Lucas "John," etc, etc), and terrific music underscoring.

As people have already said, loved the lockdown scenario and the whole group (sans Lucas) having to work together to get out and foil the newest threat. My fav line of the ep: Dimitri's "I've just had a really terrible idea." I laughed out loud at the look on his face.

Lucas is getting more and more out of control. The morphing between the "Lucas" and "John" personnas is happening almost without his being aware of it (maybe he has multiple personality disorder) and Maya seems to be what triggers the reaction. I think the most telling episode is what ultimately happens to Danielle -- he resists the fake Harry's order to kill her and does his best to protect her until he discovers that she knows about the Albany file, and then he allows her to die. I do believe he cancelled the emergency call and relaxed the pressure on her wound so that she would bleed out -- the reason he did so was to protect himself and, ultimately, Maya. Whether or not she would have died anyway is immaterial -- he (John) compromised another person for the second time. Lucas is the one who's feeling the remorse.

I'm finding the testiness between Harry and Ruth over Lucas interesting - Harry obviously wants to trust Lucas and he appears to know more than he's letting on but he doesn't want to let Ruth into the knowledge loop. Don't know yet whether that's to protect Ruth, to protect Lucas, or if he suspects Ruth of something. The way the coming clips are set up, it appears that Harry is giving Lucas the spiel about loyalty and betrayal but . . . we don't necessarily know that that's the case.

And LOVED seeing Malcolm again!!

By way of a partial explanation for Lucas's actions, though, he doesn't know that she spied on him and must have overheard about Albany. He must assume that if she knows about it then she must be working with Vaughn or whoever Vaughn is working for. He does know that he can't reach Harry, but he doesn't know why or who is pretending to be Harry. Not saying it's his finest moment, but given the circumstances, I think it's possible he believed she was an enemy agent, and he wasn't motivated entirely by self-interest.

Are we supposed to believe that the Russians and Chinese were able to compromise MI-5 entirely on their own or did they have help from a mole?