Series 9 Episode 6 discussion

[neuro]

(26-10-2010 08:25 PM)femaleBertieWooster Wrote:  

(26-10-2010 07:29 PM)Nitrus Wrote:  

(26-10-2010 07:26 PM)Caitlinhg Wrote:  1. Why "Albany" as the code word for the Op file Lucas is chasing? Is there any significance, like there was with "Sugarhorse" and others? I haven't seen any thoughts about this, here, and would be interested to see if anyone else has wondered about the name? Usually there is some link from the cover name to the operation. Any idea?

I provided some thought about this here: http://www.spooksforum.co.uk/thread-1248...l#pid33309

See what you think.

Do you have any ideas about what may have happened in North Africa in 1995? I've been googling my fingers sore to get some history from that time.

Spoiler: show

I've found several references to water problems being solved. Also, the Middle East was involved. Just read on a blog that episode one involved Lucas getting on that ship from North Africa, which I did not pick up on. Did England have some role in changing government in Africa, together with the CIA of course?

Edit to add:

(26-10-2010 08:23 PM)neuro Wrote:  

(26-10-2010 07:09 PM)femaleBertieWooster Wrote:  

(26-10-2010 05:52 AM)BravoNine Wrote:  

(26-10-2010 05:47 AM)femaleBertieWooster Wrote:  Just thinking about what Lucas said to Malcolm to get the Albany file from him, something about someone trying to set Harry up with photos from (I think) somewhere in China, with the year being 1995, 15 years ago. That must mean that Harry was also present for whatever went down with Vaughn, John and Maya.

I thought Lucas said 1978, I could be wrong, but I'm not sure if it was about what happened in Africa with John/Lucas thing....I'm just confused now....

I tried to post this last night (USA last night=approx 8AM in England) and kept getting forbidden messages. Did we get hacked?

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I just checked, Lucas said Colon? 1979, investigating the Red Army (made me think China, I'm a dummy) and East Germany.

probably the Red Army Faction aka the Baader-Meinhof Group as they where active in the 70's

Thank you. Any idea what was happening in Africa in 1995 that England would want to keep secret? I'm referring to meddling of course.

Maybe some coup reference as Bob Denard (a Mercenary mentioned in dogs of war) tried to run a coup in Comoros in 1995.

Denard is the one in dogs of war who is stated to be friends with DGSE

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(26-10-2010 10:11 PM)NightOwl Wrote:  

(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?

maybe some one hacked the home office app on the home secraterys phone and used that to piggy back into the grid :-)