[spoilers] Harry and Ruth. The Wonder Years.

[A Cousin]

(03-11-2010 08:58 AM)JHyde Wrote:  But back to HR. I also loved that scene in the hospital. I think part of the problem is that Ruth has always been empathetic and compassionate and everything else that she is, but that she is slowly getting better at carrying on after an event like this.

I think she also worries that she is becoming like Harry. PF plays the scene after storming the house beautifully - the look on his face is equal parts distress at seeing Ruth mangled and broken, the scene as it is, and also *pride*, the same pride that had him tell her that she was a 'born spook'. There is also a bit of that same pride, I think, when she tells him that she is ready to go back to work. Except this time I think the pride is drowned out by his better feelings and he is a trifle fearful that the woman he loves is losing HERSELF in this mess.

Ruth is on one end and Harry is on the other. He has had 30+ years to "season" into the job, she has had 6 - tops - at MI5 proper. 3.5 before and 2 after her time in Greece.

I think I have rewatched the second scene a thousand times over and am beginning to think that after Harry offers Ruth her psychological assessment as he sees it (e.g. that she still blames him) when she turns around and says to him, "And you'd be wrong" she isn't just referring to him being wrong to choose her over duty, she is telling him that he is just simply wrong in his assessment.

In the hospital, I loved it when he asked her what is the truth. He said "the" truth, but I think he meant her truth. And that he stood there and let her say it. In order for them to survive they have to desensitize themselves. Since this has been such a strong character trait for Ruth, I think she is questioning if it is worth the price. She isn't only mourning the loss of George, Nico and her life in Greece, but she is mourning the loss of a very defining portion of herself as well.

Warning: I feel a Kierkegaard quote coming on:

There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming.

Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are.

OK. I'm done.