How did you feel about Season 9?

[Byatil]

I'm not sure I've read all of this thread, but I'll go ahead and jump in anyway.

I decided to watch series 7 through 9 of Spooks last weekend... needless to say, I didn't sleep much! After the initial interest in the characters of Roz, Jo and Adam, my hopes were dashed somewhat when they were killed off. Luckily, I was left with Lucas - his character had so much potential right from the get-go. There is so much history to explore within that man, and in saying that...

I think series 9 was a horrible let-down.

Throughout series 7 and 8, things had been slowly revealed about Lucas' past. The flashbacks of torture, the reminders of his previous life before he was captured in the form of Elizabeta, the tattoos and his mannerisms in general were all slowly revealing more and more about his troubled character. Then in series 9, we are suddenly expected to believe that almost everything he had ever done or said had been a lie...?

I think most plot holes have already been well and truly blasted apart by you guys (you're very thorough), but what got me the most was the lack of proper psychological development on Lucas' part. He went from being slightly troubled in that he was experiencing flashbacks, and being triggered by certain faces/words/actions, to being unable to cope at all with his life all because of one girl... who seemed to have absolutely no relevance to his life whatsoever! Maya was just such a pointless character. As far as I have gathered, she was married to Vaughn, and yet Vaughn was quite happy for her and Lucas to 'be together' as long as he received Albany. There was never any explanation as to exactly what Maya meant to Lucas. Was she supposed to be an old girlfriend? That wouldn't make sense in my mind. The fact that he transitioned from Elizabeta to Sarah quite quickly can at least be explained by his need to 'feel close' to people, but this sudden transition of affections to a woman who he hasn't known for 20 years (or whatever it was)? He never mentioned her, surely if she had had THAT big an impact on him he would have seen something which would have triggered that memory (if he had suppressed it), seeing as a number of other memories seem to come flooding back very quickly for him - which should be even more likely due to his apparent photographic memory.

I also hated the way that Lucas claimed he "deserved" those 8 years in Russia, after throughout the past 2 series he had been telling the team every so often that he "spent 8 years in a Russian cell", "did 8 years for this", etc. It seems odd that he would go from thinking his torture was completely unfair and undeserved to completely fair and deserved just like that.

The fact that a photo of the real Lucas North still existed on MI5's files can be somewhat explained... I seem to remember the photo was from a 'community club' registration, which is something that could potentially have been missed. However if Beth was able to pull up that information within minutes... why wouldn't Lucas have done?

I understand that people can be good at constructing lies and making them believable even to themselves, but this series took that concept way too far. There is no way that Lucas could have acted all of that. It's just ridiculous.

I have noticed that throughout the 3 series, Lucas' flats had less and less personal possessions in them... his first flat was covered in books and paintings, whilst his most recent only had one book according to the team. Could that be a hint at him attempting to escape himself?

Other things that irritated me were the lack of character development for Tariq, Beth and Dmitri. I think Tariq is underused as a resource particularly in this series, at least in series 8 he got a regular stream of abuse about his outfit choices!
Beth and Dmitri are promising characters, but I don't think we were actually told anything much about Dmitri, and Beth was forgotten about after two episodes. They definitely have potential, and I can see Beth stepping up into that "alpha female" role in the future... but she needs way more development! As much as I love Lucas' character, he was focused on far too much (and they focused on completely the wrong things anyway), so that the others didn't really get a word in edgeways.
I did enjoy the development between Ruth and Harry though That was nice. I hope things work out for Ruth, because she's the only person there sometimes who stops to think about how their choices affect real people. There was a nice quote from her, something along the lines of "Sorry, I'm not used to the idea of using people as chess pieces". Chilling!

The final episode was carried out poorly... that's all I can bring myself to say. I think the ending was left open, I can contrive a number of conceivable ways in which Lucas could have survived, and if RA's schedule allows it I would love to see him come back - if only so that the writers would have to explain this terrible plot!

(Sorry for the essay, and I hope I managed to contribute something without just rambling aimlessly).