[spoilers] Lucas. Just Lucas.

[Belle]

Waw, Binkie and Byatil, just as BoHenley said here above, your analyses are fantastic. Everytime I read them, I gain new insights on the true character of Lucas North! Thank you!

I find it striking what you say, Binkie, about Lucas being so meticulate about his actions.

Quote:In 7.6 we see a very complex and detailed exploration of this theme in a synthesis of writing, direction and performance. Following a night spent in a safe house with Dean and his mother, Lucas makes tea alone in the kitchen before being joined by Dean, who has experienced a restless night. Lucas’ attention to the act of tea-making is fascinating and frightening in the way it describes his institutionalised behaviour. Every individual action in the process of making tea is shown to be a tiny observance in itself, a way of marking time. There is no rush, no attempt to complete several actions in a united sequence. He does not fill more than one mug at a time with water; he does not add teabags to the mugs at the start of the process; he carefully returns the kettle to the hotplate before beginning the whole process again for the second mug; he keeps the spoon in his hand throughout; he even shows the mug of tea to Dean, asking for permission to continue, before placing it on the counter for consumption. This is a survival ritual.

This makes me almost sure Lucas must suffer from some sort of compulsive dissorder. Maybe it's not depicted very detailed troughout the whole series, but I do feel like that's what is going on. It's a way to cope with the absence of total control on one's life, wich surely is the case for Lucas. He has no longer control on who he is, simply because he doesn't know it anymore. He longes to be the pre-russia Lucas, but somehow he lost that person whilst in prison.
Everything he does is a quest to try to become that Lucas again.
As Byatil said:

Quote:Another interesting thing is that he never places any blame on the Russians for what happened to him. It's always Harry, or MI5, or England. His rejection of patriotism is very significant in my eyes. He seems to be disinterested in his country, yet he's still willing to die for it. Is this because he has nothing to lose? Or just another attempt at becoming the Lucas he used to be, back when he wanted to protect his country? Because to me, when he returns in S7, he only wants to return to MI5 for rather selfish reasons, once you scratch away the surface. We always view Lucas as a loyal, courageous man who is brave enough to die for his team. But could we actually say his work for MI5 post-Russia is more of a selfish indulgence? I'm assuming that in his mind, there are no other options. It's not as if he could just go home and get a job at the post office or something! He needs MI5 to help himself understand who he is, yet tragically it only serves to confuse him further. He's trapped. He may have left prison, but he's now imprisoned within his own mind instead. And as we've seen... Lucas' mind does not look like a very pleasant place to be.

I also find this a very interesting point of view. He indeed never blamed the russians. Maybe because he knows they were just 'doing their job' so to speak. But, in his mind Harry and MI5 left him to rot, left him behind. Maybe Lucas thought he was more to Harry than just 'the job', maybe he thought they were friends (going trough so much lifetreatening stuff together must leave something of personal feelings behind) and being betrayed by a friend is one of the worst feelings a human can overcome.

It seems a right insight that he tries to be someone again trough his job, because he lost who he was in prison. The only one he knows to be is the imprisoned Lucas, but that is a too painfull personality to be, so he tries to be something else, someone who doesn't need to feel the terrible pain he had indured.
The sad case is: he doesn't know how to be 'a human Lucas' anymore, or at least, he feels extremely unsure trying to be a human, so he renders himself to that what he knows best, to what he feels secure and confident in : being an MI5 officer.
So, it is indeed a selfish action of Lucas to re-engage in the job as a Spook. (but I don't think we can blame him for this). He needs MI5 to be able to live, IMO, because he has no idea anymore what it is to be and feel alive when he's just Lucas North and not the MI5- officer. Every person has a drive to survive, and in Lucas' case it is indeed what he thought he needed to be alive, what destroyes him inch by inch. First by leaving him to die in prison for 8 years and secondly by not giving him the support and trust he aches for so desperatly!

I think we can see what Lucas feels for his country ( and also for Harry) is as a child being mistreated and abused by his parent. The child (Lucas) is hurt down to it's core but the need to feel wanted, to be approved of, to feel loved by its parent(England/Harry) is so much more stronger than the disgust and sadness (and maybe even hatred) it feels towards them. The child keeps defending, loving, wanting its parent, just because feeling hurt is always better than feeling nothing at all!

I also want to second the insights of my fellow posters here above, about the amazing performance given by Richard Armitage, it's through his skilled and intense acting we can see all this about Lucas, can't imagine so much insights would be rising if it wasn't for the total engagement this wonderfull actor had towards this very interesting, but sad character.