[spoilers] Lucas. Just Lucas.

[binkie]

First, I must say, I agree with everyone who has expressed an opinion of exasperation and disappointment over the whole eye-candy factor. It is an always tedious and patronising default setting for any character. I hate the implication that my interest in a character is founded on their appearance and that I am somehow being rewarded for cultivating an interest in that character by being shown him or her in increasing states of undress.

Back on topic...

Byatil, you are right, of course, in saying that we are left by the character of the writing with a requirement to draw our own conclusions regarding the nature and purpose of Lucas’ actions and motives. The alternative to speculation, though, would surely be to introduce a character to fulfil the function of a deus ex machina (in the manner of the character of the psychiatrist in the West Wing episode Noël), with the sole purpose of telling the audience what is really happening. I’m not sure how well this would sit in Spooks. And the speculation can be quite rewarding, if sometimes frustrating and inconclusive. At least it gives the good people of SF-land something to talk about To that end: I do think, before we are too hard on Lucas - or on season 8 (which did certainly have problems of its own) - we perhaps need to consider more the appearance of events and characters from his perspective.

Interpretations of Lucas’ relationship with Sarah are interesting, and motivate a useful opportunity to look again at her significance for Lucas as he wanted and needed her to be, rather than for what the privileged gaze of the audience knew her to be:

(03-02-2011 12:56 PM)Belle Wrote:  I think he sort of lost the ability to tell friend from foe if it didn't was directly related to his work

(01-02-2011 11:21 PM)Byatil Wrote:  Sarah allowed us to see a side of Lucas which we hadn't previously encountered, but aside from that, I tend to feel their relationship was just as shallow as John and Maya's.

(02-02-2011 04:17 PM)Silktie Wrote:  He kept on defending her long after he was given strong proof that she was bad.

These observations all highlight something different, and valuable, about Lucas’ state of mind (an element of continuing character development), and his position in the narrative of season 8 (an element of discrete storytelling). I tend to agree with Belle that, rather than being stupid or misguided in his relationship with Sarah, Lucas is in fact working through something of a condition of confusion and emotional rehabilitation. I am not convinced that he is at all ignorant of her deviousness, or that he is foolish or weak-willed to offer defence of her once the full extent of her complicity in the Nightingale set-up is revealed. It seems to me that Lucas’ emotional investment, and hope for equal reward, in his relationship with Sarah has less to do with a surrender to hormones and rather more to do with an inability to judge the measure of human relationships apart from their tendency to compromise and betrayal. He knows Sarah is lying to him, he knows she is exploiting him, and he knows she is in a position of moral confusion about at least some of her actions. In other words, he knows she is as flawed and incapable of emotional acquiescence as he is himself. This is, I suspect, more reassuring than it is alienating.

The most sustained, invested, reciprocal relationship Lucas has had in the immediate past was the one had with Oleg. Just because he can remember that this is not a ‘normal relationship’, and just because he knows that he has been capable of sustaining relationships that were not like this one, do not suffice to negate the awful appeal of any kind of human-to-human recognition and response, no matter how brutal or humiliating. I am not comparing Sarah with Oleg; neither am I suggesting that Lucas has normalised his relationship with Oleg to the point that he is incapable of seeing that his relationship with Sarah is fractured and – almost certainly – doomed. However, I do think it would be a mistake to suppose that Lucas can simply snap back into the pursuit, or execution, of an equal trust- or dependency-relationship. Yes, he knew Sarah was ‘bad’, and yes, he knew their relationship was ‘shallow’, but he also knew she was hollow because when she looked at him he saw only himself. She is the best he can hope for, because she is all he can acknowledge as emotionally capable in himself. Lucas isn’t stupid in his relationship with Sarah, he is a wreck drifting for port.