7.4 [re-watch]

[JHyde]

Khordad is once again on the department's radar, Harry and Ros fight dirty with the CIA and Jo is seeing an unfriendly ghost. Or is she?

Discuss!

[A Cousin]

Written by Richard McBrien (his first outing with Spooks, also 8.5 and 9.3)
Directed by Peter Hoar (7.3 and 7.4 being his only outing on Spooks)

I was aware, but not hyper-aware, of some really interestingly pretty camera work in this episode, but cannot really give specific examples right now.

This episode, while holding my attention, feels like exposition to me somehow. I can't really put my finger on it.

General impressions:

Great chase sequence in the train station with Lucas at the beginning. That must have been very complicated and taken a long time to do.

One of the most truthful Spooks lines ever is in this episode: Harry's "We can never win the war on terror..." Too true.

Really like Paul Bhattacharjee as Khordad. He's one of those actors I see around a lot and always really like. He brongs such passion and conviction to Khordad. There is an elegance to him as an actor that makes Khordad's eye-for-an-eye POV *almost* understandable. If it weren't so fundamentally reprehensible. I do think it interesting that he keeps pointing out that "our" side is not faultless.

Khordad's line to Jo, "Let it get personal and it will devour your soul." Once again, another view re: the kind of people they can all turn into if they lose their humanity. Jo is certainly sliding down the slippery slope here, isn't she. Both Connie and Ben notice it and try to get her to get some help.

The ultimatum for Lucas is interesting. It is time for him to chose his side. Good boy to go straight to the Grid about it. Unfortunately, he chose Connie. But then they both take it to Harry and Ros. Quite resourceful of him to come up with the dummy bomb idea. Saves his ass as well.

Harry: What do you want!?!?!
Khordad: Respect.

Can't help but break into a little Aretha Franklin here. R-E-S-P-E-C-T! Find out what it means to me!)

I must have blinked. How did they get the location of the bomb? From Khordad, correct? When they let him go against the CIA's wishes?

Funny moment with Lucas and Malcolm, "How long does a bomb take on full power?" Malcolm's brilliance shines through!

Harry's "New resident in the White House" was well timed. I wonder if they added the scene-lette afterwards? Not that it would have been difficult to know in April of 2008 that there would be a new resident in the White House by November. They must have known that this episode would air just a few days prior to the US presidential elections. Is that *hope* I hear in Harry's voice?

Jane Perry as Laurie Werner was good. If she isn't American, she had the right accent and attitude. Did anyone else sense a bit of, erm, chemistry, between her and PF? I remember the first time I watched this episode, I thought she might hang around longer.

And to end, we have Harry trying to flush Connie out based on the info from Qualtrough. Connie has been very much in the background thus far.

[Silktie]

I find this episode quite interesting, from the point that I think it reflects reality closely. History has shown that it is oftentimes the Intelligence Services that lay down the first foundations for future negotiation between sworn enemies. It is in fact what happened here in SA as well. Harry is right when he says that they have to take the chance at establishing some sort of relationship with Al Qaeda, even if they're not sure that Khordad is genuine in his approach.

I do wonder what happened since we last saw Khordad in season 3, though. At that stage he was Britain's new best friend, for whom Mace sold out the bookseller that Danny was protecting. Apparently that arrangement didn't work out as planned, then.

Harry seems on edge throughout the episode. He realises, perhaps more than anyone, just how much is at stake here, and what they are all risking in 'supping with the devil', as Connie puts it, but that there is no other choice. And as though the pressure of this operation is not enough, the Sugarhorse betrayal is also hotting up, and he faces the prospect that one of his oldest colleagues, whom he seems to consider a friend, is the one that betrayed Sugarhorse. That has to hurt. Connie's comment at the end, about the Americans killing Khordad: "God protect me from my friends; from my enemies I can protect myself," can turn out to be prophetic for Harry if Connie is indeed the traitor.

And of course, it is already true for Qualtrough, who we know is working against Harry. But does this mean that Qualtrough is setting up Connie to protect the real traitor, and that Connie is innocent? It's all very intriguing.

Malcolm made me laugh with his comment that they couldn't track Khordad either because he's somewhere from where the microwaves couldn't be picked up, or they'd chopped off his hand. Haha!

Lucas and Ros were doing their thing well this episode, whilst Jo seem to be sliding towards a breakdown. Ben is still boring.

I enjoyed watching Robert Glenister in the House scene - he does the speechifying politician very well.

[Silktie]

Interesting fact: That story Connie tells Lucas about how Churchill allowed the Germans to bomb Coventry during the Blitz to prevent them from finding out the British had broken their codes is a myth.

In reality, what happened is that from the broken codes the British knew that a major attack was coming. The Germans used code words for the various cities in England, and these code words started with the same letter than the name of the city. For instance, London would be coded as 'Lederhosen'. With this particular attack, the code for the city started with a 'K', and the British couldn't figure out what the target was. Only when it was too late did they realise that Coventry is spelt with a 'K' in German.