Season 10 - Episode 4 discussion

[JHyde]

Discuss! (This thread will be opened about half an hour before the episode airs.)

[Nitrus]

I was just coming here to post this. Ha, thanks JHyde.

Thread is now open.

[JohnSpook]

Best episode of the series so far. Was on the edge of my seat for the whole hour! One of the best Harry and Ruth scenes in recent years. She's really hurting, yet he encourages her to go. Better brace yourselves for next week, Harry Pearce is going to war.

[nothingisasitseems]

Episode 2 still my fav but I agree with the edge of seat comment.

I still can't get a handle on Elena and Sasha - in the long run it will turn out how the writers' decide!

Coaver seems so plausible I wonder could there just be a twist there?

Although I suppose we all knew Erin wasn't going to leave they might have kept us in suspense but next week's preview make the situation clear.

Some evocative scenes between Harry and Ruth - I am no longer convinced that it won't work out for them in the end.

[neuro]

(09-10-2011 09:05 PM)JohnSpook Wrote:  Best episode of the series so far. Was on the edge of my seat for the whole hour! One of the best Harry and Ruth scenes in recent years. She's really hurting, yet he encourages her to go. Better brace yourselves for next week, Harry Pearce is going to war.

I know poor Ruth - love the way she implied Harry had gone the way that James Angelton (aka Mother the head of CIA counter intelligence) had.

Still not sure that its the CIA man that's the bad guy I bet there's some elaborate twist coming

[Agent Acme]

Certainly a better showing than last weeks episode, and definitely one of the best Harry and Ruth scenes for a long while, though I still can't quite fathom their actual relationship status, it seems like its just been accepted that they feel, 'something' for each other but still have done nothing about it, there's not an awful lot of warmth there, especially from Ruth, yet she's still prepared to go out on a limb for him, as in her meeting with Jim Coaver.

I don't know what you all think, but the meeting in the park, the set up for Coaver, did it not seem a little odd, Harry Ruth and Sacha weren't exactly hiding very well, I know they were just waiting to see if it was Coaver that actually turned up, and the attempted assassination of Elena, was a pretty poor effort for an alleged CIA operative...I'm still not sure about Elena.

Also during the meeting with Ruth on the bridge, Coaver mentioned Harry's unauthorised attempted extraction of Elena and Sacha at Treptower park in Berlin.
" I would never have done it....I hope he knows that. I don't shoot my friends, family maybe, but not my friends." Part of what Coaver said. Not altogether sure whether that was meant literally or not but I gather it was Coaver that put the kibosh on Harry's attempt to get them out. Ruth looked a little perturbed at this revelation, obviously Harry's version is different. Coaver gave Ruth a file.

It's all as clear as mud to me....have to have a re-watch I think....

[kaytea411]

(09-10-2011 10:53 PM)Agent Acme Wrote:  .....during the meeting with Ruth on the bridge, Coaver mentioned Harry's unauthorised attempted extraction of Elena and Sacha....

" I would never have done it....I hope he knows that. I don't shoot my friends, family maybe, but not my friends." ..... Not altogether sure whether that was meant literally or not but I gather it was Coaver that put the kibosh on Harry's attempt to get them out. Ruth looked a little perturbed at this revelation, obviously Harry's version is different. Coaver gave Ruth a file.

It's all as clear as mud to me....have to have a re-watch I think....

I will have to re-watch too.... I thought that Coaver's remarks to Ruth were confessing that yes he was given a kill-order due to Harry's rogue extraction plans and that was why Harry ultimately did not/could not extract Elena/Sasha..... And that it was Coaver saying he would not have actually followed thru with the order, despite the unsanctioned plans - because he and Harry were true friends. But he now followed why Ruth was looking into his background for Harry. I'm also very interested in the "file" Not much was made of it at the time.

Very muddy, indeed. I know I'll have to rewatch :->

[RussIan]

The scenes between Erin (who might just be taking over Jo as hottest female agent) and Dimitri at the bottom of the stairs and on top of Thames House were quite well done, I thought there was going to be some intimacy there. Whether that was planned I'm not sure!

Another good episode, alot of tense moments make for a good Spooks! I do think this series is up there with the best of them. There can't only be two episodes left ever!

[SweetTea]

I have to agree that this has been the best episode of the series thus far and a marked improvement over last week.

Was Ruth's meeting with Coaver planned or was she just hanging out there and he tracked her down? She seemed surprised to see him, but it also didn't seem like a place you could just pretend to run into someone - and was that the same place Harry was 9.8 on the phone with Lucas? Maybe it just looks like it.

As for Ruth and Harry on the park bench, I feel the need to defend Harry a bit in that does anyone ever really know every single thing about their partner/SO/spouse? And really, when have these two been at a point with each other that they would have sat down and started sharing things in their past? Disregard the fact that they can access files to learn things about each other (and overlook that this couldn't have come up before now because it didn't exist in the writer's minds.) Are there things that Ruth hasn't been forward with Harry about? I get that Ruth is feeling overwhelmed about all this and that the Elena/Sasha thing is big in the grand scheme of things, but unless they spent those 8 weeks he was off the grid sharing all their intimate details and even then he left this out, I'm not sure that she can hold it against him. Yes, the fact that he fathered a child by this woman is major, but from Harry's POV, as best we know, he hasn't seen Sasha since he was 4 yo and likely never expected to see him (or Elena) ever again. I get why it wasn't something he'd brought up in the course of their relationship.

Of course, I'll have to watch again, and probably again after that. Only 2 left ever, but I have a feeling they are going to be 2 fantastic hours of television. :-)

[Sparky]

A really good episode on all counts I thought. I enjoyed the muslim bomber angle and though I figured out that Rosie was going to be used in some way (that was signposted very clearly at the beginning) it didn't swallow up the episode at all. It did feel like there were 2 completely seperate stories running throughout though, one starring Erin, Dimitri and Calum with cameo's from Ruth and Harry, and the second starring Harry and Ruth and their hangers-on! Erin and Dimitri both come across OK in the show but I don't think I'd really miss them if they weren't around, while I think Calum has the most potential of the 3 by far and again had some good one-liners and seems to hit all his marks!

It was the secondary storyline that had me really hooked though. Ruth sounding out Jim Coaver, the meeting with Ilya (I have a feeling he's going to be a big presence in the next 2 eps and I don't trust him at all), the park scene with Sasha and Elena (I trust him but not her), the meeting between Ruth, Harry, Elena and Sasha (atmosphere decidedly frosty from all angles) and the final scene with Harry and Jim (who I think is being set up). As you can see I have no real idea what is likely to unfold and with only 2 eps left I hope they focus fully on this storyline going forward as I have way more questions than answers at this stage!

The Harry and Ruth sideline is also keeping me very intrigued, Ruth's face when Jim told her that Harry wanted to extract Elena and Sasha all those years ago was heartbreaking, as was the scene where she saw Harry hold Elena - all the emotions on her face came through very clearly! The standout scene though was of course the park bench. Ruth's hurt and anger was palpable as she said 'people don't love each other on a need to know basis'. The anguish on both their faces throughout this scene was very telling, and somehow they both seem to realise now quite how much they mean to each other. Harry telling Ruth to go and work for the HS (who showed his true colours to Ruth earlier) obviously hurt them both very much but it'll be a very interesting dynamic to watch next week.