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**Silktie** · 06-12-2009, 03:47 PM

(05-12-2009 06:09 PM)JHyde Wrote: I'm not sure it's necessarily as the show has progressed - I don't think Harry was exactly caring and sharing in season 6, for example.

I think part of it is that he's still finding his feet with this new team. Lucas hasn't really been back more than six months in real time (at best), Ros has a lot to deal with and she's never been a soft touch, he's inevitably gentle with Ruth by and large not least because of the events of 8.1.

He's sad and old and lonely and the body count just keeps getting higher. And however much we'd like to see it, I'd be surprised if Harry could ever really retire.

These are good points, but I do think the fact that he was forced to live through a mock-execution in 8.1 has had an impact on him. We tend to focus only on what happened with Ruth in 8.1, forgetting that Harry himself probably thought he was going to be executed, only to live through that and then having to sit on that chair for who knows how long, waiting for them to start torturing him and eventually kill him. That has to leave some emotional scars. The way he asked Malcolm whether he had a poem picked out for Harry's memorial is an indication of his emotional turmoil over what happened.

almh · 06-12-2009, 03:49 PM

I think that's a really good point - we do tend to forget the guilt Harry feels, and focus on Ruth's emotions. I think that he was better prepared for what could happen, although I do agree that it will have left some scars, as Jo pointed out in series 8 episode 2.

**JHyde** · 06-12-2009, 03:55 PM

I think that's fair. Harry guilts himself terribly and always has (sometimes with justification) and you can only imagine how this has been gnawing at him. The look in her eyes when she was in pain not to mention "You heartless bastard!" and, as you say, the trauma of being prepared for serious interrogation to only be followed by watching Ruth suffer - I think in some ways it's broken down any reticence he had in dealing with his team on that level. He's looking out for Ros as well, because Adam and Jo got into serious trouble after trauma in the last few years. And it was only two episodes back that Lucas went to pieces over Oleg. The problem is that just as an injury might be healing, another blow is dealt. Harry knows that better than anyone.

**Silktie** · 06-12-2009, 04:03 PM

Harry also seems to have come some way in his relationship with Smart Boy. In Tariq's first episode, he blatantly ignores him and doesn't even speak to him. Now, he calls him a wonder boy, and looks on proudly as Tariq dazzles the rest of the team with his geekiness in the briefing. He also gently teases him with the 'cometh the hour, cometh the geek' line. Perhaps he initially felt some misplaced anger towards Tariq for replacing his old friend Malcolm, which he overcame once Tariq had proven himself.

lwhite53 · 06-12-2009, 08:13 PM

Good points from all. Harry has definitely "mellowed" and the writers are using that to create individual personal relationships between him and each team member on the grid. It's really nice to see as we got none (or only very little) of this kind of interaction in earlier series.

**JHyde** · 06-12-2009, 08:22 PM

It's one of the things I really like about the later series too - something that really only kicked in from series 4.

My heart aches for him this series. That's why I was surprised when so many people here were just talking about Ruth. Harry really suffered too. He was losing Ruth.

(But hopefully that might change.)

almh · 06-12-2009, 08:25 PM

(It better!)

The individual relationships is definitely a plus - we find out so much not only about Harry but about other characters as well.

**JHyde** · 06-12-2009, 08:26 PM

(I really have to pinch myself sometimes that Harry isn't actually real.)

almh · 06-12-2009, 08:31 PM

(He isn't??? Thud

)

lwhite53 · (This post was last modified: 06-12-2009 08:40 PM by lwhite53.)

(06-12-2009 08:26 PM)JHyde Wrote: (I really have to pinch myself sometimes that Harry isn't actually real.)

Given how many years PF has been playing the role, I think Harry is probably quasi-real by now. When you know the actor playing the role, you do tend to start writing specifically for that actor's particular personality traits and quirks. I'm sure that there's a good deal of PF in Harry by now.

BTW, has any one noticed that Harry seems to have slimmed down quite a bit over the last couple of years?