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**Silktie** · 16-05-2010, 12:33 PM

The Riff/B part of the episode dragged for me, but I loved seeing our heroes so totally out of their comfort zone. Harry and Adam especially clearly have no idea how to deal with such shallow, self-absorbed people, and it leads to some wonderful scenes. Oh, and that first scene between Harry and Mace is priceless - the way Harry says "cuddly" makes it seem as though he has no idea what the concept actually entails.

But I absolutely loved the B-plot with the politician and the girl. I thought it was very well set out and the way it displayed the differences between Harry and Mace was brilliant. The thing about this storyline is that one can easily believe that something like this could happen, and that there would be attempts to cover it up.

And Malcolm with his obsession over call-signs is classic.

Tea Lady · 16-05-2010, 01:37 PM

The best part of this episode for me was the advert for episode 3.9 at the end. I really didn't like Bea and Riff and it reminded me of episode 8.3, where most of the screen time was taken up by non-spooks and people I really didnt like. I watched some of it just now on fast-forward which I never do.

The bits I did like was the B-plot bent politican story and the Harry/Mace scenes, especially the Whales/Wales line. The scene where Mace walks in and Harry and Ruth are talking gives me shivers. After Ruth walks away, Mace looks on after her !!

Loved Malcolm in this episode getting all excited about nasal discharge and the look he gives when Fiona drags Adam out of the meeting room. I also loved his call sign procedures comments and the 1inch thick booklet he had produced. Only Malcolm!

**JHyde** · (This post was last modified: 16-05-2010 02:44 PM by Nitrus.)

Yeah it's funny to see how Mace is so creepy about Ruth even in season 3,

Series 5 Spoiler: show

If you look at how Mace treats her in episode 1 onwards, he really did have a considerable amount of animosity towards someone whom, as far as we know, had nothing to do with him up until this point.

**Silktie** · (This post was last modified: 16-05-2010 02:26 PM by Silktie.)

I interpreted Mace's attitude towards Ruth differently. I thought he had seen Harry give her the cellphone, and knowing that Harry has just come from seeing Sylvester, is putting two and two together. The look he gives her as she's walking away is because he is wondering where she is going with that phone and what she is going to do with it.

(16-05-2010 05:32 AM)JHyde Wrote: Oh and Howard Brenton continues to tell us what disgusting fancy dishes he is into. First salmon mousse (2.5) and now steak tartare with Adam at the end? Ew. No, really, ew. Sounds like Howard went to one too many dinner parties in the early 80s.

Maybe he does what the writers on the West Wing used to do: page through cookbooks and randomly choose dishes that sound exotic. Big Grin

Tea Lady · 16-05-2010, 02:43 PM

(16-05-2010 02:25 PM)Silktie Wrote: I interpreted Mace's attitude towards Ruth differently. I thought he had seen Harry give her the cellphone, and knowing that Harry has just come from seeing Sylvester, is putting two and two together. The look he gives her as she's walking away is because he is wondering where she is going with that phone and what she is going to do with it.

I have just watched this scene again and I am not sure how Mace would have known it was Sylvester's mobile phone. Up to that point Mace didn't know what trouble Sylvester was in as he then goes into Harry's office and asks him whether it is money or women. He may though have suspected that Harry was confiding in Ruth as Mace knew Harry had just got back from Portcullis House.

lwhite53 · 16-05-2010, 03:42 PM

I thought Mace's look at R as she left was kind of odd but I put it down to him not especially liking anyone at Thames House. He basically thinks they're all beneath him and probably thought R shouldn't have addressed him unless/until he deigned to speak to her.

HellsBells · 17-05-2010, 01:22 PM

I'm glad I'm not the only one who couldn't understand the look between Mace and Ruth !
For me the sub plot with the politician was far better than the Riff and B story. There was so many things that didn't make sense, like Riff having a knighthood, it just didn't work for me. The electromagnet they used to destroy the bugs surely wasn't switched on so how could it ruin the tracking devices.
Whereas the sub plot really showed us that Harry was not a politician and would "do the right thing".

Tea Lady · 17-05-2010, 02:00 PM

(17-05-2010 01:22 PM)HellsBells Wrote: I'm glad I'm not the only one who couldn't understand the look between Mace and Ruth !

Thinking about it again, maybe it was a throw back to episode 3.1 and Mace finding out it was Ruth who got Harry out of hospital, and back on the Grid, to thwart his plans. It may just have been a "Mmm I wonder if there's anything going on there" look.

**A Cousin** · 17-05-2010, 06:16 PM

After an initial reaction of WTF!?! with the first scene, I loved this episode the first time I saw it. Andy Serkis is brilliant. And Adrian Lukis turns in a good emotional one too. I like the episodes where the team is not working in a bubble peopled only by themselves.

I also think this episode very successfully portrays the price of fame and the lengths people completely motivated by their emotions (or libido) will go to court it or avoid it - depending on how it will best benefit them. I think the counter point idea that MI5 is not a willing participant in either the R&B or Sylvester cases is well presented. It also shows the voyeuristic nature of the human race. As Harry says, "The national soap opera continues."

I totally bought the idea of Riff being knighted; other rock stars have been. While most are great artists, their knighthoods could be seen as a debasement of the idea of what a knight is supposed to be and uphold. I suppose I shouldn't "go there" as I am a cousin and this is not in my collective cultural subconscious, but I bought it. No disrespect is intended.

My only quibble would be that the Riff & B plot line overtakes the better plot line about Sylvester but that may have been intentional. As Mace says to Sylvester they just have to find "a good day to bury bad news." The Sylvester plot line has to be secondary because it would be buried. I still would have liked to have seen a bit better balance between the two.

Now all that said, is this an episode that I watch again by choice. Nope. Spooks is best when it is balancing the fun spy stuff with good character development. The only character development that occurs in this episode is Fiona and Harry/Mace and even that, while informative, is marginal. This episode only takes one viewing to get the message and then I'm done. It certainly is not the most subtle but I don't think it "jumps the shark."

**Silktie** · 18-05-2010, 04:29 PM

Yeah, I agree A Cousin. I think a lot of the problems people had with this episode would have been circumvented if they had toned down the depiction of the glamour couple just a little bit. I have to say, I'm surprised B wasn't "unconscious with emotion" mid-way through the ep with the amount of cocaine she was snorting.