Spooks 7x03
When I started this review, I thought that this episode was more about plot, and with only a little character development. Turns out that I was wrong, and I was able to pull out quite a bit of character-related points.
But starting with plot - I really liked this one. As Marlin told Ros and Lucas, it will start with a waterfall; right after the noise comes the dry run; and then bring in a second team for the real thing.
Harry and Ros have a meeting with the Home Secretary who wants to bring the current threat level down from severe to medium:
Harry: You want us to reduce the feel bad factor?
Home Secretary: Sub prime is the crises that keeps on pinching.
Harry: We’re going to downgrade the threat level because the general public needs some good news?
Harry of course had earlier pinpointed the reason for the whole sub prime mortgage crises: “Mortgage lenders seem reluctant to learn a very simple lesson about risky lending - it’s risky. Most of us learn that from our children of course”. Very good economic insight from Harry there.
The terrorist’s attack is a good move from the terrorist perspective’s - the general public is becoming complacent towards terrorism in general, or perhaps more importantly, have been distracted by a different type of crisis. From their point of view it probably is a good time to strike. Which means Harry and the team are right to keep their focus on this.
Ben has been well and truly integrated into the terrorist cell. Which, now that I think about it, screws up my timeline again. There doesn’t feel like a large gap between episodes 2 and 3 (Harry was only just asked about Kachimov’s disappearance) and yet I would have thought that it would have taken quite a while for Ben to be put into the cell. Maybe I should just learn not to question Spooks timelines.
And so first comes the waterfall - internet chatter going through the roof.
Lucas said that Ben was “a natural”, and I think that during his encounter with Nadiff he really proved that. Nadiff, the organiser of the attack, wanted Ben to kill Jawad, the terrorist that Ben had been living with. And yet he didn’t. Ben kept his cool, and his cover, and managed to get out of the situation. In fact, Nadiff probably has more respect for him now, than he did before this encounter.
And so the dry run is on, and the watching begins. I like the music here. Very sharp and with plenty of movement but still very contained. It gives us a mild level of suspense - tells us that something’s happening, and that we should be carefully observant.
Ben takes the opportunity to check out the bag. And there appears to be a bomb inside, and it’s beeping and there’s a red light on it. This does look good. It certainly doesn’t look ‘dry’. It appears that now when Nadiff said “once you’re in, there’s no getting out,” that he really meant it. Now the suspense really begins.
(Call me crazy, but when Lucas looks under the toilet seat, we have a reasonably clear view of the toilet paper roll, and I can’t see Ben’s note there. Goof anyone? )
There is no second cell. Or as Lucas says: “I think they’re toying with us. They want to detonate bombs while we watch for maximum embarrassment. ”
Jawad is getting suspicious. I think he realises he’s being followed.
Fox 2 is cleared away very neatly. The call from the Nadif comes and goes, officers march Fox 2 away and the bomb is quickly deactivated without the marketplace noticing. Which is all a little scary, because if that happened in our local marketplace, I would not have noticed anything.
Jawad has definitely realised that Lucas is following him (well, lets be honest, he’s not exactly the type of guy you walk past and don’t notice!). And then it all goes a bit pear shaped. In the chaos, Jawad gets a bit of a head start. And once shot in the leg, instead of stopping he moves to manually detonate the bomb and so gets himself shot dead. Which is all a bit of a pity, because Ben had fixed Jawad’s bomb so that it couldn’t have detonated.
But it’s not over - Jawad’s phone rings and Malcolm feeds Ben the correct code. Lucky save! And Ben again shows his natural ability, lying effortlessly to whoever the big boss on the line is.
And it turns out that Marlin is behind it after all. We’ve been double-crossed and it’s not good. Because now Marlin is suspicious and moving to blow up the final bomb. There’s panic, with Jo trying to clear the area, but it’s too late and the bomb goes off.
On a cinematographic note, I like the shot of everyone standing still on the grid, with Ros in the centre asking Jo to respond (the one below). It just captures the tense situation and the anxious hold-your-breath moment, knowing that it’s all gone wrong and waiting to find out what the damage is.
When Lucas goes to speak with Marlin, Marlin says: “it’s just one doll, inside another, inside another”. Now is it just me, or is that some sort of reference to those Russian nesting dolls? Does this mean that Russia had its finger in this pie as well?
And it turns out the Marlin wasn’t so bad after all. He was only trying to protect his family. And the ultimate act of protection is to take his own life. If I’m honest, I think that, even worse than the waterboarding, the image of Lucas with Marlin’s blood all over his face is the worst image in this episode.
Now to character development:
Firstly Ben - Ben developed a connection with Jawad while they were living together. But he doesn’t seem to have fully developed the cold spy detachment yet:
Ben: This kid I’m working with, he’s barely able to…
Lucas: The kid you’re with wouldn’t think twice about blowing you and me and as many other people as possible to bits right?
Ben: Yeah, I know.
He still sees the person behind the terrorist. But, if this makes any sense, he understands that the bad of the terrorist outweighs the good of the person. Although at the end, when Jawad had been killed, Lucas still needed to remind Ben that the terrorist in Jawad was stronger. It’s all coping mechanisms I suppose - some way of justifying what just happened.
But I think Ben will be okay. After all, he does have Lucas’ offer: “If you want to debrief over a beer, I’m here for you.”
I’m definitely liking Ros more this season. Her exchange with the Richard Dolby at the end is pretty impressive. “So sack me. Get someone better to do the job… You can’t.” And then the Home Secretary’s reply: “Which part of Harry did they use when they cloned you?” I suppose that is another comment which emphasis the spy in Ros, and takes away from the person. But I do think that the Home Secretary has a bit more respect for Ros now and he thanks her.
But Ros is a perfectionist: “Bastard’s got one past us. Ever since I was a little girl I’ve been annoyingly competitive and perfectionist and that really annoys me”. This helps to explain how she behaves some of the time. Which explains why she trusts her colleagues beyond anyone else: “Lovers leave, friends annoy you, families mess with your head, colleagues are okay”. I guess her colleagues are the only people who can understand her world.
There wasn’t as much focus on Lucas as there was last episode but we still learnt quite a lot. But first a couple of random Lucas appreciation moments - he looks quite good with his headset on, and I really like his jacket. But on to more substantial matters:
Kachimov said: “When you sent Lucas to Moscow he paid an appalling price”. How very true. To be honest, when I first saw the waterboarding scene I thought, yeah, it’s not very nice, but it doesn’t seem too bad as far as torture methods go. Which is along the lines of how Richard Armitage thought that it was “a humane way of extracting information without hurting people”. But after reading a few more articles, I too have changed my mind somewhat, but I’m not going to start debating torture methods and what is and isn’t acceptable.
But RA actually went through with it for the show! Well, since he didn’t think it was too bad, I can understand how he came to agree to it. But his reaction to the actual torture: “I only lasted five to 10 seconds, and the sound of my voice crying out to stop isn't me acting. The psychological damage of doing that to someone for even a minute would be indescribable”. It must have been a terrible experience. And from going through it, RA probably understands Lucas better now, and so do we. We see how even now, many years after Lucas was subjected to this, a simple thing like rain falling onto his face can bring back all those haunting memories. He really did pay an appalling price. The pyschological turmoil still leaves him leaning against the wall for support!
This scene, brief and controversial though it may be, shows us how much damage has been done to Lucas. And on the flip side, it also shows us how strong Lucas is, because despite all of this, he’s still functioning. Although parts of him are damaged, I don’t believe that he’s broken. That in itself is to be admired.
And what does Harry say when Lucas asks what Sugarhorse is?
Harry: No idea. Curve ball, control question maybe, nonesense probably.
Lucas: Well, it seemed pretty important to the interrogator at the time.
Harry: Yes, I’m sure it did.
Dismissal! Oh, that’s pretty cold. I would have thought that Harry could be somewhat more sympatheic in his lying. Or perhaps Lucas didn’t tell Harry exactly what his interrogator’s ‘technique’ was?
And then Lucas says: “If it did mean something, I’d hate to think I went through all that…” I’m a bit confused by this. How is this sentence supposed to end? I first thought that it ended with ‘went through all of that for nothing’, but that doesn’t really make sense. Because if Sugarhorse was real, then he didn’t give anything away, despite being tortured. And that wouldn’t be nothing - that would be a success for Lucas (that is if he did actually know anything about Sugarhorse). If Sugarhorse meant nothing, then he would have gone through all of the that for nothing. But that’s not what Lucas was saying. And so I’m still confused. Help! Any interpretations on what Lucas means here?
But from Harry’s reaction, we know it clearly meant something. He goes off to meet Bernard the spy-catcher. But this spy-catcher already knows something about Sugarhorse - and he’s speaking to some unknown person about it. And apparently it’s a disaster, which makes me think that he’s not on our side.
Understandably Lucas seems to be having doubts that Harry can be trusted. So I believe that Lucas knows Harry was lying to him about Sugarhorse.
Something blows up again next week! The episode airs tomorrow and if my current trend continues, I’ll post again next weekend.
But starting with plot - I really liked this one. As Marlin told Ros and Lucas, it will start with a waterfall; right after the noise comes the dry run; and then bring in a second team for the real thing.
Harry and Ros have a meeting with the Home Secretary who wants to bring the current threat level down from severe to medium:
Harry: You want us to reduce the feel bad factor?
Home Secretary: Sub prime is the crises that keeps on pinching.
Harry: We’re going to downgrade the threat level because the general public needs some good news?
Harry of course had earlier pinpointed the reason for the whole sub prime mortgage crises: “Mortgage lenders seem reluctant to learn a very simple lesson about risky lending - it’s risky. Most of us learn that from our children of course”. Very good economic insight from Harry there.
The terrorist’s attack is a good move from the terrorist perspective’s - the general public is becoming complacent towards terrorism in general, or perhaps more importantly, have been distracted by a different type of crisis. From their point of view it probably is a good time to strike. Which means Harry and the team are right to keep their focus on this.
Ben has been well and truly integrated into the terrorist cell. Which, now that I think about it, screws up my timeline again. There doesn’t feel like a large gap between episodes 2 and 3 (Harry was only just asked about Kachimov’s disappearance) and yet I would have thought that it would have taken quite a while for Ben to be put into the cell. Maybe I should just learn not to question Spooks timelines.
And so first comes the waterfall - internet chatter going through the roof.
Lucas said that Ben was “a natural”, and I think that during his encounter with Nadiff he really proved that. Nadiff, the organiser of the attack, wanted Ben to kill Jawad, the terrorist that Ben had been living with. And yet he didn’t. Ben kept his cool, and his cover, and managed to get out of the situation. In fact, Nadiff probably has more respect for him now, than he did before this encounter.
And so the dry run is on, and the watching begins. I like the music here. Very sharp and with plenty of movement but still very contained. It gives us a mild level of suspense - tells us that something’s happening, and that we should be carefully observant.
Ben takes the opportunity to check out the bag. And there appears to be a bomb inside, and it’s beeping and there’s a red light on it. This does look good. It certainly doesn’t look ‘dry’. It appears that now when Nadiff said “once you’re in, there’s no getting out,” that he really meant it. Now the suspense really begins.
(Call me crazy, but when Lucas looks under the toilet seat, we have a reasonably clear view of the toilet paper roll, and I can’t see Ben’s note there. Goof anyone? )
There is no second cell. Or as Lucas says: “I think they’re toying with us. They want to detonate bombs while we watch for maximum embarrassment. ”
Jawad is getting suspicious. I think he realises he’s being followed.
Fox 2 is cleared away very neatly. The call from the Nadif comes and goes, officers march Fox 2 away and the bomb is quickly deactivated without the marketplace noticing. Which is all a little scary, because if that happened in our local marketplace, I would not have noticed anything.
Jawad has definitely realised that Lucas is following him (well, lets be honest, he’s not exactly the type of guy you walk past and don’t notice!). And then it all goes a bit pear shaped. In the chaos, Jawad gets a bit of a head start. And once shot in the leg, instead of stopping he moves to manually detonate the bomb and so gets himself shot dead. Which is all a bit of a pity, because Ben had fixed Jawad’s bomb so that it couldn’t have detonated.
But it’s not over - Jawad’s phone rings and Malcolm feeds Ben the correct code. Lucky save! And Ben again shows his natural ability, lying effortlessly to whoever the big boss on the line is.
And it turns out that Marlin is behind it after all. We’ve been double-crossed and it’s not good. Because now Marlin is suspicious and moving to blow up the final bomb. There’s panic, with Jo trying to clear the area, but it’s too late and the bomb goes off.
On a cinematographic note, I like the shot of everyone standing still on the grid, with Ros in the centre asking Jo to respond (the one below). It just captures the tense situation and the anxious hold-your-breath moment, knowing that it’s all gone wrong and waiting to find out what the damage is.
When Lucas goes to speak with Marlin, Marlin says: “it’s just one doll, inside another, inside another”. Now is it just me, or is that some sort of reference to those Russian nesting dolls? Does this mean that Russia had its finger in this pie as well?
And it turns out the Marlin wasn’t so bad after all. He was only trying to protect his family. And the ultimate act of protection is to take his own life. If I’m honest, I think that, even worse than the waterboarding, the image of Lucas with Marlin’s blood all over his face is the worst image in this episode.
Now to character development:
Firstly Ben - Ben developed a connection with Jawad while they were living together. But he doesn’t seem to have fully developed the cold spy detachment yet:
Ben: This kid I’m working with, he’s barely able to…
Lucas: The kid you’re with wouldn’t think twice about blowing you and me and as many other people as possible to bits right?
Ben: Yeah, I know.
He still sees the person behind the terrorist. But, if this makes any sense, he understands that the bad of the terrorist outweighs the good of the person. Although at the end, when Jawad had been killed, Lucas still needed to remind Ben that the terrorist in Jawad was stronger. It’s all coping mechanisms I suppose - some way of justifying what just happened.
But I think Ben will be okay. After all, he does have Lucas’ offer: “If you want to debrief over a beer, I’m here for you.”
I’m definitely liking Ros more this season. Her exchange with the Richard Dolby at the end is pretty impressive. “So sack me. Get someone better to do the job… You can’t.” And then the Home Secretary’s reply: “Which part of Harry did they use when they cloned you?” I suppose that is another comment which emphasis the spy in Ros, and takes away from the person. But I do think that the Home Secretary has a bit more respect for Ros now and he thanks her.
But Ros is a perfectionist: “Bastard’s got one past us. Ever since I was a little girl I’ve been annoyingly competitive and perfectionist and that really annoys me”. This helps to explain how she behaves some of the time. Which explains why she trusts her colleagues beyond anyone else: “Lovers leave, friends annoy you, families mess with your head, colleagues are okay”. I guess her colleagues are the only people who can understand her world.
There wasn’t as much focus on Lucas as there was last episode but we still learnt quite a lot. But first a couple of random Lucas appreciation moments - he looks quite good with his headset on, and I really like his jacket. But on to more substantial matters:
Kachimov said: “When you sent Lucas to Moscow he paid an appalling price”. How very true. To be honest, when I first saw the waterboarding scene I thought, yeah, it’s not very nice, but it doesn’t seem too bad as far as torture methods go. Which is along the lines of how Richard Armitage thought that it was “a humane way of extracting information without hurting people”. But after reading a few more articles, I too have changed my mind somewhat, but I’m not going to start debating torture methods and what is and isn’t acceptable.
But RA actually went through with it for the show! Well, since he didn’t think it was too bad, I can understand how he came to agree to it. But his reaction to the actual torture: “I only lasted five to 10 seconds, and the sound of my voice crying out to stop isn't me acting. The psychological damage of doing that to someone for even a minute would be indescribable”. It must have been a terrible experience. And from going through it, RA probably understands Lucas better now, and so do we. We see how even now, many years after Lucas was subjected to this, a simple thing like rain falling onto his face can bring back all those haunting memories. He really did pay an appalling price. The pyschological turmoil still leaves him leaning against the wall for support!
This scene, brief and controversial though it may be, shows us how much damage has been done to Lucas. And on the flip side, it also shows us how strong Lucas is, because despite all of this, he’s still functioning. Although parts of him are damaged, I don’t believe that he’s broken. That in itself is to be admired.
And what does Harry say when Lucas asks what Sugarhorse is?
Harry: No idea. Curve ball, control question maybe, nonesense probably.
Lucas: Well, it seemed pretty important to the interrogator at the time.
Harry: Yes, I’m sure it did.
Dismissal! Oh, that’s pretty cold. I would have thought that Harry could be somewhat more sympatheic in his lying. Or perhaps Lucas didn’t tell Harry exactly what his interrogator’s ‘technique’ was?
And then Lucas says: “If it did mean something, I’d hate to think I went through all that…” I’m a bit confused by this. How is this sentence supposed to end? I first thought that it ended with ‘went through all of that for nothing’, but that doesn’t really make sense. Because if Sugarhorse was real, then he didn’t give anything away, despite being tortured. And that wouldn’t be nothing - that would be a success for Lucas (that is if he did actually know anything about Sugarhorse). If Sugarhorse meant nothing, then he would have gone through all of the that for nothing. But that’s not what Lucas was saying. And so I’m still confused. Help! Any interpretations on what Lucas means here?
But from Harry’s reaction, we know it clearly meant something. He goes off to meet Bernard the spy-catcher. But this spy-catcher already knows something about Sugarhorse - and he’s speaking to some unknown person about it. And apparently it’s a disaster, which makes me think that he’s not on our side.
Understandably Lucas seems to be having doubts that Harry can be trusted. So I believe that Lucas knows Harry was lying to him about Sugarhorse.
Something blows up again next week! The episode airs tomorrow and if my current trend continues, I’ll post again next weekend.