Spooks, The Final Ever Episode
10 years of watching the show, 9 years of rooting for Ruth and Harry, and this is where they leave me.
I know I should have seem it coming but I really, really thought they wouldn't go there.
I swear, ever since she returned in series 8, all I've wanted was for Ruth and Harry to have a happily ever after, and yes I know that isn't the point of the program but still...
I even came back after the terrible series 9 (ok, I was always coming back) and this is how I am rewarded.
I love so many things about Harry and Ruth, not least of all that it totally came from the actors. The way she pretended to be his mistress at the start of series 3, and all the slightly longer than necessary look that built it up all the way through, the meeting on the bus when Harry was suspended, with the hints at something more that neither were willing to risk, the tentative date and Ruth pulling back when she realised people were talking (I always blamed Ros for that and never liked her quite as much after she came between Ruth and Harry). And the end of series 4 (I think) where she makes up a whole affair with a step brother she was never in love with to try and pacificy a slightly mad step-sister-in-law and the looks between her and Harry said so much more than the fake story, because the forbidden love was really them. I also love the way she left in series 5 - even if I didn't like the leaving - something wonderful that was never said and the way she returned in series 8, with the quick removal of the new love to make way for Harry. They were meant to be together, and I didn't want them to end up as another doomed, tragic romance,
And Ruth was such a great character too - one of my favourite Spooks scenes is at the start of series 4 when the stuck up professor is patronising her and she finally snaps and tells him she read classics at Oxford, but only after she gets the information she needs.
So yeah, I loved Ruth, and I loved Ruth and Harry, and I'm really quite gutted now.
I might have to go back over the box sets and find some happy moments ... or at least as happy as Spooks ever gets.