7.3 [re-watch]

[A Cousin]

I kind of feel like this series reboots with 7.3. The last two episodes were all about establishing the team. This episode kicks the series into gear.

I like the filming of this episode. Peter Hoar uses the standard techniques that make Spooks what it is but with a very light touch. Which is nice. A technique that I have noticed becoming more prominent in Spooks is when they film through an object in soft focus in the foreground and the pull the focus to a character in the background. The barber shop scene is a good example of it.

One of my favorite lines ever comes from the HS, "Which part of Harry did they clone to get you?" It is a very clever way to galvanize those two characters in the viewers mind.

Ben going under-cover with Jawal reminded me too much of Zaf going under-cover with Michael.

Part of the reason I like this series so well is watching Harry walk right into the lions den with Qualtrough. I remember some DVD extra mentioning that there is always a decision that has to be made about who finds out what and when. It was a great choice to have the viewer in the loop from the very beginning and long before Harry. Have they ever done that before?

Lucas. Poor guy. I have to feel sorry for him a bit. The water-boarding sequence is incredibly difficult to watch. I greatly respect RA as an actor for actually doing it for the filming of the sequence. Interesting observation from Marlin about Lucas' distrust in human nature. Esp. from the guy who we find, in the end, gave it all up because "they" had gotten to his family. The hint was there from the beginning re: Marlin.

I don't think Lucas distrusts only Harry, he distrusts everything. Who can blame him? But it does make him rather cold. He reaches out to Ben in a very clinical way, IMO. As if it were just part of being the experience officer in attendance. Which I guess it is. And at least he does it.

Love the "colleagues are OK" conversation at the end with Ros and Lucas. They both agree to keep any relationship they may have to work. If you have no personal life, no one can get to you. But what does that make you in the end?

Ros' reaction to the possibility the they might have lost Jo is touching. She is near tears. Ros is very protective of Jo in her own cold Ros-like way. Ros and Jo are two sides of the same coin.

I also really liked the scene between Jo and Connie on the rooftop. It was very well played by MR. The ears ringing part was very well filmed. Gemma Jones experience and subtlety as an actor shows by letting MR take the scene. Connie has been very much in the background for the series thus far.