Series 9 Episode 2 discussion

[JHyde]

Completely agree about Beth's costume! I felt like we were back in season 1 a bit.

I also agree that the Home Sec knew more about this than he told Harry. Did he know about the coup? Perhaps not that much. But enough.

One thing I loved that I forgot to mention: the little bits with Lucas in the cars during the episode. That felt like vintage Spooks, very Adam/Harry. Also the fact that Harry went in himself to get the job done at the end, I want to see more of that.

I have a feeling that little scene at the end of 9.1 about the flat share was tucked there purely to set up reveals in this episode. Possibly others to come as well. I don't see Ruth and Beth sharing wine and getting cosy, that just doesn't feel true (sorry, I can't remember who wanted this).

I disagree with people who thought Harry was having a love in with the HS last week. I thought Harry was suitably detached and disbelieving. The scenes Harry has shared with various HSs over the years are amongst my favourites on the show, and that tradition seems set to continue. Towers is a fussy old man who doesn't actually like to say the codewords but wants the really unpleasant stuff done. He's possibly the most stereotypical politician we've seen in that chair so far.

A lot of things were in this episode that fans requested at the end of last season: late night phonecalls with Harry and Ruth, more Harry and Lucas actually talking about what matters and also more of the personal moments that make the show what it is. I'm finding the tone of the show a little hard to qualify this year: it has bits of all of them.

I do want more Dimitri though. And Shazad Latif is doing great work with what little he has. Especially given most of his stuff is exposition and technical jargon at that, I think he's ace.

I agree with Aria on the whole - it was a good but not spectacular episode and I agree with lwhite53 about most of the major plot points. My major issue with splitting it up was that I was several moves ahead. By telling us it was initially from Lucas' point of view, that automatically meant there was at least another to come and surely that would 'fill in the gaps'. In the interests of keeping the plot going, it really wasn't a great leap from there to anticipate the big reveal, namely, Beth covering something up.

I will say that I drew breath sharply after the ID was given to the shooter and you saw Harry with the bag. Even if we knew how that one was going to pan out, it was still one of the few bits I hadn't figured out.

Minor point about the score: it was very annoying while Lucas was doing his bit in W's house. Disappointing as the 'tense music' is usually of a high standard.