[spoilers] Lucas. Just Lucas.

[binkie]

(10-01-2011 12:44 PM)HellsBells Wrote:  I think this is really interesting, Jo and Lucas had so much in common but never really spoke to each other.
When Lucas speaks to Harry I think that maybe he is annoyed by the fact that Harry hadn't notice Jo's suffering, and is reflected by the fact that Harry seems to be oblivious to Lucas' own suffering.

Someone with a better memory than mine will be able to correct me, but I’m pretty sure the first interaction we see between Lucas and Jo is at the start of 7.3, when they are in the surveillance van. Lucas is very quick to pick up on her concern for Ben, although she does not at any stage in this scene make explicit mention of this concern (she does later, though, I think).

Although, as you say, Hellsbells, Jo and Lucas did not really work together often, seasons 7/8 were full of these little observations of the similarities in humanity between the two characters. One of my favourites of these is in 8.3, when Lucas and Jo are monitoring the increasingly tense situation in the panic room at the house where the Berndorf group are being held captive by Finn Lambert. Harry instructs Lucas to obtain information from Russian businessman Vadim Robinov at another location. Lucas’ reaction is very reminiscent of that of a child being told to see to homework or chores: “What, now?” The tone of confusion and reluctance suggests that Lucas has already concluded the situation in the panic room will escalate beyond the ability of Jo (outside the room) or Ros (inside the room) to influence it to a satisfactory conclusion. He is unhappy leaving Jo alone, even knowing that CO19 are on their way, because – at an entirely fundamental, intuitive level - he recognises the importance of human connections. In leaving Jo alone, he has to make himself remember the bigger picture: we can actually see and feel him doing this in the way he re-sets himself, closing his eyes and shaking his head before setting off for the driveway.

I think, for obvious reasons, Lucas sometimes has to remind himself that the world outside his immediate environment continues to exist. I think also, he has to be reminded that it is this world that informs his responsibility to his immediate environment, and the people in it. We occasionally see Jo in this same predicament (7.3 and 8.2 spring to mind). I like this parallel, and I like the understatement in the reasoning behind the presentation of it.