[spoilers] Harry and Ruth. The Wonder Years.

[JHyde]

I think Silktie has it in one, with that last line.

Series 9.8 Spoiler: show

There's also the possibility that Maya convinces him to let Ruth go or that Ruth makes a dash for freedom herself.

It's possible that Lucas was told by Ros just exactly how Ruth went into exile and her uses that knowledge here.

I find myself missing Ros especially with this storyline. I miss her take on things!

But back to HR. I also loved that scene in the hospital. I think part of the problem is that Ruth has always been empathetic and compassionate and everything else that she is, but that she is slowly getting better at carrying on after an event like this. That's not to say that it ever becomes commonplace for her, but she is gaining a degree of detachment after the event. Like soldiers gain in war, like Harry has surely accumulated after all his years. She is worried that she is not who she was. (I really want to quote Adrienne Rich here: 'I do not know/who I was when I did those things'. I'm also not the first to make the Rich connection with Ruth this season, see northern exposure's fan fic. She and I bond over Rich! But back to my point.....)

I think she also worries that she is becoming like Harry. PF plays the scene after storming the house beautifully - the look on his face is equal parts distress at seeing Ruth mangled and broken, the scene as it is, and also *pride*, the same pride that had him tell her that she was a 'born spook'. There is also a bit of that same pride, I think, when she tells him that she is ready to go back to work. Except this time I think the pride is drowned out by his better feelings and he is a trifle fearful that the woman he loves is losing HERSELF in this mess.