Series 9 Episode 7 discussion

[Onion Terror]

I've watched this episode through a couple of times now and still can't help worrying about whether ep.8 will resolve anything or simply provide us with a dramatic but somehow nonsensical ending. My principal issue is how quickly Lucas/John seems to have gone through such a big personality change. Throughout series 7 & 8 he has loyally served his country and tryeed to regain Harrys trust and confidence. Even for much of S9 he has been portrayed as a loyal officer and basically honorable person whose integrity has been compromised by someone blackmailing him over his past. Rather than being unscrupulously self-interested he seems to have been genuinely torn between wanting Vaughn off his back and knowing that he'll have to betray the service in order to do so. And yet in spite of all this, all it takes is Vaughns "you're a killer.. who fell asleep and dreamt he was a hero" speech to (apparently) strip away his conscience and turn him 'bad' (for want of a better word!).
It kind of reminds me of the way in which soap operas inroduce a new character who is related to an existing one, and then have to invent some spurious and unrealistic story to explain why the existing character hasn't EVER spoken about this brother/son/cousin/whatever. The fact that the story doesn't ring true doesn't matter to the writers as long as it makes good TV, and I fear that the Lucas/John storyline might be concluded in a similar way. Hopefully not, but...