Series 9 Episode 8 discussion

[dalia]

There are some things I don´t understand very good, but maybe I´m missing something as English isn´t my mother tongue (I´m from Czech Republic), but:
1. What was the significance of the ship picture Lucas found in that archive? Was it just "something" to give there so that it wouldn´t be empty, when the real file was secret, or had it a special meaning?
2. Why did Lucas give Albany to the Chinese after Maya died? He was interested in the money and new identity only to start a new life with her. So I quite expected him to return the file to Harry and then shoot himself or something like that, but if he already knew how the file was dangerous (and didn´t know it was a fake), then why? Was he so broken that he just acted "by persistence", did what he planned without thinking? Or was it the only organised thing which stayed to him and so he simply "wanted to finish the mission"?
3. Why all these measures because of Albany when the responsible persons knew it was a fake? To mystify foreign secret services, so that they go after it and divert their attention from the really important things?

I have to say the acting was really brilliant, first of all Lucas, Harry and Ruth, very convincing and great. But the story makes me sad in some sense. I don´t consider Lucas/John a rogue, I believe he was a brave and good person, just made a big mistake in his youth and was misused by Vaughan and his bosses (were it in Dakar already the Chinese?). I think the blame for the people from the embassy is in the first place on these people who ordered it, without John Vaughan would find someone else for it and the people would die anyway. Then again, we don´t know how the real Lucas was, only that he wanted to be a spy. We don´t know who he would become, a good or bad spy? A hero or a traitor? But we know what John did with his new identity, it was him who gave the "capacity" to this Lucas North we´ve seen, and we saw under other circumstances (when he would have "meet Harry first" - that dialogue on the roof was wonderful and very true) he would be a brave, compatient and good man. He did risk his life for his friends, colleagues and country many times, he suffered a lot in the prison but it didn´t broke him, he was reluctant to kill people if not necessary. I guess it was a good but tragical personality. What a pity the authors choose this ending for him...