[spoilers] Harry and Ruth: Back With A Vengeance?

[loladom]

(20-09-2011 09:15 PM)Tea Lady Wrote:  I'm sure Harry does feel guilty about Sasha, that's a given. I took Harry being upset at the end, as it was also a given that his son, Sasha, was going to be hurt now. There was no way of keeping him out of it. He would find out about who his real father is (this is sounding like the script to Empire Strikes Back )

By burning Elena and getting the US to do the same, he protected them from all sides for over 30 years. He sacrificed his love and child for the State once again. I therefore do not believe he felt guilty towards Ruth. He does need Ruth to understand this though. Harry has no one else.

I do not see Ruth holding this against Harry at all. If there is more to the story though, then maybe. That's for future episodes. But in the meantime, the fact he slept with a woman, fell in love, and had a child, is not unsual and apart from the obvious breach of protocols, it isn't something I think Harry needs to be ashamed of, hence telling Ruth.

Agreed, this is how I see it.
I saw pain in Harry's confession. The pain of as you say not knowing his son, losing someone he loved and the steps he took to protect them. Perhaps a little fear over their fate if this becomes known and generally his reaction to having both of them arrive in his life after so long.

At no point did I see guilt towards Ruth. He has nothing to be guilty about in terms of Ruth. I saw the pain of his personal sacrifice. And if we think about how hard he's always been on his agents for getting involved with other foreign agents, perhaps that is about trying to prevent the heartache which we are now led to believe he suffered.

This does not blemish Harry for me at all. It just highlights the personal costs he's racked up in service.

As to his infidelity on his wife, well IMO he married young before he joined the service when neither of them knew the requirements. Perhaps his wife couldn't handle his time away from home and they became distant. It happens. Harry's affairs may have due to the fact his marriage had already broken down in all but name in a time when divorce was still relatively rare and certainly not acceptable. As an MI6 field agent, he's living on the edge and in such circumstances, love gets careless. I'm not saying it's exemplary behaviour, but it is understandable. And it makes Harry all the more human as a character.