[spoilers] Harry and Ruth Strike Back

[Naivety]

(22-09-2010 08:53 AM)Silktie Wrote:  I guess I would just like better continuity from the writers on HR. Why did they have Ruth make all the moves towards the end of season 8 (asking Harry out for a drink, the hand caress, her concern for him on the roof and later when he left for the hotel where the bomb was) but now she's the one that basically either called a halt to things, or at least slowed them down to crawling pace? It's contradictory.

Interesting role-reversal between Harry and Ruth here, too. With Danny's funeral, Harry is the one interrupting Ruth's grieving process with work, and here it is Ruth actually bringing work along to Ros' funeral. And her statement at the end that sometimes it really is just about the numbers and sacrificing a few to save the many, is something Harry would have said in previous seasons. Admittedly, she was forced to take on this stronger role because Harry is crumbling so badly, but I would have liked a better understanding of why this sudden shift in her. What has made her so much harder than last season?

Exactly, Silktie! Last series, 8.7 (I think) she says to Ros and Lucas that they can't use a 17 year old boy to infiltrate a terrorists' cell and Harry comes over and gently tells her 'It isn't nothing, Ruth and I'm glad you here to remind us, remind ME'. Now when he is questioning all the violence he has to instigate, she wants him to be strong and make the hard decisions. The poor man doesn't know how she feels from one minute to the next. Everytime he tries to get close she backs off and then when she sees how hurt he is, she seems to regret it and comes on to him again.

If only, when he had moved into her ear in the churchyard, he had breathed 'I love you, Ruth' and taken it from there. How different the outcome might have been. I think the script writers rushed it too much.

Having watched the HR scenes a few times again, I think the closing bits on the rooftop are not the end of the relationship, but maybe a new beginning for a new type of Harry and Ruth, one that accepts that they love and respect each other and aims at bringing them closer together. I do hope so anyway.