[spoilers] Harry and Ruth Strike Back

[A Cousin]

(06-10-2010 04:27 PM)Naivety Wrote:  Harry has changed in this series. He is far more reflective of his role in what they are doing. Is this a result of what Ruth said to him about the decisions he's made? The 'story so far' sequence this week concentrated on this aspect of the proposal rejection.

I'm wondering if Harry is trying to show Ruth that he is trying to make the right decisions for honourable reasons. In the scene on the Embankment when he says 'You have to give a man a chance' etc, his face is sooo earnest and then Ruth gives him a look back that to me seemed as though a penny had dropped. Did she begin to realise how much he's hurting?

I see this exchange in a broader sense. I think his self doubt and reflection stems from many sources dating back to when Ruth left the first time, including all the deaths of team members culminating in Ros' and his own imprisonment/interrogations and betrayals from what he thought were trusted colleagues. I don't think that he is trying to prove his humanity to Ruth to win her love, he is trying to prove it to himself so he can keep going on without cracking up.

I think that what he means by that last line is that he recognizes that she is in a very difficult guilt filled place, has closed off from actual human contact, that she trusts nothing and has to bury herself in work just to keep on keepin' on. No one can hurt you if you don't let them in. I think that he is telling her to give the human race chance - Dr Kirby, himself, whatever - and that sometimes you just have to take a chance. That is why she is stunned speechless: he's right.