Episode 6 Discussion [rewatch]

[lwhite53]

All in all, I found this ep wanting -- the whole set up seemed too forced and the threat didn't seem real (even though I imagine a foreign head of state visiting another country is probably a security nightmare). I just didn't buy into the plot at all! The only thing the ep really accomplished, imo, was the start of the Tom/Christine relationship.

That said, I loved Malcolm in this ep. The whole "tea in the diplomatic crate" scenario was riotous and Malcolm's understatement when he discovers the Libyan file, "Oh my!" is just genius. Ruth's starting the rumor that someone is "getting the sack"

Spoiler: show

will become interestingly ironic in the future when the office rumors are about her

but here she shows that she is not immune from the practice. I also loved Sam's scene with Miranda -- it's like she had kept a list of all the petty complaints she had and just whipped it out when given license to vent.

The treatment of MI5 (and the British, in general) by the CIA added some interesting tension. We've gotten hints thus far of how MI5 feels about Americans, but now we see the relationship in action and it's not pretty. I find it hard to believe that CIA personnel gained access to MI5 files or that they terrorized a British citizen (Dr. Vicky), but I'm thinking this was really more "state of mind" characterizations than anything real -- the Americans believing that they had the absolute right and authority to do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. Big Brother run amok in the person of Christine Dale.

Last things -- Ruth with yet another mention of a "dirty bomb" and Christine had one nice flat!