Episode 4 Discussion [rewatch]

[lwhite53]

Khalid Abdalla, who played Yazdi, was absolutely stunning in this ep -- another spooks coup in getting excellent guest actors. Out of the many moments where he truly shone, two of my favorites were, "Shall we drop our masks?" and "Danger is addictive, but we both know that." Very simple thematic beats but his intuitive, understated delivery was spellbinding.

I'm not convinced that MI5 officers would really have been sent overseas on this kind of mission -- clearly the purview of MI6, imo. That said, we got some good insight into Adam here -- his penchant for dangerous, exciting missions really sets up his character's development for future eps.

The psychological game between Adam and Yazdi was fascinating to watch. Adam is obsessively compelled to try to get into Yazdi's head and Yazdi uses that against him -- he becomes exactly what Adam wants him to be and proves to be a master manipulator. He plays MI5 wonderfully and has them all at odds with each other.

Loved Malcolm and Colin off the grid -- "Didn't we bug this suite when Bill Clinton used it?" Great image!

Interesting that in every group scene, Harry is always next to Ruth or looking over her shoulder.

The mind game being played between Adam and Yazdi is paralleled in the Harry/Juliet relationship. They are each still jockeying for position and Juliet, in her haste to be right (and maybe to one up Harry), bets all the marbles by overruling him, and loses that point to him. To his credit, Harry never says "I told you so" but instead "Neither of us ever, ever resigns. Let's make that a ground rule between us, ok?" He is loyal, bless him!