Spooks Final Series blog: Episode Four

“So, it's the five of us against the CIA.”

And that, folks, is Spooks in a nutshell.

Seriously, how can you not love a programme that has the bare-faced cheek to start the programme with all the main characters standing on a rooftop for no real reason, recapping the plot so far and explaining it to each other for the benefit of the slower viewers at the back? A recap that is prefaced by their leader actually describing it as a “quick briefing”. Time and time again, Spooks has shown itself to have rather more self-awareness than many other British TV programmes, which is one of the many reasons why it's so darn fun to watch.

One of the other aspects of that makes the programme so enjoyable is its many compelling and engaging characters; unfortunately, this episode focused on Erin, by far the least interesting of the current crop. When her daughter appeared at the start of the episode, they may as well have flashed a big neon sign up on the screen saying “SHE'S IN DANGER”. When the not-so-subtle theme of parenthood was brought up with Ashur, poor little Rosie's fate was sealed.

While the ideas of radicalisation and family are staples for Spooks, the use of Ashur as an asset gave it an intriguing enough edge. But when it comes to the big emotional scenes, Lara Pulver just doesn't have the screen presence to make me care deeply about her fate. The denouement of the episode should have been heart-wrenching, but I just couldn't find myself caring about it. Instead, I was distracted trying to work out why Rashaida would go to all the trouble of kidnapping Rosie, only to hold her near the square in a rather unprotected house. I mean, maybe Dimitri's car is actually a TARDIS, but even I can't believe that.

In fact, the only thing that I found really interesting about the climax of the episode was the fact that Harry ordered the strike team to attack before he knew that Rosie was safe; it bears repeating that no-one, no-one, does morally torn as well as Peter Firth. But they didn't really make enough of this, so it ended up feeling a bit underwhelming. And don't even get me started on hints of an Erin/Dimitri romance.

On the other hand, the series arc itself is coming along rather nicely. I didn't understand at all how Ruth's discussion with Coaver led to her getting inarguable proof against him, but apparently it did. Apart from that, it moved forward apace. In particular, the scenes featuring the talks between the British and the Russians were classic Spooks, full of wonderful diplomatic language and brilliant performances; Jonathan Hyde's Gavrik is excellent, but my gold star once more goes to Simon Russell Beale as William Towers. It helps that he's given many of the best lines, like wanting to make this talk “a tad less sharey”, but it's his sheer talent that really makes them sing.

And we even got growth, of a sort, on the Harry and Ruth front. I can't wait to see her working for the Home Secretary, mostly because of how wonderful Nicola Walker and Simon Russell Beale are together, but also because Harry's admission that he'd stifled her showed something akin to development for him. Or maybe he just realised that, as his days are numbered, she really needs to move on before he's pushed. Still, it was a romantic gesture of sorts.

The overall arc of the series is cooking up rather brilliantly, but it's a pity it wasn't matched by this episode's terrorist-of-the-week plot. And I swear, if Erin and Dimitri kiss at any point in the final two episodes, I won't be held responsible for my actions.

See the penultimate episode of Spooks on Sunday at 9pm on BBC1.

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