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"Wait, no, Harry, this can't be the end.”
“Well, let's pretend it isn't."
This week, at just the right time and in exactly the right way, the final series of Spooks most definitely hit its stride. Don't get me wrong, I've thoroughly loved the past four weeks of ridiculous Spooks joy. But, just before the end, it was great to be reminded that, for all its silliness, Spooks can also weave moments of great suspense with brilliant character moments to create something quite exceptional.
Finally, finally, this group of people felt like a real team. Obviously I've never had a problem with Dimitri (especially not in a suit), and Calum continued his run of fine form this week, hilariously wondering about Ruth's leaving do and helping her through her mission to steal the laptop. But the real revelation was that I actually quite liked Erin this week, too – she finally showed some of the grit and determination needed to be a section chief, especially as she took the lead and stood up to Harry. Sure, it's still not up there with the glory days of Team Tom, but it was a vast improvement on the last couple of weeks, providing a much more solid base for the goings on of the Grid members.
Cracks are certainly showing in the unflappable, almost infallible, façade of Sir Harry Pearce. It was strange to see him act so wrongly, and even more strange to hear that he'd got it completely wrong with Jim Coaver. Even in the middle of the most mad plots, Spooks has always been deft at stopping the action for a quiet moment between two characters, and Harry's scenes with the Ilya and Elena were no exception. Alice Krige was once again wonderfully vulnerable, but it was Jonathan Hyde, who's been bubbling along marvellously for the last four episodes, who really nailed it as Gavrik taunted Harry with his perfect life; never have the words “I have a tortoise in the garden” sounded so sinister. And Peter Firth more than equalled him, as he was forced to face up to what he had lost by committing so completely to the life he was about to lose.
And as for Ruth Evershed? What a babe. Completely owning the Home Secretary after about five minutes of working for him (oh, Simon Russell Beale, never leave my TV screen ever again), then once again reminding us that she's a corking field operative by stealing from the US Embassy while cracking jokes to the people back at base. What a complete, total and utter babe. And, in the midst of all this sheer brilliance and wonder, she manages to have a couple of heart-to-heart moments with Harry. It's been said a hundred times before, but it really does bear repeating: Nicola Walker and Peter Firth are just so unbelievably good together. The screen positively crackles when they so much as look at each other, so it practically exploded when they started pouring out their hearts.
It looks like it's the end for Harry. For all its overblown hysteria at times, Spooks can be very good at understated when it wants, and the last minutes of this episode were a prime example; having Harry burn documents in a very spy-like manner, and then go back to pour out his milk in a very un-spy-like manner, showed more than several pages of wordy dialogue could. His final scene with Ruth was stunning, as these two people who love each other so completely still couldn't actually say it, just as they couldn't the last time they parted.
Of course it wasn't the end. But, as the beginning of the end, it was nigh-on perfect.
See the last ever (sob!) episode of Spooks this Sunday at 9pm on BBC1
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