Spooks Review 9.1: Ship Ahoy!

Colleagues are OK, but there´s a change of guards at hand

In which the Spooks team mourn about Ros´ death, a retired Home Secretary gets a gloved visit from Harry, new recruit Dimitri works as captain on a cargo ship, Ruth refuses a proposal from Harry, Lucas gets his neck saved by a private spy called Beth, the new Home Secretary receives a letter from Harry, Beth wades through 12,000 mug shots to see Lucas again and Lucas gets a suitcase from Vaughn who calls him John.

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As a writer of this little blog I had the aspiring thought to post my Spooks review within a couple of days after airing. Tuning in for the series, I programmed the recording and installed myself for the night.

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

Well, I received a call to expect some ´visitors´, so I drank a glass of fine whisky and played the classical music really loud. It was the good old Swat team who, after mentioning the infamous Beemie report, let me watch the episode with the sound mute, but then they stood in front of my tv-set. 

It was not until W-day that I could watch Spooks 9.1. 

Y-day I chewed the words and made notes.

Review

Ros is dead. It´s her funeral. It is final, as in: we don´t see her climb out of her coffin and sneak away with a weekend bag.

Ruth is reading the poem Solitude by Alexander Pope. Ros would have wanted that.

Again, Ros is dead. Ros, the icequeen spy. So where to go from now? The funeral, where only 6 people come to pay respect, raises emotions with oldtimer Harry, Head of Section D, who wants to quit and settle down in the country, if possible with Ruth. Harry even mentions the word marriage. If we recall episode 8.1, Ruth has been married before and has settled before (in Greece), but due to tragic trickery by Harry in a joined hostage situation, she ´lost´ her husband. Harry does have to go away to the country, to a manor house in Scotland, home of retired Home Secretary, Nicolas Blake. Family of the painter William Blake, of who´s artwork Lucas shows his fondness in series 7?

Where would we be without the -there we have it- Nightingale conspiracy? Of all people, Harry had faith in Nicolas Blake. Harry´s visit turned into peeking through gloves at a ghost from the past. The following HS after Blake couldn´t be trusted, because he supposedly had connections with Nightingale. Now that Blake flunked, can we trust the new HS, William Towers? Newly installed, he is nice enough to delay the reading of Harry´s letter, so we see Harry contemplating his job with Ruth.

Lucas recalled Ros by her quote: ´Colleagues are OK´. Soon enough

-no donuts on the go- he is off to a 30,000 tonne cargo ship near the Maroccan coast for an op with the new recruit Dimitri, who is the ship´s captain. By the coloring, the settings and the dialogue we duck straight into what looks like a sequel of Strike Back in Spooks, a fate I strangely don´t detest. On third viewing this is not that noticable anymore. 

Why are there civilians on board when you could miss them like tooth-ache? And a woman, FCOL? Nice hostage and actions scenes of pirates in the midst of which Lucas keeps his eye on his colleague, Dimitri, and where private spy Beth in deep cover as prostitute saves Lucas´s neck. Because of the pirates, Harry aborts Lucas´ mission. When the communications are blocked by the pirates, Lucas and Beth go out of range to contact the Grid and go their own way. Luckily for us viewers, the situation gets worse and worse.

From Series 8 we learn to ask: "Who are your enemies, who are your friends?" Lucas hesitates to collaborate with Beth, but she thinks otherwise! She visits the Grid to give his 50 Dirhams back.

Question of the week:

Would you wade through 12,000 mugshots to see someone again?

OK, and prove that you´re smart and witty, too?

Wading tru 12,000 blogposts myself and still not..

oh, it´s not about me.

Beth has brought nice drawings too, to bring Lucas to let her talk to Harry. A couple of winks and brash talk later, Harry finds her a valuable asset. Me liking this girl!

After the work day is over, Lucas strolls alongside the Thames and receives a briefcase by someone who had a stroke and remembered him from 15 years ago. Really, has it been that long?

This ghost from the past, Vaughn, calls him John. Wonder what I would call him...

Ruth: "Timing is everything."

Lucas North has made it, his ghost has mared it, 

and is sorry to upset you, John!

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Tease: new kid on the block, Dimitri

Action: merciless pirates

Nice: high/low status swifts between Lucas and Beth
Surprise: a girl called Aala is a baddie
Shock: OMG, RA is called John again *John who?-guessing games*
Adorable Baddie: Vaughn
Hope: Beth stays for another episode
Verdict: highly guaffable

Screencaps: RichardArmitageNet, colorature TFB