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| They shouldn't have whispered in the corridor, maybe then I'd have known |
I thought it started on Monday - why they thought it would be a good idea to put it up against Downton Abbey is beyond me, but no matter - I can now watch the iPlayer in work (over my lunch hour, natch) so what follows is another stream of consciousness-like review as I watch and shovel spaghetti and meatballs down me.
Anyway.
Ok, so we've got some old dude looking through papers that mention Lee Harvey Oswald and OMG A GUY IN LEATHER GLOVES IS STRANGLING HIM!!!
First obligatory shot of Harry looking pensively out a window, and now walking along some park. I'm totes gonna pretend I'm in MI5 when I go to London next year. Just for the lulz.
Harry's being followed by a dude on a bike and a youngish dude. He enters a building that seems ot be some sort of old school library? Mmmm, I love the smell of books in the morning! Ooh! He just found a message in a book about someome being in danger, blah blah blah! Spy-citing!!
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| That's the right show, right? Right? Guys, where'd you go?? |
Now hes in a car and some dark haired chick we've not seen before is wishing him luck, as he gets and heads to Thames House, I think? to appear at a tribunal. Ruth is sat behind him looking - well, like Ruth always looks. He's arguing that it was more worth saving Ruth than the (useless) Albany technology cos she's still of use to the intelligence community, whereas the Albany doofer was just a hoax. He says it was in the nation's interest to save Ruth. Yeah, in the interest of the nation of shippers.
Harry's been suspended for the last few weeks, but they're going to let him back to work under probationary terms till they decide whether or not to believe him, basically.
There's still someone watching Harry, however, and it's Young Dude. Young Dude with an almost Bieber-esque haircut, who's got lots of surveillance photos of Harry. Ooooh! Aaaaaaand credits.
So far, we've still got Harry and Ruth, obvs, and also Dimitri in the main cast, but I can't see if there's anyone else familiar looking in there.
Post credits, and we've got a CIA dude being all American like, and suspicious of the Brits. And looking pensive, obvs.
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| There's a lot of this, is what I'm saying. |
Now we've got what appears to be a graveyard or summat in Russia. Some Ruskie bad guys want to do something a bit mean to the UK, it seems. And, of course, they have a file on Harry.
Harry's meeting with the Home Sec, who is the person who gave him a stay of execution to allow him back to work. They reference Bin Laden's death and "turmoil in the Middle East" which one assumes refers to the Arab Spring uprisings? Home Sec wants Harry to be diplomatic. Harry is all:
Yay! Resident nerd Tariq is still here, that's nice. I like nerd spies. Always good fun.
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| Lolz. |
The person who was in Harry's job while he was away, Erin someone, is now to be section chief of D section. He's suspicious of her, despite her licking right up his hole. He huffs that she altered his chair. "It took me ten years to get it like that". Oh, Harry. Such a wit. He's going through some papers on his desk, and sees something on a receipt for W Slate & Sons - the same type of receipt that we saw Old Strangled Dude with, and upon which the secret message in the library was left for Harry. Dun-dun-duuuuunnnn, conspiracy afoot!!
He immediately wants to know who processed it, and the guy responsible says that the guy who wrote the message had Alzheimers, had just died, and the message was gibberish. Harry looks a bit upset, gurns that the Receipt Guy is too young, and everyone looks at him like "O NOES U MADE HARRY GO SAD FACE".
Harry then goes and breaks into Old Strangled Dude's house, and sees his pill box sitting there (which the strangler had taken out of the drawer and emptied some of the pills out of when killing him), so Harry calls Tariq to ask for an autopsy on Max Witt (Old Strangled Dude). Harry then noticed a false bottom on one of the drawers (lolz at bottom and drawers there), where he finds a bunch of decoding stuff, and has a flashback to some people kissing. Can't figure out who.
He starts briefing the crew on Max, an old Cold War spy (codename Sharecropper), and tells them that what he's about to tell them goes above their security clearance. Way to make sure you keep your job, Harry. So, he tells them that there's this old KGB bad dude who's now the Minister for something or other in Russia, and his wife was an MI6 asset, codename Toumaline - she was the best Soviet source of the 80s. Harry and the CIA dude we saw earlier turned her, but she was never removed from Russia. Max had told Harry that Tourmaline was in danger, which is v v bad.
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| See? V v bad. |
They start doing some spy shit, checking surveillance, blah blah blah.
Tariq needs a haircut, btw.
So they do some mad computer stuff to identify some guy who they know is a professional who's been hanging around Max's home, do some shit with CCTV and so on, and find out who the guy is. They go to his address, which is basically some hollowed out shell of a shithole, complete with graffiti on the walls and covered up windows, just to give the place a lovely ambience of 'creepy and menacing'. Which is so in this season. They find a laptop which has a 'will blow up if spies find it' device on it, which of course promptly blows up.
Ruth finds out that Bad Russian Dude and his wife Tourmaline creeped out of Russia and into London, without anyone knowing (obvs not a good sign). They think Bad Russian Dude is onto them, and Tourmaline is clearly in a lot of danger.
They're using iPads in the grid, v fancy. New bloke Calum (Receipt Guy) is a dick. He's giving out about Harry, and new girl Erin verbally smacks him upside the head for it. He starts being a douche with Dimitri, asking him if he killed anyone when he was in the SBS. Dimitri replies "Yeah. And d'you know what? I miss it" and gives a very pointed look at Douche Boy. Hee.
Harry didn't want them to go after Bad Russian Dude cos he's all scary and shit, but Erin talks him round. Cut to Dimitri et al conducting surveillance on the Russian couple. They confirm it's def both of them, and plant a tracker on their car. As if bad russian dudes would let anyone that close to their car without busting a cap in their ass. Puh-leez.
So anyway, they've followed the Russians to a meeting with the Home Sec. To which Harry is all WTF?!
Of course, he then creeps up on the Home Sec at night to scare the shit outta him/ask what he's up to smuggling bad russians into the country. Home Sec says he couldn't tell Harry before now, and that they're getting into bed with the Russians cos the Yanks are being all dicks and what not. Harry is not happy, esp when he finds out that Bad Russian Dude asked for him to be involved in all this stuff personally. Home Sec asks if there's anything he should know about from Harry's past dealings with Bad Russian Dude, Harry lies hilariously obviously and menacingly at the same time. Then takes another of his pensive, pouty lipped drives around London. He has flashbacks to the kissing again - I'm guessing it's him and Tourmaline.
Harry gets home, picks up the post, turns on the lights, etc, and realises someone in his in house. Like a fucking boss, he casually walks in and makes himself a drink while Young Dude is sat at his table with a gun. Young Dude says he didn't think Harry would recognise him....has he hasn't seen him since he was a child!!!!! OH MY FUCKING GOD!!!! Is Harry the baby daddy?!! I am literally like
right now. The kid is called Sasha, he's apparently in the FSB and he knows about his mother being a spy for the west. He is like 'do not want'. Harry's playing it all cool as a muthafucking cucumber, pointing out that Sasha can't kill him, cos other people know, etc etc. He tells Harry he has to sever all ties with Tourmaline or he'll be a very bold boy. Hmph, kids today, eh?
Now it's the next day and Harry is going to meet CIA Guy. They have a lovely wee catch up, but Harry doesn't seem utterly convinced by him. Then again, it's hard to tell with Harry. CIA Guy tells him Langley aren't that fussed about the Brits being involved in the turmoil in the Middle East, and tells him that he knows about the Russia deal, that the Russians aren't to be trusted, and the Yanks aren't too happy about it all. CIA Guy pretends he knows nothing about Toumaline and has had no contact with her, but he's obviously lying.
The gang find some info on the laptop they have blew up that suggests the person who owned the laptop was going to assassinate Bad Russian Dude at some gala thingy or other that he's going to tonight.
Harry and Ruth talk, and it seems that the proof Sasha gave Harry of his mother's spying activities (which suggested that she was still an active agent) was forged - it was made to look like it came from Harry, but it didn't. Someone with access to all his protocols etc posed as him to contact her. This can officially be filed under Not Good. Harry wants to talk to Tourmaline to find out what info she's given the imposter, so he's going to go to the gala and bring Ruth as his plus one, cos he needs help. This is what constitutes a date in Spy Land.
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| Harry & Ruth 4eva, etc etc |
Also at the gala are the rest of the team, doing security for the Russians. Or something. Tourmaline and Harry lock eyes across a crowded ballroom and it gets a wee bit tense. He goes up to talk to her and her bad hubby. Toumaline pretends like she doesn't know Harry, obvs, and goes off with Ruth to get a drink, leaving the boys to talk. Meanwhile, Sasha looks on like the huffy kid he is. Ruth tells Toumaline to go through a certain door at 8.02.
We then see some scary lookking dude beat up someone in a back corridor and steal his clothes, and run off with a gun. Same dude shortly kills one of the security detail.
The Home Sec comes up to Ruth at the party, and tells her she's awesome and deserves a promotion. Ruth self-deprecates, of course, and Home Sec tells her to think about it. She then spots Sasha looking somewhat nervously in Tourmaline's direction. He hears something amiss with the security woman who's getting killed, he runs into Calum the Douche and tells him that one of their units isn't responding. The one who killed her, a big baldy fella, is now in the ballroom and blocking Toumaline's exit at 8.02, so Ruth creates a diversion for Tourmaline to get out and make arrangements to meet Harry. He tells her she's in danger, and there's more smoochy flashbacks.
The team realise that the assassin is there, and think he's posing as a waiter. Calum and Russian Security guy find the dead Russian Security woman, realise the assassin isn't posing as a waiter anymore, and then all hell breaks loose as they just about manage to stop the assassin from killing the Russian couple in the ballroom. However, they don't catch him and have to chase him through kitchens and corridors in their tuxes and ballgowns. Just like proper spies. Erin finds him, and shoots him before he can shoot her. She looks well suss when she's staring at his dead body. Dimitri comes in and she walks off. Can't tell if her being so suspicious is a red herring or not. Hard to tell, after the whole Lucas North thing they pulled.
Now we've got a British woman on a phone outside the venue telling someone that "Collison's dead. No, no trail. Yes. Otherwise a complete success." as the Russian couple are whisked away under Harry's somewhat perturbed eye. Ooooh, intrigue!
Cut to briefing on the grid, where we learn that the assassin was Marcus Collison, bad guy for hire, who had calls on his phone from Chechnya. Erin's looking weirdly at the photo of Collison on the screen. She's def weird. Or annoying. One or the other. Dimitri tells Calum to give MI6 a full debrief, which Calum semi snootily replies he's already done. Tariq says "You've got to give it to him; he's good. Sort of hate him for it". Dimitri is not convinced. He then goes to make small talk about the spy life to Erin. I'm not entirely clear if he fancies her, or is suspicious of her.
We see Erin enter a house (which we assume belongs to her), where she looks at herself in the mirror. She 's a bit upset and then a little kid comes running out and calls her Mummy. If this is meant to be the big revelation about her, it's well meh.
Late at night at Thames House, Harry is sitting at his desk looking at an old photo of Tourmaline when Ruth comes into him. Cue another of their late night talks, where it's all looks and very little dialogue that actually says or does anything other than make the shippers sigh? Yes and no. Ruth wonders how come Chechnyan war lords would be able to find all the info on Harry's protocols etc to allow them to impersonate him to get to Tourmaline. She wants to know what he's not telling her, and he admits he had a relationship with Tourmaline and that that's the reason she was burnt. Ruth says they need to put Sasha out of action. Harry says they can't. She asks why not? And......Harry tells her he's his son. CALLED IT.
