Spooks 10.04

[shallowness]

Livejournal is playing up for me, so I'm hoping Dreamwidth will cross-post automatically. Edit: looks like I'll have to repost this manually.

And the wheels have come off for me. The trouble was that the main plot bored me, even though I knew from the second we saw the little girl in the photo that Erin and her daughter would be connected, I wasn’t invested in the terrorists. What happened to them towards the end was more interesting, and the ‘handler’ was compellingly efficient, but it was too little, too late. Meanwhile, I am just confused about Jim the CIA man. Also, Ruth’s hard evidence wouldn’t have been that hard even if she’d taken a picture.

So, I was left obsessing over the fact that Erin and Dimitri were wearing black jackets over blue tops and so was Ruth. Had they arranged it the day before? What was the wardrobe department thinking? Both questions occupied my mind for a lot of the episode.

Meanwhile, the Erin/Dimitri shipper in me is bemused, because my shipping is based on them looking good together. Which they did again this episode, eventually. But the way it is developing in canon is just weird. I liked that he rescued her daughter for her, but despite the nice image of him carrying Rosie, I didn’t think Erin would have been letting her daughter go. I was glad she got a hug (although she needs a COUNSELLER, Harry, not you begging for her to stay on the off-chance that someone listens or is able to act when she reminds you of how to be decent), and I was willing to be charitable about his attitude in the final scene, instead of letting her wallow, it was his insensitive way of being sensitive. But I don't think the writers have developed the relationship particularly well, at all. It would have been better if we'd been left with the occasional UST-laden look rather than scrabbling to create an unconvincing emotional connection.

But...so many questions...when did he find out about Erin’s daughter or learn that her name was Rosie? Was it her or was it Callum telling him point blank? We should have seen it. But then, we skipped the bit where Dimitri found out that Tariq was killed by the AMERICANS for the rooftop scene. I mean, if he wasn't left out for exposition's sake, he should have been there at the end of 10.03!

And I know we’re meant to be seeing Erin being broken as Section Chief – that’s two assets she’s brought in who’ve been betrayed by the service she works for - but I was left thinking too much about her having been running them for so long before bringing them into Section D. Wouldn’t she have handed them over to someone else?

And why wasn’t there more freaking out about these terrorists being onto her, her family and where they lived? That was a huge security breach!

Oh well, I’m just going to be amused at Ruth, National Security Advisor. And the fact that we saw Erin and Dimitri be annoyed by Callum in this ep. It would be nice if there were a point to writing such an annoying character that he annoys his colleagues, but I fear there won’t. I’d also like something to come of that scene of people talking in the first episode and a proper callback to past series. But I'm not expecting it.