[SPK] Spiders

TV Programme: Spooks
Season: 2
Episode: 3
Date I watched this episode: 31/08/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 1 day.

This episode focussed mainly on the rather warped sense of reality held by the spooks at MI-5. The episode centred around Zoe, who was struggling with the fact that she doesn't even know who she is anymore. It was a good character-development ep for her, struggling to be a teacher which she didn't even want to do in the first place, being overwhelmed by the "real world". She also seemed to feel demeaned by Tom's approach to this whole thing, using the fact that she's female to get at Gordon.

The episode was once again cleverly put together, with several twists that I didn't see coming, like Gordon being totally innocent, "Peter Ellis" aka Noah being the mastermind behind it all, and Victor Gleeson being a figment of Noah's imagination. All these were totally unexpected and had me almost jumping in my chair when they were revealed. And what's more - there was a perfectly reasonable explanation behind all of this. This is in contrast to some other shows which throw in a massive twist but then explain it away and kind of gloss over it. Spooks not only sees the intelligence of its audience, it also rewards that intelligence with some really clever stories. Peter/Noah was always one step ahead of MI-5 and the audience, and that's the kind of character that I find really compelling.

As for the other characters aside from Zoe and Tom: well Danny also had a much bigger role this episode. He was seen being involved in multiple operations, and although it didn't do much for his character development, it's just good to see him getting some screentime. Sam had a role to play in the opening sequence but was then hardly mentioned after that. Since she has been a bit of a background character in the past couple of episodes, I hope they try to develop her character soon; she's too new to take this much of a back seat. Ruth on the other hand was somewhat expanded upon in this episode, showing her usefulness when others see her as a bit of a liability.

The relationships portrayed in this episode (Tom/Vicki and Carlo/Zoe) were once again incidental. Zoe's scene with Carlo served to further highlight the tension she feels about her life at the moment. As for Tom, well I'm shocked he decided to tell Vicki he was a spy so early in their relationship. She is a bit unstable to be honest. He's certainly surprised at her reaction, and the fact that she doesn't really react the same way Ellie did. I don't see her as a long-term partner for Tom, so once again I'm just surprised the way this went down.

The episode had an interesting end - the service taking pity on Noah, who in turn vows to strike again. It all goes back to the season one mantra "we look after our own". And despite the fact that Noah got Anthony killed, he is still classed as "one of our own". Difficult perhaps to take in but that's the way it goes.

In truth I was not quite as psyched by this episode as the previous two, but I wasn't disappointed either. Time will tell whether the standard of this season is quite up to the bar of the previous one.