[SPK] The Seventh Division

TV Programme: Spooks
Season: 2
Episode: 9
Date I watched this episode: 17/10/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 3 days.

Well, this was about the most depressing and brutal episode this show has ever seen. What with the initial deaths of the customs officers, Mariela's slow death at the hands of Rafa, the photos of her brutally murdered family, and Vaughn's sexual harassment, there was hardly a happy moment in all of it. This was quite fitting though, as the episode chronicled the final stages of Tom's decline to a breaking point, under the pressure that his life heaps on him and the terrible things that he sees. We did get to see a couple of cool spy moments in there though.

From the start of the episode, Tom is visibly unstable - still reeling from the events of the previous episode. And what's so ironic is that Zoe's depression, which has been building since "Blood And Money" and maybe earlier, rubs off on Tom and sends him spiralling downwards, while Zoe herself manages to hold it together fairly well. In most of the meetings he had the right idea and made some valid points, but didn't make them very well or in a way which endeared others to him or his point of view.

The main story was, in a sense, quite simple and linear. We knew pretty much from the start what was going on - Vaughn was passing money to Rafa. And it's not much more complicated than that. I think the episode focussed more on the brutality of the situation and its impact on our heroes, but also on Tessa and her mind games. Everything is just a game to her - getting Mariela killed to spite MI5, remaining cool and professional while she has been essentially disgraced. I think Harry got his way with her in the end though.

Harry showed up just how cold and collected he is in this episode. Which is exactly what those in government need him to be - emotionally detached and able to deliver results. But he does tend to criticise others in his mission to get things done, perhaps unnecessarily. Even he could not see the tragedy of Mariela's death in the end, simply referring to it as "emotionally affected". He has compartmentalised all this, which you must have to do in a job like that.

Sam did not really show anything new in her personality this episode - just re-affirmed that she gets so excited about doing the right thing, and how innocent she is ("not exactly the fastest car on the grid"). I think it is testament to how ingenious Tessa's plan was though - she really did come up with a very clever plan. I still don't understand why she came clean though and let Sam out, rather than leaving her to languish in the interrogation room. A bit out of character for her.

Ruth has been acting suspiciously this episode. Making notes all over the place and just looking a bit out of place. Harry seems to have something against her all of a sudden, and I'm not sure what's going on there, or if it will be expanded in the season finale.

In the end, Harry is seen to recognise what is happening and does not want Tom to go down this road, he wants to keep Tom on staff and see him return to his old self. So in that sense, he cares. But when Harry says he is "worried by what [he's] seeing" then he perhaps hasn't grasped how far we've come to get to this point. Tom finally has reached that breaking point, deciding that this is just his "job" and not his "life", and essentially going rogue by confiding in a foreign operative. Which is going to make for a very exciting season finale.