After 10 years of spying, action and emotion we have reached the last ever episode of Spooks! Its an emotional journey for me. As a fan of the show for ten years I had expectations, fears and a sadness that this is the final ever episode. So I shall apologise in advance if my review seems over sentimental.
The finale is Heartbreaking! The acting is superb, parts of the story were great, we had some comic lines from Calum: “Nothing like a nice day out with all the family.” We even had the return of an original character Tom, whose brief but important role as a private contractor will have some fans jump to their feet! But I also felt beyond disappointment and gutted at the death of my favourite character Ruth (Nicola Walker). Not just because they killed her, but because I felt it was an unnecessary shock tactic and the sheer heartbreak it causes for Harry (Peter Firth) and the audience after. That and the disappointment it will bring to the many Harry and Ruth fans who’ve hoped for nine of the ten years for at least a hopeful ending, if not happy one to their relationship.
We open with Elena (Alice Krige) on the phone to our Russian baddie Levrov from Episode 1. Am I surprised: No not really. I guessed it was Elena although the journey to find out why is interesting. With Harry in CIA custody and the Home Secretary (Simon Russell Beale) signing the Russian/UK alliance deal, loved it when he shouted “Christ Harry,” Elena informs Ruth that she needs to talk to Harry. She relays that’s she ordered the death of poor Tariq and the attempted attacks on Ilya (Jonathan Hyde) and herself, and that she has info on a planned attack on the UK. Her glee at winding Ruth up too with her not so subtle line “You understand the guilt harry has always felt about me, about sasha. Do you think its what kept you from being together? “Don’t worry! Harry will see things differently soon!” That he does, as do we!With the help of a bit of electrical trickery on the CIA’s SUV’s transporting Harry for his deportation to the US, Dimitri (Max Brown) and Erin (Lara Pulver) rescue a grateful Harry to take him to meet with Elena and Sasha at an unofficial MOD bunker. Now here’s where it gets interesting! Alice Krige goes into full Borg Queen mode as Elena, she delivers every line with an sinister measured calmness from here. The story, unravels just as fast as the people in the room with her. Elena informs Harry there’s an Russian suicide bomber, Zykov on a passenger plane from Russia bound for Heathrow with 312 civilians aboard. The next 50 minutes in a tense race to figure out if Elena is telling the truth. Elena tells Ruth that Harry “turned” her by lying to her, that her parents were tortured and shot by the Russians, how sad is it when Ruth says; “he has given more than i thought possible” but the twist all along was that Elena was a double agent who had played Harry. “I was a spy before you met me. You were not recruiting me, I was recruiting YOU,” she told a distraught and annoyed Harry, a plan that failed with the intervention of Jim Coaver, leading to Harry burning her as an asset. Sasha (Tom weston Jones) is not Harry’s son after all, but a lie to bind him to them, to compromise him. A colossal shock for Harry who had believed and felt the guilt of abandoning them for 30 years.
Sasha’s pain at his mothers betrayal, the realisation Harry is not his father The shocking moment where Harry threatens to shoot Sasha which Elena would allow for her country. Then to witness his father strangle his mother to death while desperately trying to break the glass to get to his mother, is very sad . But all that got taken away when he stabs Ruth with the shard of glass. He lost all my sympathy then.
The plane plot was good although mainly just a stepping stone to explain Harry’s past and to show Elena’s fanatical allegiance to Russia. The real story is Harry’s journey! His life as a spy has cost him everything. The lives of friends and colleagues and the death of Ruth; the love of his life, a tragedy to the end. The feeling and sadness you feel, at the pure loneliness and grief that’s etched all over his face and the tears in his eyes. For several minutes after Ruth’s death there are no words from Harry. But they’re not needed. Peter Firth does an amazing job with conveying every emotion that will break your heart as you feel for him and his future without Ruth. The women who was his love, his moral compass, and his friend. Nicola Walker as Ruth I can’t fault! she acted the heartbreaking death scene wonderfully, she figures it all out and makes Harry see that Elena is lying, realising Elena’s fanatical allegiance. What will Harry do without her?! The hilltop scene was lovely, Ruth’s “you and I, we’re made of secrets” and what every fan has waited a long time to hear “leave the service with me while we still know who we are.” The terrible irony of her words that are followed by her death “I always thought with every lie we tell, our true self gets buried that little bit deeper. But that hasn’t happened” she finally tells the truth and then she dies. When Sasha picks up that piece of glass, i could see where it was heading, and i didn’t like it!
A month passes and a visit to the house Ruth was going to buy for them with the green door. Harry looks at the life they could have had together. The most poignant moment is Harry visiting the glass memorial at the bottom of Thames House where he looks at all his fallen officers and friends names and lastly Ruth’s. He then goes back to his office to the shock of his colleagues Calum, Erin and Dimitri, to the only thing he has left; his job! The final line and negative is everything Spooks is; “Harry Pearce” but for me not without Ruth too. Very sad to see it end, but even sadder they couldn’t surprise us, instead of the predictable death to mark the end.
