Food for - John Bateman -

As I never really accepted, that Lucas North was indeed John Bateman or that John Bateman's story in Spooks 9 held any reliable truth in it, I will treat him here as a separate character from Lucas North, the able agent and spy. (It would render MI5 rather incompetent and though I have deep doubt about competence in our current time in almost every sector of life. To fool a whole agency of supposedly excellent spies for years, fool the KGB and its successor as well, fool the Chinese,... That would really be a topic tickling my funny bone, but honestly, I still don't believe a word of it.)

Characterisation of John Bateman

Fortunately, I have pushed the memory of John Bateman far enough to the back of my mind by now.
But what impressed me in the way of John Bateman, was his love of number games and mysteries.
His time spent in Dakar has given him a valuable insight in another world, either of prestige and the moneyed, as well as in the way of how to behave to represent a special image he wanted to create, to drag himself out of poverty. His interest in observing others, while keeping his own emotions in check, was toned and attuned here. So Dakar not only defined his further life, but also the tastes and characteristics he later presents to the world.

Food suggestion for John Bateman

Tieboudienne (= rice with fish) in any form and variety. (A good description can be found here: PaulsTravelBlog)
Whenever his British roots come out, he would crave fatty fish and chips.
As John Bateman always has secrets, here his biggest: He has a sweet tooth and likes deserts of any kind, especially chocolate cake and in the heat of Dakar lots of chocolate ice cream with fruits, especially strawberries, reminding him of home and his mother and happy times.

Food for - Lucas North -

Characterisation of Lucas North

Lucas North is an insecure character, who wants to fit in and show his abilities and fitness to be taken seriously in his profession and by his peers, a veneer he wants to hide behind. He demands the highest from himself, but internally fears, that he won't be able to meet the demands put on him by his job and others, because of his background, because of his upbringing, because of his time spent in a Russian prison (and as the last episode of Spooks 9 also suggests) because of all his lies of and in his life he tried so hard to hide.

Food suggestion for Lucas North

Carpaccio (Original version developed by Giuseppe Cipriani in Venice) - with white bread and an excellent vintage Italian red wine - (Heeding the current Italian food appreciation in the U.K., while still fitting his desire for rawness and immediacy).

Later to relax, his time in Russia would come out and show in his further choice:
Russian caviar - champagne (vodca would be too disabling for an agent and Lucas North has too much style to drug himself senselessly). Russian blini as a sweet dessert.

Lucas North, as pale as he is, does not seem to me as an entirely healthy or health oriented man. So vegetables are out of the question for him.

Preparations & Hindrances for an "Intrigue"

You will surely wait for my continuing with "Intrigue" ;o)

I started preparing by seeing the whole of "Spooks", from the first episode to the last, again.

The fragility of Lucas North in Spooks 7 and 8 just had me mesmerised and I needed some time to continue with watching the rest of Spooks.
I really need to come back to "Intrigue" now, for my own sake and sanity of mind.
The story line of Spooks 9 just fits in so well with my story (what a coincidence ;o)
No, I really need to sort things out in my head and make sense of all the loose ends, rummaging around in my head from watching Spooks 9 again.

A hindrance on my way to "Intrigue":

Currently, I have a very pessimistic world view (no wonder after all my problems with computers, but those are not the cause for a change ;o)
Though I go through life with an optimistic attitude, this optimism rarely extends to myself. It also does not extend to poli*tics.
Lately, my experiences with poli*ticians were very, very, ... bad (and I must add that I already don't want or expect anything from poli*tics).
As I put Al Delarmy in a position where poli*tics [should rather be written 'poly-ticks'] play some kind of a backgroud role, I fear to let my experiences shine through too much.

Al Delarmy has a sceptic attitude towards rules and rulers all on his own.
Still, I fear to influence him too much to take a bad turn (or reveal too much of my own poli*tical pessimism).
So now, though we are similar in our pessimism, I need to try hard to keep my pessimistic influence on him to a minimum, to let his version of it come out.

Perhaps it really is a good thing that I will meet him soon in Hamburg.
He always wins every argument with me, so after our meeting in person, I am sure his wishes will dominate my writing again.
I am so looking forward to meeting my very favourite spy (on his mission for his own cause now).

After watching Spooks 8 and 9, I certainly can say, that my infatuation is far from over.

(Source: Own screenshot from "Spooks" 9.7)
A perfect role-play in a multitude of difficult layers of his character,
not at this point all obvious to the viewer.

(Source: Own screenshot from "Spooks" 9.7)
An observing and in control Lucas, John, Al again,
after an 'acted' breakdown ?

I am certainly in love with RA depicting 'bad' characters:
John Mulligan, John Bateman ,though I still ignore the truth about that and think of him only as
Al Delarmy, when he is not Lucas North.

I still do fear Guy of Gisborne, so he is not among them. While the other bad characters could easily get what they want with me, Guy of Gisborne would have a much harder time with trying to manipulate me. Perhaps because he never manipulates, but uses brute force?
;o)

A Picture of Perfection

Today, I got a wish granted !

Ali posted my picture of perfection (or is it the picture of the day?) on RichardArmitageNet.com:

Source: RichardArmitageNet.com

This image is a shot in the middle of a transformation on his face. He goes from annoyed to amused to interested in milliseconds and a load of mini-expressions, which only Servetus could describe properly.

Though that small transition from amused to tolerant, just happening/having happened in this screenshot, is how I presume he would look at me, if he ever by accident should encounter me. Slightly amused, tolerant, patient, ... ;o)

Still, I would like to ask him so many questions, but in real life, I know I will not have the bravery to ask them ;o)

You ask what questions? 
Loads and loads and a heavy accumulation of notes and pieces of paper already.
Alone his Budapest connection and his trip to Vienna would give me loads of material to grill him - and I would not even need to mention the circus.

So it perhaps really is best, I am not a reporter.

Also I would like to ask him, why he once mentioned he would like to learn German. It for English ears must be a guttural language, as it uses more parts of the mouth than English speakers in general do. Would he go for a northern 'dialect', a middle/southern one or the strict stage language? Has he at all decided yet and what area(s) would he like to see and visit to accompany his language learning, if at all.

Another part I surely would ask RA without end, would be about his preparations for Spooks in series 9. What did he make of his character, what of John Bateman, what outlook did he give him, what alternatives had he prepared, what really worked out - what not, ...
What was planned with the not available helicopter at the end?
What differences / preparations he felt uneasy to leave behind from the two previous Spooks series?
How Spooks helped him for Thorin Oakenshield
. . .


And that still is entirely without mentioning King Richard III!

You see, it really is best, I never get close to RA, otherwise I would never stop asking questions ;o)


If you have questions you would like to ask him, please comment. Suggestions are very welcome, to complete my kilos of notes ;o)

Knowing or Not Wanting to Know Richard Armitage ...

Some days ago, I read an old interview with Richard Armitage I had not read so far.
It was so intimate and contained so many detail, that afterwards I wished, I had not read it, though I must admit, I read through the whole interview.
It clouded my perception of him and when I watched the last episode of Strike Back yesterday, I re-interpreted his performance due to the interview. I did not like that of me and so - what I have never done before - stopped the film before the end. (Here I must admit, I have watched it so often, that in my head it continued anyway.)

What also disturbed me the last days is, that I think John Porter will die or at least disappear in "Strike Back II". That is what was to be expected, after he is filming "The Hobbit". But I think he is not only hunted down by the Americans, the Afgans and As'sad's men, I also think his own team sends out the rescue team to eliminate him and not to rescue him from the imprisonment of the preview scene.
For his own team must think, he has killed his boss Collinson. As he is the only eye witness of the real events, he has no chance to come back to "Strike Back" again.

Today, I read on RichardArmitageNet.com, that RA had been filming in South Africa with some lovely details about him with the crew.
The wonderful artwork by bccmee also did help - this look just warms every heart!
And kadamaja's wallpapers did continue the process to bring me back to full appreciation.

This  reminded me of the key points, why I really appreciate him:
* His high-quality performances
* his absolute dedication to work
* his easy going and friendly attitude towards colleagues and co-workers.

I am not sure what really affected me most:
* That he suddenly became a real person?
* That he fell down from my imaginary pedestal? (That he did not really do or at least he climbed back onto it quite fast ;o)
* That I felt like a bit of a prude or at least very naive? But still this interview was more than I wanted to know, more than I wanted to know about a virtual stranger. (I have heard quite a lot of [even extreme] confessions in my life, but with these I felt uncomfortable.) And I must add, I am not even sure that what I read is the truth! I think it partially is a role set up to entertain the audience and keep up a certain image of attractive vulnerability.

The one thing which was not affected by reading the interview, was my writing the dream-solution for "Spooks 9". My writing it continued quite undisturbed, but I am still not very far, though the outline is finished.

You will not believe it, but I really started it (without real time for it, but I just could not resist ;o)
I reckon, I have to reveal my storyline before "Spooks 10" starts, as these 'real events' will make my phantasy sequel obsolete anyway.


Now securely back in deep RA-fandom, I will try to start posting my dream-sequence soon, to not keep you waiting for the solution of "Spooks 9" much longer ;o) 
Have fun and enjoy!

My Hands are Bound (Short Blogging Break)

Dear followers, dear readers, dear friends,

Picture kindly provided by RichardArmitageNet.com

The computer problems caused so much trouble, though fortunately I did not lose any of my files, that I keep working all day long (and most of the nights).
To manage my participation at the FanstRAvaganza 2011, I have to take a break from blogging and will start blogging more regularly again after the event.
I already have some ideas for posts and notes for a nice Spooks9-sequel, which I will start after FanstRAvaganza. I hope you will like it and keep on following me.

All the best to you and till soon!

Yours,
CDoart

Vaughan-Meeting a Pre-Arranged Detour?

Was the meeting between Harry and Vaughan a pre-arranged event to let Lucas North drop his guard?
This would explain, why Harry took it upon himself to meet Vaughan and did not send Lucas or another member of the grid alone to acquire the information.
It also would explain, why no real information was forwarded by Vaughan, though Vaughan must have given good reasons to get Harry to leave the headquarters.
It might also explain the high security level with which Vaughan's files were sealed off.

Has Harry already had doubts about Lucas and wanted to lead him on to reveal his true background story? Had he been suspicious since Lucas requested full file access in episode 9.2?

What still keeps me wondering is the strange relationship between Harry and Lucas even before the strange Spooks 9 - events.
Is it down to male rivalry or is there more to it?

Pity for the Murderer

The last post about the unbelievable behaviour of Maya in "Spooks 9" let a new idea grow in my mind.

Was it the intention of the scriptwriters that we should pity Lucas / John in the end? 

The whole of MI-5 is hunting him down,
Harry is disappointed of him and does not support him (though Lucas / John does not let him. But Harry also does not give the impression that he really wants to help Lucas, he wants to control him, but help him?)
Nobody understands him and Lucas / John stands alone against the whole world.

The only thing is, what did the scriptwriters want to reach with this?

John the murderer was the only one at the end of Spooks 9 who had my sympathies.
Though I must admit, I normally fall for the underdog and would quite naturally try to defend him.
I did not care for Ruth's tears, for the grimaces of Beth and Dimitry which I could not interpret as compassion for Lucas / John
or for the complete absence of remorse which Harry showed.
Harry at the end to me seemed disappointed, that it was not he himself who died and not in the least relieved, that he survived.
Whatever the feelings of the team were, they did not solve anything for me in the end.
Lucas / John / Nobody was gone and did not leave someone to remember him, as all seemed glad that he was gone.
Problem solved, let's see what the next problem will be.

Is this meant for us to read as a criticism of the system, which killed 'our kind and gentle Lucas'?

Lucas & Maya - Lovers and Opposites

Forgotten Love Declared as the 'Love of a Lifetime'

This is the hardest bit for me to believe.
If it would have been shown as a rescue for an innocent, as some hints try to declare it, I would tend to believe the 'forgotten love'. But the whole environment does not support this interpretation of the separation of the pair in love 15 years back.
Lucas is described as an excellent spy and cannot enact a secret identity which would allow him to meet Maya again or to at least spy on her and try to find out, what she does and how she fares?
No way - I do not believe that !!!

If he can forget her for 15 years, I would say 'Good riddance'.
Why Maya goes along with Lucas / John makes no sense for me, but what makes this totally unbelievable is, that later on she easily believes John being a murderer, because "for the first time he makes sense".
She sets her career and future on a man she has so fundamental doubts about. He for her suddenly makes sense as a murderer, when he never has made sense before?
I do not know how the relationships of the scriptwriters work, but mine normally make sense for me, at least in the interpretation of the moment.
Interpretations can be wrong or change in time, but as Maya formulates her attitude, John for the first time makes sense as he has never before.
Why did she not ask him about the things which did not make sense?
The only question she asks is about his job.
- Here he evidently lies to her or at least evades her question as he as a good spy should towards a not vetted person. -
Is he a good spy or a good liar here?

Some of the questions I would have asked him:

What did you do the last years? - And here I would have expected much more than an evasive answer. I would have expected him to talk for hours and would have guided him on by accounts of my stories of the passed years to make up for the lost time.

What he planned to do in future?

Why he wanted me back in his life? - Because he saw me in a picture is not likely to convince me!

What hurt him? - Because it was quite obvious in his demeanour that he had been hurt.

What the tattoos meant to him? - She sleeps with him and does not even ask the obvious!


After 15 years she does not know him so well any longer that she can rely on sex to cure everything. This is an approach typical for younger people, but a well established doctor after 15 years of separation is too old for such kind of nonsense and simply losing one's head. She should have become more aware of her personal needs in life by now.
At least in the morning after, reality should have kicked in.
Here I do respect the attempt to show her hesitance and her efforts to getting the situation under control by asking John what he does for work. But this is a meager attempt, especially as it is met with an evasive lie.

More unbelievable even is her first question and the reaction to John's comment that he was in prison.
That John (Lucas North) could have been innocent appears to her last.
I would interpret that as - the love is long gone.

Which again leaves me with the question, why does Maya go along with John's scheming and leaves her previous life and job without a notice? How reliable and thoughtful is that of her? Does she really care about her patients? Her behaviour does not imply that. As I mentioned previously in a blog post, her behaviour towards the wounded Vaughan is unbelievable for a doctor. Her leaving her job and patients is equally cruel and unforgivable for me.

Her character is either so crudely drawn, that she appears to be careless, gullible, ungrateful, disloyal and selfish or the scriptwriters really wanted to tell us something with contrasting her to the caring and thoughtful John (Lucas North).
But in general this really makes me pity Lucas / John and leaves me without sympathy for Maya. Especially when Lucas so nicely advises Ruth in episode 9.8 how best to go forward with her feelings for Harry and compliments her on her cleverness, a thing men normally cannot do very well (e.g. compare it to the late home secretary's comment on Ruth's intelligence in Spooks 9.1).

From Grumbling and Speculation to Pure Fiction

In the latest posts, I repeated myself over and over again and hope I have not bored you overly much. I tried to erase most of the repetition by going over the blog posts over and over again. Still they contain lots of repetition, as they represent my efforts to come to terms with a for me unexpected development in my attitude towards Spooks 9 and the scriptwriters.

I have increased the number of blog posts lately, as with re-watching Spooks 9 I wanted to come to a resolution in the 'old' year. Somehow I did just that, even when the outcome was a bit surprising to me.

After all these long posts with speculations about what the scriptwriters may have meant with Spooks 9 (what I at first thought a good show should have revealed on its own), I now will come to what I have at first thought, the scriptwriters would lead their multitude of hints to.

I will not be able to recollect all my flowering and blooming ideas growing wildly over any possible film format for Spooks. But I will try to at least give you some ideas, where and why my fantasy ran wild and why in the end I was so disappointed by the meager explanations really given.

My main fiction and sole hope, I still have not completely given up upon is, that Lucas at an early stage did cooperate with Harry and enacted the whole last part of Spooks 9 to fool the Chinese kill squad. Perhaps even Vaughan was in on the deal, as his meeting with Harry did not reveal anything new (as mentioned in post "Vaughan and the Mobile Phone") and his death was only a fake.

What was the other series, where a whole part was later revealed as dream? Dallas, Denver Clan, …? (I normally avoid series at all cost, so please excuse my vagueness.)

Alternative Storylines:

• Lucas North found special material he held back in the Chinese embassy, when they broke in in Spooks 9.4. This allowed him to see deeper into their reasoning and their causes for following him.

• Lucas North trusted Harry Pearce early on and planned the shown story line to distract the secret instigators and observers of the whole show.

• Lucas had anarchistic ideals and wanted to destroy all world governments. Therefore he worked for the downfall of all governments, including the British and the Chinese.
o This is my weakest storyline, as Lucas in all situations works hard to secure and protect Britain.

• Lucas North knew of a plot against queen and country, he could only prevent by going along with the threats by Vaughan.

• Lucas North really being bad and Harry Pearce discovering some unknown dealings of Lucas, e.g. the ‘secret helpers’ for finding Vaughan, which are not approachable by Harry Pearce, but only would work with Lucas North.

• Lucas North is the leader of a gangster ring, using the MI-5 information to gain world power.

• The external specialist Harry brings in in 9.8 to detect Lucas / John clearly accuses Harry of knowing liars, but not pursuing Lucas enough during his interview with him. This let an alternative story line of big dimensions grow in my mind. What if Harry knew, that Lucas was lying to him, he knew more about Dakar, he wanted to expose the Albany file for his own reasons and used Lucas / John for this?

• Only Lucas / John knows the real extent and connections of the secret instigators. He does not confide in Harry, as he does not trust him. Harry’s way of giving up a useless state secret does not recommend him as well. The time Harry worked together with the Russian spy on the grid also does nothing to recommend him as a trustworthy source for acting against Russia. Lucas wants to bring down Russia and all its allies, e.g. China, the U.S. and all western governments depending on Russian energy resources.

• Lucas / John has such high moral standards, that in the end he rescues the world from his existence.

Parallel between Ruth and Maya – Rehabilitation of the Scriptwriters

While re-watching episode 9.8 one aspect which hit me with its deep meaning was the parallelism in the filming of Ruth’s rescue and the shooting of Maya. The camera technique and the cut of these scenes is brilliantly done and carries so slight criticism though not openly making it a topic, that I was really impressed what effects Spooks can reach with cutting techniques alone.
Lucas / John, the bad spy, rogue officer and killer, does not kill his involuntary helper Ruth or even the no-name step-in for him, whereas Harry, the in contrast good spy, with his rescue team kills Maya as well as the no-name ‘Lucas’ step-in.

I even doubt that Lucas / John really intended to poison Ruth.
It is never mentioned, that he indeed had the poisonous substance in the mixture he injected Ruth. This ambiguity of possible interpretations in Spooks 9 is congenial as well as irritating. This is the reason, why first my interpretation was heavy on the side of irritation and now, only slowly after re-watching Spooks 9 from beginning to end, grows heavier on the side of congeniality. All the hints are such a deliberate network of possible interpretations that I admire the scriptwriters now for being able to create such a full and potent ambiguity.

And now, after re-watching the whole of Spooks 9, I really think the parallelism and indirect criticism of our evaluation of good and bad is deeply ingrained and very much intended by all the makers of the film and by the scriptwriters. This in a very gripping way shows the closeness of good and evil and wants us to evaluate our concept of it.

After a long time, I really must admit, I admire the scriptwriters for their thoughtful and well calculated construction of Spooks 9. (Even the issues I have with Lucas are well placed by the scriptwriters to distract any clear concept of this person. This still irritates me a lot, but even that is well calculated by the scriptwriters.)

Directly after the parts of series 9 came out, I watched and re-watched each part over and over again till the next part came out the following week.
But now, to my absolute astonishment I must admit that watching the whole episode from beginning to the bitter end again did me good.
After watching Spooks 9.8 this one episode totally brought me over to appreciation and admiration. Before, I still had been doubtful, though I really love the interrogation scene in 9.7. My appreciation still does not mean that I do not see the discrepancies in Lucas’ characterization and background, but these elements do not disturb me so much any longer.

Now I can finish this year really satisfied, though lots of my questions still remain unanswered. Spooks 9 – at least the storyline of each single episode for me is brilliant and actors, producers, cameramen and crew really did top all previous Spooks and those I already admired greatly.
Only the hints and characterization and the unused possibilities of Lucas / John still remain open wounds for me. I still think the scriptwriters made a blunder with the characterization and background together with its related hints of Lucas North. But it was the only thing they blundered. The other things they got extremely well right, so the rest of Spooks 9 now is settled.

When I think that I feared re-watching so much and now am really glad I did ;o)

I can now end the year with absolute admiration and adoration for the extremely well written episode scripts! The magnitude of depths they got into relatively short episodes really impresses me!

In part, I think my new Urizen-interpretation triggered the new approach towards Spooks, which lead me to appreciate the storyline and the breaking down of Lucas / John much more. So in combination the William Blake post and re-watching Spooks 9 was a good finale of the year 2010.

I hope you will find a good finale as well and have a wonderful and happy start into a successful New Year 2011 !

Impressions From my Re-watching Spooks 9

Harry and Lucas’ Weapon in episode 9.7
When Harry gives Lucas his pistol back, I first thought, he gave it back to him because he wanted to give Lucas a chance for an ‘honourable death’ like harakiri. – Quite dramatic interpretation of me, but the whole atmosphere of the situation and the body language even while re-watching, drives me to this interpretation. From here on I had no doubt any longer, that Lucas / John had to go at the end of series 9.
Harry does not trust Lucas, but still gives him back his ‘professional status’ as MI-5 spy with a ‘license to kill’.
(I know this quotation refers to another spy, but it fits so correctly here, except, that Lucas does not kill any longer.)
But Harry reestablishes Lucas / John Bateman as a spy.
He applies to his sense of duty and honour, though he does nothing of this kind in his speache and interrogation of Lucas. He in a way offers acceptance and expecting himself, that Lucas will follow through with a right way of acting.
In an outsiders point of view, Harry’s action means, that he lets a ‘foreigner’, an unknown entity (=John Bateman), into the MI-5.
I still do not see the whole breadths of significance of this scene, but it impressed me greatly none the less.

“Betraying is a cancer. Let it eat your soul …”

This statement of Harry reminded me very much of the interrogation scenes of Spooks 7.7, where Harry was at the receiving end. Harry was innocent or at least innocent in the way of the accusation. Should this be compared as a parallel or in contrast to the current situation?
Could this possibly tell us something about Lucas’/John’s ‘guilt’ or about Harry’s reasoning for letting Lucas/John go?

Lucas and a Mercedes
The clearest sign that Lucas is irretrievably bad I saw, but discarded immediately. It was in episode 9.6, when Lucas changes cars with the computer specialist and swaps his tracked car for an unmarked Mercedes.
You will ask what significance does that have? But totally in Anglo-American tradition, all baddies drive expensive German cars ;o)
I feared from this time on, but still had some hope that Spooks would ignore such old traditions and think on its own. But tradition seems to die hard.
I do not mind baddies using German cars as at least they have nice cars. I would mind much more if they were not used at all. But as I myself can drive but do not have a car myself (As I am living in the center of a town), this rather is a topic of slight amusement for me to recognize and not a matter of further importance.
Still I should have given that aspect more attention, especially when the situation was repeated in episode 9.7, when Vaughan was driving a Mercedes as well.
It is the only correct or at least afterwards correctly readable hint I detected so far about Lucas / John clearly being bad. – And here I threw all the obvious signs in the wind, because I thought that can’t be true ;o)
- I must ad that I live near a big Mercedes building with lots of expensive cars on display. If only all Mercedes drivers were like Lucas – what a funny idea. Perhaps I should go to the building and have a look? – Not really serious about that. I do already know Mercedes drivers enough and know they cannot compare ;o)

Lucas the outspoken (9.4)
You will wonder, what can come now. The silent and brooding Lucas North is not outspoken.
What rubbed me quite the wrong way and absolutely sounded unbelievable for the Lucas character as I had imagined him was the outspokenness Lucas suddenly and only for a short moment shows in Spooks 9.4.
Here the emotionally minimal and restricted is suddenly outspoken and openly shouts through a populated clinic corridor. For me that was absolutely unbelievable.
Even the acting of RA did not convince me in this situation, though normally he can make every situation believable for me.
What went wrong with this scene?
Lucas / John shouts as if he is angry or sends an urgent warning. Richard Armitage who does audio books where even the slightest nuance is right astonished me here. Why does he send such a strange message here?
Was it originally planned for another context? – I always thought relieve was a quiet feeling, not a shouting outburst.

Was Lucas really killing the American Computer Specialist? (9.6)
The whole scene of Spooks 9.6 is supporting that Lucas is actually speeding the death of the computer specialist.
I still did doubt this, as in the first aid courses I did, we learned, that the arteries at the throat were the only place, where pressure would not work. This explanation might be wrong or misleading - I am in no way a specialist.
But still it made me doubt that Lucas would have been able to save her anyway.
His movements give the impression that he wants to comfort her in her last moments and I cannot decide, if Lucas actually does something to kill her or he becomes aware or already knows that her wound is hopeless anyway and wants to give her comfort and not pain by his pressure in her last moments of life.
Good or bad always is so close together for Lucas / John.
All in all it is a brilliantly executed sequence in Spooks 9.6, which once again shows that minimal movements by Richard Armitage can show a multitude of emotions, different possible interpretations and an enormous character depth.


Music and Film Intentions (series 9)
Were the composers of the soundtrack not informed about the intended storyline of Spooks 9?
This I wondered throughout series 9, when the previously used ‘Russian’ elements kept turning up around Lucas North.
By re-watching this not quite fitting element even disturbed me more. I usually need a few times of watching a film, till I really pay attention to the soundtrack. But this element here was so disturbing, that by first watching Spooks 9 I definitely thought, a Russian connection would turn up for Lucas / John in the film.
But nothing, so even the music was a misleading hint concerning Lucas.


Storylines of Sequences work
After re-watching now all parts of Spooks 9 from episode 1 to 6 I finally came to the conclusion, what I feel does not add up in series 9 solely is related to the Lucas / John character. All the hints about him contradict themselves as his character does.
That makes it very hard to get a clear idea what Lucas and John were meant to be, because the hints go in all directions.
The positive result of re-watching the whole of Spooks 9 was that it made me realize how much I adore the storyline of each episode. There I could not detect the slightest flaw. They are dramatic, in themselves consistent and just wonderfully executed.
The only dissent I have with Spooks 9 really is centered on the character development and the hints surrounding Lucas North and his transformation into John Bateman and then into a Nobody.
Each single episode for me works perfectly in itself.
By re-watching I found out, that the logic of each episode made complete sense for me and here in the storyline I found no breaking points disturbing the whole picture or flux of the events.
The hints about Lucas / John in some way play with the expectations about his character.
Beth expects him to be a certain person, Harry does the same and presses him into a role during the interrogation, Ruth while talking to him expects him to act in a certain way. All these expectations Lucas / John clearly tries to destroy, though he still acts in a very caring way. He cares for Maya, even after her obvious betrayal, he cares for Ruth and easily can be convinced to give Harry the details earlier than intended, he even cares for Beth and Dimitri, when he shoots into the wheels of their car, he never aims his weapon at them.

I finally must reveal, I love the Lucas / John of Spooks 9.8. Only such an excellent actor as Richard Armitage could make this script work here. The scriptwriters here very much relied on his talent. (This gives me hope that they really did appreciate what they had with Richard Armitage.)

Symbolic Importance of William Blake’s Urizen for Lucas North

Finally my first book about Blake and his theories arrived.

What I learned in the book is that Blake with the symbol of Urizen is not only mistrusting systems, but also the rational thinking of the individual. This is his distancing himself from the enlightenment which cultivated and worshipped the Reason of man. Blake mistrusts the separation of one authoritative element (=1 person) from the ‘human brotherhood’.

What I so far overlooked in my analysis of the symbolic meaning of Urizen for Lucas North is, that Blake’s critique does not only reach the systems of religion and political government of mankind, but also the reasoning and thought system of each individual.
Lucas might as easily mistrust himself and his own judgment as he does mistrust systems.

The reasoning of mankind in Blake’s theory follows special traditions.
He especially mistrusts the age of enlightenment, as it creates an individual entity of reason with absolute power of judgment. The individual has no limitation by the surrounding society and limiting necessities of social connections.

My conclusion is therefore, that Urzien for Lucas North is a kind of sign, that he does mistrust himself and his own judgment as well as the judgment of systems like governments and especially the MI-5.

This might also be cause for his rather passive role as member of the grid and especially as leader of section D.
It irritated me greatly, that in Series 9 Lucas never makes a conclusion or has a leading idea himself. He always acts on conclusions of others and follows through with delegating the necessary workloads, but he never sets the route. The ideas always come from somebody else, e.g. in episode 9.5 from Ruth, in other situations from Beth, Dimitri or Harry.
This is what really made me doubt that Lucas still is the brilliant spy as described.
Before series 9, I thought the reason for this lack of active participation might be, that Ross was leader of the section, but in series 9 the lack of his active participation became very obvious, when he became section chief and still did not lead in a more active way. This lead me to wonder, why this was even so before Vaughan threatened him.

What is the reason of the scriptwriters showing Lucas like that? At the same time Spooks 9 is the first time, that Lucas gets small tokens of appreciation for his work by Harry, when in my opinion he does not deserve it or at least not any longer.
Episode 9.6 further confirms this, as all the clever planning and finding of the attackers of the security system is done with Lucas off the grid. While Lucas is only following through with Vaughan’s blackmailing threat, not scheming himself and even in his trying to find a way out for himself and Maya only follows the route Vaughan set for him.

The Urizen symbol might also have had a connection to Lucas’ past as John. John in his youth might have been a kind of idealist with ideals of either a perfect democracy (which only gives a social entity power and not an individual) or some kind of communism (who would also set the society ahead of the needs of an individual).
This would not explain all his time he held out in the Russian prison, though. Except that the tattoos might have been an adept sign to ease his time in the Russian prison and support his ‘friendship’ with Oleg Darsharvin.

In the end the symbol might even not be so much of a description of his character, but a sign for what Lucas is prepared to do and to endure to safe and ease his life.

Vaughan and the Mobile Phone

One aspect that was irritating me from the beginning, was, that Vaughan was able to reach Lucas / John on his business mobile phone. This number would be secret and only known by other members of the secret service with special data access or Lucas own department.

Who was the leak or why did Vaughan have better data access than Lucas himself?

Lucas / John can’t reach Vaughan’s data, but Vaughan can reach his, though he is not officially working for or inside MI-5.
How strange! Why was Vaughan so important for the MI-5 that they secured his files with such a high access level (A)?
His further way did not show a hint of his importance. Harry Pearce did not really set his trust in his value as informer. The information Vaughan gave at the meeting with Harry Pearce in episode 9.7 was not really valuable, as this must have been the information Harry already knew before the meeting.

Is the security level for Vaughan’s files just an element to make him a more fearful opponent for Lucas / John?
Is his ability to reach Lucas / John at any moment he chooses serving the same purpose?

Lucas the Strong to John the Weak

I must confess - I continued my re-watching madness.

Lucas / John at the beginning of 9.2 gives the impression, that he might be able to put Vaughan under pressure. When he speaks to Vaughan on his mobile phone, he clearly denies his suggestion to help him and even throws the blackmailing attempt back at him.

In a situation as Lucas / John I would now go and try to find out as much as possible about Vaughan to try to figure out, what my opponent might do and to forestall and pre-empt his next action. [And I must add I am not a spy and never attempted to be one.]

Lucas / John does nothing of this kind but sits and waits and goes on a sightseeing tour to find Maya. – Hard as it sounds, that is exactly what he does in reaction to the manipulative way of Vaughan, who most definitely and quite obviously tries to lead him on with the luggage content.

But in my opinion this contradicts his character as brilliant MI-5 spy and it also does contradict his clever and cunning time as John in Dakar.
So this early on in series 9 my suspicions were up that the obvious storyline we see could not be the right one, but only was a disguise to keep us off the real track. [Unfortunately it was the right one, unbelievable as it is.] But my mind kept creating alternative explanations for Lucas / John’s behavior which only could go awry, as the scriptwriters did not hide the real intentions of Lucas / John, but gave us an unbelievable character development and showed us every stupidity he did in meticulous detail.

Good Intentions - But No Years End Sweep

I was a bit masochistic and watched Spooks 9.1 today.
I had the indistinct and unfortunately wrong idea, that watching "Spooks 9" with some distance and all my blog posts in between could help me finish my grumbling together with the year ;o)

The main result of watching episode 9.1 was, that I had new questions. (As if the one’s I still have were not enough already.)
Why did Vaughan in his first meeting with Lucas / John imply, that they had wanted world domination back there in Dakar?
All the rest of information revealed about the Dakar bombing, either by Lucas / John, Harry Pierce or Vaughan, does not support this quest for world power.
Also a bombing of an embassy seems a rather ‘unimportant’ target for gaining world domination.

A suspicion grew in my mind, that the beginning and the end of "Spooks 9" do not fit together. Was there a change in intentions or a change of the responsible scriptwriters?
The final result is that the beginning and the end of Spooks 9 do not fit together, though the first meeting between Vaughan and Lucas / John was enacted in a very dramatic way and by repeated viewing impressed me as much as the first time.

Further questions were for example:

Why did John have to conceal his identity after the Dakar bombing, but not Vaughan, though he was the main contact to the invisible instigators?

Why did John and Vaughan have to leave the country so fast after the bombing, when even 15 years later the MI-5 could still not find out a direct connection between them and the bombing?

Why did Vaughan and John fear the secret principals, when they did exactly what they were hired to do and even were successful with it?

Were there even secret principals ordering the bombing or did Vaughan plan the whole plot or even John?

Why did the secret principals not use the bombing in any way to get some results?

Why did Vaughan not continue in his quest to gain ‘world domination’ but became an informant for MI-5?

Why did Lucas / John not find out during his time with MI-5 that Vaughan was working for them? Vaughan had no difficulty gaining full access to Lucas’ files in comparison, though he only was an informant and not inside the inner circle of MI-5?

Major Inconsistencies of Spooks 9

The main aspects which made all the rest for me hard to believe were:


Lucas / John was established as well trained spy with the right instincts and a brilliant brain.
All of this suddenly did not matter any longer as soon as Lucas / John gave in to Vaughan. He did not even react to the threat, he just did obey.

I would understand this behaviour, if John had a history e.g. as soldier and Vaughan had been his long time (and perhaps even trusted) leader. But on the contrary, John is depicted as individually thinking and scheming character, murdering Lucas North on his own.
As a spy I would expect Lucas / John to have been trained how to cope with psychological pressure and especially how best to 'react' to blackmailing.
It certainly is not the best way or any way at all to go along with it and do nothing.
I was very much disappointed, that Lucas / John did not even try to find out the real background behind the blackmailing scenario around Vaughan.
At first I thought Lucas / John did know the scenario as it was related to the embassy bombing in Dakar. But as the topic of interest for the Chinese was of younger age than the embassy bombing, this could no longer be the case.

What surprised me was, that Lucas / John was suddenly back in an almighty position in episode 9.7 where he could detect Vaughan, even when Vaughan did not want to be detected. In all other situations Lucas / John was reacting and had no potential possibility to free himself.
Was this scene an excuse to shorten the otherwise tedious search for Maya?
Because the easiness with which Lucas / John finds Vaughan casts a bad light
- on the ability and worthiness of Vaughan as an enemy and opponent
- the full use of ability by Lucas / John in his work for MI-5
- the power of MI-5
- the power of the Chinese
- and again at the spy abilities of Lucas / John, when he is such an easy target for the Chinese to spy upon him in his home, when now he can outmanoeuvre them so easily.

Lucas / John in "Spooks 9" switches into a bad spy, not only as he betrays MI-5 and his ideals, but because he forgets all his training. It is as if he forgot all his years of Lucas and only relies on his former abilities as John, the backstreet criminal.
But this would rather fit to a schizophrenic person having two completely separate identities which normally do not mingle. Lucas / John at least remembers his time as Lucas, with exception of all his training.
And that is absolutely unbelievable for me. I would accept a bad Lucas, when he sets his mind to it and has some reasons. But a bad John, forgetting his ideals and all his brilliant abilities he could muster as Lucas, is quite a strange thing for me.

I cannot even say I do not believe it, because in truth the scriptwriters gave us nothing to believe. Therefore, they would have had to give us some kind of explanation or reason for all the unfolding scenario in front of our eyes.
Lucas / John gives no explanation or hint to his reasons, but acts in such a 'stupid' way, that I thought, there must be some underlying reasoning, some intrigue, some scheme going on beyond the obvious surface.
In the end, when nothing turned up, you might understand my utter disappointment with this Lucas / John / Nothing.

Harry & Ruth and Lucas’ Feelings

Why does Harry not give Ruth the post of section chief after Ross?

I mentioned in a previous post her very individual approach to research. Her way of research is brilliant, but hardly can be called systematic. This associative and emotional way of approach can go well, but can go wrong as easily. Does Harry see this and see her emotional way of working as a flaw?

Does he choose Lucas / John because he does not show any emotions like Ross?
Even Tom Quinn and Adam Carter showed some emotions.

So I dug a bit deeper to find out, that Lucas, at least in the previous series, showed a wide variety of emotions as well. Just to name a few:

Gratefulness (towards Russian informant and former connection of Harry in Moscow – Spooks 7.7)

Friendship and respect (towards Ross, especially in series 8)

Revenge (by trying to get even with his Russian tormentor Katchimov and later with his interrogator Dasharvin)

Compassion (with the young boys, Dean in 7.6 and Ashoc in 8.7)

Love (for Elizaveta Starkova, Sarah Caulfield)

Compared to this deep feeling character of series 7 and 8 Lucas / John grows flatter every moment in series 9. His only focus is his passion for Maya Lahan.

I explicitly do not want to call it love as it is not in any way shown as a caring and sensitive feeling. It is depicted as manic obsession. Why Maya cooperates is unclear to me. Her motives remain completely obscure as is most of her background or life. Her only moment she is shown with colleagues in 9.7 she shows more life and joy than in her whole time with Lucas / John. That is a very strange aspect of their relationship for me, as she is prepared to give up her known life to follow Lucas / John.

Lucas & Harry - Talking With Each Other

At one very rare occasion Lucas / John and Harry must have spoken to each other, because at the end on the roof Lucas / John refers to Harry mentioning the service renders people bad.

The last discussion between Harry and Lucas in the end dialogue made me realise, what I felt was wrong with the grid members of series 9. They do not really talk to each other for the whole of the series.

The episode 9.6, where the grid security system is compromised and the Russians and Chinese are listening in is not really necessary, as all the members do not really talk to each other anyway.

This is one further aspect which really sets the whole Lucas / John development apart and makes it so unbelievable. We see no reaction to it except of short views of disbelieve on Beth’s face. We see no real coping with this new situation but normal, undisturbed grid-routine.

(This routine is really going very badly. Should this show us, that Lucas is missed and Dimitri and Beth are not yet ready to do the job alone? They blow up their first job alone by loosing Ruth, wrongly identifying an innocent and preventing the special unit from reaching the suspect in time to prevent having to kill him. They even did not secure the surrounding sufficiently. A complete blunder!)

Lucas / John a Nobody / Nothing on the Grid

The reaction of the members of the grid at the end of Spooks 9.8 seems very ambiguous to me. Harry still is shown to be on the roof and the knowledge the other grid members have, is not absolutely clear.
I not for a moment had the impression they were mourning Lucas / John.
Ruth is crying because Harry is safe again. The others are content, that everything is over and they are still alive. For them Lucas really was nothing. To Ross at least he had a friendly connection as colleague and a common understanding of work ethics. With the others he shared nothing at all.

Harry Pearce did not trust Lucas and he in return did not trust him.

Dimitri Levendis was not in the group long enough for Lucas to establish a connection with him.

Beth could have been interesting, but it did not work out that way.

Ruth he clearly mistrusted as she did him. But why? Was it only because he feared detection by her?
They also had a completely different approach to work. Ruth with all her brilliance has a very intuitive and unorthodox way of research whereas Lucas very much associated with the systematic approach with which Ross had been leading section D.