1.1 "Thou shalt not kill"
The Grid is the official name for the operations centre in Thames House, the headquarters of MI5, the British Secret Service. It is here that Sir Harry Pearce directs and observes his highly-trained team of spies, or "spooks", as they go from day to day foiling terrorist plots, stopping bombs going off and generally practicing what is colloquially known in Britain as "defence of the realm". We see from the start that this is not a job for everyone. As a spook, you can let no-one in, be close to no-one, have no relationship with anyone. The other half of your relationship must know you as a completely different person --- different name, different job, different history. Every agent of MI5 is in a highly sensitive position and were their true identities to be known, not only would they and their loved ones be at risk, but the organisation woudl be compromised, and thus the nation's security.
So agents live double lives, like the superheroes in comics but without the tights or the superpowers. We see this first in the case of Tom, who is living with a woman and her daughter, who both know him as Matthew (rather interesting choice of name, as Tom is played by Matthew McFayden!) and think he works as an IT support specialist.
A bomb explodes outside a house in Liverpool, and word soon comes to MI5 that it's one of twenty (twenty!) that have been smuggled from Ireland to the UK, destination and use unknown. A major terrorist offensive looks to be underway. Tom visits the hospital where one of the victims, a Doctor Helen Lynott has died, while her daughter Sarah lies in critical condition. He speaks to Mike Lynott, also a doctor, and learns that the two ran a family planning clinic. This begins to look like the work of an anti-abortionist movement. Doctor Lynott confirms that he and his wife had been receiving hate mail for a few weeks, but he had hidden the letters, not wanting to upset her.
While Harry and his team try to work out who would have the connections and the financial resources to pull off smuggling twenty bombs into the country, the scene switches and we see a kindly old motherly figure baking cakes in her country house. Somewhat surprisingly, it turns out she is the mastermind behind the bombs, and she talks to the others in her group, who have already pulled off the first killing and plan more. Some of them --- the younger woman, Rachel, in particular --- seems more than a little reluctant, but the older woman, who is American and whose name is Mary Kane, convinces her with smiles and soundbites, and the plan will continue. What's really scary about this scene is that there are kids playing in Mary Kane's house, and she dotes on them; she doesn't seem like a monster at all. But then, as someone once said, it's easy to spot the devil when he's wearing horns and a tail...
Meanwhile Mary Kane's name has come up as the agents watch a broadcast of US news declaring that she has been convicted in absentia for bombing a family planning clinic in Florida, and that her husband is to die in the electric chair for shooting a doctor. That's to happen in a few days, and the agents have worked out that she's planning to use the occasion to mark her husband's passing by detonating one or more of the bombs. In the meantime it's come to light that their original intelligence was somewhat faulty: there are only (!) four pipebombs, the rest is in Semtex. This is not good.
MI5 send a team to the cottage to which Mary Kane has been tracked, to bug the place and listen in on her plans. They find that she is having an affair with one of the men in her cell, a guy called Steven. But the CIA find out about their operation and, given that Kane is wanted in the US, demand that the Brits turn her over to them for extradition. Tom is not pleased, telling Harry that she is their only link to finding out where the rest of the explosives are, and where they are intended to be used. They decide to step up their operation; they can't refuse the order, which comes from the Home Office (have to keep our American cousins happy!) but they can continue their efforts while the paperwork is drawn up and authorised. Maybe they can get the task finished before they have to hand the woman over.
Posing as a woman who is pro-life, Zoe meets Rachel, the younger woman who was at Mary Kane's cottage, the one who seemed not so sure that what they were doing was right, seemed not totally committed to the cause. She uses a ruse to get her to take to the hospital where Sarah, the critically injured daughter of Dr. Lynott is, and she and Tom try to show her what going along with Kane's campaign of terror really looks like. "It's shocking, isn't it?" Tom asks her. "Close up." She leaves, her crying son in tow, and panics, calling her husband on the phone and giving MI5 (who have of course installed a listening device in it) a name, Sullivan. Checking on any doctors named Sullivan they come up with only one practicing one and send a team over to protect her.
Harry delays the extradition papers all he can, but the CIA are getting impatient and send one of their operatives, Christine Dale, to see Tom to warn him not to stand in their way. Saturday is the "big day" for Paul Kane, and as she says, it will be a bonus for America if his wife is there right beside him when he fries. This "request" is then given added impact when the Foreign Office send a representative to advise that if the US are not allowed have their way they will block a substantial and lucrative licencing order needed by a big UK pharmaceutical company. As ever, money talks. Meanwhile the sad news comes through that Sarah Lynott has passed away.
Desperate to catch Kane despite the Foreign Office directive, and the fact that the extradition papers have now been reluctantly signed by Harry (he's done all he can to delay but has run out of options) Tom decides to have Zoe pose as Dr. Sullivan, who has been moved to a safe location, in order to try to draw the terrorist out. It's Zoe's first major operation and she's understandably nervous, though she tries not to show it. They know Kane has Sullivan's daily schedule and so they keep to it, hoping she'll track Zoe. As Zoe enters the foodmarket, Kane's car pulls out in front of her and they have contact! They follow her into the car park, noting and worried that she possesses a holdall and a mobile. It's pretty obvious what's in the bag and so they're unable to accost her in case she sets the thing off. They wait until she leaves the bag in the shopping centre and exits, then as she tries to activate the bomb they jam the phone's signal, and pick her up.
Tom interrogates her, trying to find out where the rest of the bombs are. She won't crack until he tells her that he has a tape of her making love to Steven, and that if she doesn't cooperate he'll make sure this act of infidelity is the last thing her husband hears before he dies. He also promises that if she plays ball he will make sure she's extradited not to Florida, but to some state without the death penalty. Seeing she has no choice and at the end fearful of dying despite her bravado and her willingness to kill, she folds and they are able to pick up the rest of the bombers.
They're driving her to her plane when they stop, get out of the car leaving her in it and two CIA people, one of which is Christine Dale, get in. Christine drops a brochure in her lap which shows the state of Florida, and asks her without humour if she is ready for Disneyworld? Kane knows she has been lied to and betrayed, but is powerless to do anything about it. She will die just like her husband, although the fact that she has been discovered to be pregnant may have some bearing on this sentence.
Spooks is not really the sort of show that provides great quotes, but some of the things said in the episodes are certainly noteworthy. These I'll be dividing and featuring in different relevant sections.
Before I get into that though, for those who wonder if MI5 are all about counter-terrorism, the following quote from the opening scene may set you straight:
"MI5’s major focus right now is counter-terrorism, but our brief also includes serious crime, illegal arms and immigration, and the drugs trade."
The "Need to know"
Working as they do for the Secret Service, it is frequently necessary for the agents to prevent panic or even rumour by disseminating a false story to cover something much worse, were the truth to be known. When these happen in the episodes I'll feature them here, under this heading.
The story released to the press about the first bomb, the one that killed Doctor Karen Lynott and injured (and eventually took the life of) her daughter, is this, as ordered by Tom:
"Army bomb disposal teams have confirmed this was a previously unexploded World War II bomb. Repeat, this was not a terrorist incident. Make sure that’s the only message getting out. I want it across the board. World War 2."
Harry's World
As head of MI5 Sir Harry Pearce has seen more than most, and has a certain worldview that is often honest and refreshing, blunt and to the point, and occasionally shocking. I'll be recording any examples of Harry's wisdom here.
Zoe talks about pro-life groups "So far they’ve just never been a threat."
Harry replies, in typical deadpan mode: "Something we’ve learned in the last twelve months. Nothing ever is. Until it is."
Harry is wistful for the old days, when you knew who the bad guy was: "I signed up here because I knew who the enemy was and I wanted to fight them. These days they don’t even have a flag. I preferred it when the bad guys had a flag. Gave them something to put on the coffin."
The mind of a terrorist
A little catch-all, yes, as not every criminal MI5 deal with will be necessarily classifed as terrorists (though many will), but when they do, it's interesting to note the skewed mentality, morality and worldview these people espouse:
Mary Kane: "I was terrified. At the beginning. But then I met my husband. And Paul sat me down and asked me to imagine something. Imagine a man with a gun. You’d be scared. So would I. But what if you saw him walk into a playground and point that gun at a child, how scared would you be then? And if you saw him pull the trigger, shoot one child, then another? Would you still be scared? Or would you stop thinking about yourself and just try with every fibre of your being to stop him before he killed the whole school? Of course you would. I know your fear, Rachel. But always remember who we’re fighting for. And who we’re trying to stop."
Big Brother is watching!
It's amazing how at times almost every person onscreen in Spooks can turn out to be an agent, keeping tabs on a target. Here are a few examples from this episode:
ALPHA is a Pakistani man in a suit.
BRAVO is a builder in a top that says “Lets Get Plastered”.
CHARLIE is a middle-aged woman with a shopping bag.
As she gets closer and closer to Mary...a variety of customers, workers, pensioners, daytrippers--all sound off quietly... everyone in this place is a spook.
Rivalries
The biggest rivalry in Spooks is between the people of MI5 (or "Five") which is the domestic, internal branch of the secret service and MI6 ("Six"), who handle foreign inteligence policy, but the representatives of the government often get short shrift too, seen as interfering, bureaucratic, self-serving toadies and puppets of the Americans. Which they are. An example, when Toby McInnes from the Foreign Office comes on to "The Grid":
Helen: "Creature of the night, two o’clock.
Danny: "Foreign Office. Get out the garlic."
The F.O man is even depicted as repugnant, an almost headmaster bearing, as he looks down his nose at the spooks and hardly even deigns to talk to anyone but Harry. He also pointedly runs his finger along surfaces, examining the dust on his finger, like a sergeant major at inspection time. He makes no secret of the fact that he considers these people beneath him and expects them to obey him without question. He tells them "They’re ("they" being the Americans) the big boy in the playground and right now if they asked to roger us over a barrel we’d thank them kindly and make them tea afterwards." He also refers to the Home Secretary as "His Imperial Highness", obviously seeing himself as one of the (more important) courtiers.