“WHAT if there was one time in your life when everything made sense?
“What wouldn’t you do to go back?”
Lucas / John tries to explain to Ruth why he’s risking everything for a new life with Maya (Laila Rouass).
Before giving Ms Evershed (Nicola Walker) marriage advice.
Spooks series nine, episode eight, brings the 2010 season to a close with Section D hunting one of their own.
Sir Harry tells his team: “I regret to have to inform you that as of this moment our former section chief Lucas North is to be regarded as a rogue officer.
“Our main priority is to find him and bring him in, whatever the cost.”
Next Monday’s conclusion is Richard Armitage’s finest hour as the tortured spy who has lived a lie for so long.
Harry has a glass of scotch on his office desk even before the opening titles roll.
Betrayed by the man he trusted.
“We cannot allow him to find the Albany file,” he says.
“By seeking it, he has made himself a traitor.
“He’s highly trained, fragile and desperate – he is now our enemy.”
But even at this late stage, can Harry still save Lucas?
And will he commit treason in exchange for Ruth’s life?
A search of Lucas / John’s flat reveals nothing of personal note, aside from a well thumbed old paperback – The Poetry of William Blake.
We finally discover what Albany is.
As Lucas meets up with a Chinese man.
Harry calls in decommissioned MI5 internal affairs specialist Alec White (Vincent Regan) to help track Lucas down.
In a breathtaking 60 minutes where the lives of Harry, Ruth and Lucas hang in the balance.
Both Richard and Nicola deserve plaudits for their performances.
And it almost goes without saying that Peter Firth is spellbinding as a compromised Harry.
Leaving a message on his daughter’s voicemail, including another for his son, during a lonely drive to a high level rendezvous.
Bringing a tear to my eye, and maybe yours too.
The final scene had me on the very edge of my seat.
Or what I assumed would be the final scene.
Spooks being Spooks, there is a postscript.
Giving us something to think about on the long wait until series 10 next year.
*The final episode of Spooks is on BBC1 at 9pm next Monday.
Spooks: Nicola Walker Interview
Life of Wylie 