Series 5 Episode 5 (Spooks)

First aired in the UK at 10.25pm on 2 October 2006 on BBC Three. General airing in the UK was at 9pm 9 October 2006 on BBC One.

Infobox Spooks episode
episode_name = Series 5, Episode 5
writer = Zinnie Harris
director = Kenny Glenaan
script_editor = Jayne Spooner
producer = Andrew Woodhead
executive_producer = Simon Crawford Collins
Jane Featherstone
series = Five
episode = Five
length = approximately 57 mins
UK date = 9/10/06
US date =
preceding = Series 5, Episode 4
following = Series 5, Episode 6
imdb_id = 0876051

Plot

Ruth is interrupted at a cash machine by a man asking for change from a £10 note. As Ruth gives him a few coins, the man rushes off hurriedly, before she has chance to fish around for more coins. Eager to give him the right change, Ruth follows him down onto a tube station platform. There, just as she turns to catch his attention, he jumps underneath an incoming tube train.

It soon emerges that the suicide victim worked at Cotterdam prison, in which seven terrorist suspects had apparently been killed in a fire. Ruth suspects that the man was attempting a drop, passing her some information before he committed suicide. Examination of the £10 note reveals nothing, however. Meanwhile, upon reading the special branch report from the investigation into the prison, the Section D team believe it to be a whitewash, covering up whatever really happened.

Harry puts this accusation to the Joint Intelligence Committee, but committee chairman Oliver Mace denies the charges, and Harry gets no backing from the other members present. Back at MI5, Harry orders the team to investigate the prison. Zafar and Ros pose as security inspectors and, by way of Ros faking an asthma attack, manage to gain access to a prison computer and download all its files. Meanwhile, Ruth, of her own accord, pulls a favour and gets access to the dead man's body, stealing his keys after a brief examination of his body for clues.

During this time, Adam follows up on a revelation that someone else working at the prison was a member of the same organisation as the terrorists who died. Harry suspects that the terrorists killed their own men to prevent intelligence about an imminent attack being extracted from them, and he raises the alert level. Heading to the flat of this suspect, with armed special forces backup, Adam finds the man sitting in his chair, already having been shot.

At the office, Jo plants a tracking device on Ruth in order to see whether she is having a secret sexual liaison with Harry Peace. Watching her movements on screen though, they see that Ruth and Harry go separate ways, with Ruth heading to the flat of the deceased prison officer. Ros and Zafar head out to see what she is up to. Watched by them, Ruth uses the keys to sneak into the flat. Searching it for any clues, she discovers a note suggesting that she should use the £10 to pay a fruit and veg stall. Following up on this lead, she does as instructed and receives a newspaper furtively from the seller.

Returning back again to the office, Ruth is met by the whole team, and Oliver Mace, who accuses her of collaborating with the terrorists. Ruth denies the claim, tells the team that she had received a drop, and brings out the newspaper, in which is hidden a CD. Putting the CD into a computer to read its contents, Malcolm reveals that it is completely blank. Oliver continues his claims against Ruth by showing a video with CCTV footage of the tube station which clearly shows Ruth pushing him under the train. Zafar cries out that the video has been faked, but Ruth is taken away. In a tense conversation between Harry and Oliver results in Ruth been given a day in which she is to be put under surveillance, with no contact from anyone, before being arrested.

With the office under surveillance, Harry suggests that the team regroup, which they do in a new location. There, the team agree that Ruth has been set-up, despite Ros's initial doubting of her. Adam orders Zafar to check satellite imagery of Cotterdam from the night of the fire and asks Ros to let Ruth out from her house, which she does by way of climbing in through a window and switching places with her.

Harry receives a phone call from Oliver Mace, suggesting that they go somewhere to 'talk properly', and so they head to a gentleman's club. There, Oliver confides that the seven terrorists did not die but were removed from the prison in order that they could be secretly tortured to gain information, which he claims saved the lives of 2000 people from a terrorist attack. Oliver urges Harry to join the 'club' of high-level officers who condone these kinds of actions, suggesting that in return, Ruth could be released.

Having escaped surveillance, Ruth manages to meet up with Adam, and they go looking for the clues to the location of the real 'drop' outside the dead prison officer's flat. Peering through binoculars, Ruth spots a poster of Offa, King of Mercia in 8th Century, an obsession of hers at University, [Though in the episode "The Possibility of a Mole" a reference is made to her having studied classics.] where she wrote a thesis on him and the site of his palace, now St Alban's church on Wood Street. Rushing to this location, they discover the drop hidden within a plaque on the outside wall, a piece of microfiche. Taking it back to Adam's car, Ruth reads using a microfoche reader that the document contains minutes of a meeting, marked 'Eyes Only', in which 'special measures' - a euphemism for torture - was authorised for the seven terrorist suspects. Further down, she reads that Maudsly was present, as was Mace, and someone from their MI5 department, from section D, codenamed 'Fox'. Remarking this to be impossible, Adam suggests that it was placed into the minutes to stop MI5 from exposing them. They try to call Harry, but can't get through. To stop the surveillance of the team, Adam suggests that they get Ruth arrested, and so Ros is ordered to leave Ruth's flat, upon which she is promptly arrested, mistaken for Ruth.

In the club, Mace pushes Harry Peace for an answer to his proposition. Harry counters by suggesting that he could save Ruth by pretending that he authorised Ruth's behaviour. Oliver calls Harry's bluff, and so Harry smashes a wine glass and slashes Oliver's arm in order to attract the attention of the police and get himself arrested.

Hearing the news, the team react in shock. Adam visits Harry in jail, and tells him about the document they found. Harry orders Adam to use the evidence and implicate himself. Adam refuses this order, and regrouping with Ruth and Zafar, Ruth argues that she should step back into the frame and take the wrap herself. Reluctantly agreeing, the team get to work, with Zafar photoshopping a meeting between Ruth and Mace. To further complete the picture, Ruth visits one of the witnesses who claimed to have witnessed Ruth pushing Maudsly under the tube train (but had actually been bribed into saying so, having been in a position where she could not possibly have seen such a thing), and threatens her with a gun - loaded with blank - not to go talking to anyone again. As planned, the witness calls the police the instant Ruth leaves her flat. Zaf comments to Ruth that she was very convincing, and she replies that this is because she once played Lady Macbeth in a school play.

Harry is released from jail, the documents are revealed, and the defence secretary, along with Oliver Mace, are forced to resign. The seven suspects from Cotterdam are brought back from Egypt to the UK, for fair questioning. The team watch a BBC news broadcast in which it is reported that commentators are calling the affair 'the end of dark days for the security services'.

The news reaches the team of Ruth's apparent suicide, her body having been dragged from the Thames. Identifying the body, Harry makes as if he is to vomit, but upon leaving the mortuary makes it clear that it was not Ruth's body.

Meeting her for a final farewell, Harry and Ruth share an emotional moment, with Harry about to reveal his love for Ruth, but Ruth urges him to leave it as 'something that was never said. Something wonderful that was never said'. After she jokingly asks him to try not to get shot, [A reference to his shooting in the episode Smoke and Mirrors and his near-shooting in the cliffhanger between Diana and the first episode of series 5.] they enjoy a kiss and a final embrace before Ruth steps onto a barge and is driven out along the Thames, with Harry looking on in sadness.

References to real life

* At one point, the whitewashing of the report of the prison escape is compared to the Hutton report.
*The mentions of deportation for torture abroad relate to the then current debates on Extraordinary rendition, prisoner abuse and mutual extradition agreements between the UK and known torturing states [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4155806.stm] .

Cast

Guest stars

Tim McInnerny returns as Oliver Mace.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/spooks/series5_ep5.shtml BBC site]