Episode 4.08
Yup. No way of getting around it: this week is the week to talk about Adam. But really, I don't know that I can express just how much I want to send the writers and Rupert Penry-Jones a great big THANK YOU note.
I knew I shouldn't have watched the previews, and I don't usually, but I couldn't help it last week. How could I help it with that ending? But I shouldn't have watched. This week was so much better than I thought it would be, because it was so much more restrained than the previews made it look. There was no big explosion or meltdown. Thank goodness. There was only Adam dancing on the edge as crack after crack opened in him and beneath him, while he was constantly fighting to hold himself together with a twisted patchwork of denial and acceptance. Which is exactly how I would expect Adam to react, unlike Tom, who couldn't keep his true emotions from affecting the job if you told him the world's safety relied on it (which it did! but that's besides the point at hand).
Not that Adam wasn't affected; I doubt that staying in a hotel and sleeping in his clothes were necessary for doing observation on Ross' release. But frankly, I think he wanted to show emotion, since he was supposed to, wasn't he? His wife had just died, so he was supposed to be angry and in pain, and why was everyone treating him with kid gloves and acting like just because he was hurting he couldn't do the job any more? I could almost see him thinking that. Over and over we've seen how he prides himself on functioning through and in spite of his own pain or concerns. And here he thought he was fine, and he was determined that he would be fine, and it would be a hell of a lot easier to be fine if the damn world would stop suggesting otherwise.
A side note: Harry stumbling over his attempt to ask Adam "How do you feel?" was...hee. Poor Harry. And even though Adam's not really listening at that point, Harry actually says in that conversation that he blocked the requirement that Adam to go Tring, which was another attempt to help. But then later, when not going obviously hasn't helped, asking "as a friend" that Adam go to Tring. Aw. Harry does try, and he does care. (Psych doc to the intelligence services, btw, has to be the worst job ever.)
Anyway, when Adam finally broke down in the hotel, that was perfect. Even the timing, since it was safe, with both the situation at hand and the problem at large under control. And more, in bringing it under control he'd established that he was in fact still himself. He'd proved to everyone beyond any doubt that his instincts, his skills, were still intact...which meant that he really could go on without Fiona. Hell of a realization. A reality wished for but not wanted. So it felt right that that was when we got the breaking voice, the silent panic, that little sway backwards (which just about killed me) before he caught himself, bent, and then broke.
The scene with Fiona's parents and with Wes at the very end was very nearly overkill, but I'm more than willing to go with it. In part because it showed that he really did get over the hump of denial, but more because I loved his body language in that scene: avoiding, then meeting their eyes, then looking away again; rocking just enough, and just regular enough, to be betraying something more than nervousness; almost cracking again as he finally turns to face his son.
Seriously, when it came to Adam Carter, this episode was everything I'd hoped it could be. I'm too happy to be nitpicky, and I don't want to be nitpicky because I like being happy. Happy is good. Happy is wonderful.
...Okay, the rest of the episode. There was indeed more. And wow, yeah, they're really playing that internal conflict card hard. The NHS plot was made a bit convoluted in order to get Ross involved, but I loved the long-time relationship between Harry and Ross, and the old enemies being closer than new friends. Harry's face when Ross succumbed to the mind wipe at the end was painful; he really did lose another friend there, didn't he?
Good to see Zaf moving past the "brash young agent" mold a bit more. He's the number-two agent, now, so he'd better be stepping up. Sucks that stepping up means getting beat up, but those are the chances you take, I guess. And he did hold together well, following Harry's lead and then Ross' lead without much of a slip.
I'm also still quite happy with how they're fitting Jo in to the team (using her, but not fully in the field), the job (I'll just bet she's got second thoughts now), and the plot (nervous over Adam in general, reacting in trying not to react, and being the one to tell Malcolm to cut that bit of the recording).
My favorite bit, though, was that it was Ruth Adam turned to, whether it was because she knows the most other than Harry, or because he's known her longest, although I'm inclined to favor a combination of the two. And I adored the evidence how much she trusts him, because that mission was the absolute opposite of something to spill to someone that you think could fly off the handle at any moment.
And Malcolm! Not just irritated, but actually angry that there's someone out there with tech that he hasn't cracked. So frustrated, and having such a bad day. And waiting until the absolute last and critical moment to confess that he really has no idea if his crack is going to work. Yeah, I missed Colin, but this was fantastic Malcolm, so I'm good.
Anyway, I can't believe there are only two episodes left. I love these short seasons, because there's no moment wasted, but damn it, I keep wanting to cry, "Not fair!" They are going to have a Series 5, right?