1.4 "Traitor's Gate"
There are protests and riots at the news that US President George W Bush is to visit the UK, and during one such it turns out that one of the rioters is Peter Salter, an MI5 operative, something of a legend in his field. In fact, it turns out it was he who recruited Tom into the service. Zoe and Danny, observing the protest, advise the riot police to let him and the woman he is with go, but they are surprised and annoyed that they weren't briefed about another agent being involved in the operation.
When Ellie sees his gunshot wound Tom is forced to reveal who he really is. It's a lot to take in, but she tells him that he has to tell Masie, otherwise she will leave him. Harry tells Zoe and Danny that they did not --- categorically not --- see Peter Salter at the protest. When Tom challenges this Harry admits that he is running Salter in order to catch a worldwide anarchist called Istan Vogel. They meet with Jools Siviter, of MI6, and Harry is aghast to hear that the MI6 man is listening in on Salter's lodgings, without the Section D Chief's permission or even knowledge. Siviter defends this by saying that they were in fact bugging an anarchist's flat, mikes were all setup and Salter just wandered in: now they're listening in on him too.
As they now listen they hear Salter has told the girl, whose name is Andrea Chambers that he is an MI5 agent, but that he wants to change sides. He asks her to set up a meeting with Vogel, telling her he has a "dead ground map", a schematic of every major government installation and communication or military site. This should be something the anarchist cannot afford to pass up.Salter however notices the bug and destroys it, sending Andrea to a safehouse. Tom goes to meet Salter, telling him that he knows he's actually in love with Andrea, not just keeping his cover up. Tom is convinced that he is still on message though, and he gives Salter the go-ahead to continue with the operation. Then something Salter says changes his mind and he tells him he's shutting down the operation. He does however allow Salter to meet with Andrea and warn her to get out before the shutters come down.
Harry is not impressed when he hears what has happened, but he trusts Tom's judgement. Salter is of course under surveillance but he manages to throw Danny and Zoe off by phoning in a fake nuisance call to the police, who delay the two enough for him to make his escape with Andrea. As Tom feared, he's "gone native", and it wasn't an act at all. They're picked up by Vogel's operative, who brings them to a remote part of Wales and there they meet Vogel himself. Salter though is disappointed when he realises the paucity of the anarchists' ambition: he had expected they would assassinate Bush, whereas all they're going to do is block the main approach road so his cavalcade can't use it. Symbolic, not realistic; show not substance. And he has already handed over the dead ground map. He suggests something a bit more ... radical.
Harry tells Tessa he needs to use one of her sources, who is entrenched with a British anarchist movement, and sends Zoe to meet the guy, but it turns out Tessa is making up contacts and paying them, but pocketing the money. She pays Zoe to keep her secret. Salter has convinced the anarchists to take more direct action. They are going to compromise the flight approach for Air Force One so that it goes off course and crashes. He can use the dead ground map to identify blind spots in the CCTV of one of the universities, where Salter can then use the computers on campus, which have files on geological topography he can use to reset the terrain. They are discovered however and as the alarm is raised Salter tells the anarchists --- Andrea among them --- to get out and he will finish the job. He uses the university's powerful mainframes to alter the terrain on the approach, making it seem lower than it is. Bush's plane will crash right into it, believing the way ahead to be clear. It's something similar to what the terrorists did in "Die Hard 2", ten years earlier.
Just as he finishes inputting the data armed police storm the building and Salter is arrested. Tom and the others pretend they don't realise he has switched sides, and take his testimony as if they believe he is relating his part in the mission as he was supposed to be carrying it out. He wrongfoots them of course, saying he was taken to East Anglia instead of Wales, but Tom sees through it and Salter, tired and worn out from the concussion bomb blast gives in. During interrogation Tom gives him the option to come back to them, take a desk job, but Salter hangs himself. His plan however falls apart, unbeknownst to him, when the ATC computer develops a fault, air traffic control is offline and the president has to switch to landing at a different airport, making everything he did completely pointless, worthless and in the end futile.
Note: I must admit to being a little confused by the ending of this one. The whole "take Bush's plane down" plot is only discovered with about three minutes of the show remaining. Danny somehow susses it and mentions the lyric to "River deep mountain high", though I don't know where he heard this: he's shown having his "lightbulb moment" when one of the trainees says "Come on Danny, fly with me", so that's a little offbase. Then he thinks he's sussed that a virus has been placed in the computer system to knock ATC offline. It hasn't: Salter was clearly shown as using the software to intentionally lower what the system saw as the relative heights of the surrounding terrain, which made sense.
Now, when the computer DOES shut down, I thought, oh well that means that when it comes back up it'll have rebooted and installed the new information, so maybe that was meant. But then the episode ends, as we hear that due to ATC going down Air Force One has had to be redirected. So, what caused the system to crash? Are we meant to believe it was one of those "quantum butterfly" instances, where something just happened? Is it meant to be fate, God laughing at the plans of men? Or did the fact that details --- important, critical, crucial details --- were altered trigger some failsafe in the ATC system that made it reboot in a sort of double-checking of the facts? We're not told, and to be fair I found it a very sloppy and unsatisfactory, and rushed, ending to what had been up till then a pretty fine episode.
In fact, (although I'd seen it before it's been a while) I thought that it was even possible, given the minimal time left on the episode, that it might carry over into a two-parter. Which might have been better, given the resolution we got. Very disappointing really. Not at all typical of the fine writing we have come to expect from this series.
And isn't that...?
Spooks right from season one was attracting some big names. Jenny Agutter and Peter Firth were already well established actors, but the guest list over the years would see some interesting and sometimes unexpected names step up.
Hugh Laurie as Jools Siviter --- known for his roles in Black Adder and Fry and Laurie, and most famously and recently in House.
Anthony Stewart Head as Peter Salter --- mostly known for his portrayal of Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Harry's World
How he deals with Danny hacking in to upgrade his credit rating, as we saw last episode, is rather human, as he explains: "I wanted you to work this out, Danny, to get it through your system, this thing you have with money --- particularly money you don't have. We all have our little quirks, and ingenious theft like breaking in to computers to set your own credit rating is not a huge sin. It's an impulse which creatively channeled could be used to brilliant effect. Sadly, in your case, it has not. Yet. But I am going to protect you. Now because of Mr. Salter in the next few days we'll all be in the spotlight, and the Menders will be sent in to vet us to the very backs of our eyeballs. So you are now owning up, aren't you? Then give me the cards, you bloody idiot! Punishment: office staff training, for as long as it takes. Punishment reforms: the kind I dish out does."
The Mind of a Terrorist
Salter: "You've got to understand: I am the thing the security service fears the most. A spy who goes through Traitor's Gate willingly, and embraces everything he's been trained to destroy. I want to be with you, I want to be one of you. I've learned from you there is a world elsewhere."
On meeting Vogel, having previously asked the question "Bush, are we gonna pop him or what?" he is told: "We're going to occupy the mall, so Bush can't drive up it to the state banquet with the Queen." He tells them "Special Forces will mash you to bits", but they reply "We're not afraid of a fight. We found out where the gas main crosses the Mall. We just need to hold out long enough to dig down, set it alight. The disruption will be bigger than Stockholm."
It's clear Salter was expecting something much more radical, more defiant, and now that he knows this is all the "great anarchist" is capable of, he more or less disowns him and his band. Although Vogel probably doesn't really belong here in this section, as he's not technically a terrorist, it speaks more to the mindset of Salter, and there's of course a very thin line between patriotism and terrorism.
Salter, when asked why he betrayed all he held dear, not to mention his country: "Boredom. Crippling, chest-tearing, bum-clenching boredom. It's what this country has become: buy, sell, image. Credit card Nirvana. When the Soviet Union was cracked, we thought yeah, we got something. My father died for it: democracy. Now there's nothing. It's all gone. It's dead. No-one believes in anything any more. Then there was Andrea. This posh girl, turning herself inside out for what she believes. Passion for a new life; nearly broke her, but she's in good faith. I always thought that about you, Tom: you're in good faith."
Rivalries
Jools Siviter makes the distinction between MI5 and MI6 clear: "Are we going to have to come over the river and potty-train all your people? MI6 runs operations abroad, MI5 at home. English Channel, Calais, foreign bods and jolly south we take care. White cliffs of Dover, all British, Irish and assortments north, your concern."
He has little regard for Tom, as evidenced by his retort when the MI5 man says something: "Oh Tom, you spoke! So good to see you working on your skills!"
Harry however shows that MI5 are not without their resources. As Tom asks "Who's the girl?" referring to Andrea, and Jools sighs "Oh please! Can we all be up to speed?" Harry reels off the following information:
"Andrea Chambers, 25, no college, sushi bar co-owner, mother's money. Bar failed. "It" girl around town, weekend on a Yorkshire commune, never looked back since."
Siviter admits some grudging admiration for MI5, both for Salter when he asks wonderingly "How do these bastards in the field do it?" and for Harry, when, learning of the plan with the dead ground map, he remarks "Bloody imaginative for you, Harry!" Though he has to add a little cutting comment "I hope you've thought it through..." It's clear though that he wishes this had been his plan.
Jools wants to interrogate Salter, but Harry asserts his judisdiction: "Jools, until you and your cronies give me the push, this is my department. Tom will be the quizmaster."
Big Brother is watching!
As Tom, Harry and Jools (sorry he's not called Dick, but there you go) discuss the mission out in the street, a shabbily-dressed man passes and exchanges greetings with them. Only a few seconds later do we see him look back with a serious expression on his face. He is obviously more than he appears to be.
Jools takes them to a shop, where he tells the owner time to close up, and they go in the back. It leads to an observation station setup in the back room.