Episode 6

The operation went wrong, and an undercover police officer is dead. Now Zoe Reynolds stands in the dock, charged with manslaughter. The episode leaves the field work behind and settles into the courtroom, where Zoe has to defend actions taken in the name of national security. The trial takes apart how she went about her work, and the courtroom does not flinch. Her whole career gets dragged into the light, and every decision she ever made in the service is up for judgement. Zoe's smile has always been part of the job; in the witness box, it has nowhere to go.

Harry manages the fallout from the office, because even a trial runs on logistics. Dominic Mafham's DS Loughton pushes the case with the patient focus of a man who believes in the charge. Kayvan Novak's Sevilin Ozal, Haluk Bilginer's Emre Celenk and James Laurenson's Lord Young give the legal world its faces, and Hannah Storey's Gillian Doyan rounds it out. In the corridors of Thames House, a new face appears: Rupert Penry-Jones as Adam Carter, working alongside the team while the trial unfolds. His calm reads as either strength or warning. Richard Harrington's Will North and David Oyelowo's Danny are there too, because the service closes ranks when one of its own is in trouble.

Keeley Hawes carries the hour, and she is very good at it. Zoe has always been the bright one, the one who made it look easy, and watching her sit still while her life is taken apart is quietly uncomfortable. Hawes does quiet devastation better than most, and she gets plenty of room to prove it. Ben Richards and David Wolstencroft wrote it; Justin Chadwick directed.

It's a quieter episode than Spooks usually serves, and the thriller engine mostly idles. It's a different kind of Spooks episode, and the change of gear works. But the question it asks is sharp: how close to the line can the service push its people, and who pays when the line moves?