Episode 9

Britain is teetering on the edge of war with Iran, and into the middle of it walks an unofficial extradition. The CIA want a terrorism suspect flown to the United States with no paperwork and no fuss. Harry stops it. He does not think the man is a serious threat to British security, and he is not about to hand anyone over on the strength of an American nod.

The Americans are not used to being refused, and the episode spends its running time on the fallout. Philip Arditti's Louis Khurvin is the suspect at the centre of it, and around him the team discovers that stopping a transfer is only the beginning. The CIA do not take no for an answer. They take it as a challenge, and Ruth, Adam, Zaf and Jo are left holding the pieces while Harry carries the consequences.

What makes the hour uncomfortable is how grey it is. Nobody is cartoonishly wrong. The Americans have a case, however badly they made it. Harry has principles too, and they cost him. The episode is not about catching a villain. It is about two services pulling at the same rope, and the poor sod tied to the middle of it. Grey is the most honest colour the show has.

Rupert Walters and David Wolstencroft wrote it, Julian Simpson directed. Peter Firth's Harry leads, with Anna Chancellor's Juliet, Rupert Penry-Jones's Adam, Nicola Walker's Ruth, Raza Jaffrey's Zaf, Miranda Raison's Jo Portman, Hugh Simon's Malcolm Wynn-Jones, William Armstrong's Alex Roscoe and Peter Vollebregt's Nick Pollard in support.

But the memory that stays is Harry's, not the Americans'. He made the call, he owns it, and the show does not let him off the hook. Spooks rarely does, and it is one of the reasons this episode works as well as it does.