Episode 9

The team is suspended from the Grid in the aftermath of the Ros Myers affair, which is the worst possible time for a former IRA operative to come calling. The man has old ties to Connie James, and he is targeting Section D for extermination. Eight years of history sit between her and him, and the episode uses that history carefully, letting old loyalties do the work a new villain never could.

Harry learns from an old adversary that a bomb has been planted in London, and the team is in an impossible spot. The team realises that responding will put their own lives in danger, and that holding back will put the public in exactly the same position. There is no version of the night that ends well. But they are officially off the case at the exact moment the country needs them most, and nobody is going to thank them for saving it.

The episode milks that bind for everything it is worth, and it has the sense to let the tension build slowly rather than rushing to the bang. The discovery of who is really behind the latest threat lands like a slap, and the identity re-frames everything the team thought it knew. The bomb itself is almost beside the point. The question is who is holding the detonator. There is a cold satisfaction in watching a suspended unit run a case with nothing but muscle memory and nerve.

Neil Cross and David Wolstencroft wrote it, Alrick Riley directed. Peter Firth's Harry Pearce is at the centre, with Rupert Penry-Jones's Adam Carter, Gemma Jones's Connie James, Miranda Raison's Jo Portman, Hugh Simon's Malcolm Wynn-Jones and Alex Lanipekun's Ben Kaplan. Simon Abkarian's Dariush Bakhshi, John Lynch's Davie King, Sam Spruell's Jason Belling and Robert Glenister's Home Secretary complete the cast.

The suspension gimmick could have been window dressing, but the writers use it properly. The team has to break every rule it normally relies on, and the hour is stronger for making them improvise without a safety net. It is also a reminder that the Grid is a building, not a skill.