At least next week we can be sure of a new opening: Akady’s trustworthy-ness is no longer in question following his assassination at the hands of Odin. Which would be troublesome enough even without the location of the KGB agent’s murder: an MI5 safehouse that only a very select few knew he was headed for. As Bogdan’s muttered message to his ill-fated friend had already made clear, there is a Soviet mole at The Fray – and they are growing ever more bold.
We touched on some thoughts about that last week – already there were too many things that didn’t add up about the Soviet operation, both Glass and the real mission, which we are yet to even catch a glimpse of. But before we return to considering who might be in the frame, let’s take a moment to consider how we arrived at that point.
Operation Glass
Here’s what we think we know about the now defunct Operation Glass.
- Arkady’s defection was real – he was not sent in by the KGB to feed false information to MI5. Obviously, this is all a bit arguable. But I’d suggest that his killing as a traitor by Odin along with the message he passed to Joe about an MI5 mole, also points towards that being the truth.
- The secret postcards were from his secret wife and child in Rouen.
- Which leaves us … where? Pretty certain that Glass was a fake operation, presumably put in play to draw attention from something else.
- Pretty certain that for Glass to work, it would have needed some help from inside. (How else to know for instance that Bogdan had become involved? Or indeed where Arkady was headed.)
- But there’s one thing I have still to understand – which is how the KGB could have predicted Arkady’s defection. Surely the whole thing hinges on his decision to share the contents of his dead-drop with MI5? It would mean the KGB knew about his secret family and were presuming he was preparing to defect – just waiting to be handed some information juicy enough to make him valuable. Feels like a bit of a precarious premise for what seems a massive plan to me. Or am I missing something? Any thoughts?
Phoenix
Toby Whithouse has been hiding his storyline in plain sight since the first episode, when Sarah floated the idea that MI5 had a mole. It’s certainly bold, leading your 70s spy drama on the question of who, within Britiain’s own security service, is betraying the country to the KGB. I’m sure some will see it as homage to Le Carré. But I wonder really how well it comes off in comparison.
I think the idea was that we’d suspect Joe – but I must say, that’s never seemed entirely likely to me. His attempted defection appeared always about his heart, not his beliefs, and Yulia is now dead. I can’t understand his motivation for turning double agent in those circumstances. Unless the KGB are paying him directly in cigarettes. (I’m not sure any character has smoked more fags more furiously in a shorter space of time on British telly).
So, if not Joe – for me, at any rate, though I am fully prepared to be wrong – then who is Phoenix? Shall we rule out Jim? He seems to have faded into a really quite boring character, although that may of course be the double bluff. Which leaves us with Daddy, Sarah, Alan, Wendy or perhaps Bobby. (Of whom more below).
For all his avuncular nature, we’ve been seeing a somewhat steelier side to Daddy of late: throwing his ballerina to the wolves, not hesitating to use homophobia and prejudice to keep Bobby in his place when Waterhouse’s ambition became clear. It would indeed be a coup if the head of MI5 was in fact the KGB’s mole. But if your double-agent is the boss, why the need for an operation to distract him?
Bobby
I have grumbled rather about the way in which Bobby has been written to date, but I thought this episode rather effective in showing the real horror of being forced to stifle your sexuality for the sake of your job and social standing, while opponents try to capitalise on your perceived weakness. By 1972, homosexuality had been decriminalised for five years, but as the episode’s events made clear, homophobia was still rife. Of course, Bobby should not have tried to unseat Daddy over his Chinese dancer – but as his boss made quite clear, he would have no issue at all about using Waterhouse’s sexuality to finish his career. “Trouble is, once these things are out there, it’s not so easy to put them back into their box, is it?”
Interesting that it was Bobby’s furious mother, Hester – “Everything I’ve done for you, and you’re so weak you let them take it all away. Just like your father!” – who came to the rescue in the end. Really it is a pleasure to watch Judy Parfitt in full flow.
One thought on all of the above: Bobby would surely have been thoroughly vetted. I’d have thought that homosexuality would have been high up that list, given that even a whisper of it gives the KGB an extremely easy way to blackmail the British head of counter intelligence. In theory, that could make Bobby Phoenix. But he’s has also been the person most vocal in his doubts about Akady.
Thoughts and observations
- “Unmarried but sexually promiscuous.” “So not about to settle down and have babies then.” “I’d imagine she’s too busy bedding half of Unilever on the orders of the KGB.” Sarah, Alan and Bobby have a not-at-all-awkward conversation.
- You can still fly to Europe from Lydd Airport. Occasionally.
- “Apart from anything else, the Party doesn’t approve of abstract art.” Alan considers Robert Delauney’s Premier Disc.
- I’m growing a little tired of Joe finishing each episode by creeping round a darkened place waiting for somebody to get hit over the head or shot. Come on! There’s got to be a different way of finishing things, surely.
- Are we meant to presume that Odin doesn’t shoot Joe because he’s a Russian spy? Or simply because Odin’s job is only about bumping off “traitors”? I must say, apart from the gun, he doesn’t seem such a scary man that grown men would be terrified of murmuring his name.
- Poor Wendy, being paraded like a prize heifer. Though also, poor Bobby for being put into a position where he feels he must do so.
