Spoiler warning: This blogpost contains references to episode three of The Game on BBC2 in the UK. Please do not post spoilers if you have watched further in the series on BBC America.
To read the recap for season one, episode two of The Game, click here.
It felt like The Game stepped up a gear with this third episode, muddying the waters with MI6’s possible double agent, and moving its focus to the team as a whole, all of whom seem to be somewhat embroiled in personal dramas. Bobby tried to force the issue on Daddy’s dancer, Chen Mei, using Wendy to gather surveillance, only to find that the ballerina herself had sealed her fate by daring to be married. Daddy, it is clear, is not a man to be scorned.
Neither of course is Mother, busy bullying Bobby about his homosexuality; demanding he marry for the sake of her standing as much as his. Though her fears will perhaps be dampened somewhat by Wendy’s decision to stay put in the attic. Perhaps Bobby might move the piles of picture frames and ugly ceramic lamps so it’s less like camping in a cupboard. Or maybe not, given Wendy’s rather smart way of dealing with Daddy and Mei: “I destroyed the evidence.” Bravo.
Operation Glass
Last week, Operation Glass looked like it was a pre-emptive nuclear strike on British soil, this week, it was seemingly revealed as an “accident” involving an American nuclear warhead being stored – unbeknown to the British public – on a UK military base. Joe, however, is beginning to think that the Soviets are trying to throw the Fray off-track by feeding them information that appears to point to a single plan, and allowing them to think they have foiled it, when the operation is something bigger. Question is: who is distributing that information, and what is the actual operation?
Here’s what we (think) we know at this point:
- Arkady didn’t give Kate an activation code: his message, “Detained by bears”, was understood by Kate to be from her (former) friend Kazimir, and meant he had a hangover and couldn’t meet her.
- Kate had been sleeping with the US defence attache for several months. It was explained by C thus: “Today’s friends could be tomorrow’s enemies. You know that.”
- A quotation from Anna Karenina, found behind a painting in Kazimir’s hall, led MI6 to a copy of the novel in Kate’s flat. Slipped inside was seemingly detailed intelligence about the US planes and warheads on British soil.
- A closer inspection, however, revealed this intelligence to be only partial – 40% of it was fabricated
- The team’s conclusion: the Soviets have sacrificed incomplete intelligence to convince MI5 that it was real, in order to distract them from whatever Operation Glass is really about.
The game is on
Kate’s Russian friend is now dead, stabbed; his final words acknowledging that he played a part in her death, but denying that he was her KGB handler. He largely seemed furious that she was MI6 at all.
That rage could of course have meant that it was Kazimir who planted the intelligence material in Kate’s copy of Anna Karenina – the quotation and a key were found behind a picture in his hall, after all – even if Kate did suggest he was too drunk to operate on that level. Or it could have been Odin, of course, who put Kazimir up to it in the first place.
But I still find myself drawn back to inside MI5, and in particular Sarah. She was quite determined about the note behind the painting, made the link to Anna Karenina – or prompted Alan to, at any rate – and called Joe at Sarah’s flat to ask him to look for a copy of it. (Kate snarkily noting: “You do know you’re meant to be a clandestine service?”) It’s arguable whether Sarah also had the opportunity to plant the intelligence in the book – we’d seen her in Kate’s flat, but only with Alan – but presumably she could have returned alone to do so.
When it comes to Alan, I feel on pretty safe ground in not suspecting him at all. Though that may be Toby Whithouse’s great double-bluff, of course: laying the groundwork for Sarah’s betrayal of both her country and her husband (her pill, helpfully still fully labelled, tumbling out of her bag this week suggesting she isn’t being straight with him; Alan wondering aloud how Kate and Joe jump into bed with people as part of their jobs, only for it to be Alan who is the mole). Let’s wait and see. Sarah could, after all, just be rather keener on staying at work than being a mum.
Joe Lambe
This week’s flashbacks took us to his bedroom, with Yulia, where he told her his real name and declared that their relationship “has nothing to do with what I do”. Presumably it was to save her that he offered to turn double-agent.
Overlooking the fact that Joe’s weak spot appears to be saving damsels in distress, which I could frankly do without, I would like to see more of him and Kate together. “You trust me with a bottle? Brave.” Those scenes were fantastic: her spiky, with the upper hand. Him leaving those long silences. “I’m sure it would be good. You are very pretty and we are both professionals. But then what happens? I’m so dazzled by you I tell you everything? Forget my training?”
Thoughts and observations
- I half expected Joe to start reciting the Brownie Guide law when he turned up with his salute.
- After several weeks of wondering who it is that Daddy looks like, I realised: it’s the Wombles’ Great Uncle Bulgaria.
- “For all we know it’s me: too much squatting.” Lovely, misguided Alan.
- As if The Game didn’t have enough overtones of The Hour already, up popped the excellent Anton Lesser as C to remind us of it further. (He played Clarence.) BBC2 fans may also recognise him as Thomas More from Wolf Hall. His voice has a very distinctive quality.
- I enjoyed his description of MI5 agents as “Hoover salesmen”.
- It doesn’t appear that Daddy is much looking forward to retirement, much as Bobby might want him to. “Tennis, garden parties, afternoons that stretch on for years.”
Style watch
- Kate’s flat was, as Joe observed, really great. Particularly the bookcases.
- I also loved all those original 1930s features in Kazimir’s house. Doors, picture rails, fireplaces – even the hanging airer. And given that he won’t be needing it any more …
- Those admiring the Fray’s dramatic interiors will be disappointed. They were filmed in Birmingham Central Library but the brutalist building by John Madin is to be demolished. Jeremy Deller is among those questioning that decision, according to this report from the Birmingham Mail.
Next time on The Game
“Hi Joe, it’s nice to see you again!” – I must say I don’t remember Odin’s accent being quite so comic.
Also: yet more debate over whether to trust Arkady. Will every episode start with this conversation?
