Series 8, Episode 8 (Spooks)
Hermione Norris made her final appearance as Ros Myers; the producers intended to leave her fate open in order for the audience to debate whether or not she survived the hotel explosion at the end of the episode.
It was viewed by under six million viewers after its original broadcast, and received overwhelmingly positive reviews, particularly due to the reveal of Nightingale's plot and the cliffhanger, questioning whether or not Ros survived the hotel explosion.
The finale continues the story-arc involving a multinational shadow organisation bent on changing the geopolitical map.
Knowing it is a Nightingale plot – Pakistani General Azim Ali is a member – Section D learn they have a week to stop a nuclear war between India and Pakistan.
Ruth meets a Chinese contact, Heng (Roger Yuan), who tells her that both countries will fail the negotiations and that war is inevitable.
To prevent Pakistani President Mudasser (Nicholas Khan) and Home Secretary Andrew Lawrence (Tobias Menzies) from escaping, he paralyses both of them.
Lucas is able to carry Mudasser safely out of the hotel, where he recovers and orders the release of the Indian submarine, preventing the war.
[6] The producers left the episode end with a cliffhanger to have the audience debate whether or not Ros and Lawrence survived the hotel explosion.
The general plot of India and Pakistan on the verge of nuclear war is based on actual reports of conflict between the two nations.
The intent was to include and develop a potential relationship between Ros and Lawrence to the point where they bond during their final scenes before the hotel explosion.
They also wanted to touch up on the Harry/Ruth relationship, which was not in the original script; so Ben Richards added the scenes as additional dialogue.
In the fight scene between Ros and Sarah at Lindemann's office, Hermione Norris played herself, and a stunt double stood in for Genevieve O'Reilly, because her character was getting "thrown about a lot".
It won the time slot against BBC Two's Grumpy Guide to Christmas, ITV1's Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, and Channel 4's The Family.
[11] David Chater of The Times was positive towards the episode, stating "just in case you think you're having an exhausting time in the run-up to Christmas, spare a thought for Lucas North [who found out] his lover is a liar, a murderer and a traitor", and also noted that "the great thing about Spooks is that they will always stop and explain how serious things are".
In regards to the cliffhanger, Frost commented that Spooks has "passed its peak but not sunk so low as to be embarrassing, it still goes out on something of a high, and it's remembered as a decent example of its type".
