Fugitive

DVD, BUGS S3 (Fugitive)

Ros on the run, as I like to call it, was a turning point for Season 3, a return to the top-tier thrillers the series had achieved at its best. I was surprised to find it wasn't written by Stephen Gallagher, but some guy called Clive Hopkins whom I'd never even heard of! Well, Clive, you excelled yourself here, because this has gone down as one of the best episodes of the series, up there with 'Out of The Hive' and the Cyberax trilogy. It's got so much going for it, but beyond that I'll always remember it for being the cause of a sleepless night - on original broadcast in August 1997 I spent that night in a tent out in the back garden, but could not sleep at all and had a terrible time because of the excitement generated by this tense, paranoiac thriller. So it stood out even more than other favourites if for nothing else but that fact alone! It also shows the writer knew the series very well from the way so many references to past stories and plots were organically threaded in: at last we have mention of all three of the 'BUGS' world's top organisations in one episode! The Bureau is of course the remnant of The Bureau of Weapons Technology, SSD return, this time as the villains, and even The Hive is spoken about (Beckett's career there is mentioned to Ros once in every season of the series - there's a fact for you!). Wonderful sense of continuity they were achieving by this time.

The only slight disappointment is that no previous characters from any of these organisations show up - Roland was in a 'permanent' coma, but it would have been terrific if Mr. Dent had returned (he would eventually), or Wence. But I can understand why they didn't bring back the Commander of SSD, as that portly, bumbling thorn in their sides was too friendly and familiar. Even so, they could have at least mentioned him… I wonder if Jon Cartwright had ever been considered? Probably not, as he seemed pretty much a straight arrow, other than the 'above the law' attitude his organisation had, but then that appears to be the point of it. One question I had was what SSD is actually called and here it's named in dialogue as the 'Special Services Department' for the first time, though we had seen those words on a logo at their HQ in 'Newton's Run.' I suppose after the events of that episode Wence was either sacked or 'reassigned' somewhere far away, like the Isle of Wight perhaps… SSD without the pudgy face of Wence as its representative, is hard-edged and mean. It was an excellent choice to play with the established continuity of the series and turn those mild threats (Beckett suggests Wence could bury him in concrete if he wanted to, and no one would be any the wiser), into something substantial and, more to the point, personal.

It works on both sides of the coin, too. While Ros is the perfect person to be put through such an ordeal (Ed or Beckett would have been fine with it physically, but Beckett would have just lost his temper and got beaten up, and Ed would have tried to crack funnies until they got fed up with him), able to deal with the rigours of being on the run, but also having the technical flair to keep the SSD agents guessing, we also have an affianced couple going after her, adding an entirely different spin on proceedings. Reinhold and Davis give the story a somehow nastier edge, not because they are crooks themselves, but because they could be so manipulated, which is another reason why it all works so well, the ending giving us that twist of one of the 'villains' turning to the side of good and realising the truth, which is always compelling to me. The pair seem quite sinister with the banal way they talk about their coming honeymoon before behaving awfully to one of our favourite people. But eventually it becomes clear they are doing exactly what their job demands, which is scarier in a way - we allow the Bureau some latitude for its extralegal activities because we trust them as heroes and friends, but from their perspective SSD are only doing the same thing, it's just that we don't know them. They seem to try the usual tactics of good cop, bad cop on Ros, but I think it was really just their personalities, and they genuinely believed Ros to be guilty.

Gage is the real master manipulator, a cool customer who knows where he stands and how to control any situation. And what he doesn't control, he kills, as in the case of Reinhold, murdering him without an instant's hesitation. The fact he's black suggests we would automatically trust him since this was made in the days when multiculturalism was the zeitgeist, so it's unexpected they'd put someone like that in the position of being chief villain of the piece. He's one of the few felons our team deal with, who survived, but sadly this is, I believe, the last time SSD came into the series (unless there may be some brief, offhand remark about them in Season 4 perhaps), other than in the final episode of this season, certainly the last episode to be based around them, which is a shame, though it did mean we got to see more of The Hive instead. In the very well directed and performed interrogation scene, we hear all kinds of little facts that hadn't been confirmed before, but were things easy to wonder about. One is the mention of SACROS - we get confirmation that this led to Beckett losing his job. How great to go back to the very first episode and fill in something that was only really implied before! Of course, they may be working with information from The Hive itself, so Beckett could have quit but it went in his record as a sacking. Then there's Roland Blatty, former head of the Bureau, who they say is dead, and Ros didn't disagree, though perhaps she thought that he all but was - brain-dead, if still breathing. And lastly, and most tantalisingly, was the news that Jean-Daniel's body was never found…

This was the big revelation of the episode and has gone down in the lore as a major reveal, at least to those of us that care about the details. It's what set up the whole belief that it was JD in the Season 4 finale, even though there's only slim evidence for it. Sadly, we'd never know as I don't think any of the writers ever commented on what was planned, and the only one that did address the kidnapping scene was Stephen Gallagher who had no knowledge as he'd not worked on the final season. From the blast in 'A Cage For Satan' you'd have thought he and Cassandra would have been vaporised, except for a specific shot that shows them lying on the floor, smoking, but intact. And now, to suggest the body hadn't been found was either a huge tease on the part of the writing, or just one of those facts they threw in to suit the fabric of half-truths they were weaving around Ros. I love that kind of thing in long-running dramas where they pick out instances of things that were never fully explained, or can be twisted to fit a paranoid narrative (it was also expertly achieved in the 'DS9' episode 'Inquisition' when Section 31 were introduced, back when they actually made sense!). Ros really is put under it and if there were occasional concerns from me that she was quite withdrawn in Season 2, this acts to dispel any thought of that from our minds as we see a flow of pent-up emotion rushing out of the beleaguered Ros.

Something else that should have been put to bed with this episode was any teasing of Ros' driving style, another aspect of continuity that is redeemed in superb fashion by a writer that knows the series and loves it, you would have to say! It starts in the very first scene where Ros is speeding Beckett's Cherokee Jeep around on the way to villain Eric Hammer's location and Ed and Beckett are joking about it, while Alex is feeling carsick. In itself it's a lovely moment because it reminds us of the days when it was just the three of them, but it also further brings the new girl into the mix. I wondered if the team pool their cars because obviously Ros is driving Beckett's car here, but later on we see her drive Ed's Toyota (when she's the one with all the money - maybe she bought it for him?). But the moment that is really the business is when Ros, on the run from a furious Davis, comes upon a mini with the engine running while some bloke is out of it bird-watching, presumably. It's got a pleasant Englishness about it all in an episode that is very stark and you could almost say, conventional drama with all the psychological pressure and people in trench coats stalking one of our people: we see a flask and sandwiches on top of the mini, which flies off as Ros speeds away! But it's the slalom defence system that really shows her mettle as she proves just how good a driver she is, capped off a little later when Ed says it's a shame this defence system isn't one you can drive through. I don't know how much more stylishly they could redeem all the driving jokes at Ros' expense than they did here, and it'll be interesting to see if they keep making comments after this - probably even more, just so she doesn't get bigheaded, that's the kind of thing these friends would do!

And that's what it's all about: the friendship of the team. Rather than being solely focused on Ros' plight we see the others doing everything they can and even Channing gets involved, showing how much he cares (to the extent that he plays the good host to Beckett when he asks for biscuits, another very English moment!). Again, the writer clearly knows these characters very well, working in all kinds of references and character expertise - like Ed helping Ros abseil off the roof of Channing's beautiful great house, or when they first get on the roof and Ros says unless he's got a helicopter standing by they're trapped. At least this time Ed was on the roof of a stately home with a woman it went a lot better than the last occasion (fighting Kitty McHaig one-handed)! They also throw in mention of the stolen Dervish fighter plane from 'Whirling Dervish' as one of those questions hanging over Ros' career, although there was one flaw when Gage explains he'll frame her for murder and Ros claims no one would believe that. What, no one would believe she killed some villain trying to kill her? Yeah, 'cos that never happens, does it? Only every other week! I know what they meant, though, she wouldn't be party to murder, her kills only come by accident, although there are probably quite a few villains they could have referenced in the interrogation which she's offed, though JD would probably be the only one the general audience would have remembered. They did mention her 'phone freaking' in 1980 and removing points off her driver's licence in 1984 which is a deep cut as at least the first of those charges was in her Hive record in the first episode!

Arms dumps seem to have become a running theme in the series, we'd already had the one closed by The Bureau of Weapons in the Fifties in 'Blaze of Glory' at the start of the season, and the one in 'Newton's Run' near the end of Season 2, so we're getting the idea there are tons of these weapon caches of missiles and all kinds of dangerous ordinance all over the place! The disc Hammer drops so clumsily and that causes all the suspicion in the first place was a master key to various of these sites, but there is some serious illogic to SSD's operation when they accuse Ros of getting this disc which has evidence on it which will convict her, and yet she was the one to rescue it from the blast at Hammer's place! But that doesn't have to be a mistake, it could be a clue that Gage is trying to frame Ros by what he told his operatives. They already used deep fake tech to make it look like Ros met Hammer for an exchange, which I imagine is much more feasible nowadays, especially with the low resolution of the CCTV footage. The story is tightly written and I couldn't find any real holes, other than wondering why SSD didn't pursue Ros and Ed from Channing's place when they could have just jumped in their cars and followed - instead they just stand around looking disappointed, but perhaps all cars outside had been bugged. No, that wouldn't work, only Channing's was, so that is about the only flaw. Although seeing Ros cleverly store the disc in a case of her CD collection (streaming wouldn't have been very useful in this situation, that's for sure!), I wondered what she did with the CD she must have taken out!

The impact of the episode came just as much from the original broadcast as all the drama and excitement in the episode, because when we first saw it we didn't know if Ros would leave with Channing. Was this a way to write her out? I don't think I thought of things in those terms back then, it was just the 'front of house,' the story, that I understood, and I wouldn't have had knowledge of what went on behind the scenes on a TV show, how things were sometimes geared to get rid of a character (ironically, when they did lose Craig McLachlan, they chose not to write out Ed!), but it really did seem like she might be breaking up the team! After all she'd been put through in this episode you could believe she'd have reservations, although she appears to dispel them when Channing asks if she doesn't get tired of being chased and blown up all the time and she simply says, "It's ma job," in that typically understated Ros way. But it was a good way to add even more drama into the series and shows that they were going to pay off all the soapy stuff brought in for Season 3 - it couldn't just happen with no consequences, and I like that. She'd been suspicious of the curb on their freedom as freelancers and especially of Jan in the way she tricked Beckett into bringing his team aboard and she even states how 'this Whitehall infighting' of different intelligence agencies and ministers grappling for control was what made her wary in the first place so every part of the episode is paid off, or pays off something from earlier.

The clothing of the team is becoming harder to pin down, perhaps giving us a visual sense of their integration as the Bureau: at first Ros has this purple suit on with matching earrings, while Beckett wears a suit that is becoming ever more neutral and nondescript with a blue shirt and dark blue tie, charcoal waistcoat and jacket. Only Ed continues the bright colours with his green jogging top or fleece, and Alex is getting involved with her sky-blue jumper. But Ros is ripped right out of her classy clothes (just as her apartment is ripped apart), forced to wear stripy prison garb. Obviously she changes into a sportier outfit for all the action she had to perform later in the episode, and ends up at Channing's in a light green t-shirt, though it's a scene without all the other characters around so there isn't that happy end scene with them all back in primary colours to show that everything's alright now, which only seems to exacerbate the question of choice over her loyalty to the team or a future with Channing. You had to be there the first time to appreciate the magnitude of that. I feel like the man who played the archivist at BJL, played by Tenniel Evans, had some connection to the kind of ITC series' 'BUGS' was inspired by, so he may have been in 'The Avengers' (he certainly wasn't in 'The Champions'). And the explosion at Hammer's place was another of the series' biggest, though in reality it would be lots of smaller ones and doesn't quite have the same impact as the warehouse blast in 'Stealth,' but then nothing ever did! The success of this story would set the tone for the last few episodes of the season and help it be remembered on a par with the great Season 2.

*****