Series 8
The eighth series of Spooks originally aired on BBC One from the 4th November 2009 to 23rd December 2009. It comprised 8 episodes.
Episode 1
Air date: 4th November 2009
Synopsis: Harry, who has been kidnapped by Viktor Sarkisiian and the (ex-)FSB agents who worked under him, is sold to a group of Indian intelligence officers disguised as a terror group, the Sacred Army of Righteous Vengeance. The terror group murders Sarkisiian and his men, then release fake footage of Harry's execution. Section D uncovers the deception and resolves to find Harry. Group leader Amish Mani, a former Indian intelligence officer, is keeping Harry alive in order to get him to divulge the location of a uranium shipment Harry stopped before the CIA and MI-6 planted it in Iraq to justify the war. The group also targets Ruth Evershed, who is now living in Cyprus with her partner George and his Son, Nico; she is the only other person besides Harry to know the location of the uranium. After returning to London, she and her family are kidnapped from an MI-5 safehouse by conspirators. It transpires that since Ruth’s exile Harry has moved the uranium so she doesn’t have the knowledge the conspirators want. When Harry refuses to divulge the new location, Mani has George killed and then threatens Nico in order to get her to talk. Lucas and Ros track an MI-6 agent, Stephen Hillier, and the retiring CIA liaison officer, Libby McCall, who were part of the uranium planting scheme. Hillier is assassinated by McCall before Hillier can tell Ros the location of Harry but Lucas persuades Sarah Caulfield, McCall's successor at the London CIA station, to plant a tracker on McCall. The MI-5 team tracks McCall to the warehouse at which Mani is holding Harry and Ruth. Lucas kills Mani and Malcolm succeeds in saving Ruth's stepson. Harry returns to the Grid where Malcolm announces that it’s time for him to retire.
Episode 2
Air date: 11th November 2008
Synopsis: When a gas processing plant explodes, the UK allies itself with Tazbekstan to buy their gas at reasonable prices. Sarah Caulfield, the CIA liaison officer, tells Lucas that the U.S. and Russian governments are opposed to the deal. However, with gas supplies dwindling, Rustam Urazov, the Tazbek minister in charge of negotiation, is stalling. Urazov orders the assassination of Matthew Plowden, a British journalist who is critical of Tazbek human rights violations and MI-5 arrives too late save him. He also orders a hit on Bibi Saparova, a Tazbek human rights activist whose sister was raped, tortured, and murdered by him. Malcolm's replacement, Tariq Masood develops sophisticated eavesdropping equipment hidden in a book of matches Lucas carries to the strip club at which the Tazbeks congregate to discuss plans. Tariq figures out Urazov is planning to strike against his own country in order to become Prime Minister. Jo recruits Saparova to kill Urazov. Although she succeeds, the Russians have recorded the actions and use the photographs to disrupt the negotiations. The Russians, however, are willing to sell the UK the gas at the same price in exchange for intelligence to be used against Tazbekstan. A romance between Lucas and Sarah Caulfield shows signs of developing. Meanwhile, Jo tries to get Ruth to talk to Harry; she thinks this will help Harry to manage the pressures that are affecting him. She does, and Harry offers her her old job back. In the end, Blake, the Home Secretary, informs Harry of a top secret meeting that took place in Basel, Switzerland regarding a new world order, codenamed "Nightingale".
Episode 3
Air date: 18th November 2008
Synopsis: Harry gets the Home Secretary to make Ruth's legal troubles go away, and has her rejoin MI-5 where she thrust in in the deep end. Whilst Ros is undercover at a secret meeting of the Bendorf Group; a gathering of industrial billionaires, armed terrorists storm the mansion. They take the hostages to an underground bunker and put the businessmen on "trial" for their abuses of power, and stream the trials over the Internet. They also release classified CIA documents showing embarrassing agreements between the businessmen and the U.S. government. Internet viewers who observe the first trial, vote on the businessman's guilt. He is convicted and the leader of the terrorists executes him, shooting him in the head. The Home Secretary is pressured by other countries to end the siege or they will bomb the site of the siege to avoid additional damaging revelations. Harry does not want a siege because everyone held hostage will die, including Ros. The Home Secretary overrules Harry. Tracing Internet connections and documents, Tariq and Ruth link the terrorists to a corrupt lawyer who is using the siege to further his own business interests. Ros manages to reactivate the lift that the terrorists had previously disabled and Harry orders Jo to attempt to stop the incident from going any further. She uses the lift to descend, unarmed, into the bunker, prepared to negotiate an end to the siege. The action gets out of control and Jo has to restrain the leader so he can’t detonate explosives. Ros, using a gun wrestled from one of the other conspirators, has a shot but because Jo is right behind the leader, she knows it will kill her as well. Jo nods at her to take the shot and the bullet passes through him, and into her, killing them both.
Episode 4
Air date: 25th November 2008
Synopsis: Lucas's interrogator/torturer, Darshavin, escapes from a British immigration centre and demands to speak with Lucas regarding an attack planned by Sudanese terrorists with the complicity of the FSB. They meet at a location in the Thames estuary, and Darshavin informs Lucas about the attack without giving away much detail. Darshavin demands a British passport under an assumed name and $1 million in unmarked bills in exchange for information on the exact location and the plotters. Harry displays doubts, believing Lucas developed Stockholm Syndrome from his capture. Samuel Walker, Sarah Caulfield's CIA boss, orders her to continue her affair with Lucas in order to continue to try to get information from him. Lucas goes off-track to get the target, meeting with Darshavin again, this time at Lucas's flat, but fails to get more information when Lucas's paramour Sarah interrupts. After Darshavin leaves, he hides in Sarah's car, and abducts her as she phones Walker to convey what she knows from Lucas. Tariq and Ruth discover the location of the bombs from an asset who fled his home base out of fear but left a clue on the Web. Ros tracks one of the terrorists to an apartment but the terrorist is killed by his own men, who then escape. Lucas negotiates with Darshavin and extracts the trigger code from him - for Darshavin wants the money and the new identity more than anything else – before relaying the information to Ros who disarms the explosives on site. In the end, Darshavin tells Lucas that there was recently a secret meeting in Basel attended by rogue Western intelligence agents and agents from China. Sarah reveals herself to be part of "Nightingale", by throwing Walker over a railing to his death 100s of feet below.
Episode 5:
Air date: 2nd December 2009
Synopsis: Walker's death is suspected of being a suicide. Harry, however, is sceptical because of two factors: Walker had set up a meeting with Harry hours before the "suicide" and Michael Braydon, a second CIA officer, unexpectedly dies. Eventually, it is revealed Ros's mentor, Jack Colville is responsible for the death of the second officer and is suspected of killing Walker. In the guise of giving Ros a memoir to read, Colville plants a bug in the manuscript's binder, and becomes able to access MI-5 records. With the help of the bug, he identifies his next target, former MI-6 agent Roger Maynard. Caulfield exploits the presence of Colville to cover up her own acts of treason and murder. After Ros and Lucas fail to save Colville's next target, they realise that two of the targets, Braydon and Maynard, are connected to a Balkans operation that led to the death of Colville's girlfriend. Tariq creates a mirror of the MI-5 database, allowing Ros to fool Colville into thinking she sanctioned the girlfriend's death. After a showdown between the two, he kills himself realising it is the system, not the officers, at fault. In the end, Lucas discovers that Sarah murdered Walker.
Episode 6
Air date: 9th December 2009
Synopsis: In a safe house, MI-5 officers are questioning Ryan Baisley about Dewitts Bank, a corrupt financial institution whose depositors include corrupt government officials and other corrupt individuals (including money for the Basel conspirators). Baisley is outside the safe house grabbing a smoke when a team of assassins invades the house, killing the MI-5 officers there. Baisley, however, escapes thinking he can make a deal with the bank. Unknown to him, the assassins, who were hired by the bank, have already murdered his wife and young son. Ros is in pursuit of Baisley to bring him back to Thames House. The Home Secretary, Nicholas Blake, informs Harry that the government is running out of money and must seize accounts at Dewitts in order to make an interest payment, otherwise the economy is danger of collapsing. Lucas plants a bug in bank’s secure computer; which will give Tariq access to considerable information about the accounts in the bank. With Ruth and Harry questioning her mental state after the loss of Jo, Ros pursues Baisley brings him in. After discovering the fate of his family, he reluctantly gives up the corrupt accounts. Meanwhile, Lucas confronts Sarah about her involvement in Basel. Sarah disarms Lucas, makes him kneel, and holds a gun to his head. Instead of killing him, she escapes before explaining anything. After money is transferred to the Treasury and the economy out of danger, Blake is forced to resign after being set up. At the end of the episode. Tariq discovers that the money involved in Basel and deposited in Dewitts has disappeared to Pakistan.
Episode 7
Air date: 16th December 2009
Synopsis: After a Pakistani intelligence officer is murdered, Harry and Ros learn from the chief of Pakistani intelligence (ISI) in the UK about a radical Hindu group preparing to attack Muslims in London. The ISI transfer their asset,, a 17-year-old ethnically Indian Muslim with a Hindu name, to MI-5. He has befriended members of the group at football training and Lucas appoints the lad for help. Harry and Ros pay a visit to the newly appointed Home Secretary Andrew Lawrance to inform him of the cell’s existence, but Harry doesn’t trust him. The cell's leader, Harish Dhillon, has a sister who is comatose as the result of a Muslim-initiated attack and he’s planning a revenge assault on a Mosque. He’s being influenced by someone else though who is also running an asset in a Muslim group and the intention is to pit the two groups against each other, creating chaos. After a hostage situation in an all-girls school, Lucas manages to stop the plan. In the end, Section D learns that Nightingale is planning to provoke India and Pakistan into war.
Episode 8
Air date: 23rd December 2009
Synopsis: Pakistan seizes an Indian submarine, raising tensions in the region so Home Secretary Andrew Lawrence arranges for a meeting in London between President Mudasser of Pakistan and the president of India. Because of the risk of a nuclear exchange, the British prime Minister and the American secretary of state will keep a watchful eye on the situation from Chequers and intervene if necessary. Section D has a week to stop the potential nuclear war and is also investigating Nightingale's link to the turn of events. Eventually Sarah Caulfield is captured and reveals that Nightingale are pushing the two countries into conflict in order to ‘alter the landscape so seeds can grow’. The war would eliminate Al Qaeda and the Taliban from Pakistan and India would still exist but in a greatly weakened state. They plant a bomb in the hotel where the Pakistani president and Home Secretary are having a meeting and make it look like a Indian terror plot. When Ros and Lucas find Mudasser and Lawrence, they discover that Nightingale have paralysed them. Lucas evacuates the President, who later recovers and orders the release of the submarine. However, Ros fails to evacuate Lawrence in time, and the hotel blows up with them both still inside.
Episode 1
Air date: 4th November 2009
Synopsis: Harry, who has been kidnapped by Viktor Sarkisiian and the (ex-)FSB agents who worked under him, is sold to a group of Indian intelligence officers disguised as a terror group, the Sacred Army of Righteous Vengeance. The terror group murders Sarkisiian and his men, then release fake footage of Harry's execution. Section D uncovers the deception and resolves to find Harry. Group leader Amish Mani, a former Indian intelligence officer, is keeping Harry alive in order to get him to divulge the location of a uranium shipment Harry stopped before the CIA and MI-6 planted it in Iraq to justify the war. The group also targets Ruth Evershed, who is now living in Cyprus with her partner George and his Son, Nico; she is the only other person besides Harry to know the location of the uranium. After returning to London, she and her family are kidnapped from an MI-5 safehouse by conspirators. It transpires that since Ruth’s exile Harry has moved the uranium so she doesn’t have the knowledge the conspirators want. When Harry refuses to divulge the new location, Mani has George killed and then threatens Nico in order to get her to talk. Lucas and Ros track an MI-6 agent, Stephen Hillier, and the retiring CIA liaison officer, Libby McCall, who were part of the uranium planting scheme. Hillier is assassinated by McCall before Hillier can tell Ros the location of Harry but Lucas persuades Sarah Caulfield, McCall's successor at the London CIA station, to plant a tracker on McCall. The MI-5 team tracks McCall to the warehouse at which Mani is holding Harry and Ruth. Lucas kills Mani and Malcolm succeeds in saving Ruth's stepson. Harry returns to the Grid where Malcolm announces that it’s time for him to retire.
Episode 2
Air date: 11th November 2008
Synopsis: When a gas processing plant explodes, the UK allies itself with Tazbekstan to buy their gas at reasonable prices. Sarah Caulfield, the CIA liaison officer, tells Lucas that the U.S. and Russian governments are opposed to the deal. However, with gas supplies dwindling, Rustam Urazov, the Tazbek minister in charge of negotiation, is stalling. Urazov orders the assassination of Matthew Plowden, a British journalist who is critical of Tazbek human rights violations and MI-5 arrives too late save him. He also orders a hit on Bibi Saparova, a Tazbek human rights activist whose sister was raped, tortured, and murdered by him. Malcolm's replacement, Tariq Masood develops sophisticated eavesdropping equipment hidden in a book of matches Lucas carries to the strip club at which the Tazbeks congregate to discuss plans. Tariq figures out Urazov is planning to strike against his own country in order to become Prime Minister. Jo recruits Saparova to kill Urazov. Although she succeeds, the Russians have recorded the actions and use the photographs to disrupt the negotiations. The Russians, however, are willing to sell the UK the gas at the same price in exchange for intelligence to be used against Tazbekstan. A romance between Lucas and Sarah Caulfield shows signs of developing. Meanwhile, Jo tries to get Ruth to talk to Harry; she thinks this will help Harry to manage the pressures that are affecting him. She does, and Harry offers her her old job back. In the end, Blake, the Home Secretary, informs Harry of a top secret meeting that took place in Basel, Switzerland regarding a new world order, codenamed "Nightingale".
Episode 3
Air date: 18th November 2008
Synopsis: Harry gets the Home Secretary to make Ruth's legal troubles go away, and has her rejoin MI-5 where she thrust in in the deep end. Whilst Ros is undercover at a secret meeting of the Bendorf Group; a gathering of industrial billionaires, armed terrorists storm the mansion. They take the hostages to an underground bunker and put the businessmen on "trial" for their abuses of power, and stream the trials over the Internet. They also release classified CIA documents showing embarrassing agreements between the businessmen and the U.S. government. Internet viewers who observe the first trial, vote on the businessman's guilt. He is convicted and the leader of the terrorists executes him, shooting him in the head. The Home Secretary is pressured by other countries to end the siege or they will bomb the site of the siege to avoid additional damaging revelations. Harry does not want a siege because everyone held hostage will die, including Ros. The Home Secretary overrules Harry. Tracing Internet connections and documents, Tariq and Ruth link the terrorists to a corrupt lawyer who is using the siege to further his own business interests. Ros manages to reactivate the lift that the terrorists had previously disabled and Harry orders Jo to attempt to stop the incident from going any further. She uses the lift to descend, unarmed, into the bunker, prepared to negotiate an end to the siege. The action gets out of control and Jo has to restrain the leader so he can’t detonate explosives. Ros, using a gun wrestled from one of the other conspirators, has a shot but because Jo is right behind the leader, she knows it will kill her as well. Jo nods at her to take the shot and the bullet passes through him, and into her, killing them both.
Episode 4
Air date: 25th November 2008
Synopsis: Lucas's interrogator/torturer, Darshavin, escapes from a British immigration centre and demands to speak with Lucas regarding an attack planned by Sudanese terrorists with the complicity of the FSB. They meet at a location in the Thames estuary, and Darshavin informs Lucas about the attack without giving away much detail. Darshavin demands a British passport under an assumed name and $1 million in unmarked bills in exchange for information on the exact location and the plotters. Harry displays doubts, believing Lucas developed Stockholm Syndrome from his capture. Samuel Walker, Sarah Caulfield's CIA boss, orders her to continue her affair with Lucas in order to continue to try to get information from him. Lucas goes off-track to get the target, meeting with Darshavin again, this time at Lucas's flat, but fails to get more information when Lucas's paramour Sarah interrupts. After Darshavin leaves, he hides in Sarah's car, and abducts her as she phones Walker to convey what she knows from Lucas. Tariq and Ruth discover the location of the bombs from an asset who fled his home base out of fear but left a clue on the Web. Ros tracks one of the terrorists to an apartment but the terrorist is killed by his own men, who then escape. Lucas negotiates with Darshavin and extracts the trigger code from him - for Darshavin wants the money and the new identity more than anything else – before relaying the information to Ros who disarms the explosives on site. In the end, Darshavin tells Lucas that there was recently a secret meeting in Basel attended by rogue Western intelligence agents and agents from China. Sarah reveals herself to be part of "Nightingale", by throwing Walker over a railing to his death 100s of feet below.
Episode 5:
Air date: 2nd December 2009
Synopsis: Walker's death is suspected of being a suicide. Harry, however, is sceptical because of two factors: Walker had set up a meeting with Harry hours before the "suicide" and Michael Braydon, a second CIA officer, unexpectedly dies. Eventually, it is revealed Ros's mentor, Jack Colville is responsible for the death of the second officer and is suspected of killing Walker. In the guise of giving Ros a memoir to read, Colville plants a bug in the manuscript's binder, and becomes able to access MI-5 records. With the help of the bug, he identifies his next target, former MI-6 agent Roger Maynard. Caulfield exploits the presence of Colville to cover up her own acts of treason and murder. After Ros and Lucas fail to save Colville's next target, they realise that two of the targets, Braydon and Maynard, are connected to a Balkans operation that led to the death of Colville's girlfriend. Tariq creates a mirror of the MI-5 database, allowing Ros to fool Colville into thinking she sanctioned the girlfriend's death. After a showdown between the two, he kills himself realising it is the system, not the officers, at fault. In the end, Lucas discovers that Sarah murdered Walker.
Episode 6
Air date: 9th December 2009
Synopsis: In a safe house, MI-5 officers are questioning Ryan Baisley about Dewitts Bank, a corrupt financial institution whose depositors include corrupt government officials and other corrupt individuals (including money for the Basel conspirators). Baisley is outside the safe house grabbing a smoke when a team of assassins invades the house, killing the MI-5 officers there. Baisley, however, escapes thinking he can make a deal with the bank. Unknown to him, the assassins, who were hired by the bank, have already murdered his wife and young son. Ros is in pursuit of Baisley to bring him back to Thames House. The Home Secretary, Nicholas Blake, informs Harry that the government is running out of money and must seize accounts at Dewitts in order to make an interest payment, otherwise the economy is danger of collapsing. Lucas plants a bug in bank’s secure computer; which will give Tariq access to considerable information about the accounts in the bank. With Ruth and Harry questioning her mental state after the loss of Jo, Ros pursues Baisley brings him in. After discovering the fate of his family, he reluctantly gives up the corrupt accounts. Meanwhile, Lucas confronts Sarah about her involvement in Basel. Sarah disarms Lucas, makes him kneel, and holds a gun to his head. Instead of killing him, she escapes before explaining anything. After money is transferred to the Treasury and the economy out of danger, Blake is forced to resign after being set up. At the end of the episode. Tariq discovers that the money involved in Basel and deposited in Dewitts has disappeared to Pakistan.
Episode 7
Air date: 16th December 2009
Synopsis: After a Pakistani intelligence officer is murdered, Harry and Ros learn from the chief of Pakistani intelligence (ISI) in the UK about a radical Hindu group preparing to attack Muslims in London. The ISI transfer their asset,, a 17-year-old ethnically Indian Muslim with a Hindu name, to MI-5. He has befriended members of the group at football training and Lucas appoints the lad for help. Harry and Ros pay a visit to the newly appointed Home Secretary Andrew Lawrance to inform him of the cell’s existence, but Harry doesn’t trust him. The cell's leader, Harish Dhillon, has a sister who is comatose as the result of a Muslim-initiated attack and he’s planning a revenge assault on a Mosque. He’s being influenced by someone else though who is also running an asset in a Muslim group and the intention is to pit the two groups against each other, creating chaos. After a hostage situation in an all-girls school, Lucas manages to stop the plan. In the end, Section D learns that Nightingale is planning to provoke India and Pakistan into war.
Episode 8
Air date: 23rd December 2009
Synopsis: Pakistan seizes an Indian submarine, raising tensions in the region so Home Secretary Andrew Lawrence arranges for a meeting in London between President Mudasser of Pakistan and the president of India. Because of the risk of a nuclear exchange, the British prime Minister and the American secretary of state will keep a watchful eye on the situation from Chequers and intervene if necessary. Section D has a week to stop the potential nuclear war and is also investigating Nightingale's link to the turn of events. Eventually Sarah Caulfield is captured and reveals that Nightingale are pushing the two countries into conflict in order to ‘alter the landscape so seeds can grow’. The war would eliminate Al Qaeda and the Taliban from Pakistan and India would still exist but in a greatly weakened state. They plant a bomb in the hotel where the Pakistani president and Home Secretary are having a meeting and make it look like a Indian terror plot. When Ros and Lucas find Mudasser and Lawrence, they discover that Nightingale have paralysed them. Lucas evacuates the President, who later recovers and orders the release of the submarine. However, Ros fails to evacuate Lawrence in time, and the hotel blows up with them both still inside.