Short recap piece based on 10.1 because I'm having trouble sleeping.
With any luck, I'll think of stuff to add to this along the way.
All the usual disclaimers apply.
SERIES 10 SPOILERS
Donnerstag
The Russian Minister for International Development is the focus of an assassination plot. His wife was an MI6 asset in the eighties. Harry Pearce's asset, to be precise.
Ruth knows these things. Having been tasked by Erin to find out everything she can about Elena Gavrik, she briefly speaks to James Coaver. He is an occasional contact when it comes to deeply cryptic information about Al Qaeda – a little while ago, she may even have mentioned a lack of mobile phone usage near a large villa in Pakistan.
Harry met Elena when she lived in East Berlin. He manufactured encounters when she visited Geneva, or Vienna, or Milan ... or whichever European city had the best opera available at the time. Often there were overnight train trips involved. "Chance" encounters in dining cars. Bumping into each other outside the door of her sleeper compartment.
They were obviously sleeping together. For several years. Whilst Harry was still married to Jane. Given prior knowledge of at least two Pearce affairs, the news doesn't come as much of a surprise. What does make Ruth's eyes widen a fraction is the fact that Elena gave birth to a son precisely nine months and seven days after the harshly criticised world premier of Donnerstag at the Teatro alla Scalla.
The opera is a lengthy exploration of the Archangel Michael. It premiered without its entire third act because of a dispute with the La Scala chorus over pay. Harry and Elena probably found themselves with an extra half hour to spare.
There are several questions on Ruth's mind. Does he know? Is he planning to tell her? Should she break the news that it has only taken her three hours to yank yet another sizeable skeleton out of his closet?
Does she care?
That's one to ponder.
The situation makes her think of parenthood. Harry has three children and he hasn't had a proper relationship with any of them. She managed a brief stint as a quasi-stepmother, which ended abruptly and disastrously. Clearly, their career does not lend itself to fidelity, reliability or support. But that doesn't mean the spirit isn't willing. Harry must have thought about his little Russian boy, utterly out of reach behind a curtain made of iron. She doesn't have Nico, and he didn't have Sasha.
Yes, she cares.
When he tells her, he doesn't prevaricate, or bluster, or try to shut her out. He doesn't hide the tears, or blame them on the weather.
For the first time since she came back from the dead, Ruth feels one hundred percent alive.