What did you think of The Honourable Woman?

[LauraPashley]

I can't decide! MG for me veered between really good and really annoying. Loved her clothes tho. Is she in a relationship with the nanny?

Frances is in on something - when Nessa returned home after the rape, Frances was supposed to be in Tel Aviv, anyone remember why? Nessa said she had been run over and Frances said "deliberately?" in a really pointed way. Why would someone instantly go to that?

Also, Hugh said it would be really interesting who they put in front of the camera to talk about corruption at the university - and it was Frances. Plus that whole "why didn't you listen to me?" speech about appoint the new contractor.

I'm intrigued by the safe room.
it seems very sterile 'starship enterprise' like.
is it because of her high profile? (but I guess just an alam/guard would do) or because of her anxiety?

Ah - I have had a revelation. Sorry - someone else may have spotted this already - no time to check whole thread. Ephra's sobbing about Nessa being captive etc and his begging MI5 to save her - it's not Nessa he is talking about - it is Atika. This makes sense because we know that burned face dad was going to let Nessa go anyway. However, they did not agree to let Atika go. We think that Atika got to go because Nessa begged them but I reckon it was Ephra agreeing to something that got her released. Plus she might be their sister. And whoever kidnapped Kassim - Nessa and/or Atika are in on that and have been talking to him through that fancy watch thingy.

Ah yes and I think Ephra says to MI5 when he is trying to get them to help - "it's my sister" but again, it's Atika, not Nessa. I don't think he cares about Nessa.

I would be surprised if he thought that Atika was his sister, bearing in mind that they had been shagging. -she could however be the third child of judith stein unbeknownst to ephra and nessa - Genetic Sexual attraction anyone....?

Looking on the BBC website you can see:

The date on the Judith's grave is Nessa's 3rd birthday.

Frances and Ephra are not in the cast list for the last episode.

Tom Crace is in the next episode.

So, do Frances and Ephra die, and who the hell is Tome Crace working for (probably wicked Monica)?

Squidgy Also lots of theorising about Atika. That she knew about the kidnap as she told kasim to "be brave" in episode one (I have now deleted and cannot rewatch as i have no iplayer here in france) i think it would be very interesting to rewatch.

My aunt pointed out that Atika chose for some reason not to go to the theatre with Ephra and the children that night, and that there was a shot of her sitting at home, watching the clock - implying she knew full well about the kidnapping. I also need to rewatch!

You can get plug ins for browsers that hide your IP address so that you can watch iplayer when abroad

im getting SO SO BORED by it all

I think the tension in the writing directing just doesn't quite work, does it? I haven't had a sense of a big reveal, or any ah ha moments, more story lines that sort of fizzle out into the unexplained / obvious.

Inspired by Walking's info from the BBC website, I see from Radio Times that Kasim appears in the cast list for this week's episode. Meaningful?

Re watching episode 1. Schlomo calls her "Nessa, my daughter"

ta rootypig might just do that!!

I am spoiling it for myself by reading about cast lists etc now and apologies for posting a spoiler myself up thread.
Is great to come and analyse what's happened so far buti am enjoying all the twists in the story as it unfolds....

This is just my own theory, but perhaps the secret is more to do with Nessa's parents, as she seems so desperate to save the company...

Quite a brave program for the bbc to put out at the moment, given how unstable the political situation is.

Bloody broadband, only just able to watch.

The terrorist with the burnt face is kassims father, yes.? Still think he is Atika's brother - maybe getting Nessa pregnant was part of the masterplan, Atika didnt go for him until afterwards, and he looked at the photo of his family and took a few uppers/ downers beforehand- steeling the old nerves.

In episode one it looked like Monica had been boffing Ephra some years before - no wonder he looks knackered all the time. I like the theory of the third child - presumably Shlomo knows who that is. Maybe the third child is Monica!

I'm loving this programme. It's great to see the BBC making intelligent, British drama. I want a lot more of this sort of thing!

I still winner if Ephra's wife has a part in it all...

I can't watch it . I find the main character so bloody irritating. Her stupid doe eyed expressions and flat condescending voice. I just find her acting cringeworthy. DH likes it though and says 'she's only acting' idiot . But it is more than just not liking the character I really find her unwatchable.

Whereas, for me, I find it really appealing. Different strokes for different folks I guess!

Downloaded it and am re-watching am obssessed
So far episodes one and 2.

Atika definitely appears to be running the show. I would say she organised Kassim's kidnapping. I think she and Nessa planned it together - hence her crying in the restaurant with atika. (for reason yet to be revealed) and that it went wrong and Kassim was kidnapped again by some else again.

He was supposed to be put in the van at the loading bay of the royal college of music, then the 1st kidnapper ran off with him through the park chased by Nessa (as this was not part of the plan.)
Kassim was then picked up by men on a motorbike by
2nd set of kidnappers who shot Bloom. This is now why Nessa is distraught, Kassim really has been kidnapped.

I think the 1st set of kidnappers gang is Atika, Burned face man & dialysis man (if still alive.)

2nd set is based around Monica. (I initially thought she had had an affair with Ephra, but their secret is the wiretapping at the Stein university in the west bank.)

Monica also shot Samir Michal's Mistress - Rebecca / Tracy FBI agent in the taxi. Well the american taxi driver shot rebecca then Monica finished him off. When she walked away, I think her swinging ponytail gave it away.

I think Atika shagged Ephra for the first time in many years, on the kitchen table, to make sure he didn't tell the police about the kidnapping. I think this is the secret, that Nessa is behind the kidnapping.

It comes in episode 3, which I haven't re-watched, but I think it was the Nessa / Atika gang who killed the van driver in the hospital with the syringe. Bloom was on the trail by finding van driver's wife and brother in law - who bought the new car and burned face man was called in from the west bank to "clean up" and he killed Bloom in the stone factory and the wife and brother-in-law so that trail was cold.

Other bits I am not sure of is I am wondering if Frances (Nessa's Irish advisor is some kind of plant, perhaps from Monica.)

Also I wonder (as mentioned way up thread) that Nessa has some kind of Stockholm syndrome and is pro-palestinian, hence wanting a palestinian to win the contract.

I think Jalal al amin does not have Kassim, I think he knows Nessa is behind it and perhaps that he is her son. (Two hearts?)

That's all for now, must watch episode 3.

Ah Squidgy I hope the BBC will be providing therapy for all the Honourable obsessives.

My thought had been that Nessa "acted" the chasing after the kidnapper because she knew she was being observed (by Bloom?) But then the person who shot Bloom would have had to possess the same level of accuracy as Watson's soon to be wife in Sherlock. So I'm not sure I'm right.

Certainly don't think they'd have given two women a swinging ponytail. Would imagine that style was chosen because it would be recognisable to the viewer in the dark. So yes to that.

I'm still puzzled by Nessa's visit to the blackmailed nurse. Was that just for "show"?

I want Frances to be entirely neutral - someone has to be.

Thankfully this week seems to be travelling a little faster!

Squidgy I am in awe. I think you may very well have most of it.

Still lots of characters I am curious about, especially angelica hoyle; (who is she meeitng at the restaurant?) Also schlomo, although I think he is being set up to save nessa in some sort of fashion.

On rewatching, so many of the women are like mini lady macbeths. There is not an honorable one amongst them, it is the men who keep trying to do the right thing and get screwed over....

is hugo blick secretly mysoginistic?

The wiretap is obviously important but the original message is crossed out so it is not "she has agreed" but "she. has. agreed." Probably answers to 3 different questions.

Intriguing! I have wondered why this gets written in different ways and crossed out.

I also wonder: what if 'She' is not Nessa but Atika? I don't know why, or what she agreed to, but I am SURE that Atika is heavily involved in things.

Re: rape. I think it was there just to highlight Nessa's self-destructive mindset and behaviour as a consequence of the kidnap and rape in Gaza, and the pressures on her since then –and maybe the deep trauma of her father's death. The latter has obviously scarred Ephra badly, so why would it not scar Nessa too?

I also think there's an element of her seeking out situations in which she's not in charge because in her professional life she very much IS in charge; kind of like the phenomenon of powerful people being into playing the submissive role in S&M.

So I think it being there WAS acceptable, and believable, as a further rounding out/exploration of her character.

I think Atika and Burnt Face Man are both being run by Dialysis Man, but they don't know about each other being run. I don't know what he's using them for, though.

Is Hugh a bit dim? He asked why go to all this trouble for 'a housekeeper's child'. Why has it not occurred to him yet that the child is Nessa's? Does he not wonder why she's so upset about the kidnapping?

I was also surprised that Nessa didn't realise until this week's episode that it was Jamir el-Amin (sp?) –new Palestinian contract guy anyway – whose people were holding Kassim. I thought last week, when he came to see her and said very significantly 'We are in a very good position to bid for the contract,' that she twigged then; but this week she still seemed in the dark, hadn't yet decided to award him the contract and was still telling him off for his comments about Israel and reminding him that anyone they considered had to be neutral.

Obviously the original kidnappers already knew that Kassim was Nessa's. So either 'they know' something else; or the original kidnappers are not the same group as the Kassim kidnappers.
This is very interesting. I was feeling a bit let down by the idea that being Kassim's mother was Nessa's big and only secret. If this is the case then yes, she still has another.

I agree Rachel is selfish but I don't think she's dangerous, or has any great bearing on the plot.

Hadn't noticed that Judith Stein died when Nessa was three. I had thought there was something suspicious about her 'dying in childbirth', and that it was a bit handy that Nessa and Ephra were orphans.

I currently think Frances is neutral but am willing to be proved wrong. I still can't decide whether Bloom was a stooge or was in on something (with Monica?)

V long. Sorry!