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?

How frustrating - I forgotten the details of the conversation between Jalal El-Amin and Nessa. Did he actually talk about Kasim or simply the secret?

All Jalal El Amin said was "We are in a very good position to bid for the contract"

Have now finished re-watching episode 3; it is now all becoming very clear with the benefit of information in subsequent episodes....

roll on episode 7 tomorrow night

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"....so that your secret will remain safe" Was that it? So not necessarily primarily about Kasim?

I think we were supposed to read it to be that Jalal El Amin has Kasim, but I think the truth is, he just knows that Nessa organised to have Kasim kidnapped. (Although that trail is cold now as everyone all the way to the stone / sausage factory in rye has been bumped off. Nessa basically spent the whole of episode 3 trying to call off Nathaniel Bloom from following the trail and in the end I think she called Burned Face man to finish him off. Hence her crying down the satellite phone that her secret was not safe; she had no other choice.)

I think the bigger picture is that basically Ephra is pro Israel (allowing Stein to fund release of the soldier, carry out wire tapping) and Nessa who is so scrupulous about being "neutral" is actually helping the palestinians.

A little ironic as she help up her hands in some speech and said I something "Ephra is this hand and I am the other". I now think the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing chez Stein.

Also I think she is still (in her head) living in capitivity: sleeping in her cell / panic room and having sex in that position in which she was raped .

A little aside was that her clothes are always laid out for her and she always wears them - a metaphor i think for she "does as she is told", even down to how she dresses.

WHAT is this Atika up to?

I don't know, but am finding this episode unbearably tense......

Is Atika going to kill Ephra to stop the sealing of the deal?

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit
THATS why it's so tense!

Fuck......

Ok.
I feel like it's all starting to come together now..

..I think I have a handle on what's going on

If Nessa handed over the company (or part of) to the people who she thinks have Kassim could the plan be to install him as head of the company now?

She's not really dead I bet. How long before next week's credits roll will we be told?

Oh my god.
That was good.

As soon as Ephra said something about 'nobody is dead' I knew he was gonna get it.

I want to watch it all again.

Nessa is definitely alive. Was that Kassim at the end?

Yeah, no body, no dead!

There was a shot of a white Stein hard hat with a hole in it, but I'm fairly sure when she was running she didn't have a hat on.

Yep, no hat when running and she was on the outside of the blast.

Loved, loved this episode, ridiculous as it was at times.

Would Nessa really have returned to the West Bank with nnt a single bodyguard or form of protection - and stood on a raised platform in a public square to signify a very controversial Palestinian/Israseli agreement?

Definitely think she's not dead though. I reckon there'll be a happy-ish ending - Shlomo will get the deal, Nessa will get Kasim and will be able to reclaim him now the secret's out. Monica will get her comeuppance as Janet McTeer alwasy wins and Stephen Rea will not win back lovely Lindsay as Smiley-type spymasters are always unsuccessful in love. There you go.

Atika was in on the kidnap - you might agree to a 'kidnap' if it was by your brother (I reckon she's Al Zahid's sister). It sounded like Nessa wasn't raped to order though ie, there wasn't a masterplan to create a Stein/Palestinian child - or, at least, Atika didn't know about it. It sounded a little far-fetched anyway - how do they know she would get pregnant?

Poor Rachel, no wonder's she so miserable all the time.

I'm just glad there won't be any more nauseating kissing scenes between Atika and Ephra.

Well that was a whirlwind of an episode.
First off, really glad Nessa got her revenge on Crace.
Lovely Hugh; Nessa has so many father figures who care about her.
Poor old Ephra, an idealist to the end....
Well Atika, I am so mixed about her (Protecting Rachel; telling the police that the Steins children needing picking up from School,) as well as setting up Ephra
So Angelica Hoyle was just making sure that Hugh knew it was definitely over.
Poor Old Frances, also just another support character....

Well I have definitely been over thinking this all; there was only ever one Kidnapper - Monica.

So Why is she going this? Is it just following orders from Washington?
Is She the secret third child of Judith Stein bumping off her siblings to get the company? or was Judith Stein's date of death just a typo?

This is going to be a loooooong week!

It was pretty fabulous.

Everyone was right about Atika! (So at least when she told Nessa a couple of weeks ago that she had no choice about "choosing" Ephra she was telling the truth.) I guess she has not much future to look forward to. Unless something unexpected happens. And I don't see how Rachel can be safe....

Poor Ephra. It seems that every single person he's met in his entire life has played him.

Given how messy things can get in the Stein world they do seem to wear an awful lot of white.

I'm still hoping Angelica will have some concrete, useful thing to bring to the end of series party. It's nice that Hugh has her as a muse - but it's a bit demeaning.

And I really don't want this to end like Line of Duty with the big baddie getting to the end with their smug smile intact. There surley can't be a Series Two?

Maybe Atika told Ephra & more importantly Rachel (who was intended to stay alive) about Kassim being Nessa's to make sure he was looked after, if anything happened to her.

Well i was completely wrong about Nessa being involved in Kassim's kidnapping. I guess she was speaking to Utrecht Man on the satellite phone.

I hope Hugh manages to catch Monica.

Is Schlomo going to rescue Nessa next week? (She will definitely have survived the blast.)