Five: Northmoor
Northmoor isn't just the best episode of Edge of Darkness, it is one of the best episodes of any television drama evar, up there with the likes of Fall Out, Requiem for a Crown Prince, and even Powerplay. If you have never seen this episode then do yourself a favour and go and watch it before you read on, because this review is going to get in the ball game and spoil the ball.
As befits one of the most tense, exciting, and all-round riveting TV dramas of all time, it starts with Jedburgh having sleeps. He is at Ronnie's house along with Godbolt, and some time has clearly passed since the end of part four.
They are planning their route into Northmoor. Every previous episode has dedicated time towards establishing how dangerous this is, so the building up of the tension has started even before they set off.
As the three of them leave Ronnie's house, it cuts to a scene of Grogan warning Bennett that they are on their way, and he knows from his "contact in Washington" exactly who the three of them are. Bennett says
"They may get in, but they'll never get out."
as it cuts to show all his henchmannys in their jeeps, driving around Northmoor, already alert and on the lookout for intruders. Long scenes of Ronnie, Jedburgh and Godbolt wandering around the countryside are thus rendered incredibly tense by the knowledge of who and what they are up against.
The chief of the security henchmannys, Connors, is played by Brian "Travis" Croucher, so we know that things just got even more serious because they're bringing in the big guns now. He has been sent by
Connors, together with Bennett's other henchmanny Childs, is setting a trap for our heroes using the water from their reactor - presumably a similar, if not exactly the same, trap as they used on the Gaia team. Ronnie, Jedburgh and Godbolt get into the old mines, where Godbolt says ominously
"Right, this is where it begins."
(A line that would be pure trailer-bait if this were a film.)
Pendleton confronts Bennett at the House of Commons, where Bennett smugly hints to him that he knows about the raid already. He then goes before the committee where he brazenly admits to deliberately drowning the Gaia team, but claims that it was the only way to prevent them from stealing his plutonium.
Tension is maintained by frequently cutting back and forth between the committee and the scenes of our heroes making their way through the mines and caves, with the former, being dialogue heavy, contrasting strongly against the latter, being almost free of dialogue but containing plenty of ambient sound effects. What dialogue there is is strong, character-building stuff - Ronnie is thinking about Emma* (who went through all of this herself on the first raid), while Jedburgh and Godbolt are conflicting personalities who don't get on with one another.
They reach a point where Godbolt turns back, leaving Ronnie and Jedburgh to go on without him. Godbolt's final words to Ronnie are to warn him about Jedburgh:
"Craven - watch that big lad."
It is not long before Ronnie and Jedburgh walk into Connors's first trap, gas, but they came prepared with gas masks. Then they get hit by the water - enough to soak them, but not enough to drown them.
We see Connors wants to pour more water in there, but Childs argues with him that it is too dangerous because "it will expose the rods" (meaning it will expose them to radiation too). This buys Ronnie and Jedburgh enough time to get out of the water, and they find themselves outside a mysterious underground building.
They go inside and discover it is a secret nuclear bunker. Jedburgh describes it as "the doomsday equivalent of Harrods," so they stay to have noms and listen to some music - a relatively quiet section of the episode, but the tension isn't lost completely because we know this can only be a temporary respite.
Jedburgh admits to Ronnie that he is here to steal the plutonium for his "superiors" in the CIA. He also has a personal reason for doing so, in that he doesn't want Grogan to get his paws on it.
Jedburgh: "He's part of the dark forces that would rule this planet."Ronnie: "You believe in all that stuff?"Jedburgh: "Yeah, sure. Why not? Look at yourself - you think of yourself as an English provincial detective whose daughter died in tragic circumstances, yeah? Yet where she fell, a well sprang. Flowers grow. Now what kind of power is that?"
This is the first explicit acknowledgement in the story of the supernatural "forces" and "power" that is in play here, the full significance of which will only become clear to us in the next (and final) episode.
Ronnie insists that they carry on, and soon they find the bodies of the missing members of the Gaia team. This suggests they are close to what they are looking for, and the next thing they encounter confirms this - their geiger counter suddenly starts screaming at them, which makes for a truly stunning moment of drama.
They look into the next cave and see the "hot cell" within.
"There's been a hell of an accident here. Gaia - they must have blown the whole cell."
says Jedburgh. There are ded bodies lying around, and everything and everyone is radioactive.
"I want to go on."
says Ronnie, even though that will mean his certain death from radiation.
"You're crazy."
replies Jedburgh - but with a smile, because he too is going to go on, and with the same consequence for himself. Childs and Connors see them enter the hot cell from their security cameras, and Childs says they can only survive in there for "20 minutes."
The constantly sounding alarm inside the cell reminds me of the final scenes of Blake, and the atmosphere here is just as apocalyptic, with similar odds against our heroes. Jedburgh steals the plutonium, while Ronnie waits for Connors and his mannys to arrive, having realised they must be on their way. They are.
Connors demands Ronnie "give up before it's too late," but Ronnie didn't come all this way just to not shoot
Another moment that reminds me of Blake comes when Jedburgh pulls his gun on Ronnie, because Ronnie wants to know what he plans to do with the plutonium, but Jedburgh can't (or won't) tell him, and this is enough that they are no longer on the same side. Jedburgh forces Ronnie out of the lift to provide a distraction so that he can escape. By going into Northmoor with Ronnie I thought Jedburgh was the Mike Yates of this story, but he is so much cooler than that - he's the Avon.
They may no longer be partners, but that doesn't mean all traces of friendship are gone:
Jedburgh: "Craven, if we make it, I'll see you in Scotland."Ronnie: "Where?"Jedburgh: "You're the detective - find me."
Jedburgh smiles as the door closes between them, and that's the last we see of him in this episode. Purr.
Connors catches up with Ronnie, who pretends to give in, so it seems as though Connors has won, but then Ronnie runs away again. Lost, he finds his way to a room with lots of telephones in it. Childs tells Connors there is only one exit from that room, so they think Ronnie is trapped.
Ronnie tries all the telephones until he finds one that still rings, while Connors tries to gas him. We see a manny going to answer the telephone, but doing it really slowly for maximum dramatic effect. When she finally answers it (even answering the wrong telephone first as a fake-out), Ronnie shouts
"Get me Pendleton!"
And that is one of the greatest cliffhangers evar.
* Northmoor is such a strong episode that it is easy to forget that Emma doesn't appear at all in it, yet her presence can still be felt by the viewer because of the way his memory of her drives every action Ronnie takes.
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