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| Callan pushes Cross to escalate his harassment of a Russian embassy worker's family. |
Air Date: Mar. 22, 1972. Written by: Ray Jenkins. Directed by: Voytek. Produced by: Reginald Collin.
THE PLOT:
Callan receives a new assignment. The Section is to harass Medov (Mike Pratt), a minor figure at the Russian embassy, to force him to voluntarily withdraw from his current assignment. Bishop insists this is low-key retaliation for the Russians expelling a British cultural attaché, a standard case of tit-for-tat.
Callan assigns Cross, and both men anticipate an easy little job. Cross breaks the windows in Medov's car, makes anonymous calls to his wife and daughter accusing him of spying, and arranges for police to issue him traffic tickets. But none of this behavior results in the man complaining. With Callan pressuring him, Cross escalates his campaign, shooting a milk bottle while the man's wife is picking it up, which finally does draw Medov to action.
Meanwhile, Callan tries to uncover exactly why The Section has been given this assignment - a task complicated by the way in which every file he requests is mysteriously unavailable...
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CHARACTERS:
Callan: Keeps thinking like a field agent instead of an administrator. He tries to convince Bishop to give him more information by utilizing that background: "I was trained never to take anyone or anything on trust... You're told something, you test the opposite." Bishop is unimpressed, and rightly so. Both the third and fourth Hunters attempted at various times to explain to Callan that their job was to make sure orders were carried out, not to understand those orders. Callan eventually gets to the truth by acting as a field agent, the job he's good at. But he cannot grasp that this simply isn't his role anymore.
Cross: When Callan gives him this nasty little assignment, he refers to it as "a Callan job," a dig at his new supervisor's previously vocal distaste for this exact type of work. He throws himself into it with a little too much glee, grinning like a boy playing an evil game when he shoots the milk bottle out of Medov's wife's hand. However, Cross isn't a Meres-like sadist. It's not much of a spoiler to say that an innocent is eventually hurt. This isn't entirely Cross's fault (not this time, at least). Still, we can see how stricken he is when the game he had been enjoying ends up having actual consequences.
Lonely: For the benefit of anyone who missed First Refusal, his first scene in this episode restates that he now drives a taxi for The Section. When Cross orders him to watch Medov's family, Lonely goes to Callan to clarify whether he's meant to be following Callan's orders or Cross's. He is not pleased when Callan tells him to obey Cross. Despite this, he actually does a pretty good job, particularly in an amusing scene in which he blocks the path of a car carrying Russian security men without in any way compromising his cover.
Medov: Multiple scenes raise the question about whether Medov really is just an innocent embassy worker or whether he's a spy. He doesn't behave as expected for a civilian. He completely ignores Cross's initial provocation. Even when the milk bottle is shot, he attempts to lie to his wife that it was destroyed by a child's BB pellet rather than by an adult's bullet. At one point, his wife directly asks if he's spying. Meanwhile, Callan scrutinizes files and assigns another agent to dig up information about the British cultural attaché supposedly expelled from Russia, all to try to understand why this man has been targeted. The ending answers all questions, while actor Mike Pratt does a good job of maintaining the question while remaining consistent with the final revelation.
Neville Dennis: Veteran character actor James Cossins plays the small but crucial role of the man who holds the answers behind The Section's current task. I won't discuss in depth the scene in which Callan questions him; to do so would amount to spoiling the episode. Cossins is outstanding, presenting a man who is weak both physically and morally, but who is also sharp enough to have put the pieces together. Edward Woodward is already on form, but he ups his game opposite Cossins, and the resulting scene is not only the best of the episode but also of the season thus far.
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THOUGHTS:
Writer Ray Jenkins' Series Two episodes (Let's Kill Everybody and Death of a Friend) were quite strong, well-plotted with outstanding characters scenes. However, his sole Series Three outing was Amos Green Must Live, almost certainly the worst installment of the entire series.
Happily, Rules of the Game represents a return to form. The core plot is a familiar one, as a likable enough family is targeted by The Section. Jenkins' script, however, sharpens this into something meaningful. While he gives sufficient time to the family to give a sense of them as people, he never forgets to keep the focus on Callan and Cross and their reactions to the current job: Callan, pushing against his orders to try to learn "why" - the one question he's not supposed to ask; Cross, enjoying it almost like a game until events finally make it all real to him.
The episode is a slow starter, but it gets better as it goes. I particularly liked the way Medov was presented: wary, watchful, and reluctant to act, his reactions making the viewer question whether he's an innocent man or a spy. The answers, when they come, are consistent both with the standalone plot and with the series' own cynical worldview. Finally, the ending is highly effective, with Callan's final line to Cross particularly well-delivered by Woodward.
Overall Rating: 7/10.
Previous Episode: First Refusal
Next Episode: If He Can, So Could I
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