Awesome / Babylon (2014)

Episode Four

• Tony calling Robbie out:
  Tony: I have to announce I'm gay so that you don't forget to pretend not to be a homophobe?
• After spending two days at home, having lost everything she's fought for, grieving, feeling guilty, being smeared by the media, and disregarded by almost everyone she works with, Liz takes matters into her own hands. She goes on Sky News to defend Richard, and to apologise for the PR department's response to the Jeffries shooting. She then uses the opportunity to solidify her position for a little longer, by claiming that Charles has asked her to handle all press on the current investigation. Finn - who's spent the bulk of the episode basking in Acquired Situational Narcissism - is completely blindsided.
  Finn: What the fuck?

Episode Five

• Of his own initiative, Charles visits Karl Jeffries' mother. The scene is tense: a row of police cars pull up in a predominantly black, lower class neighbourhood, which is visibly in mourning over Jeffries' death. There's even a hanging dummy of a policeman on one of the balconies. Residents start watching the police from the moment they disembark. In particular, there's a row of men standing by the entrance to Jeffries' building, seemingly hostile. Charles approaches, politely nods at them once - and they step aside. He's immediately buzzed in by Jeffries' mother, and goes upstairs without any incident.
• At the end of the episode, Finn suggests countering Sharon's power play by claiming that Charles was in contact with the search for the missing boy, even while speaking to Jeffries' mother - a meeting which wasn't publicized. After five episodes of otherwise principled people resorting to Finn's underhanded tactics, it's super-cathartic to see Charles cut him down, without reservation.
  Charles: I build some trust - not easy, but you wouldn't know that, because you weren't in there. I finally get this much. [makes tiny space between his fingers] And then what? We burn it, in the time it takes to make a fucking phone call? Jesus Christ, Finn.

Episode Six

• Liz and Finn's consecutive The Reason You Suck Speeches to each other.
  • Finn calls Liz out for her selfishness:
    Finn: I will not let you turn this police force into some big fucking loofah you use to massage your ego and then chuck away as you fuck off to Tibet to relaunch the Dalai Lama and take some options on Buddhism when it goes public, all right? Take a look around you: you're the best thing to happen to London since the plague.
  • And what retort finally gives Finn pause, after six episodes’ worth of rapid-fire back-and-forth bickering?
    Liz: I know you find it threatening that I believe in something.
• Inglis's Rousing Speech to the armed police who are on the verge of industrial action. It not only gets them out on the streets, it induces Liz to change sides. Exactly how genuine it is may be up for debate, but still...
  I'm here to, er, I'm here to listen to whatever packet of bollocks you've been asked to swallow. But, first, guys, I need to talk to you. And I need to say a few words that are probably going to make your skin crawl, because normally, they only get rolled out when you're being asked to take a pay cut, or do some overtime for the love of the Queen. But I am going to say "duty". I'm going to say "nobility". The nobility of service to your community and to this great world city.
  But listen, erm, this case — the bin, the whole nightclub operation, the way you've been treated — we'll examine it. There'll be some changes to the procedure in the investigative process and I'll try to make sure you get all the protection you can. Things'll get a bit better here, a bit worse there. A few more forms. But I'm not going to bullshit you, they won't change. Not really. Not much. They can't.
  Well, you get judged strictly, because that is how you know, in your heart, you need to be judged. Because when you go out there, the whole force of right-thinking society, of civilisation, is concentrated in the sinews in the muscles of your trigger finger. And I know it makes you sick, 'cause it makes me sick, that the great stupid mass of fat, lazy, paper-reading Professor Yaffles in their armchairs, reading the Guardian and wanking — That they get to to stroke their chins and chew for months, for years, the decisions that you make in a second.
  You know what we do about that? We take it. We just — we just take it. Because we know who we are. We know what they are. So fuck them.
  And when we're disregarded and beaten down and smeared and written off — that isn't when we sack off our duties, no. That's when we say, "I'm going to protect you, nevertheless, because I'm a knight. I'm a king." And it's when the city is at its most unruly and peevish and ungrateful, that we we say, "Shush now, I'm here, you're safe."
  And we still act like kings, when all around us are cowards and fakes, throwing their shit at us. But you're the best people I know. And you've got to let this bad feeling pass, or you'll always feel grubby and regret the day you left your city undefended.
  Thank you.