History Series / LondonSpy

** Alex was born a mathematical prodigy, and was [[spoiler:taken away from his real mother by an MI5 agent who wanted to make him into the perfect spy. She even hired his real mother to be her housekeeper, all the while raising Alex to be the friendless genius he became later in life]].

* NotGoodWithPeople: Alex, of the Type 1 variety.

* TheMacGuffin: Most of the shadowy spy characters are torturing Danny to get to the USB with Alex's work on it that Alex conveniently left in a place only Danny would look.

As Wiki/TheOtherWiki describes it: "Danny is gregarious, hedonistic, and romantic and falls in love with Alex, who is asocial, enigmatic, and brilliant. Just as they discover how perfect they are for each other, Alex disappears."

''London Spy'' was a 2016 [[Creator/TheBBC BBC]] mini-series, starring Creator/BenWhishaw. Set in modern day London, London Spy follows the story of a young man named Danny Holt, played by Whishaw, as he is dragged into a world of spies and danger while seeking answers about what happened to his murdered lover, possible intelligence agent Alex, played by Edward Holcroft.

The first episode explores the beginning of their love story. Danny is a down-on-his-luck twentysomething, spending his nights in a haze of drugs and drinking. While stumbling home one night he has a run in with a jogger, who sees he is in distress and lends him his water bottle, before jogging away again. Enamoured with him, Danny returns to the bridge the next few nights, intent on returning the bottle. He eventually finds the jogger again, who introduces himself as ‘Joe’. The pair connect, and start dating. As the episode progresses, we see them fall in love over the course of a few months. Joe eventually reveals his name is really Alex, and that he works at a bank, and that his parents are dead. He is often reserved, very lonely, evasive about his job, and clearly a genius.

Near the end of the episode, Alex abruptly disappears. For the next few days, Danny is unable to contact Alex, no matter what he does, until finally one night he is mysteriously led to a key to Alex’s flat.

Danny visits the flat, and discovers Alex’s dead body locked in a trunk in a hidden attic. He is arrested by the police, who inform him that his DNA was all over the scene, and furthermore that the man he knows as Alex is actually called Alistair, that he does not work at a bank, and that his parents are in fact alive, and that he was very likely a spy, throwing their entire relationship into doubt.

Over the course of the next few episode, along with the help of his aging friend, and ex-[=MI6=] agent, Scottie (Creator/JimBroadbent), Danny must unlock what Alex was working on that got him killed, find out who killed him and why, deal with Alex’s deceitful and manipulative mother, evade the Security Services' efforts to completely wreck his life, and most importantly decide whether or not Alex ever really loved him, or if it was all a lie.

* AmbiguousEnding: Although we do find out how he died, a lot of what happened to Alex, and indeed to Danny, is left unclear, as Danny and [[spoiler:Frances]] drive off into the night. Its not made clear if they’re on the run, about to launch a war on [=MI6=], or just simply having to [[spoiler:drive away from the burning building behind them]].

* BodyHorror: The glimpse of [[spoiler:Alex’s decomposed face we see in the trunk is enough to haunt your nightmares]].

* CannotTellALie: Alex has invented a technology that does this. [[spoiler: It's eventually used against him, and then destroyed when all the intelligence services decide it's far to powerful to exist]].
* CastFullOfGay: Of the four main characters; Danny, Alex, Scottie, and Frances, three of them are gay.

** The laptop battery that Alex mentions to Danny. When Danny finds it at the crime scene, it's actually a USB drive, and in the later episodes, it turns out to contain Alex’s lie detection algorithm.

** Danny was a listless and unloved kid who sunk so deep into depression and drug addiction that at one point he instigated an anonymous gang bang on himself, which he was too high to even remember. The first time we meet him he’s on a comedown. He’s also implied to have been a prostitute in his youth.
** Scottie was a spy in the 1960’s but was caught during a 'gay witchhunt’ of the agents in the service, and ended up leaving in disgrace. He also had a very serious boyfriend who died of AIDS at the height of the epidemic.
** Alex was born a mathematical prodigy, and was [[spoiler:taken away from his real mother by an MI5 agent who wanted to make him into the perfect spy. She even hired his real mother to be her house eeper, all the while raising Alex to be the friendless genius he became later in life]].
* DeadAllAlong: A lot of people speculated that Alex was really alive the whole time, and had been kidnapped by the SIS. There was a lot of rage when people figured out that he actually was dead the whole time. Even WordOfGod hasn’t silenced some viewers on their beliefs that a lot of the facts about Alex’s death don’t add up, and that he is really alive.
* DestroyTheAbusiveHome: [[spoiler:Alex’s real mother does this to Frances' home in the last episode]].
* DidNotDieThatWay: [[spoiler:Alex’s murder is set up to look like he died in a BDSM sex scene gone horribly wrong. Danny is adamant that Alex was murdered, and spends most of the show trying to find out how and why. Frances explains it all to him in horrid detail in the final episode]].

* DueToTheDead: Danny isn’t allowed to attend Alex’s funeral, so he holds his own memorial bonfire on the beach where they had one of their first dates.

** It's implied his ‘mother’ and teachers actively encouraged this so he wouldn’t be distracted from his work.

** FlashbackEcho: We see a lot of Danny and Alex’s relationship through these.
** TroubledBackstoryFlashback:[[spoiler: Frances manipulating Alex as a child was shown through one of these]]. A chunk of Scottie’s past is shown through this too.
* GaussianGirl: Alex seems to be a male version of this for Danny. After Alex’s death, this wears off a bit as certain aspects about his life come to light, [[spoiler:but Danny decides he loves him anyway]].

* IntelligenceEqualsIsolation: Alex is a math genius, and as a result he has never had a single friend.

* LanguageOfTruth: Alex’s algorithm posits that human body language and facial expressions are this.

* LoverAndBeloved: There is implied to be a bit of this between Danny and Scottie. It's unclear if it ever did become romantic, or if it was just one-sided on Scottie’s side.
* LoveHurts: Hoo-boy, does it ever! Its heavily implied to Danny that one of the contributing reasons to Alex’s death is that his handlers felt that Alex’s relationship with Danny made him less controllable and unpredictable, and therefore expendable. Falling in love with Danny is what doomed him.
* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: Or rather frame the the man with history of depression for suicide...
** Alex’s death is also supposed to look like a BDSM scene gone wrong.

* TheMacGuffin: Most of the shadowy spy characters are torturing Danny to get to the USB with Alex’s work on it that Alex conveniently left in a place only Danny would look.

* MyBelovedSmother: Frances to Alex, though there wasn’t much love between them.
* NeverGotToSayGoodbye: How Danny feels about Alex’s death, especially as he wasn’t even allowed to go to his funeral.
** Alex is shown to feel the same way, as some of his last words were to cry about how he’d never see Danny again.

* ParentalAbandonment: Both Alex and Danny suffer from this. Danny's parents are neglectful people who largely ignore him unless it benefits them, and Alex hates his controlling parents so much he pretends they’re dead. [[spoiler:It turns out they’re not even his real parents. They stole him from his real parents, and now keep them employed as staff]].
* ParentalBetrayal: [[spoiler:Frances was present and complicit in Alex’s torture]].

* StuffedIntoTheFridge: Alex is killed this way, by being stuffed into a vintage trunk suitcase. We are treated not only to the image of his dead face peering out of the gap between the lid, but also numerous flashbacks of his last moments, struggling to get out while slowly asphyxiating.

* NobodyOver50IsGay: Averted. Scottie is played by 67-year-old Jim Broadbent, and is very candid when talking with Danny about his experiences being gay in the 70’s and 80’s, specifically his lover dying of HIV/AIDS, and him being the victim of a gay witchhunt in the SIS.

Over the course of the next few episode, along with the help of his aging friend, and ex-MI6 agent, Scottie (Creator/JimBroadbent), Danny must unlock what Alex was working on that got him killed, find out who killed him and why, deal with Alex’s deceitful and manipulative mother, evade the Security Services' efforts to completely wreck his life, and most importantly decide whether or not Alex ever really loved him, or if it was all a lie.

* AmbiguousEnding: Although we do find out how he died, a lot of what happened to Alex, and indeed to Danny, is left unclear, as Danny and [[spoiler:Frances]] drive off into the night. Its not made clear if they’re on the run, about to launch a war on MI6, or just simply having to [[spoiler:drive away from the burning building behind them]].

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Many reviewers pointed out the similarities between fictional spy and genius mathematician Alex's death, and the real world case of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Gareth_Williams Gareth Williams]], MI6 employee and mathematical genius discouvered dead in his own gym bag in 2010.

''London Spy'' was a short lived 2016 [[Creator/TheBBC BBC]] series, starring Creator/BenWhishaw. Set in modern day London, London Spy follows the story of a young man named Danny Holt, played by Winshaw, as he is dragged into a world of spys and danger while seeking answers about what happened to his murdered lover, possible intelligence agent Alex, played by Edward Holcroft.

As Wiki/TheOtherWiki describes it "Danny is gregarious, hedonistic, and romantic and falls in love with Alex, who is asocial, enigmatic, and brilliant. Just as they discover how perfect they are for each other, Alex disappears."

The first episode explores the beginning of their love story. Danny is a down on his luck 20 something, spending his nights in a haze of drugs and drinking. While stumbling home one night he has a run in with a jogger, who sees he is in distress and lends him is water bottle, before jogging away again. Enamoured with him, Danny returns to bridge the next few nights, intent on returning the bottle. He eventually finds the jogger again, who introduces himself as ‘Joe’. The pair connect, and start dating. As the episode progresses, We see them fall in love over the course of a few months. Joe eventually reveals his name is really Alex, and that he works at a bank, and that his parents are dead. He is often reserved, very lonely, evasive about his job, and clearly a genius.

Near the end of the episode, Alex abruptly dissapears. For the next few days, Danny is unable to contact Alex, no matter what he does, until finally one night he is mysteriously lead to a key to Alex’s flat.

Danny visit’s the flat, and discouvers Alex’s dead body locked in a trunk in a hidden attic. He is arrested by the police, who inform him that his DNA was all over the scene, and furthermore that the man he knows as Alex, is actually called Alistair, that he does not work at a bank, and that his parents are in fact alive, and that he was very likley a spy, throwing their entire relationship into doubt.

Over the course of the next few episode, along with the help of his aging friend, and ex-MI6 agent, Scottie (Creator/JimBroadbent), Danny must unlock what Alex was working on that got him killed, find out who killed him and why, deal with Alex’s deceitful and manipulative mother, evade the Security Services efforts to completely wreck his life, and most importantly decide whether or not Alex ever really loved him, or if it was all a lie.

* AllGaysArePromiscuous: Well Danny is certainly portrayed as this, though in a decidedly self-destructive light. He may or may not have also been [[spoiler: a prostitute]].

* AmbiguousEnding: Although we do find out how he died, a lot of what happened to Alex, and indeed to Danny, is left unclear, as Danny and [[spoiler: Frances]] drive off into the night. Its not made clear if they’re on the run, about to launch a war on MI6, or just simply having to [[spoiler: drive away from the burning building behind them]].

* ArtifactOfDoom: The anti-lie algorithum that Alex invents is treated like this.
* BodyHorror: The glimpse of [[spoiler: Alex’s decomposed face we see in the trunk is enough to haunt your nightmares]].
* BreakTheCutie: London Spy is essentially a 5 episode long exercise in just how much emotional torture Danny can go through without dying.
** The love of his life, Alex, is murdered
** He is framed for Alex's murder
** When he tries to tell the world the truth he and his dead boyfriend are slandered in the press
** He finds out Alex lied to him about his identity
** He is infected with HIV
** Alex cheated on him
** one of the reasons Alex was murdered because he would not agree to never see Danny again.
* BritishBrevity: Only has 5 episodes in its 1st, and so far only, season.
* BrokenBird: Both Danny and Alex are portrayed as this. Danny of the self destructive and then later deeply traumatised variety, Alex as the neglected, introverted genius variety
* BuryYourGays: Of the three main gay characters [[spoiler: 2 of them end up dead, and the other is infected with HIV]].
* CannotTellALie: Alex has invented a technology that does this. [[spoiler: Its enventually used against him, and then destroyed when all the intelligance services decide its far to powerful to exist]].
* CastFullOfGay: Of the four main characters; Danny, Alex, Scottie, and Frances, 3 of them are gay.
* ChekhovsGun: Its a Spy series, so its absolutly full of them, but the most notible are below.
** The laptop battery that Alex mentions to Danny. When Danny finds it at the crime scene, its actually as USB drive, and in the later episodes, it turns out to contain Alex’s lie detection algorithm.

** The pill that Danny finds in the sweet given to him by the American Spy turns out to be [[spoiler:HIV medication, prompting him to go get tested, where he finds out that he has been infected with HIV]].
* ChildProdigy: Alex has been a mathmatical genius since he was an infant.

** Scottie was a spy in the 1960’s but caught during a 'gay witchhunt’ of the agents in the service, and ended up leaving in disgrace. He also had a very serious boyfriend who died of AIDS at the height of the epidemic.
** Alex was born a mathmatical prodigy, and was [[spoiler: taken away from his real mother by an MI5 agent who wanted to make him into the perfect spy. She even hired his real mother to be her house keeper, all the while raising Alex to be the friendless genius he became later in life]].
* DeadAllAlong: A lot of people speculated that Alex was really alive the whole time, and had been kiddnapped by the SIS. There was a lot of rage when people figured out that he actually was dead the whole time. Even WordOfGod hasn’t silenced some viewers on their beliefs that a lot of the facts about Alex’s death don’t add up, and that he is really alive.
* DestroyTheAbusiveHome: [[spoiler: Alex’s real mother does this to Frances home in the last episode]].
* DidNotDieThatWay: [[spoiler: Alex’s murder is set up to look like he died in a BDSM sex scene gone horribly wrong. Danny is adamant that Alex was murdered, and spends most of the show trying to find out how and why. Frances explains it all to him in horrid detail in the final episode]].
* DistressedDude: Alex is [[spoiler:locked in a trunk and interogated about his work. Unfortunately, he dies this way]].
* TheDogBitesBack: Frances should not have been so surprised that after the years of [[spoiler: mental and emotional torment she put Alex through, it turns out he is lying when he says he loves her]].

* EvilMatriarch: Frances had been manipulating Alex from the moment [[spoiler: she found him]].

* FriendlessBackground: Frances pushed Alex so hard that he found it impossible to make any friends. As he describes it he was always to old for people his physical age, and too young for people his intellectual age, so he resigned himself to being alone forever.
** Its implied his ‘mother’ and teachers activly encouraged this so he wouldn’t be distracted from his work.
* {{Flashback}}: Danny and Scottie both have a few. Seeing as this is a Spy mystery, a lot of the plot is revealed through these.
** FlashbackEcho: We see a lot of Danny and Alex’s relationship through these

* GaussianGirl: Alex seems to be a male version of this for Danny. After Alex’s death this wears off a bit as certain aspects about his life come to light, [[spoiler: but Danny decides he loves him anyway]].
* HappilyAdopted: Averted hardcore. [[spoiler: Frances forcably adopted Alex when he was a young boy after realising he was a genius, believing she could raise him to be the perfect spy. She grew to love him, but he always resented her for the way he treated him.]]

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: An unfortunate heroic example for [[spoiler:Alex. After he created the ultimate lie detection program, the world intelligance services decided to destory it out of fear. First though, they used it to interrogate him, and then they killed him for noncompliance.]]

* IntergenerationalFriendship: Scottie is at least 30 years older than Danny
* KnockoutGas: How the SIS kidnapps [[spoiler: Scottie, before they kill him.]]

* LieDetector: The spy portion of the plot revolves around Alex having invented the most advanced lie detection algorithm in the world, one that is completely unbeatable, and the rest of the intelligance community wanting to destory it out of fear of what it could mean for world security.

* LoverAndBeloved: There is implied to be a bit of this between Danny and Scottie. Its unclear if it ever did become romantic, or if it was just onesided on Scottie’s side.
* LoveHurts: Hoo-boy, does it ever! Its heavily implied to Danny that one of the contributing reasons to Alex’s death is that his handlers felt that Alex’s relationship with Danny made him less controllable and unpredictable, and therefore expendible. Falling in love with Danny is what doomed him.

* MayDecemberRomance: One sided on Scotties part, but he even states that he has at times been in love with Danny.
* TheMacGuffin: Most of the shadowy spy characters are torturing Danny to get to the USB with Alex’s work on it that Alex conviniently left in a place only Danny would look.
* MeaningfulEcho: When Danny and Alex disgree about there being one true love out there for everyone, Alex is firmly on the side of it being illogical, which makes sense for his scientific personality, but annoys romantic Danny. Flash foward to after Alex's death, and Danny figures out the code that opens the locked USB Alex left for him is 000001, his final message of love to Danny from beyond the grave.

** Alex is shown to feel the same way, as some one his last words where to cry about how he’d never see Danny again.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Many reviewers pointed out the similarities between fictional spy and genius mathematician Alex’s dead, and the real world case of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Gareth_Williams Gareth Williams]], MI6 employee and mathematical genius discouvered dead in his own gym bag in 2010.

* NotMyDriver: [[spoiler: Scottie is kiddnapped and murdered by a spy driving a taxi]].
* NobodyOver50IsGay: Averted. Scottie is played by 67 year old Jim Broadbent, and is very candid when talking with Danny about his expiriences being gay in the 70’s and 80’s, specifically his lover dying of HIV/AIDS, and him being the victim of a gay witchhunt in the SIS.
* OlderSidekick: Dannys close friend and confidant Scottie is significantly older he is.
* OneTrueLove: Danny and Alex discuss whether or not this is true, with the former believeing it and the latter not. Danny is very annoyed by this, clearly thinking that Alex is his ‘One'. After Alex dies, Danny finds a coded message that implies in the end, Alex believed Danny was his 'One' aswell.
* OppositesAttract: Outgoing, romatic, aimeless Danny falls head over heals in love with introverted, socially awkward, genius Alex, and vice-versa
* ParentalAbandonment: Both Alex and Danny suffer from this. Dannys parents are neglectful people who largley ignore him unless it benefits them, and Alex hates his controlling parent so much he pretends they’re dead. [[spoiler: turns out they’re not even his real parents. They stole him from his real parents, and now keep them employed as staff]].

* PassedOverInheritance: Its never made clear if Scottie has any blood relatives, but never the less he leaves everything to Danny.
* PosthumousCharacter: [[spoiler: Alex dies towards the end of the first episode, but the plot is mostly about Danny finding out about his life and his past. ]]
* ShrinkingViolet: Alex is so shy and awkward around people that its painful to watch.
* SingleTargetSexuality: Alex towards Danny

* StuffedIntoTheFridge: Alex is killed this way, by being stuffed into a vintage trunk suitcase. We are treated not only to the image of his dead face pearing out of the gap between the lid, but also numerous flashbacks of his last moments, struggling to get out while slowly asphyxiating.
* WasItAllALie: WordOfGod says this is the central question of the plot. Its not really about who killed Alex or why, but more about Danny figuring out if Alex really did love him, or if their relationship was nothing more than a cover story. [[spoiler: Turns out it was real, and one of the reasons Alex died is because he would not stop seeing Danny]].
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: A number of characters are given mysterious or complex one scene introductions, and then are never seen again. Most notably the American agent who comes out of no where [[spoiler: gives Danny an onscure tip of about his HIV and then dissapears. Its never shown if he was trying to help Danny, or scare him even more, but we never see him again]]. see Aborted Arc.

* AllStarCast: Of the English variety, this small miniseries cast includes Jim Broadbent, Charlotte Rampling, and Creator/MarkGatiss

As TheOtherWiki describes it "Danny is gregarious, hedonistic, and romantic and falls in love with Alex, who is asocial, enigmatic, and brilliant. Just as they discover how perfect they are for each other, Alex disappears."

Over the course of the next few episode, along with the help of his aging friend, and ex-MI6 agent, Scottie (Jim Broadbent), Danny must unlock what Alex was working on that got him killed, find out who killed him and why, deal with Alex’s deceitful and manipulative mother, evade the Security Services efforts to completely wreck his life, and most importantly decide whether or not Alex ever really loved him, or if it was all a lie.

* LostLoveMontage: Danny frequently has thse of Alex.

* MeaningfulEcho: When Danny and Alex disgree about there being one true love out there for everyone, Alex is firmly on the side of it being illogical, which makes sense for his scientific personality, but annoys romantic Danny. Flash foward to after Alex's death, and Danny finally figures out the code that opens the locked USB Alex left for him is 00001, his final message of love to Danny from beyond the grave.

* WasItAllALie: WordOfGod says this is the central question of the plot. Its not really about who killed Alex or why, but more about Danny figuring out of Alex really did love him, or if their relationship was nothing more than a cover story. [[spoiler: It was real, and one of the reasons Alex died is because he would not stop seeing Danny]].

* NeverGotToSayGoodbye: How Danny fels about Alex’s death, especially as he wasn’t even allowed to go to his funeral.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: An unfortunate heroic example for [[spoiler:Alex. After he create the ultimate lie detection program, the world intelligance services decide to destory it. First though, they use it to interrogate Alex, before they kill him for noncompliance.]]

** His colleague from university is much the same.

* PassedOverInheritance: Its never made clear if Scottie has any family, but never the less he leaves everything to Danny.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: An unfortunate heroic example for Alex. After he create the ultimate lie detection program, the world intelligance services decide to destory it. First though, they use it to interrogate Alex and see if he’s lying about agreeing to never work on it again, and to never contact the love of his life, Danny, again. He is.

* HappilyAdopted: Averted hardcore. [[spoiler: Frances forcably adopted Alex when he was a yound boy after realising he was a genius, believing she could raise him to be the perfect spy. She eventually grew to love him, but it turns out he always resented her for the way he treated him and his real parents.]]

* GaussianGirl: Alex seems to be a male version of this for Danny, and more of his story after Alex’s death results in this wearing off, but realising he loves him anyway.

* DeadAllAlong: A lot of people speculated, due to the erratic nature of the narrative and certain comments made by the creator about subverting the ‘gay tragic romances’, that Alex was really alive the whole time, and had been kiddnapped by the SIS. There was a lot of rage when people figured out that he actually was dead the whole time. Even WordOfGod hasn’t silenced some viewers on their beliefs that a lot of the facts about Alex’s death don’t add up, and that he is really alive.
* DestroyTheAbusiveHome: [[spoiler: Alex’s real mother does this to Frances home in the last episode. She startes with the maze that Frances used to obsessivly train Alex to solve, and it spreads to the rest of the house. Its shown as being her way of apologising to her son for letting Frances take him and keep him locked up in that place]].
* DidNotDieThatWay: [[spoiler: Alex’s murder is set up to look like he died in a BDSM sex scene gone horribly wrong. Danny is both framed for it and expected the believe that its true. He is adamant that Alex was murdered, and it turns out he was, as Frances explains to him in horrid detail in the final episode]].

* TheDogBitesBack: A small one, but Frances should not have been so surprised that after the years of [[spoiler: mental and emotional torment she put Alex through, it turns out he is lying when he says he loves her]].

* FriendlessBackground: Frances pushed Alex so hard that he found it impossible to make any friends. He even tells Scottie in the first episode that Danny is his only friend. As he describes it he was always to old for people his physical age, and too young for people his intellectual age, so he resigned himself to being alone forever.

* Flashback: Danny and Scottie both have a few. Seeing as this is a Spy mystery, a lot of the plot is revealed through these.
** FlashbackEcho: Most notably of Alex tying his tie, and Danny now having to tie it himself
** TroubledBackstoryFlashback: The big reveal about [[spoiler: Frances manipulating Alex as a child was shown through one of these]].

* FriendlessBackground: Frances pushed Alex so hard that he found it impossible to make anyfriends. He even tells Scottie in the first episode that Danny is his only friend. His friendlessness can be put down to a combination of being a Loner, Shy, Homeschooled, being ostracised for his extreme intelligance.

* Flashback: Danny and Scottie both have a few. And seeing as this is a Spy mystery, a lot of the plot is revealed through these.

** The laptop battery that Alex mentions to Danny. When Danny finds it at the crime scene, its actually as USB drive, and in the latter episodes, it turns out to contain Alex’s entire algorithm.
** The trunk that Alex is locked in first shows up in the back of his car, full of maps, and in flashbacks it was one of his only possessions.
** The pill that Danny finds in the sweet given to him by the American Spy turns out to be HIV medication, prompting him to go get tested, where he finds out that he has been infected with HIV.
* ChildProdigy: Alex was a mathmatical genius since he was an infant.

** Danny was a listless and unloved kid who sunk so deep into depression and drug addiction that at one point he instigated a drug induced gang bang on himself, which he was too high to even remember. The first time we meet him he’s on a comedown. He’s also implied to have been a poristitute in his youth.

** Alex was born a mathmatical prodigy, and was [[spoiler: taken away from his real mother by an MI6 agent who wanted to make him into the perfect spy. She even hired his real mother to be her house keeper, all the while raising Alex to be the friendless genius he became latter in life]].

* AmbiguousEnding: Although we do find out how he died, a lot of what happened to Alex, and indeed to Danny, is left unclear, as Danny and [[Spoiler: Frances]] drive of into the night. Its not made clear if they’re on the run, about to launch a war on MI6, or just simply having to [[Spoiler: drive away from the burning building behind them]].

* AmbiguousEnding: Although we do find out how he died, a lot of what happened to Alex, and indeed to Danny, is left unclear.

Over the course of the next few episode, along with the help of his aging friend Scottie (Jim Broadbent), Danny must unlock what Alex was working on that got him killed, find out who killed him and why, deal with Alexs deceitful and manipulative mother, evade the Security Services efforts to completely wreck his life, and most importantly decide whether or not Alex ever really loved him, or if it was all a lie.

* AbortedArc: A frequent criticism of the series is that character, plot devices, and storylines would be introduced and dizzying speed, and then never explored or explained.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: see Aborted Arc.