The following blog is about the Spooks series eight finale. Do not read unless you have seen the episode, it contains spoilers.

The latest series of Spooks came to a dramatic close this evening, with a great cliffhanger set up for season nine.

We began the episode still none the wiser about Nightingale - what it was, who was involved (other than the wicked Sarah Caulfield) and what their main aim was. As the hour slipped by, we found out that Russell Price, Sarah's CIA boss, was also her Nightingale handler and that the mysterious group's aim was to cause a nuclear war between Pakistan and India.

Finally Lucas accepted Sarah was not to be trusted. Only last week she held a gun to his head, and this week she admitted she'd been sent to kill him - again. How much more proof did he need that she was a bad apple? Her woeful generic-American-meets-Boston-via-LA accent was all I needed to know she was up to no good. What took him so long?

Thankfully Lucas, brooding as always, got to take out a bit of his pent-up rage on Sarah's assassin in this episode in what was a well-worked fight scene. I'm still left with the feeling Richard Armitage has a lot more to offer on that front, however, and I'd like to see him involved in more scraps next year.

I was disappointed Ros didn't give Sarah a good slap when she got hold of her on that staircase too, although their second showdown, in which Ros shot her American counterpart in the knee, was delicious. She gets all the best lines, that Hermione Norris. "Take Miss Reagan, or whatever she's called, away, will you?" she barked at the paramedics, pistol still smoking.

The climax of the episode - a race against time to rescue the Home Secretary and Pakistani President - was compelling viewing, although the countdown on the bomb didn't seem very realistic. It started at 29 minutes, and in that time a bomb squad turned up, realised they couldn't help, Ros and Lucas argued a bit, intimidated Russell Price, went charging around the hotel and dragged the President to safety, leaving 1.47 on the timer.

As the hotel went up in smoke, Ros and Andrew Lawrence's chances of survival look rather slim, although I would welcome the delightfully slimy Home Secretary, played by Tobias Menzies, back to series nine with open arms. Robert Glenister was great and everything, but it's time for a change.

And what of Ros? She would be missed on the grid, and with Jo being killed earlier in this series, losing two main female characters would be too much to take in one season. It'd be like Tom, Danny and Zoe leaving in series three all over again.

All things considered, it was a fitting end to what has been a perfectly enjoyable, if slightly uninspiring series. Nevertheless, Spooks remains a jewel in the BBC's crown, even if it's only firing at 80%.

What did you think of the final episode and of series eight as a whole? Do you think Ros will survive? And what next for Spooks?