With one week remaining to the seventh series of Spooks, I’ve already concluded this is the best series ever. Last night, with Harry being interrogated, Lucas under pressure in Moscow, the rest of Section D under constant surveillance, and the ineffectual Richard Dolby in charge, the situation looked bleak. But it’s always darkest just before the dawn.

With the fake dossier in his hands, Harry knows he has to move fast. He sends Lucas to Moscow to make contact with Maria Korachevsky – another Sugarhorse asset – and takes a phone call from the Home Secretary, who is eager to confirm Sugarhorse is still viable, as the Americans have chosen a Polish village as a location for a missile defence shield installation, which is bound to get the Russians’ backs up.

Shortly after giving him that assurance, the choppers and aerial SAS-style men arrive to take Harry in. Mr Smug – aka Richard Dolby – is put in charge, and while he is introducing Harry to Charles Grady, a man whose smile never quite reaches his eyes, Section D swing into action to find out all they can about Alexander Borkhovin, a Russian minister who has died as a result of a mysterious heart attack. Dolby and Grady demand the list of names from Harry, and scoff at his mention of Bernard Qualtrough, who according to their records has not been in the UK since 1996.

As I suspected last week, Connie is acting increasingly suspiciously. She takes a call from Lucas intended for Ros and hears a Russian girl speaking in the background. Suddenly, FSB are aware of Lucas’ location and begin to close in on him, and she constantly “suggests” that she should work on material that could give away her true identity.

In Moscow, Lucas meets with Maria, who tells him where he can pick up the package he’s after, as well as a new ID with which to leave the country. He leaves her flat just in time but she is not so lucky. The FSB catch up with her and dispatch her in their own way.

Malcolm discovers that Hugo Prince – the third member of the original team who set up Sugarhorse, and Connie’s lover – accessed his own file the day after his death. Ben is sent to check the records and discover who was using his password. Connie begins to look even more uncomfortable and offers to help Ben in his search, but Ros wants her on the Grid.

Lucas arrives at the Bedouin Bar, which is crawling with FSB. He successfully retrieves the package and realises Connie is indeed the mole. The only person he can contact is Ben, but before Ben can pass the message on, Connie finally manages to find an excuse to pay him a visit in the basement, slit his throat and lock him in. Before his body is discovered, she deletes the surveillance sound file of Lucas’s phone call just in time to prevent Malcolm listening to it.

But her time is running out, and a disoriented Harry manages to pass a coded message on to Ros about operation Renaissance – a completed operation involving a visit to Russia for himself and Connie, during which she was turned. Ros connects the dots, and Connie is cornered, letting out the most superbly nasty hiss at Harry as he confronts her and demands to know why she has betrayed them all.

With Connie in custody, Harry reinstated at the head of Section D and Lucas on his way home, the world once more settles back on its axis. But how will Russia react to the mistaken murder of some of its most senior security and political personnel? The names on the bogus list that Harry gave to the FSB, via the hapless Dolby and the turncoat Connie? And what is on the canister that Lucas is bringing back from Maria?

I really hope Spooks hasn’t peaked too soon with that episode, which flicked all the switches and lit all the lights of great hour of drama. It totally rocked. Even though I’d already twigged that Connie was the mole, watching her wriggle as the net closed in, and Harry’s masterful handling of his interrogation was delicious. I’d like to say Spooks doesn’t get any better than this, but I’m really hoping I’ll be proved wrong by next week’s series finale. Incredibly tight writing and some truly outstanding performances this week, especially from Peter Firth and Gemma Jones. This series is a definite keeper.