When we last left our heroes of Slough House in episode 3 of season 6 of Slow Horses, everyone was on the run. Of all the excellent seasons of the marvelous Apple TV series, season 6 is the one where all the characters are just forced (or maddeningly choose) to go their own way while also trying to barely hold on to one another.
At the end of the previous episode, River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) and Sid Baker (Olivia Cooke) were being followed by Jim (Kyle Soller) and Jane (MyAnna Buring), two potential Russian killers hired to snuff out those who worked previously and currently under and with Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) at the home for MI5 outcasts. We wondered then why people wanted Slough House gone.
Do we get firm answers in episode 4? Did we think we would? After all, this is a series that knows how to keep viewers glued in until the very last moments of the very last episode of each season. The magic of Slow Horses is that even knowing the payoff won't come until the end, viewers still have to know how we get there.
Slow Horses picks up where it left off
If one is not watching season 6 episode by episode, they will be in luck. Episode 4 starts right where episode 3 ended, with River and Sid trying to find a phone so that Sid can call First Desk Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas), but we don’t know exactly why yet.
River and Sid enter a bowling alley and speak with a rather feisty employee, Phil, who is very serious about his job, even turning money from River down when asked about using the bowling alley phone. Sid eventually pretends to cry, and Phil caves.
That is when trouble ensues, as after getting to the phone just around the corner, Jim and Jane enter through different entrances, attempting to hunt down River and Sid. Phil attempts to get Jane to leave, not knowing she is an assassin, but she shoots him. Jane then sees River and Sid and manages to shoot River through the hand.
One must remember that throughout this entire time, River, Sid, and Coe (Tom Brooke), who is still in the car listening to music and waiting for Sid and River to return, don't have guns. They are constantly at a disadvantage and always on the run.
Coe is also shot at by Jim, and Coe is forced out of the car. This would lead to a rather humorous moment. After Sid and River, who is bleeding badly from his hand, escape the bowling alley, they meet back at the car, attempting to flee the scene. River is in the driver's seat, but Coe stands outside the car, telling River to get in the back as the car belongs to Coe.
This happens while the three need to get out of the area quickly, but River eventually gets into the back, and Coe drives away while Jim and Jane approach. They shoot the car several times, but Sid, River, and Coe escape to a nearby arcade. As has happened all season, and illogically at times, Jim and Jane catch up to them.
While Sid bandages River's hand, Coe plays on a race car machine, but then Sid leaves to scour the arcade. Coe sees Jim and Jane walking through the arcade and heads to the bathroom to wait for Jim. The two are clearly about to battle, but only with different types of knives. After a long and bloody struggle, River comes into the bathroom and finds Coe's body with a stomach wound.
Coe has his headphones in, still listening to his music, but his eyes are open, and he is sadly and obviously deceased. While several deaths have occurred in season 6 among past members of Slough House, Coe's might be the saddest. Brooke's character was one of the oddest and most endearing on the show. Both the character and actor will be missed.
After finding Coe's body, River looks for Sid, but she had left to try calling Taverner from the car. Taverner won't take her call (more on that in a second), and Jane discovers Sid. After a scuffle, Jim arrives, and the two assassins, who appear to be Russian, drive Sid away in the car.
Diana Taverner is compromised
First Desk Taverner is still under the thumb of media mogul Cantor (Harry Lloyd), who gave Taverner money that MI5 cannot find out about in a previous season. Only, as it turns out, the money didn't come from Cantor. We learn in episode 4 that the money came from a Russian GRU higher-up named Vassily. Vassily appears to be behind the murders of the employees of Slough House, too.
This is due to a GRU agent being assassinated in Kazan, Russia, which Taverner not only appears to have ordered, but that she also let slip in the interview she gave on Cantor's network earlier in the season.
Taverner gets a call from Vassily, one that Cantor told her would be coming, and Vassily says all the murders will stop between the GRU and MI5 as long as Sid Baker, who killed the GRU agent in Kazan, is turned over. The call confirms that Jim and Jane are Russian agents tasked with murdering Slough House agents because of what happened in Kazan.
Jackson Lamb and Reece Nesmith set a meeting
Lamb is aware, of course, that Frank Harkness (Hugo Weaving) killed Reece Nesmith’s (Lenny Rush) father, the Dog who stole the hard-copy files containing the names of Slough House agents, and Lamb wants to have a meeting with Harkness. To set that up, Lamb has Nesmith call Harkness from a burner phone, and the meeting is set at a Shake Shack after Nesmith goes off-script.
The meeting does not go as planned, as Nesmith appears, too, and eventually all parties go their own way after a rather humorous scene. The most important part of the scene is that Harkness appears to be totally unaware that Slough House agents are being murdered by the Russians. Who does Harkness think he is working for?
The last two episodes of the season will tell us.
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