Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for ‘Slow Horses’ Season 4.Another installment of the Apple TV+ spy thrillerSlow Horseshas come and gone in six short weeks, and Season 4 of the show based on the series of novels byMick Herronis very River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) intensive. In a batch of episodes that focused on the downtown London bombing of Westacres and the relationships between the Cartwright men, a handful of new characters are introduced while the audience is taken on a trip to France. And, for the second time,we lose one of the beloved members of Slough House in a deadly shootoutand get a final sequence with Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) finally showing River a bit of respect in what is a rare moment for the dyspeptic chief of the Slough House misfits. After a turbocharged first half of the finale,the latter half is about putting things in order heading into Season 5.
River Outsmarts His Father, Frank Harkness, in the ‘Slow Horses’ Season 4 Finale
After being thrown a giant reveal, River finds out that the psychopath Frank Harkness (Hugo Weaving) is his father. On top of being behindthe Westacres bombing and the attempt on David Cartwright’s(Jonathan Pryce) life, Frank has tried to elude Emma Flyte (Ruth Bradley), Louisa Guy (Rosalind Eleazar), and the London police. River uses some words of wisdom from his father to outsmart and catch Frank. After Frank is taken into custody, he smugly tells Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) during the interrogation that he expects to be released soon. And sure enough, just as Diana is getting to the tough questions about Westacres, Emma returns to inform her that Frank is to be released because he has a final fail-safe in the form of compromising information about what he and his group of freelance mercenaries have been doing for MI5 in the name of the Queen. It will be interesting to see if Harkness reappears in Season 5 asthe smarmiest bad guy on the show to date.
Marcus and Shirley Defend Slough House From a Killer
For the second time, a Slough House agent has lost their life in the line of duty. This time, Marcus Longridge (Kadiff Kirwan) is on the losing end of a shootout with Harkness' right-hand henchman Patrice (Tom Wozniczka). Patrice has stormed Slough House looking to kill David Cartwright, and Marcus is defending him, Shirley Dander (Aimee-Ffion Edwards), Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves), Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung), and series newcomers J.K. Coe (Tom Brooke) and Moira Tregorian (Joanna Scanlan).
‘Slow Horses’ Reclaims an Impressive Rotten Tomatoes Score With Season 4
Season 4 has a perfect record so far.
After Patrice shoots and kills Marcus,it is up to the one remaining field agent, Shirley, to take up arms, or they will all be killed. She manages to wound him as she shoots wildly through the office glass, but he survives. As he is about to kill Shirley,Jackson Lamb finally arrives on the sceneand is able to knock Patrice out cold. The mysterious J.K., who has sat idly in the background for most of the season, then finishes him off with a gunshot at close range. Jackson ensures that Diana will give Marcus a better and longer pension for his family. Moira leverages her old job at MI5 back from Claude Whelan (James Callis), with information on him having a mistress.
River’s Sadness Is Lifted by Jackson in the Final Scene
In a somber sequence, River has to place his grandfather, David, in an assisted living facility that looks like an old Scottish castle. He believes that David can no longer adequately care for himself with his onsetting dementia.He resists and tries to guilt River into not leaving him there, saying, “You promised me!” repeatedly. River gets emotional as he leaves the facility and gets a call from Jackson to have a drink with him at a local pub.
Jackson and River belly up to the bar, andfor the first time in the show’s history, Lamb shows River some respect. He hands him papers to sign, calling them an “account of his movements”; the final shot of Season 4 is of the two sitting side-by-side. It is the first time Jackson almost treats River like a peer instead of a Slough House reject. It’s as much respect as he will getfrom his curmudgeonly mentor, and he enjoys a whiskey as the scene fades to black and the credits roll.
Slow Horses
Slow Horsesis available to stream on Apple TV+ in the U.S.
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