Apple TV+’s spy thriller series Slow Horses completes another intense and entertaining season, rounding up a solid story that involves a great threat to the city of London, along with being intricately linked to the personal life of one of the Slough House agents. When an intruder entered David Cartwright’s house to kill him while pretending to be his grandson, River, just hours after two devastating bomb attacks in London, River had to secretly travel to France to solve the convoluted mystery. However, his pursuit to uncover the identity of his grandfather’s attempted killer ultimately brought River face-to-face with the truth about his past, which had been hidden from him for so long. Slow Horses season 4, episode 6 has a final confrontation between River Cartwright and Frank Harkness while also featuring a tense gunfight between Patrice and the Slough House agents.
Spoiler Alert
How does the MI5 respond to the convoy attack?
Slow Horses season 4 episode 6 begins at the very spot where the previous episode had ended, on the streets of London, where the MI5 convoy transporting River Cartwright was attacked. Following the sudden incident, police and MI5 personnel rush to the place and find four Dogs tactical unit officers dead. The head of the Dogs tactical unit, Emma Flyte, is alive though, as she had not been shot by the attacker, Patrice, but was just struck down by him. Emma recovered from the shock and the impact of her injuries before getting in touch with the agent she had been reporting to all this while, Diana Taverner. It is Diana who calls her, rather, as she wants updates about the convoy, for it had suddenly gone off-grid. Emma tells Diana about the attack, also revealing that she had identified the attacker to have been the young man seen in the photograph she had earlier sent to Giti Rahman and Claude Whelan.
Diana now naturally wants to know where Emma got the photograph from, since it was of all the terrorists who had been committing crimes using the MI5 cold bodies, and so was supposed to be a well-kept secret. When Emma states that it had been brought back from France by River, Diana asks to speak with the young man, still without any idea that he has been kidnapped. Emma Flyte reveals that intel, and the MI5 Second Desk simply tells her to find a medic and get herself treated before ending the call. Although Diana Taverner tries to play it cool with Emma, she is actually quite concerned about the situation and talks about it to the First Desk, Claude Whelan. She tells him how another of the cold bodies has appeared and taken River hostage, and Whelan is visibly even more worried about how things have panned out.
As the current Director of the MI5, Whelan is more fearful of the consequence that he will surely have to face when the public and other important figures in administration and government find out about a terrorist cell making use of false identities created by the MI5 to commit heinous crimes. Just like Frank Harkness, Claude Whelan also wants to erase all connections between the terrorist attacks and the intelligence agency, and so he is unwilling to take any further risks. While Diana Taverner orders her team to find and kill the terrorist and arrest River for questioning, Whelan overrules the order, making use of his professional superiority, and states that both Patrice and River are to be considered targets, and both must be killed. Diana tries her best to argue that River might be innocent, but Whelan is ready to sacrifice the life of one innocent agent to protect the city from further terrorist attacks and administrative scandals. Thus, the MI5 First Desk’s order stands to find the fugitive men and kill both of them.
What does Frank Harkness want from River?
When Frank Harkness ordered his son Patrice to go fetch River Cartwright, it was obvious that he wanted to have one final confrontation with the Slough House agent, especially since River is his biological son as well. While inside the trunk of a car being driven by Patrice, River tries to set up a spare phone that he always keeps with him, and is able to slide Catherine’s mobile SIM into it as well. But before he can place any calls or type any message for help, the car stops, and Patrice pulls him out. They walk through a crowded area in front of some shopping arcade, with Patrice secretly keeping his gun pointed at River. They finally arrive at a restaurant, where Frank has been waiting for them at a table, and he has River join him. Patrice, meanwhile, goes away to sort out some other matters, leaving the father and son by themselves.
River reveals that although his mother, Isobel, always told him that his biological father had left her when she was pregnant and then died after he was born, he had already figured out the real truth. As confirmed in Slow Horses season 4 episode 5, Isobel had run away from her home and country to live with Frank Harkness at his Les Arbes mansion at Lavande, France. She then got pregnant with him but had to leave the place without ever wanting to because her father, the erstwhile MI5 Director, David Cartwright, had sent his bodyguard Sam Chapman to go fetch her. When asked by River, Frank admits that Isobel did genuinely love him, although he’d never had such strong feelings for her. To him, the woman was just a strategic pawn whom he could use to get money, weapons, and most importantly, fake identities. This is why he targeted Isobel, because she was the daughter of the MI5 director, and when David wanted to take her back, he took advantage of both of them and got his hands on the cold body fake identities.
Frank was already raising his sons to become terrorists at this time, and with the MI5 cold bodies, he finally fulfilled his dream of creating an assassination squad that would take on private contracts and missions to earn money without the risk of getting caught. His business was booming, and he was involved in a number of terrorist attacks and murders in England as well as overseas, but it all went wrong with the Westacres bombing. As shown earlier in Slow Horses season 4, Frank was hired by a client to kill someone very specific at the parking lot of the Westacres shopping center, and he appointed one of his sons, also a terrorist in his squad, Yves, to commit the crime. However, Yves was already going through psychological troubles, which had been pushing him towards extremist beliefs, and he made use of the chance to simply drive a bomb-rigged car into Westacres, killing way more people than he was ordered to. Yves had also uploaded a video explaining his crime as a direct attack against the West, their culture, and their way of life. River now states that Yves’ attack and uprising was not really against the West but rather against his manipulative and psychopathic father, who had raised him to be a terrorist.
But despite all these attempts at trying to instigate Frank Harkness into making some mistake, the man remains as calm and resolute as always, with him still putting forward his demands. He had originally ordered hits on David Cartwright and Sam Chapman after the Westacres bombing to ensure that he could never be linked to the MI5 cold bodies by the two ex-intelligence employees. However, River reminds him that now he, too, is in a similar situation, as River can very easily link Frank with the MI5 cold bodies to the authorities and have the man arrested. Thus, Frank states, there are only two options left for his estranged biological son: either to join his father and become a terrorist or be killed by Frank in the restaurant. River manages to carve out a third option secretly, though, as he had managed to briefly call Louisa secretly, and a witness had also seen him climbing out of a car’s trunk in front of the shopping arena. This ensured that both the Slough House and the Park agents were updated about his location, leading to them rushing to the place very soon.
Why was Frank Harkness released by the MI5?
When Frank sees armed police rushing towards the restaurant, he realizes that there is very little chance of escape, and so he takes River hostage. Heading out of the place, he then manages to slip a grenade into River’s hoodie, showing complete disregard for his son’s life. Using this scenario as a chance to escape, Frank runs to the nearest train station and plans to disappear, just like he had been telling River a few minutes earlier. By now, Emma Flyte and Louisa Guy had also arrived, after River’s call had been traced by agents at Slough House and the Park. Therefore, they, too, join the pursuit, but River finally realizes that the fugitive must be hiding in plain sight somewhere inside the station itself. Separating himself from the rest of the MI5 unit, he searches for his biological father and eventually finds him, leading to Frank giving him one last chance to join his squad. River obviously refuses, and as the rest of the team now catch up to him, Frank Harkness is finally arrested for his crimes.
But instead of showing any remorse, guilt, or fear, Frank remains very relaxed and composed, knowing well that he will soon be released. He even tells Diana so when she comes to interview her, and she is indeed asked to go visit Jackson Lamb for a very urgent situation at Slough House. Some time earlier, Molly Duran had called Lamb to her apartment to show the five envelopes that Frank Harkness had left at the place, each addressed to the Heads of Services. Lamb had opened and read the letter addressed to Claude Whelan and then immediately called Diana to discuss the matter. As it turns out, Frank and his assassination unit had been hired by the MI5 itself a number of times to attack and kill its targets, whom they could not obviously kill directly, being an official intelligence agency of a country. Such an arrangement between the agency and the ex-agent was established before David Cartwright’s time, and although David wanted to cut all ties with Frank, the MI5 once again hired him after David’s retirement.
Frank had cleverly mentioned all of this in each of the letters and had also threateningly mentioned that these documents would automatically be uploaded to the internet if he was not released in the next 12 hours. He knew that there was a high chance of him getting arrested, and so he had arranged for this safety measure. Thus, Diana and Lamb both knew that the uploading of these documents would lead to a scandal so bad that it could even crash the government. At the end of Slow Horses season 4, Frank Harkness has to be released by the MI5 to avoid scandal, although Diana mentions that she would still let Claude Whelan make the final decision, which would surely be to comply with Frank’s demands.
What happens to the Slough House agents?
While River and Louisa are off trying to arrest Frank Harkness, the rest of the Slough House members have to protect David Cartwright amidst great danger since Patrice arrives at the office to kill them all. Frank had informed Patrice about Jackson Lamb’s involvement with David and Sam Chapman and had ordered him to kill Lamb and anyone associated with him. Thus, the assassin arrives at Slough House, and the agents have to face him bravely, particularly Shirley Dander and Marcus Longridge. Despite having sold off his service gun earlier in the season, Marcus gets it back now, knowing that he might have to use it soon. However, following the tradition of losing at least one agent every season, Slow Horses ultimately has Marcus killed by Patrice in the latter’s effort to get to David and the rest of the agents. This tragic moment also confirms the romantic feelings that had always been suggested to have existed between Shirley and Marcus. It is the mostly silent, terribly introverted new agent, J.K. Coe, who analyzes and talks about the presence of these feelings, which are evident to him since he was once a part of the psychological evaluation department. A ferocious Shirley wants to kill Patrice immediately after he is finally caught and handcuffed to one corner of the room, but she is warned by everyone against it. The guilt of killing a man at a moment when he was handcuffed would live on and haunt her conscience for the rest of her life, which is definitely not something that Marcus would have wanted. Instead, Coe takes the responsibility of coldly shooting Patrice dead, and it seems like he even enjoys doing so.
What happens to David Cartwright?
At the end of Slow Horses season 4, River finally reunites with his grandfather, David, although a feeling of anger and distrust still exists between them. Although David still has a very hard time remembering things, he understands that River is cross at him for having hidden the truth about his biological father. Thus, when River decides to leave his grandfather at a care home for the elderly, David assumes that he does so out of anger and vengeance for having lied to him about his parents. However, River seems genuinely concerned about his grandfather’s health and knowing that he will not be able to spend enough time with him every day, he decides to send him to the care home. After all, David cannot be trusted to live alone at his house either, and he needs to be under expert supervision at all times.
Despite the extremely hard situation, especially with David pleading with his grandson to take him away from the care home, River chooses to walk away, promising to return the next day. He then receives a call from Lamb and meets him at a pub in London. Lamb gives River a document to sign, in which his movements around the case have been officially detailed. The purpose of the document is to get a financial bonus from the higher-ups, probably since the case involved so much traveling, but the real reason for him having called River is to give some support to the young man, although they never talk about it. By now, River Cartwright has become very used to the indirect and twisted manners of Jackson Lamb, and he has learned to seek comfort from him in whatever unusual way possible.
What to Expect From Season 5?
Like always, Slow Horses also gives us a short teaser for next season at the end of the season 4 finale, with season 5 being adapted from Mick Herron’s 6th title in his novel series, “London Rules.” Based on the teaser, the main conflict will seemingly be about a masked gunman and probably his team, whose main agenda, at least according to Emma Flyte, is to create disruption. The head of the Dogs tactical unit believes that the shooter is on a very planned destabilization strategy, beginning with compromising an MI5 agent, attacking and disrupting villages and transportations, taking control of the media narrative, and then assassinate a populist leader. While Emma Flyte is seen talking about these steps, the accompanying visuals suggest that the gunmen have already committed these acts, possibly in their plan to destabilize the country and the government.
For a change, Diana Taverner is seen supporting Jackson Lamb from the very beginning, stating that Lamb’s experience throughout his long career should guide the MI5’s next steps, although Claude Whelan does not seem to agree. JK Coe will continue to be a Slough House member, and he will play a much more active role in the team, while River is seen kissing a surprised Louisa, meaning that there might be a new romantic relationship, or simply just embarrassment and awkwardness for the protagonist. By now, we can surely expect Slow Horses season 5 to be another thrilling watch in its own unique way, and the series should woo more viewers when it finally releases in the future.
