AppleTV+’s unusual and intriguing spy thriller show Slow Horses has returned with its 4th season, which will be a delight to fans, since the first 3 seasons have been thorough entertainers. Each season has been telling a different story with the same set of characters, with the plot of each based on one of Mick Herron’s novels, and the style remains intact this time as well. When a bomb scare grips the city of London, and one of the Slough House agents seemingly faces grave consequences, Jackson Lamb and his reject agents must act before it’s too late. It is the Slough House that has been saving the face of the MI5 so far, and Slow Horses season 4 will surely not be any different in this regard.
Spoiler Alert
What is the main crisis at the center of Season 4?
Slow Horses season 4, episode 1 begins with a disgruntled Roddy calling up his colleagues one after another, with a clear desperation in his attitude. Roddy sits at a fast-food restaurant named Chickado, waiting for the other Slough House agents to come to the place, but almost nobody picks up his calls. It is Louisa who finally picks up and reveals that Roddy has been pranked by Jackson Lamb. The tech and hacking specialist had brashly asked his boss about where the Christmas party for the Slough House agents would take place, despite knowing that the colleagues never like spending personal time with each other. Therefore, Lamb had told Roddy to go and wait at the Chickado restaurant where everyone else would gather, and the latter had even seemingly ordered for his colleagues. As Louisa reveals what has really happened, Roddy disgruntledly finishes the food and leaves the restaurant, covering his ears with his headphones. The very loud music blaring into his ears keeps Roddy from realizing that a severe explosion has taken place only a little distance behind him. It is only upon seeing people around him run and panic that he understands what has happened.
This explosion at a shopping center kicks off the main plot of this season of Slow Horses, and soon, there are more developments that follow. The incident took place at the Westacres shopping center, as a car bizarrely drove through the busy pedestrianized area, which was filled with people walking by because of the holiday and festive season, before it rammed straight into the shopping center building. The car had been fitted with bombs, and the driver was still inside when the vehicle was rammed into the building, meaning that it was a suicide mission, and it claimed the lives of 23 innocent victims. Many others are left injured and traumatized by the terrorist attack, and it takes almost a day to identify all the victims correctly. When the MI5 authorities arrive at the shopping center to assess the situation, it is revealed that Diana Taverner has not taken the role of the First Desk after she had successfully ousted Ingrid Tearney from the position at the end of season 3. Instead, Diana has placed a man named Claude Whelan at the MI5 First Desk, while she seemingly remains at the Second Desk, or as a close advisor to Whelan. Despite the official positions, though, it is very clear that all agents and police personnel revere Diana as their top boss, and it is evident to everyone that Whelan is just a puppet.
By the time Diana and Whelan arrive at the scene, the authorities have already traced down details of the car used for the bombing, and it is found to have belonged to a rental company. The vehicle had recently been rented by a 28-year-old man from Leicester named Robert Winters. However, being an IT consultant with nothing suspicious about his background and past record, Winters’ name was probably used by the real perpetrator to hide their identity. This seems all the more likely when it is revealed that the address in Leicester that had been used while hiring the car was also a fake one, where nobody had lived for many years, and the neighbors knew nobody named Winters. The next development in the case comes when an online video surfaces in which a man revealed himself to be Robert Winters, admitting that he is about to launch an attack at Westacres Center, although he does not reveal his exact motive behind it. Winters only utters a few cryptic lines about him being hurt by someone or some group and the bomb blast seemingly being an act of revenge for his pains. Naturally, the MI5 tracked down the location from which this video had been uploaded and sent an armed squad to investigate the place and arrest Winters.
Surveillance camera footage from around the area and police drones put up suggested that Winters had left the apartment the previous afternoon and had not returned ever since. But Diana feels that some of his accomplices might still be inside, and she wants to ensure the safety of the armed unit being sent to the place. Eventually, the team has to break down the front door and enter the apartment forcefully, but there is no sign of Winters anywhere in it. In fact, there is almost no furniture or any other item from which any further clue can be found. One of the soldiers finds a passport belonging to Robert Winters, and it ascertains that this same person rented out the car, for this very document had been produced at the car rental agency. Winters had not tried to hide his identity because he knew that he was about to die, and so he had left his passport lying around. However, it becomes evident very soon that the man had not been working alone, but someone else was also involved in the terrorist plot.
As the forensics team walks into the apartment to look for more evidence, one of them draws the curtains to let the sunlight in. This reveals a string of grenades tied together with the curtains, all of which immediately explode and kill a number of the forensics experts and special operatives. The second bombing creates more panic among the citizens of London, and it also confirms that a very real bomb scare is going to be the central plot of this season of Slow Horses.
How does David Cartwright’s failing memory create trouble?
The veteran MI5 agent, David Cartwright, had started to struggle with his old age at the end of season 3, as he was forgetting things and people. In the new season, David’s grandson and one of the central characters, River, is seen meeting his colleague Louisa Guy at a pub to discuss some personal matters. The two characters had grown closer after working together in the previous season, and they became somewhat friends. But no matter how friendly the colleagues at Slough House get, there is always a sense of awkwardness between them. Thus, when Louisa agrees to meet River, and then he says that he wants to reveal something personal, she thinks that he is about to ask her out. However, what River wants to discuss is actually his concern about his grandfather’s health, for David now struggles to identify anyone. Louisa advises River to visit his grandfather more often since David was the one who raised him, and River agrees with this counsel, too. The last we see of the character is when he sets out to travel to David’s house in the countryside.
A little while later, David Cartwright is seen returning home but in extreme panic, for he fears that someone is watching him. The elderly man somehow rushes back to the safety of his house and arms himself with a shotgun that he always keeps handy. This was, in fact, the reason for River being more concerned than usual for his grandfather, since an old man with a failing memory and guns at his disposal can be a recipe for disaster. David clutches the gun and sits on his couch, waiting for his imaginary assailants to arrive, and falls asleep. He is awoken at night by loud bangs at the main door, and when he goes to open the door in darkness, David realizes that it is River who has come to visit him. We viewers see the figure of a young man walk into the house, and although his face is not visible because of the dark setting, the manner in which he speaks does make him seem like River. But weirdly enough, the guest enters the house and then hurries up the stairs without stopping to greet his grandfather, stating that he has to relieve himself in the toilet. This seemingly planned attempt at trying to hide his face makes David fear that the guest is actually not his grandson but some intruder who has come to hurt or kill him. As a result, David once again takes up the shotgun and walks up the stairs to the toilet, where he sneaks up on the young man. When the latter turns around, David has a sudden realization that it is indeed not River, and he responds with two effective gunshots. But as the young man’s face is dismantled and almost blown apart because of the close-range fire, David wonders whether he has mistakenly killed his only living relative, his grandson.
When the police arrive at the scene and get the MI5 involved, David is missing, and the dead body of the young man, presumed to be River, is found inside the house. Although David had triggered a panic alarm, the sole purpose of which was to provide help to elderly citizens in need, the police chose not to respond immediately because David had been triggering the alarm unnecessarily in the recent past. Nonetheless, an investigation is launched into the murder after the crime scene is discovered, and the new head of the MI5 tactical unit, codenamed the Dogs, arrives at the scene to take control. After the previous head, Nick Duffy, had been killed during the events of season 3, a woman named Emma Flyte was brought in for the position. Flyte gets in touch with Jackson Lamb and asks the Slough House head to come and confirm whether the dead body belongs to River Cartwright since hardly anyone else knew River. No documents to prove the identity had been found either on the body or on the crime scene, but Lamb takes a look at the body and does confirm that it belongs to River, who had been a loyal but rather ineffective agent of the Slough House.
Is River Cartwright really dead?
Towards the end of the episode, though, Jackson Lamb visits his old colleague and close friend, Catherine Standish. Catherine had decided to leave Slough House and the MI5 at the end of the previous season, but it is revealed that Lamb has been refusing to grant her wish by not signing the necessary documents. When Lamb tells Catherine about the strange and sad events that had transpired in the Cartwright family, she does a terrible job of acting to be shocked, and this confirms to Lamb that she knows something that nobody else does. This deduction is not as brilliant as it seems, though, for Lamb reveals that he had made this guess based on the fact that he saw River’s car parked outside Catherine’s apartment. As he forces his way into her bedroom next, a bemused and sleepy David Cartwright is found on the bed, meaning that he had been hiding from the police at Catherine Standish’s house.
The ending of Slow Horses episode 1 revealed that River is not actually dead, for he is on a secret trip to somewhere in France. River seems to be on a personal mission to find someone, for he keeps looking at a man’s passport. The young man whom David Cartwright had let into his house, believing him to be his grandson, must have been an attacker who had come to kill the veteran agent for some reason. David killed the man and then wallowed in grief until River came to his house and discovered the scene. Knowing that he had to act quickly to protect his grandfather from trouble with the police, River must have driven him to Catherine’s house, as she would help them without asking too many questions. He also must have found the passport on the intruder’s body, and so he wanted to investigate who was trying to kill his grandfather and for what exact reason. As he took a cab through the French countryside, Lamb figured out this entire sequence of events and tracked down David at Catherine’s place. In typical Slow Horses style, this attack on David will surely be tied to the bomb attacks in London, and where the plot of this new season takes us will be very interesting to watch.
