Slow Horses Recap: He Really Is Dead, Isn’t He?

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The agents stuck at Slough House are known for being pretty bad at their jobs – that’s why they’re there. But surprisingly, they often have good instincts, do the right thing, and are more capable than anyone expects, much like their rather unconventional boss. It’s probably more accurate to say their skills go up and down; you never know if a big mistake today will be followed by a surprising success tomorrow, or the other way around. Remember how they all worked together to escape lockdown last week? Lamb cleverly motivated the team to outsmart their captors. You’d hope they could keep that momentum going, wouldn’t you?

Alas.

This week’s episode of *Slow Horses* is a thrilling rollercoaster showcasing the best and worst of the Slough House team. Things go spectacularly wrong, leading to a crisis that’s hard to come back from – and raises a lot of questions about what happens next. “Missiles” is the most engaging episode of the season so far, demonstrating the show’s willingness to create chaos before resolving it. The London mayoral election, however, isn’t going so well.

Let’s rewind a bit to Roddy, who’s still being questioned intensely. He’s no match for his interrogator, Flyte, in this round. Meanwhile, MI5 is trying to locate and question Roddy’s girlfriend, Tara. A frantic phone message from her gives them a lead. Roddy insists the message proves Tara’s innocence, or at least that she was acting under pressure. Flyte uses this to her advantage, playing a sympathetic role while her colleague, Taverner, takes a harsher approach. Flyte claims she understands Tara’s desperation because she’s been in a similar situation herself, hearing the love and fear in Tara’s voice.

Flyte quickly realizes Roddy is far more unpredictable than he seems. When she tries to connect with Tara, Roddy immediately jumps to the conclusion that she’s also falling for him. While Flyte is crafting a personal story to trick Roddy into contacting Tara and bringing her into Park’s control, she also manages to influence Whelan, who is secretly listening to the interrogation. Despite their different roles in the intelligence world – and it speaks to the quality of Slough House that Roddy is just the tech guy, not in Lamb’s position (which would be like letting Whelan run the entire operation) – the show has consistently highlighted the contrast between them this season. In this episode, both men try to betray someone, but with varying degrees of success.

Flyte manages to get Roddy to call Tara, allowing the Park to find her location. However, Roddy mistakenly believes he can trick Flyte by using the call to declare his feelings for Tara and warn her she’s being tracked. Despite thinking he’s tech-savvy, Roddy doesn’t realize phone tracing is much faster than he imagined, and he inadvertently leads Park directly to Tara. Meanwhile, Whelan is more successful, using intelligence from MI5 to strong-arm the Gimballs into suppressing damaging information about him. However, he doesn’t know that Dennis Gimball records everything. The Gimballs are now unsure if revealing Whelan’s blackmail attempt is worth it, as he possesses information about Dennis’s background that could ruin his campaign for mayor. Ultimately, both Roddy and Whelan are still learning the ropes when it comes to espionage.

Okay, let’s give credit where it’s due – our Slough House team actually seemed to be getting things right for once. Last week, Lamb was really pushing to get out of the office because Coe had figured out something scary: this terrorist group was following a clear plan to disrupt London, and the next phase was a political hit. When both Mayor Jaffrey and Dennis Gimball cancelled their debate to focus on rallies, it meant splitting up our agents. River and Coe were assigned to protect Gimball, while Catherine and Shirley took on Jaffrey. Everyone sort of figured Gimball was the more likely target, which, honestly, felt like a classic setup – meaning the real danger was almost certainly going to be to Jaffrey. It made a twisted kind of sense, but also felt incredibly predictable, if you think about it.

Catherine and Shirley manage to stop an assassination attempt during Jaffrey’s speech, though things get messy. Shirley spots the shooter before he acts, but can’t prevent the first shot, forcing Catherine to cause a distraction. They don’t catch the shooter – Shirley has been through a lot this season – but they *do* succeed in preventing the larger plot from succeeding. It turns out the event wasn’t even necessary; the attacker could have simply given a prepared speech praising Jaffrey’s son and promising to improve the city.

Sadly for Gimball, agents from Slough House arrived to protect him, but he ended up dying in a bizarre accident resembling an OK Go music video. There’s a logical explanation for the paint can falling on his head and splattering pink paint on River, making it look like he’d been covered in slime from the old TV show *You Can’t Do That on Television*. Coe and River were watching the area to ensure the candidate’s safety, and it was meant to be an accident. However, the real problem started earlier when River mistakenly thought a heated argument between Gimball and Tyson Bowman, the chief of staff, was a physical assault. River intervened, which set off the chain of events leading to this tragic and comical outcome.

Ultimately, someone was going to die that night, regardless of whether the team at Slough House intervened. It all came down to *who* that person would be. And that’s what it meant to change the outcome.

Shots

I found Roddy’s obsession with the Robert Palmer song “Simply Irresistible” a little strange, considering it felt like a reference from a much earlier time. Actually, his pop culture references throughout the episode are pretty old-fashioned. When Roddy declares his love for Tara, he says he’ll find her no matter what, but clarifies he means like Daniel Day-Lewis’s character in *The Last of the Mohicans*, not Ricardo Montalban in *Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan*. Interestingly, *Star Trek II* came out six years before the Robert Palmer song.

Lamb had a comical moment where he called River to ask if anyone had checked the properties near Tara’s, then abruptly hung up when River said they hadn’t. Lamb was so annoyed he didn’t even bother to scold River for the oversight.

It’s an incredible achievement for the son of a Turkish waiter, who came to this country without documentation, to now be running for mayor. It’s unfortunate Dennis Gimball won’t be around to campaign on that story – or, rather, to benefit from it. Dodie points out, with strong language, that this is significant because she’s previously written about negative stereotypes concerning Turkish people and their place in Europe.

• River on the assembled Gimball supporters: “This is fucked. They all look like murderers.”

Lamb delivers a cutting remark to Flyte: “My mistakes are at least grand in scope. They aren’t the ordinary, everyday kind like yours.”

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2025-10-15 11:58