Slow Horses (Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb)
Credit: Apple
The season 4 finale of Apple TV’s masterful spy drama Slow Horses was perhaps the best episode of the entire series. The finale wrapped up the season’s plot nicely while leaving us with one huge wild card. It balanced high-octane action scenes with moments of real tragedy. And it did all this while leaving some breathing room for the emotional denouement, giving our heroes one of the best, and most understated, gentle moments of the entire season.
Let me just say, the last Season 5 preview really made me salivate. We know Apple is going to keep us waiting, but since it’s already been filmed, at least we know there’s no imminent cancellation on the horizon.
Slow Horses is truly a breath of fresh air in a television landscape littered with low-effort nonsense. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of great shows on my record, but there’s something about the tone of Slow Horses and the economy of its writing and pacing that really makes it shine. The season 4 finale accomplished a lot in one episode, but it never felt rushed. The pacing was perfect and every storyline had a satisfying, if sometimes deeply sad, resolution.
What I love about this series is that it can be very funny, very suspenseful, and very emotional at the same time without making me feel like I’m suffering from whiplash. I’ll give spoilers ahead.
To illustrate this point, I’ll use an example from the season finale. At one point during the episode, Frank Harkness (Hugo Weaving) sits with his son River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) in a crowded London restaurant and offers him a job. He wants River to join his group of assassins, but River declines the offer. While they are talking, Harkness’s other son, Patrice the Terminator (Tom Woznicka), receives a phone call from Moira (Joanna Scanlan) to Bad Bob Chapman (Sean Gilder), who calls David. They receive a voicemail informing them of Cartwright’s (Jonathan Pryce) location, Slough House.
River and Frank Harkness
Credit: Apple
He quickly heads there and the ensuing gunfight becomes a desperate fight for survival as Slow Horse tries to fend him off. Fortunately, Marcus Longridge (Kadiff Kirwan) is able to retrieve the pistol he pawned earlier in the season and assist them in their retreat upstairs. Newcomer JK Coe (Tom Brooke) is innovative and throws a boiling kettle at his attackers. Meanwhile, upstairs in the office, Moira and Katherine Standish (Saskia Reeves) hastily barricade the door and hide David and Roddy Ho (Christopher Cheung) in the bathroom.
Cor escapes through the back, and Longridge defeats the Terminator before helping Shirley Dunder (Amy-Ffionn Edwards) reach relative safety. Then he goes back to finish the job. There’s an incredibly tense moment where he finds Patrice and a gunshot goes off, but we don’t know who took the bullet. The same goes for the shrinking members of Slough House. I can see a figure moving through the fogged glass, but I don’t know who it is. As Shirley was pointing a half-loaded revolver at the door, Patrice bursts in and Shirley manages to shoot Shirley, but he doesn’t go down for long. Just as he is about to shoot her, Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) appears, returning from Chapman’s office. He threw the stolen bottle at the back of Patrice’s head, causing the assassin to collapse. Shirley quickly tackles him to the ground and finally manages to handcuff him to the radiator.
She goes to find Marcus, but Ram tells her to stop. She goes anyway and discovers her friend’s body. When she returns, she is furious and points a pistol at Patrice’s forehead. “Try it!” he shouts. The rest plead with her not to do so. Killing an unarmed person in cold blood is different from killing out of necessity.
slow horse
Credit: Apple
“Marcus wouldn’t have wanted this to happen,” Coe suddenly says, materializing at one point. As we all know, Coe rarely speaks, but when he does, it is always with an astonishingly keen sense of observation. “How do I know what Marcus wants?” asks Fuke.
“I know he loved you,” Ko replied. “And he wanted you to love yourself.” This stopped her cold and I admit to tears. I had already felt the pain of Marcus’ death, but seeing his and Shirley’s rocky friendship condensed into this raw place was truly shocking. Angry, she hands Ko the gun and storms out of the room.
After she leaves, Kor examines the weapon and points it at Patrice. He quickly fired two shots into the killer’s chest and, just to be safe, placed one into his forehead. Then he stands up, puts down his gun, pulls his hood over his head, puts on his earphones, and casually wanders through the world. Moira and Standish look on in shock.
This moment perfectly encapsulates everything I love about slow horses. real human emotions. Action that will have you on the edge of your seat. humor. surprise. The dialogue is incredibly well-written, the characters surprise us, but they never do anything stupid or make meaningless choices. Marcus has always been brave, but his courage here was also an act of self-sacrifice. The sight of Lamb showing up at the last minute and saving the day with a bottle of sake is hilarious and on-the-nose (in the best sense of the word). Did Ho refuse to come out of the bathroom, suspecting that All Clear was a trick? Classic Ho.
The final scene of the season 4 finale was also shocking. River finally realizes that she can’t take care of her grandfather by herself, so she takes him to a nursing home. Both of them have had near-death experiences, so they are determined, but David is not satisfied. “You promised me you’d never do this,” he tells his grandson. “How long do you think I’ll live here?” “This is your home now,” River says. When he walks away, his grandfather follows him. “You promised, River! You promised!”
slow horse
Credit: Apple
It’s incredibly sad. You really love both men. Outside, River receives a call and goes to meet Lum at the bar, where Lum hands him some paperwork to fill out. “Is that why you brought me here?” River asks incredulously.
“Well, you can stay here if you like,” Ram said casually. “Go get what’s yours and don’t say anything.” River smiles, orders a drink, and as the scene fades to black and the credits roll, the two sit together in silence, beginning what is perhaps a true friendship. We shared our first moments of camaraderie.
I talk a lot about how much I love Gary Oldman on this show, and that’s certainly true now and then, but this season and this episode in particular, it’s amazing how much of a great cast this show has, and how I really understood why so many of the cast were so great. Many of the characters even have much smaller roles. It’s not easy to make every character shine, but this series does it expertly and makes you care about each character.
I can’t think of a better way to end the season, and frankly this would have worked as a great series finale, but I’m glad it didn’t.
The villain is captured by his own son, but ultimately escapes thanks to MI5 and the CIA’s own misdeeds. Our hero saves the day, but at a heavy cost. The two main characters, Ram and River, grow close despite their differences, and their bond deepens whether Ram wants it or not. And Moira gets her job back at MI5 thanks to a little blackmail from Diana Taverner’s (Kristin Scott Thomas) new thorn in the side, First Desk Claude Whelan (Jamis Callis). All in all, it was a great season. Probably the best ever.
I think we can test that theory by rewatching the first three before Season 5 to distract ourselves. What did you think? Let us know TwitterInstagram or Facebook. Also, subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me on this blog. For more entertainment and culture reviews and commentary, sign up for our newsletter.
