Episode Five of Slow Horses gives us more backstory on Frank. He was a preemptive assassin who struck first. Now his greatest hits are in front of him again. He wants all the Slough House regulars taken out. Frank needs to close all those roads leading to Westacres.
Even before the opening credits roll, Frank (Hugo Weaving)has gotten hold of Molly. He plans to trace all the slow horses down and eliminate them.
Meanwhile back at the ranch
Flyte has River. She cuffs him to the inside of the vehicle. Traverner tells her to bring him in. His destination is the basement. Lamb has Cartwright senior with Catherine (Saskia Reeves) in tow. Their vehicle, the trashed taxi from episode 4, is enroute to a safe place to interrogate David Cartwright.
At Slough House, Moira learns that Number One; Whelan, is the one responsible for making her a “slow horse.” The information hits hard and it seems she may have stumbled upon his weakness for sex workers.
Louisa Guy, Dander and Longridge are traveling via public transport, AKA the bus, their destination is Slough House. She pulls the remaining horses into a conference. She is planning of saving/supporting their agents in the field. Coe reluctantly addresses the group. We learn a little bit more about the newest Slow Horse.
Gonna need a bigger box
Whelan (James Callis) realizes what a big mess the entire Westacre/River Cartwright issue is. He has now learned not to rush and tell media. Instead Claude wants to throw everyone into a “cement box.” This includes Giti, who put all the pieces together for him.
After adding everything up, he comes to the conclusion that they need a bigger box.
Pause for an abbreviated cast list
Gary Oldman – Jackson Lamb
Jack Lowden – River Cartwright
Jonathan Pryce – David Cartwright
Kristin Scott Thomas – Diana Taverner
Ruth Bradley – Emma Flyte
Rosalind Eleazar – Louisa Guy
Aimee-Ffion Edwards – Shirley Dander
Kadiff Kirwan – Marcus Longridge
Joanna Scanlan – Moira Tregorian
Christopher Chung – Roddy Ho
Tom Brooke – JK Coe
Frank’s Hits
Frank, after threatening Molly (Naomi Wirthner) into submission, gets the names he needs for his new list of hits. Harkness tells Molly that he needs to send a message. Patrice (Tom Wozniczka) is sent after River. The car, full of MI5 agents, will end up being the next lot of hits ordered by the desperate assassin.
His other hits include all of Slough House apparently.
Frank watches Patrice making his way to River’s transport. He then makes Molly believe that she is going to die. Frank leaves and envelopes with names on lay on her desk.
I’ll be Back
Patrice returns as Terminator. He does not spout the referenced film’s tagline. Eliminating the small protective squad in the vehicle with River, he takes the younger Cartwright and leaves.
At first glance, Emma Flyte may just have survived her encounter with Franks familial (?) assassin. We also learn that, amongst other things, Flyte is no good in a gunfight.
Wrap up
We learn a lot about Slow Horses in term of backstory. David Cartwright lost his daughter to Harkness. He also got her back. Patrice may be Harkness’ kin. Ho is not so clever he cannot fall prey to a “bot.”
*Comic highlight of this season thus far: Coe telling Ho that his “friend” is a bot.*
Everything’s coming together nicely here. Harkness is zeroing in with his damage control. Lamb learns enough to take action and River has been taken to who knows where.
David is taken under Catherine’s wing so she can fix him after Lamb’s interrogation.
Next week’s episode is the season finale. This penultimate episode has done a brilliant job of wrapping things up for the Slow Horses. The show streams on Apple TV.
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