Mikes Film Talk

Episode 5 of Season 5 has the Slow Horses narrowing things down. The last step of the cold war strategy is to “blind the enemy.” Amazingly, River’s grandad has the answer to what is really happening, it has to do with bees and their queen.

Episode 5 Recap

Flyte and Tara continue their dance. The young Libyan woman plays Flyte like a finely tuned fiddle. She plays the unwilling victim, who was forced to “seduce” Roddy Ho. After Lamb trots out the steps of the old MI5 destabilisation plan, Traverner gives them to Flyte. Tara drops a huge misdirecting hint to her interrogator setting up the next small step in the terrorist plan.

Lamb goes to see Molly. After talking of suicide, Lamb suggests that Molly may have kept one of her files after being fired. Meanwhile, it is Whelan’s turn to be played. Tara, it seems, is much more than what she professes to be. She plays the Number 1 chair like a concerto violin. Tara keeps the act up right until she reaches Piccadilly Circus tube station.

Whelan is full of his “victory” but Taverner has also been conned by Ho’s girlfriend.

Piccadilly Circus

Once Flyte and Tara reach the tube station, the girl has one last panic attack. Whelan “talks her into going on with the plan.” He makes the mistake of giving her too much information. Whelan tells her of the tracker in her jacket. The moment Tara gets to the blind spot in the tube entrance, she ditches the jacket and heads out to meet the rest of her team. She is the Queen bee, this is what David, River’s grandad, was trying to tell him.

Roddy Gets Out/Dander, Katherine and Coe Suss out Tara

Roddy is released to help the Park IT guy to trap the code that Tara put in the system. Meanwhile, back at the Slow Horses headquarters, Dander continues to go through Roddy’s trophy box. Catherine soon realises that Tara has a connection with every single event of the destabilisation strategy.

They believe that Tara is in the custody of the Park.

Roddy and his counterpart realise that Tara copied Whelan’s file while accessing the Park’s computer system. This enabled her to to play the number 1 perfectly. Flyte is told to head into the underground where she finds that their girl has dumped the tracker in the coat.

Meanwhile, back at Park, the code that got boxed into a loop has caused the entire computer system to shut down. They are now truly blind. Tara meets with her team to continue their plan.

Let’s Talk Slow Horses Episode 5

As Jackson Lamb is wont to say, “My guys do epic F**k ups.” After Cartwright and Coe try out their version of events with Gimball, Lamb sees right through them. He gives River the old stink eye and he spills his guts. Coe even lets Lamb listen to the tape recording. “What did you just do? River says to Coe. Seconds later we hear River say, ” He really is dead, isn’t he?” Lamb tells them both to get out of his sight.

Once again, after putting things together, Lamb heads to Park House to tell them what is happening. Whelan dismisses his senior man out of hand but Taverner knows to listen.

Tara

Tara has been the “missing link” all along. After working hard to convince everyone, including Taverner, that she is not a field agent, she turns out to be so much more. David Cartwright was on the right track after all. He mentions bees and honey to River but, due to his dementia, Grandad Cartwright loses the thread. Will River work it out in time?

The Verdict

Slow Horses continues to be head and shoulders above other shows on offer. New episodes stream on Wednesdays on Apple TV +. This is television that is worth watching. Head on over right now and binge this if you have not already.

The Slow Horses Cast

Gary Oldman – Jackson Lamb.

Jack Lowden – River Cartwright.

Christopher Chung is Rodney Ho.

James Callis is Claude Whelan.

Nick Mohammed is Mayor Zafar Jaffrey.

Abraham Popoola is Tim Bowman.

Kristin Scott Thomas – Diana Taverner.

Ruth Bradley – Emma Flyte.

Saskia Reeves is Catherine Standish.

Aimee-Ffion Edwards – Shirley Dander.

Tom Brooke is JK Coe.

Christopher Villiers is Dennis Gimball.

Naomi Wirthner is Molly Doran.

Monty Ben is Farouk.