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| Slow Horses Season 6 Episode 4 Recap and Review. |
Slow Horses Season 6 Episode 4 pushes the Blake’s Grave crisis into increasingly messy territory, with former Slough House agents being hunted, dragged back into action or forced to disappear. River Cartwright gets an especially unexpected shock when he discovers Sid Baker is alive, while Lamb starts connecting the deaths of former agents to a possible leak inside MI5. Elsewhere, Louisa is pulled away from her comfortable corporate life, Moira narrowly survives a gas leak and Diana takes drastic action to keep control of the Park. Spoilers ahead.
River arrives at his grandfather’s house expecting to find Frank Harkness, but instead comes face to face with Sid, a colleague he has long believed to be dead. It is hardly the sort of reunion either of them has time to enjoy because two Russian assassins soon turn up looking for River.
Sid has already been suspicious that someone is tracking her, particularly after discovering that the Park had issued Russian travel documents in her name. When she questioned the paperwork, she was told it was simply an administrative error. That explanation becomes rather less convincing when strangers later appear in the village where she was relocated and begin asking questions about her.
River and Sid escape through the surrounding area before taking refuge at Anne’s house. The elderly homeowner is understandably wary when two unexpected visitors arrive, but their MI5 credentials are enough to convince her they are not burglars with unusually impressive badges.
With access to an internet-connected computer, Sid investigates what happened to the woman whose death may be connected to the documents issued in her name. Her conclusion is grim but logical: someone appears to have used her Park credentials for their own operation and now needs Sid removed because she could expose it.
The episode then shifts back towards the surviving Slough House contingent, where Shirley and Standish track down Louisa. Her life has changed considerably since leaving the department. She now works as a corporate executive, has money and, presumably, enjoys meetings where nobody expects her to survive an international conspiracy before lunch.
That quiet existence does not last.
Shirley and Standish interrupt Louisa at work and tell her about Blake’s Grave. Louisa initially tries to resist being dragged back into the chaos, but Shirley's rather spectacular lack of subtlety makes that difficult. Before long, the three are on the move again.
Standish then realises that Moira Tregorian could also be vulnerable because of her former connection to Slough House. They head to her home and quickly discover something is seriously wrong. A gas leak has left Moira inside the house, forcing them to get her out before the situation becomes fatal.
Moira survives, although the episode makes it clear that the threat against former Slough House personnel is becoming harder to dismiss as coincidence. Louisa responds in the most practical way possible: she makes another stop before reaching the safe house and buys a gun from an underground weapons dealer connected to Marcus.
The transaction does not exactly make her feel like a criminal mastermind. She is apparently overcharged, but at least she leaves with something capable of keeping the conversation short when diplomacy inevitably fails.
Meanwhile, Diana Taverner is dealing with the fallout from her interview with Damien. The media attention has created another headache for the First Desk, who now has to explain why she agreed to appear while keeping the real reasons behind the decision hidden.
Emma Flyte becomes increasingly suspicious of Diana's behaviour. Rather than simply accepting that her boss made an unusual professional decision, Flyte confronts her and suggests that something may be forcing Diana's hand. She even offers to help if Diana is being threatened or blackmailed.
That turns out to be exactly the wrong approach.
Flyte has already irritated Diana by tipping Jackson Lamb off about the deaths of former Slough House agents. Now she is asking questions Diana clearly does not want to answer. Diana responds by suddenly questioning Flyte's performance and fires her as Head of Security.
The decision is particularly revealing because Diana does not simply remove Flyte. She suggests sending her to Slough House, effectively treating the department as somewhere troublesome agents can be deposited when they become inconvenient.
Flyte sees straight through it. She recognises Diana's move as an attempt to regain control rather than a genuine assessment of her work, and leaves the Park furious.
Lamb, meanwhile, is busy chasing another thread. He and Roddy track down Reece Nesmith, the son of Andy Nesmith, the MI5 agent recently killed by Frank. Reece initially tries to get away, but Lamb and Roddy manage to catch him.
Roddy decides that an arcade might be the best place to get the boy talking. It is an oddly casual setting for an interrogation, but Lamb is less interested in the surroundings than the information Reece might have.
Eventually, they learn that Andy had stolen files from the Park for Frank. Andy then tried to demand more money for the material, a decision that ultimately cost him his life.
For Lamb, that detail changes the shape of the investigation. He goes directly to Diana and confronts her about what is happening inside MI5.
Diana initially argues that the deaths of the former Slough House agents could simply be unrelated events. Lamb is not buying it. He points to physical files about Slough House disappearing from the Park, along with digital records being erased.
That combination is difficult to shrug off as bad luck.
Lamb also makes it clear that he has no intention of allowing the Park to take control of the situation by offering protection. Diana, meanwhile, refuses to accept his suggestion that there is a mole inside MI5. Their conversation ends with neither side giving much ground, which is hardly surprising when the people involved are Lamb and Taverner.
Elsewhere, Coe finally gets River and Sid out of immediate danger, but Sid refuses to simply disappear. She still wants to contact Diana and explain what has happened to her.
That decision says plenty about Sid's relationship with the Park. Despite everything that has happened, she still believes Diana needs to know what is going on. Whether that loyalty is sensible is another question entirely.
River and Sid eventually reach a bowling alley looking for a payphone. It seems like an ordinary enough place to make a call, which in Slow Horses is usually a fairly reliable indication that things are about to become considerably worse.
The assassins arrive in the car park at almost the same time.
The episode therefore ends with River and Sid once again trapped in a rapidly closing situation, while Lamb is getting closer to the possibility that someone inside MI5 has been helping orchestrate the wider operation. The Blake’s Grave protocol has not brought order to the surviving Horses. If anything, it has exposed just how many loose ends are still moving around.
As a review, Episode 4 works because it keeps several investigations running without making them feel completely disconnected. Sid's return gives River a personal mystery to deal with, while Lamb's discovery about the stolen files turns the wider conspiracy into something more concrete. The strongest material comes from the contrast between Lamb's suspicion and Diana's increasingly defensive behaviour, with Flyte's dismissal adding another layer to the Park's internal problems.
Louisa's return is also handled with the right amount of dry humour. Her attempt at a normal corporate existence lasts roughly as long as anyone familiar with this series would expect, and Shirley dragging her back into danger feels perfectly on-brand. The Moira rescue adds another useful reminder that Blake's Grave is not simply an inconvenience for the Horses; people who have already left Slough House are being dragged back into the fallout.
The slightly weaker element is the sheer number of moving pieces. River and Sid are running from assassins, Louisa is being recruited again, Flyte is fired, Lamb is investigating stolen files and Diana is trying to contain everything at once. It is entertaining, but the episode clearly expects viewers to keep several threads in their heads. Still, that crowded structure suits Slow Horses, where bureaucracy, espionage and terrible personal decisions have always shared the same office space.
By the final bowling-alley sequence, the tension has tightened considerably. River and Sid have information that could matter, Lamb has a theory that is becoming harder to dismiss, and Diana appears increasingly isolated. The real question now is not simply who is hunting the Horses, but how deeply the operation reaches inside the Park. Did Episode 4 convince you that MI5 has a leak, and what do you think Sid should do next?