With the end of another season of the Apple TV spy thriller series Slow Horses, fans are already eager to see the team of MI5 misfits back in action, and as always, the show delivers. At the end of the fifth season, we are given a brief glimpse of what the sixth season of Slow Horses will be about, in the form of a teaser. In this article, I will briefly review the end of season four and everything you can expect from the upcoming season of the thriller starring Gary Oldman, adapted from the novels by Mick Herron.
In the season five finale of Slow Horses, River Cartwright regains his self-confidence after his heroic actions in the public park, where the head of MI5, Claude Whelan, was being threatened at gunpoint by one of the Libyan terrorists, who had a personal vendetta against him. If it weren't for River's intervention, Whelan would surely have died, and the MI5 director's extreme relief and gratitude were evident in his actions immediately after River killed the terrorist.
Stars: Gary Oldman, Jack Lowden, Kristin Scott Thomas
Whelan couldn't help but embrace River and break down in front of him, completely shaken by the tense and terrifying experience. All of this led River to believe that the director would definitely do something special to thank him for his courageous service, and he only had one reward in mind: to be reinstated to the main MI5 office in Regent Park. After his mistake during a training exercise in the first season, he had been exiled to Slough House, a department reserved only for the agency's losers and misfits.
Claude Whelan's intentions to reward River are also made very clear in his own words, as he later plans to get rid of the entire Slough House department, but saves River's job by promoting him. But the rapid turn of events a few minutes later, which leads Whelan to resign from the agency to cover up his scandals, means that there is now a new director. This new director, Diana Taverner, makes it very clear to Jackson Lamb that she has no intention of promoting River Cartwright or reinstating him to Regent Park, apparently because she doesn't believe he's a good enough agent to serve in MI5. Therefore, this means that River definitely won't be part of the main team, but since Lamb saves Slough House from closure, it means he still keeps his job.
Firstly, it will be interesting to see River's reaction to this whole mess, where his career was at a crucial point, with a clear professional advancement in sight, and yet it all vanishes in a matter of minutes. It could also be debated whether he even deserves a promotion to the main MI5 team, as he remains as clumsy and impulsive as ever. He literally witnesses Dennis Gimball's death due to his complete lapse in judgment in believing that Tyson Bowman was a terrorist. Even in the last episode, he and Shirley almost ruin everything because of their constant arguing during a moment of extreme tension. What makes the situation even worse for River is the fact that he calls Louisa Guy at the end of season five and leaves her a voicemail proudly stating that he's also going to leave Slough House, just like her.
Although Louisa had categorically asked him not to call her again until she made the first move, River leaves her the voicemail, clearly with a sense of accomplishment and pride. Perhaps he thought the only reason Louisa wasn't interested in dating him was that they were coworkers, although that had technically changed when she took a break from the service at the beginning of the season. But the events of the season finale mean that River won't get a promotion, and true to his promise to Lamb not to leave MI5 entirely, he will remain a Slough House agent. This is confirmed in the season six trailer, as River Cartwright features extensively in it, and will be back at the center of the action next season. However, the same cannot be said for Louisa Guy, as she does not appear in the trailer, which could mean that she really won't be returning to MI5, as she claimed at the beginning of the fifth season, or something more sinister, which I will address later in the article.
The trailer for the sixth season of “Slough House” introduces the main crisis that will be central to the season, where someone, or some group, will be targeting the Slough House agents, attacking or possibly killing them. Jackson Lamb seems to find a lead through a most unusual character: a young man whose father is apparently involved in the whole affair. The only problem is that the father is dead, which is why the boy approached the Slough House agents in the first place. It is revealed that the boy's father stole a list of the Slough House agents, after which he was mysteriously murdered, and the file appears to have been stolen. For now, it seems that the theft of the list was completely random, or that he might have had some minor and insignificant reason for doing so. However, his act also made him a target for the real culprits, who possibly killed him and stole the file to carry out their main plan: to target each of the members of Slough House. There will be several culprits this season, with a woman, apparently a hired assassin, and a man with possible government connections being shown in the trailer. The man appears with a very uncomfortable Diana Taverner in a scene where he is apparently congratulating her on becoming the Director of MI5, the person directly responsible for the security of the entire country. These culprits could be seeking revenge against the Slow Horses for some complicated reason, or they could have connections to previous cases.
The fact that MI5 agents can very easily make enemies while simply doing their job has been quite evident throughout the series, and perhaps some of the Slow Horses' actions in previous seasons are now making them targets. It's unclear if there are any fatalities, but the fact that we don't see Louisa in the trailer, coupled with Lamb's urgency to solve the case, could be interpreted as a clue that she might die at the beginning of the next season. The sixth season is expected to adapt two Mick Herron novels, "Joe Country" (2019) and "Slough House" (2021), and the fact that Louisa is present in at least the first novel could also suggest that something significant might happen to her in the series. Besides her, all the usual suspects, such as River, Catherine, Roddy, Shirley, and JK Coe, appear in the trailer, with Jackson Lamb at the helm.
According to the synopses of the books on which the sixth season of Slow Horses will be based, several characters will be haunted by their respective pasts, and it seems that people and issues from their past will return to cause them problems. This is confirmed in a scene from the trailer, in which River is seen face-to-face with his father, Frank Harkness, who was the main antagonist in the fourth season. Besides being River's biological father, Frank is a dangerous criminal who abandoned his profession as a CIA agent to create his own death squad. Although he was technically neutralized by MI5 at the end of the fourth season, the criminal had to be released because he threatened to leak confidential MI5 information. In this brief scene, River confronts his father about his presence in a particular location, to which Frank admits that he has come solely on business.
Based on the books and the situation unfolding in the latest seasons of Slow Horses, it's possible that David Cartwright will die next season, leaving a significant void in River's life. Therefore, it's highly likely that Frank will appear at David's funeral, who was his father-in-law (although they never had a friendly relationship and there were numerous complications, as Frank kidnapped David's daughter), which will further enrage River. It's unclear under what circumstances Frank will return or what his true intentions will be. Given his shady past and the fact that his death squad was also hired by MI5 on numerous occasions, it's even possible that he might return to work for the intelligence agency for some specific reason. According to the books, Diana will also have to confront an old enemy at her workplace, although none of this is suggested in the trailer. However, she is seen alone with Lamb in one scene, in which he comments that she has uncovered a significant leak, either personally or through her position as head of MI5. Perhaps an old enemy from her own workplace will return to complicate her life, as there are quite a few people she has wronged. In this context, both Claude Whelan and Ingrid Tearney from season three come to mind, but it could also be a completely new character.
At the end of Slow Horses season five, Lamb is heard telling Diana that he doesn't want her or anyone else from Regent Park to contact him, wishing to sever all ties with MI5 headquarters, as he has always wanted. It's possible that this is precisely why Lamb goes to the head of the Dogs, Emma Flyte, first, instead of the director of MI5, when his agents are attacked, as seen at the beginning of the season six trailer. A very brief scene later also shows Diana arguing heatedly with someone else in her office, and a rift may be developing between her and Emma Flyte. After all, the position of head of MI5 is no easy task, especially for someone as intelligent and resourceful as Diana Taverner.
We also see her receiving a warning about how everyone must be held accountable for their mistakes, suggesting that some bad decision Diana made in the past will come back to haunt her. It will be interesting to see if this directly affects her professional standing. It's also possible that someone as ambitious and driven as Emma Flyte might even begin to aspire to the position of head of MI5 in the near future, and Slow Horses season six will likely feature plenty of political intrigue within the office. In addition to all of this, Slow Horses season six will definitely have plenty of intense action and plot twists, with Jackson Lamb leading his agents in his usual sarcastic and demoralizing way, much to our delight.
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