Aahana Swrup
Jackson Lamb and his agents have found themselves in yet another tricky situation in season 5 of ‘Slow Horses.’ Following a coordinated honeypot attack against Roddy Ho, the Slough House had gone under strict MI5 lockdown, which was broken easily enough through some trickery and teamwork. As a result, in episode 4, Lamb strikes out on his own, chasing after the same lead as Emma Flyte, only managing to stay a few fortunate steps ahead of the Head of the Dogs. Meanwhile, Shirley and Standish attend Mayoral candidate Zafar’s rally as a safety precaution, only to be blindsided by a real attack. On the other hand, River and Coe Zafar’s competition, Gimball, whose rally ends up seeing lethal action of its own, but not in a way anyone would have expected. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Lamb Helps Flyte Track Tara Down
In the Park, Roddy Ho remains stuck inside the interrogation room, this time with Emma Flyte on the other side of the table. The latter uses a possibly fake story about falling in love with a target during a honeypot mission herself to connect with the Slough House agent and convince him to help MI5 track Tara down. Although he tries to outsmart them by using the phone call to tip his girlfriend off, their conversation ends up lasting long enough for the system to get the latter’s location. At the same time, the sincerity in Tara’s proclamations of love for Roddy, as she claims to be a victim in the situation as well, compels Flyte to consider lending some credibility to her feelings.
Simultaneously, Lamb also finds Tara’s address and has a significantly easier time doing it by deducing that it must be close to the fake address she previously gave to his agent. Therefore, by the time Flyte and her agents arrive at the location, Lamb is already there and has discovered Tara’s escape. However, his early arrival also helps him snoop around her phone records through which he deciphers that the young woman has taken a cab to Roddy’s apartment. As a result, despite Flyte’s reluctance, he manages to weasel his way into tagging along with her for the mission. As the Security Head arrives at the target’s location, Tara attempts to make a run for it, only to be foiled by Lamb. Ultimately, the efficient detective work earns him the possibility of sitting in with Flyte and Taverner during Tara’s interrogation back at the Park.
Claude Unearths Sordid Details About The Gimballs’ Past
As a result of Claude’s running rivalry with Dodie Gimball, the wife of the mayoral candidate, the former finds himself backed into an unpleasant corner. The latter has used her journalistic resources to collect evidence about the MI5 Director’s apparent extramarital affair with an escort. Therefore, she threatens to run a front-page piece about the same in her paper as a power move. While the blackmail attempt initially shakes up Claude, he only lets the charade go on for so long. Pulling some of his own well-funded strings, he digs into Dennis and Dodie’s pasts to find the skeletons in their closets. Thus, a visit to the Gimball residence marks a turning of the tables in the petty rivalry between the First Desk Director General and the journalist.
The files Claude has on the Gimballs reveal the truth about Dennis’ ancestry as the son of a Welsh mother and a Turkish father, Yusuk Ozil, who also happened to be an illegal immigrant. Furthermore, the latter was arrested and imprisoned back in the day for the crime of grievous bodily harm. Since the politician is running on an intense anti-immigrant platform with conservative voters making up most of his target demographic, this hidden detail about his past holds the power to run his career entirely. Similarly, Claude has records about Dodie’s apparent college relationship with the chairman of the campus’ Marxist society, whom she had gotten fired through planted cocaine following a bad breakup. Thus, it becomes evident that Claude has an upper hand in the dangerous game Dodie had begun.
Shirley and Standish Prevent an Assassination While River and Coe Accidentally Cause One
After escaping from the locked-down Slough House, the agents (and Standish) find themselves attending the two mayoral rallies happening in town. As per Coe’s theory about the destabilization strategy, their enemies’ next plan of attack will likely include a political assassination, leaving Zafar and Gimball as the obvious possible targets. Lamb predicts the latter has a better chance, thus only sending Shirley to the other event as a precaution. However, the opposite turns out to be true. Still, with the agent and Standish’s quick thinking, the two women manage to prevent the assassination from taking place. Meanwhile, Coe and River remain as dysfunctional as ever, parting ways to stake out different locations they deem to be the ideal spot for the could-be assassination.
This brings the silent and broody agent to the dressing room, from where he spies Gimball in a back alley having a tense conversation with a stranger. Little does he know the latter is Zafar’s security detail, Bowman, who has arrived for a civil conversation. Nonetheless, the politician quickly turns the conversation into a violent one. Around the same time, River makes an appearance, managing to get rid of Bowman. Shortly afterward, Coe makes his way down to the alley through a complicated maze of backstage equipment. However, in doing so, he accidentally sets off a domino effect, which ends with a heavy paint can landing right on top of Gimball’s head. In the end, the politician breaks open his skull in the back alley while the agents have no choice but to flee from the scene.
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