Aahana Swrup
The Apple TV+ spy show ‘Slow Horses’ charts a new thrilling adventure with its season 4, which finds River Cartwright—MI5’s worst department’s best agent—in a world of trouble. A shopping center in Westacres undergoes a massive bombing, which turns up the pressure on MI5 to catch the culprits, forcing the new Second Desk head, Diana Taverner, to work with Claude Whelan, the new First Desk director. Meanwhile, Jackson Lamb and his agents at the Slough House find themselves in a precarious situation as River Cartwright becomes entangled in uncovering an old conspiracy involving his grandfather and an elusive French mercenary, Frank Harkness. In the season finale, ‘Hello Goodbye,’ both storylines intertwine in an actual and emotional explosion, bringing the story to a perilous conclusion. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Slow Horses Season 4 Episode 6 Recap
After episode 5, certain truths about the Cartwright family and their unfortunate relation to Frank Harkness emerge following Lamb’s interrogation of David. Meanwhile, at the Park, Whelan agrees to keep things under wraps after realizing the actual scope of revealing the past connection between the Agency and the mercenary. However, he takes caution to the extreme and decides to authorize a kill order on both Frank’s agent, Patrice, and River, the former’s new hostage. In the meantime, the Slough House agent finds himself forced into a meeting with Frank at a public restaurant. Rather than beating around the bush, the younger man quickly confronts the other about their apparent relationship.
Likewise, Frank also wastes little time in confessing his real motives behind the meeting: he wants to recruit River into his quickly crumbling organization. During the pair’s tense catch-up, the computer whiz Horse, Ho, tracks down River’s location around the same time that the Park receives a tip-off about them. Simultaneously, Louisa reaches out to Emma Flyte, the new Head of the Dogs, to ensure she and her agents don’t follow through on Whelan’s authorization to kill River. However, Louisa and River aren’t the only Horses who have found themselves backed into a corner. In fact, trouble arrives squarely on the others’ doors as Frank’s lethal protege, Patrice, arrives at the house—armed and ready to kill.
Back at River’s dreadful family reunion, he successfully bides his time long enough for Emma, Louisa, and the Dogs to arrive. Nevertheless, Frank’s attempts to escape with River as his hostage aren’t entirely sound due to the kill authorization on the latter man. Still, Louisa’s presence helps as the confrontation dissolves into chaos, with the Dogs remaining uncertain about their plan of attack. Frank utilizes the confusion to bolt from the scene after planting a grenade on River. Thus, Emma and her Dogs find themselves chasing down the French mercenary to stop him from escaping their clutches by catching the earliest train out of London.
Slow Horse Season 4 Ending: How are Frank and David Connected? Does River Join Frank?
Season 4’s entire build-up revolves around the mysterious connection between Frank Harkness, the French mercenary, and MI5’s David Cartwright. For the same reason, once the consequences born from the same connection begin affecting the Agency—and Slough House—Lamb decides to investigate the matter. Naturally, it brings him to Sam Chapman, a former MI5 Agent with close professional relations to David from their time in the Agency. As it turns out, whatever past conflict has led Frank to target David has also roped Chapman into the mess. Still, the man manages to survive long enough to share his part in the tale.
Years ago, when David was still in the service, he made a deal with Frank. The Frenchman was on the path to starting a new assassination service. However, unlike a conventional organization, he was planning on initiating his agents into the game from a young age. Thus, he was running a child soldier ring, wherein kids were trained for their future as Frank’s assassins from an early age. David’s daughter, Isobel, somehow got caught up with the mercenary. As a result, after falling in love with him, she fled home and began living at his home base. For his part, Frank takes advantage of the situation, using Isobel to blackmail David.
For the same reason, David ended up delivering money, weapons—and, worst of all—MI5 IDs to Frank in exchange for Isobel. Consequently, Frank got the resources to bring his organization to unprecedented heights, David got his daughter back, and there was a dangerous stain on his record. Furthermore, Isobel never forgives her father for taking her away from Frank, failing to realize that the man only uses her to his advantage. Thus, River grew up with a fabled story about his father’s death. Nonetheless, even after he finds himself face-to-face with the man, he has no love lost for him.
What hadn’t been clear to Isobel in the past is blatantly evident to River: Frank Harkness is a monster who has been exploiting people for his own benefit for years. Even his guns for hire—many of whom are likely his own offspring—have been manipulated from a young age to serve him wordlessly. In fact, the same led to the attack at Westacres—a mission which was otherwise supposed to fly under the radar. Nevertheless, Frank’s agent, Robert Winters, finally cracked under the pressure and brought public attention to himself to implicate the former man and his organization. In the end, River sports equally hateful emotions toward his biological father and unflinchingly turns down his offer, instead helping the Dogs track him down.
Does Frank Escape? Does the Park Arrest Him?
After Frank’s arrest, things look decidedly bleak for the mercenary. The MI5 has caught him red-handed, with evidence that connected him to his child-soldier assassination ring as well as the Westacres bombing. Still, the Frenchman ends up having one final ace up his sleeve. Despite the recent shortcomings in his plans, Frank has been in the game long enough to know one must always have a contingency plan. Therefore, he already has a fail-safe built in place that allows him all the room to be cocky when faced with Taverner in an interrogation room.
Apparently, MI5 has been in contact with Frank for a long time. He has been using fake Mi5 identities as covers for his assassins since he got his hands on them through David. Moreover, the agency has also hired his services numerous times to neutralize some threat or another. Even though David cut ties with the same during his tenure as a high-ranking official, one can still find records of the collaboration, as Giti has proven. As such, if the news gets out about his connection to the Park, things will quickly go south for the Agency. Therefore, Frank has ensured the same happens if the Park decides to arrest him.
Earlier, Frank visited Molly—the Park’s archivist—to track down the Dogs and get his hands on River. However, he also left a message with the agency during the visit. The message turns out to be five letters addressed to different MI5 officials. The letters, whose digital copies are set to be made online at a particular time frame, detail Frank’s relationship with the MI5, uncovering every hidden secret. Thus comes the ultimatum: release Frank or risk airing out the Agency’s dirty laundry. Considering Whelan was ready to sacrifice River to ensure the issue resolves itself without unwarranted publicity, it remains likely that he will take Frank’s deal and allow the man to walk despite his crimes. As such, even though Frank gets caught by the end, the man seems unlikely to have met his demise.
Does Patrice Kill the Horses?
While the confrontation between the Dogs, River, and Frank unfolds at the train station, the Horses find themselves in an equally—if not more—doomed predicament. Frank’s client, who ordered the assassination, which resulted in Westacres, wants to erase any ties connecting Frank to the attack. Therefore, things remain gloomy when Patrice sets his sights on the Slough House—where David is currently hiding— to tie off any loose ends. Having grown up as a child soldier under Frank, Patrice packs a particularly lethal punch. He has already shown his abilities by fighting off numerous MI5 Dogs all on his own.
As such, chaos instantly erupts after he attacks the Slough House office, which is sorely lacking reinforcement with River, Louisa, and Lamb all out of the picture. Ho is the first one to fall victim to Patrice’s bullet, which luckily grazes his arm. Afterward, he manages to hide in the washroom with David while the others attempt to fend off the assassin on their tail. JK, the mysterious, silent new addition to the team, proves to be surprisingly effective even without a weapon. Still, his tricks only take him so far in his fight against the Terminator-esque Patrice.
In the end, as Shirley barricades herself in Lamb’s office with Moira and Standish, Marcus decides to confront their adversary. Fortunately for him, he managed to win his gun back in the nick of time after bartering it off to pay his gambling debt. Even so, Marcus proves to be no match for the trained soldier, who moves past his defenses and arrives at Lamb’s office, leaving Shirley as the last line of defense between him and David. Ultimately, Lamb’s timely return to the office and sneak attack on Patrice neutralizes the situation, leaving the latter passed out from head trauma.
Lamb handcuffs Patrice to the radiator to ensure he remains less dangerous to everyone. However, it also makes him a convenient target for Shirley once she realizes that he has killed Marcus out in the hallway. Since their arrival at the Slough House, Shirley and Marcus have been support systems for each other, quickly building a strong friendship. Therefore, she is gravely affected by his death. Nonetheless, her team knows she won’t be able to live with herself if she has another human’s blood on her hands—even in the name of revenge. As such, they stop her when she attempts to kill Patrice—a fate the assassin welcomes startingly well.
Even so, after Shirley lowers her gun on the man, JK—the perpetual wild card who had talked her off the proverbial ledge—shoots Patrice down with his own gun. Ultimately, the horses get their revenge for Marcus’ death, which does little to fill his painful departure. Meanwhile, River—who has broken multiple department rules to save his grandfather—has to enroll David in a nursing home, much to the older man’s displeasure. Yet, it’s a better outcome than they could’ve asked for. Ultimately, the horses have evaded danger, but their peace seems to be remarkably precarious.
