Slow Horses season 4 episode 5 begins with a check-in on Molly Doran (Naomi Wirthner). MI5's archivist arrives home when there is a knock at her door. It's Frank (Hugo Weaving), who tries to pose as a handyman so Molly will let him in. She's not buying it, so he reveals his gun. That does the trick.
Frank explains Molly would know him as Mitch Philpott, someone from Molly's past. However, the real Philpott has been dead for a few years. Frank posed as him online to get David Cartwright (Jonathan Pryce) and Chapman's addresses; turns out, Molly is Frank's unwitting source. Now he needs her help again. He wants her access codes for the Park so he can track the Dogs. When Molly refuses, Frank drops his playful nature and threatens to chop off her limbs until she gives him what he wants.
That's quite the start to the penultimate episode of the season, but let's review everything that happened in Slow Horses season 4 episode 5.
Omissions
Having apprehended River (Jack Lowden), Emma (Ruth Bradley) asks why he came back to David's house and what he was doing in France. River won't answer unless Emma can guarantee protection for David. When she asks why David would need protection, River again is tight-lipped. It's no deal, and Emma is taking River back to the Park.
In the car, Emma finds the photo of Frank, Robert Winters and the others River had. But River reiterates he won't talk until he's spoken to David. She tries to guilt him with the possibility of another bomb, but Rivers says Westacres was a one-off (he thinks). Emma finally relents, promising River five minutes with David, he just needs to tell her where he is. He says at Standish's (Saskia Reeves). Emma says Lamb (Gary Oldman) already tried that; he's not there, which of course is news to River.
Emma calls Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas), saying she has River but he won't talk until he talks with David. Taverner asks Emma to bring the Adam Lockhead passport to her. Emma notes she should log it first, but Taverner demands she skip that and bring her the passport. When she gets off the phone, it's River who has the questions: where's his grandfather? Does Lamb have him? Why didn't Emma tell Taverner about the photograph? Now Emma isn't answering.
Regrouping
Still driving around, David tells Lamb and Standish to let him go, that they work for him. Lamb reminds David that's not the case anymore, so now he has to listen to his questions: who did David send the guns and money to in France? David says he doesn't have to answer to Lamb. Instead, David wants to know where Lamb is taking him. It's not to the Park or Slough House.
Conversely, Louisa (Rosalind Eleazar), Marcus (Kadiff Kirwan) and Shirley (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) are on their way back to Slough House. Shirley is still upset Marcus sold his gun. When Louisa overhears this, she correctly guesses he sold it to Dancer Blaine, who she ran into while she was undercover. Marcus asks Louisa to tell Shirley Blaine doesn't sell to drug gangs. He doesn't, she confirms, he sells to organized crime.
That conversation is cut short when Louisa gets a call from River's mother, who Louisa had previously reached out to when she thought River was dead. She explains what happened to David and River, but River's mother isn't all that interested. She hasn't spoken to David in years and she just wants Louisa to remind River she exists.
Back at Slough House, Roddy (Christopher Chung) has figured out why Moira was sent there. When she was working the duty logs she noted someone with the code name "Galahad" picked up a prostitute. Turns out Galahad is Claude Whelan (James Callis).
Once they get back to the office, Louisa tries to figure out how they can support River and Lamb. JK (Tom Brooke) says they can't, citing the Slow Horses are all checked out, something he apparently can ID because he was previously in a psych evaluation. Shirley scoffs at this, but JK then breaks her down with pinpoint accuracy, which shakes her a bit. Louisa gets them back on track by figuring out what could have happened to Patrice after he attacked Chapman? He was injured, so they figure he could have gone to a back alley doctor. Moira says there's a database of those for undercover agents.
Burying the past
Whelan shows Taverner what Giti (Kiran Sonia Sawar) found out about Adam Lockhead. He was in Munich when a car bomb went off, in Paris when a Palestinian human rights activist was poisoned and Stockholm for another killing; so was Robert Winters. Taverner pieces together that MI5's cold bodies are being used by a "death squad." With this revelation, Whelan has come around to Taverner's way of thinking: they need to bury this. Taverner agrees. When Whelan brings up the Cartwrights, she says they'll buy their silence by promising to keep whoever killed the imposter out of jail.
Still on their way to the Park, River guesses Emma didn't mention the photo earlier because she thinks Taverner will destroy it. Emma admits she left her old job because of corruption, but MI5 is turning out to be the same — people doing whatever they need to regardless of consequences. River clarifies all he's trying to do is protect his grandfather, but since he's in handcuffs, that responsibility falls on Emma. He asks her to send the photo to someone she can trust (in this case Giti), find out who everyone in the picture is and take it to Whelan (who Emma copies on message).
Elsewhere, Lamb takes David to an old church. He explains to Standish that David created the cold body that blew up Westactres, but he needs to figure out who he gave it to and why. Standish is worried Lamb is going to hurt David, but instead, he leads him to David's wife's grave, with Lamb goading David to tell her he killed River. Lamb continues to badger David with this lie until David admits he "did it for her." The girl he extracted from France was David's daughter, as he wanted to get her away from Frank, who organized preemptive assassinations with his group of children, "killers raised from birth." David never told anyone what he did. Standish wonders if that's the case, why does Frank want him dead? Lamb figures it's because he can connect Frank to Westacres. Standish says they should take David to the Park, but Lamb knows they don't want to be connected to Westacres either, so they'll take him back to Slough House.
Best laid plans
Frank, having gotten the access codes from Molly without torture, is tracking River. Patrice shows up. He didn't get David's location from Chapman, but he has Chapman's phone in case David calls. Using Molly's computer, Frank pulls up pictures of Lamb and the Slow Horses, who Patrice confirms are the people who stopped him from getting Chapman. When Frank points out they're "burnouts," Patrice says he deserves to be punished. Frank doesn't want to hear that, instead, Patrice needs to channel his emotions to the next step. In this case, it's Patrice beating up trash collectors, stealing their truck and driving off. Frank, meanwhile, leaves Molly's, but also leaves behind a handful of closed envelopes with names on them, including Claude Whelan.
At the Park, Giti tells Taverner and Whelan she completed the task Emma sent her. This catches them off guard as Whelan didn't check his phone. Giti continues she was able to ID Patrice, who used another cold body, Paul Wayne, and Frank, then lists off their litany of terrible crimes. Taverner sends Giti off to get descriptions of Patrice and Frank to agents. Whelan asks "we don't have a concrete box big enough for this, do we?" Taverner says no.
Having cracked into the database, Roddy found that one doctor on the list died that day, then spots Patrice on CCTV footage at the doctor's location. He also finds out that the Dogs have River. Louisa calls Lamb with these updates and says Chapman is likely still in danger (they don't know Patrice already got to him). Lamb has Standish take David back to Slough House while he'll go check on Chapman.
Crash
Emma and River are starting to get along, particularly when they start talking about Lamb. But their chit-chat is cut short when Patrice crashes into their car with the garbage truck. They try to turn around but the car is blocked in.
One of the Dogs tries to get out but Patrice quickly shoots him, then kills the other Dog. Emma starts to fight Patrice, but is knocked out. Patrice pulls the gun on River, but instead of killing him, shoots his handcuffs off. He then kidnaps River at gunpoint, steals a car and puts River in the trunk (aka a boot in the UK). But where is Patrice taking him?
New episodes of Slow Horses release on Wednesdays on Apple TV Plus.
