Please note: Spoilers ahead for the entirety of the episode.
Slow Horses S6, E2
The second episode of Season 6 premieres today, streaming exclusively on Apple TV. Subsequent episodes will premiere worldwide every Wednesday.
In the opening scene, Frank Harkness (Hugo Weaving), former CIA agent turned mercenary, poses as an agent from The Park (or, MI-5 headquarters) and then begins strangling an unidentified man who was formerly employed by The Park. As the man is breathing his last, Frank sees the man's infant son, crawling through the apartment.
In Slough House, which is not yet aware of Frank's latest crime, his son, River Cartwright (Jack Lowden), tries to minimize Frank's actions at the end of the first episode, when dear old dad chopped River in the neck and then fled the scene at the funeral of his grandfather, David Cartwright, the former head of MI-5. Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) has convened the agents in his office, which is the first time that everyone, including annoying computer ace Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung) and fairly efficient Shirley Dander (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) are made aware that two former Slough House agents were killed in the previous episode.
Watching his agents try to process the deaths truly annoys Jackson: "Christ, it's ... like watching plankton think." Jackson assigns Coe and Danger to investigate the "accidental" death of Kay White (shoved into a canal and drowned), and River and Roddy to track down Frank's car.
First Desk Diana Tavernier (Kristin Scott Thomas) meets former Home Secretary Peter Judd (Samuel West) for a meal in a busy restaurant. It is not a cordial meeting, as Judd keeps goading Diana, who keeps reminding him that she has only granted him a limited time. At Judd's invitation, Damien Cantor (Harry Lloyd), new owner of a news channel, joins them at the table; he tagged along on a publicity tour of The Park during Episode 1. Smugly, Judd quickly reveals that Cantor was the source of the large sum of money that Judd surrendered because of his illegal activity in the previous season. Cantor wants an interview with Diana to keep that transaction secret.
River and Roddy investigate Frank's whereabouts after he rented a car. They share a snippy exchange before Roddy tells Jackson the current location. More snips are exchanged before River exits to join Jackson and head out.
Jackson and River arrive at the car's last location, and start looking around. The dingy apartment complex looks a bit familiar and ... yup, it's where Frank killed the hapless former employee of The Park. They enter the flat and discover the dead body, hanging from a piece of exercise equipment. The baby is nowhere to be found. The man is Andrew Nesmith, identified by Jackson as a former "Dog," which is what members of MI-5's infernal affairs unit are called. On a hunch, River steps outside and sees a security camera in the distance, which Jackson dispatches him to investigate further, while he sits on the couch, feet away from the hanging dead body, munching on some crisps he found in the apartment.
Coe and Dander arrive at the canal-boat home of Kay White. On the way, we hear that Coe is perfectly fine with not receiving a paycheck -- "investments" -- while Dander is living paycheck to paycheck. She is not happy when she pries open the door of the late Kay's boat home: "Fuckin' hell, why does everyone live better than me?" She doesn't find anything of interest, except for some cash in Kay's purse, which she nabs, to Coe's disinterest.
River enters the warehouse across from the dead bloke's apartment, meets their head of security, Rosa (Loreece Harrison), watches some security footage with some key information, and then extends an informal invite for her to join the aforementioned "Dogs," which amuses Jackson, who's now standing outside the security office. Of course, any opportunity for Jackson to make a disapproving comment about River is not to be missed. As they head back to their vehicle, River gets a mysterious phone call, which he says is just a marketing call. Jackson immediately susses out that River is lying; the younger man confesses that he thinks his father is trying to contact him in order to mess with him. Jackson tells River, next time he calls, let me talk to him: 'That's my job (to mess with you).'
Returning to The Park from her unpleasant lunch meeting, Diana is met by MI-5 head of security/internal affairs Emma Flyte (Ruth Bradley), who asks about the television interview that's just been booked. They have a tense exchange, and it's clear that Diana is definitely not happy that she's been coerced into the interview, since "we don't do media."
As Coe and Dander are eating lunch by the canal, their waiter, thinking they are merely friends of the late Kay White, volunteers that he saw a man and a woman by her home on the night of her death, which he did not tell the police because of his visa has expired and he doesn't want to be deported. Coe asks: "What do they look like?"
Cut to the assassins Jim (Kyle Soller) and Jane (Myanna Buring), shopping in a warehouse-sized hardware store. First, a nail gun. As Jim tosses it into a shopping cart, Jane says she doesn't like being told how to do a job. Jim is nonplussed, and starts hunting for costumes.
At Slough House, Roddy identifies the 'something interesting' as the infant child Reece Nesmith, who's been bouncing around different children's homes. Jackson tells him to find out which one. River has received another mystery phone call, and leaves his phone with Roddy to investigate further. They have another snippy exchange, this one about the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek.
Office administrator Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves) finally makes an appearance. She's not in Slough House, though, she's visiting a wine shop, which is a dangerous sign for an alcoholic like Catherine. She is still disturbed by the news that Jackson Lamb had a hand in the death of her beloved former boss, Charles Partner, which she just learned about in Episode 1. She ends up buying a bottle of wine, margaux, of the type that she and Charles shared in the past.
Stone-face Diana arrives at Damien's news channel for her interview. She briskly lays down the limits of what can be discussed: no operational details, no questions about her personal life. In the interview itself, questioner Serena (Louise Minchin) asks about how the Secret Service responded to the recent gas attacks; Diana slips and refers to a "retaliation," which raises eyebrows. Serena then asks Diana about "whispers" that the previous First Desk was "found to be in the pay of a foreign power." Diana laughs the thought off. On the way out of the news station, Diana and Damien have another tense exchange. (There's a lot of those in this episode.)
The assassins Jim and Jane arrive at a house. When the door opens, it's a lovable supporting character, a former Slow Horse, which kinda broke my heart. Jim and Jane tidy up and stage the scene to suggest another kind of accidental death, but I wonder if they're too clever for their own good in their staging?
In a high-rise building, Damien stops his boxing routine to greet a stranger. It's Frank Harkness, who informs Damien that he was contracted by him to do a job for him. Frank tells him that the job was done, but that there is still a loose end, a witness to the job. Damien asks if the witness knows about "the stolen file." Frank tells him the witness is a minor, a juvenile, and asks if he still has Damien's approval to proceed. Damien says, 'you're the expert, I'll let you guide me.'
Molly Doran (Naomi Wirthner), the MI-5 recordkeeper, greets Jackson Lamb with her usual ill temper. He asks about the two dead Slow Horses, and then about the recently deceased "Dog" Andy Nesmith. It seems he had an unpleasant, aggressive encounter with Molly, prompting her to inform Human Resources, prompting them to fire him. What Jackson really wants to know, though, is why Diana had all of Slough House deleted from the database; he knows it's not a "glitch," as she claimed at the funeral in Episode 1. So he asks Molly if he can look at the paper files for the dead former Slow Horses.
Jackson calls Roddy at Slough House, where River is standing by. Roddy fills in Jackson on where Andy Nesmith's missing infant son is supposed to be, as well as the news from Coe and Dander about the two people sighted near Kay White's canal home. While Jackson is still on the phone, Molly rolls up in her motored wheelchair to tell him that the paper files for the two dead former Slow Horses are gone. Not only that, all Slough House paper files are "completely missing."
Upon hearing that, Jackson gives Roddy the command "Blake's grave," which is immediately sent to all agents, telling them to go dark immediately because someone is trying to kill them. Roddy rushes River out of the office before they can trace what was probably a phone call from Frank Harkness.
Catherine is heading home from the wine store. Jackson pulls up in his tiny yellow car. They have a tense exchange, before Catherine reluctantly gets in the car.
Speeding away from Slough House, Roddy finishes his search and tells River that Frank's last call came from inside his recently deceased grandfather's house. River seethes.
Jackson and Catherine meet Coe and Dander in a cemetery. Jackson calls Roddy, who answers, despite the "Blake's grave" command, which includes NO PHONES. Roddy tells Jackson that River dropped him off on his way to confront Frank at his grandfather's house. Jackson sends Coe there to stop him, while he directs Catherine and Dander to pick up Louisa Guy (Rosalind Eleazer), who's been on a mental health break since Season 5.
River arrives at his grandfather's house. He does not discover his father. Instead, he discovers Sid Baker (Olivia Cooke), an MI-5 agent who was planted in Slough House to spy on River in Season 1. She was critically injured and claimed by Diana to be dead, but her possible survival was hinted at, and so now we'll have to see how she figures into everything, and where her loyalties lie.
Written by Edward Docx and directed by Adam Randall, Episode 2 complements Episode 1 nicely, furthering the plot and characterizations. More intrigue has been raised, of course, which is well-timed for the season.
I suspect that more questions will be raised before we start getting any answers.
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