For a season that is so fast-paced, with a rat-a-tat movement regarding the sequence of events, this is the season where the story is as elusive as the identity of the antagonist or even the antagonist who is allowed to enter the frame. “Slow Horses” (season 4) episode 4 slowly starts to shape the overall story, giving hints to the personal connection, bringing focus and renewed importance to the Cartwrights.
Slow Horses (Season 4) Episode 4 “Returns” Recap:
What is Frank Harkness up to?
Frank Harkness (Hugo Weaving) walks into a suite from the parking garage of a hotel room, accompanied by armed security belonging to his client—a sheik or prince. We learn that the Westacres plot was supposed to be a hit disguised as an accident, but the mall’s blowing up had been due to a “weak link in the organization.”
The Prince, too, doesn’t want the trail to lead back to him and prepares to cut Harkness using saws. However, Harkness (to save his hide) reminds them that ex-service members are aware of the true nature of the Westacres plot and might go underground or within the protection of the Park unless he catches them. This allows Harkness leeway until midnight so that he can hunt these ex-service members down.
A few hours later, we see the resident terminator—after the altercation of the last episode—meeting up with his “father,” Harkness, at a bar nestled at the end of a darkened alley. It turns out the killer has patched himself up with the help of a doctor and has managed to silence him, but his inability to silence Chapman makes Harkness rather unhappy (that grabbing hard on the shoulder felt quite painful).
He instructs his “son” to torture information from Chapman about the group helping him before silencing him, reminding the assassin that any spook would go back to his flight fund if there is a chance of him being taken out. Harkness instructs his son to wait at what is likely the hideout of Chapman’s flight fund.
What had Chapman been involved in at Lavande during the 90s?
Meanwhile, Lamb, driving towards Slough House with a rescued Chapman, Marcus, and Shirley, is informed upon questioning that Chapman is aware of Lavande in that he is aware of Les Abres, a compound known for harboring dangerous contract killers. He refuses to debrief until they reach Slough House.
Upon reaching there, they find the dogs, accompanying Second Desk Diana Taverner, waiting for him. Lamb gets out of the taxi to converse and effectively distract Taverner, while Marcus and Shirley sneak Chapman through without being noticed. Lamb’s acerbic conversation with Taverner reveals that while Diana is aware that the Cartwrights have both disappeared, she doesn’t know that Flyte had been sent to Catherine Standish’s and had failed in her mission. Angry at slowly losing control of the situation, Taverner instructs Lamb to inform her of the first thing when he learns about Cartwright.
The problem, though, for Lamb is he finds Standish waiting for him while Louis is staking out at the park, and Lamb, too, is frustrated upon learning that David Cartwright has escaped. According to Standish, though, he is looking for First Desk; hence, he might be going to the park, and Louis is staking everything out. Chapman, though, is horrified because clearly, the secret Cartwright is at risk of divulging, which is horrifying enough for Chapman to find himself in hot water. Lamb instructs Chapman and Standish to follow him upstairs to his office while ordering Marcus and Shirley to search for David Cartwright by retracing his steps.
At the office, Chapman recounts his tale. In the 90s, Chapman would make a trip to Lavande, France, at the Les Abres compound for an extraction. He would pick up a car in Dover, which would be packed to the gills with cars, munitions, and IDs of cold bodies to be handed over to scary-looking mercenaries led by an American whom Chapman can’t name. We can safely presume that it is Harkness. In exchange, Chapman was allowed to take away a young woman from the compound.
From what Chapman describes and from what we learned from River in the last episode, Harkness had been housing women in his compound like a cult and having kids with them to raise his army. As Chapman describes the woman’s demeanor, she was unhappy to leave and would have rather stayed back with Harkness, but this had been a mission instructed by the ”Old Bastard,” and considering the amount of information and weapons being exchanged, this felt like a personal mission utilizing the Park’s resources.
The woman would escape when Chapman stopped to fill the car. After learning the news, the Old Bastard would only sigh in resignation when Chapman reported to the old building. That’s when Lamb and Standish had a brainwave. Cartwright isn’t going to the Park because, in his mind, the Park’s office is currently the Old Building.
Where is the Old Building?
Back at the current office of MI5, second desk Diana Taverner calls up the head of the Dogs, Flyte, and berates her for withholding updates about the Cartwrights before instructing her to bring in the Cartwrights. Meanwhile, Flyte gets a call from the old building. The old building, where Lamb, Chapman, and Standish drive towards in their battered-up taxi, is a posh hotel called the Orianne.
The Orianne receptionist had called Flyte and informed them that Cartwright was waiting in the lobby, presumably for the “first desk,” and they ensured that he was comfortable. Louisa, staking the park, notices Flyte’s car leaving and informs Standish. Meanwhile, at the Park, Taverner is blindsided by Whelan (The First Desk) and Giti Rehman when shown one of the IDs of the Cold Bodies, Adam Lockhead.
This had been the same ID that the assassin had possessed, and Taverner realized that he was the spitting image of River Cartwright, which had allowed Cartwright to go undercover. Still, in his moralistic phase, Whelan wants to audit the identity programs, which Taverner is dead against. Still, before their argument goes further, Giti informs them that “Adam Lockhead” had just boarded a train to London. River Cartwright is coming home. Taverner instructs Flyte to send one car to the old building while the rest of the cadre move to the station to intercept Cartwright.
At the hotel, Chapman and Standish enter because Lamb doesn’t want to talk with the Old Bastard because he hates him. While Chapman tries to convince David to leave, Standish sneaks through the lobby and flips the alarm to confuse the Dogs that Flyte sends to block all the exits. While the dogs miss them, the Slough House team manages to exit through the back door, where Lamb is waiting for them.
As Standish safely escorts David into the cab, Chapman reminds Lamb that he must disappear because if the Park catches him, they will pin the entire France debacle on him instead of Cartwright—a living legend. Lamb warns him to be careful while escaping with his flight fund, reminding him that there is a hit out on him, but Chapman is wily enough. Or at least that’s what he says to reassure Lamb.
At the station, as the train slumbers through, Flyte and her dogs rush to nab River. Unbeknownst to them, Harkness too is waiting for them, having followed the same passport route as they have. River manages to give them the slip by escaping through the service exit to the ground floor and, when noticed, finally rushes through the crowd, giving them the slip and managing to get into a metro in the nick of time. As Harkness sees the Dogs regroup, he calls up his other soldier and informs him that he needs to get into the park’s system and figure out how they are two steps ahead of Harkness and his squad.
Slow Horses (Season 4) Episode 4 “Returns” Ending Explained:
Does Chapman manage to escape?
Meanwhile, Chapman, utilizing all of the London Rules of espionage and shaking off his tail that he could, manages to sneak into his office, where he rescues his flight fund—a stack of cash and passports—from an alcove above the ceiling. Relaxing a bit, he makes a drink, but his reverie is interrupted by Harkness’ son, who had been waiting for Chapman on the floor above his office. Now, having entered by clambering down through the balcony of Chapman’s office, the man breaks Chapman’s arm and orders him to talk. Chapman, however, laughs and spits in his face, leading to the man beating him to death.
Meanwhile, River had taken the metro and later walked over to his grandfather’s house in Tunbridge Wells. Sneaking in through the neighboring garden patch, avoiding the police guard, and fetching a key kept below a flowerpot, he enters the house and stealthily walks up to his room, where he fetches a box from where he rummages through and brings out a series of postcards.
These are presumably the postcards sent to him by his mother, a figure that neither River nor his grandfather likes talking about. As he looks at the drawings on the postcards, he compares some of the designs with the photo of the painting at Les Abres. There is a similarity there because River looks flabbergasted and heartbroken at the revelation.
But he hears cars rushing into the driveway before he can process that. The Dogs had figured out he would come to his grandfather’s place and moved to intercept. Under the command of Flyte, the Dogs move into the house but are unable to locate him. A few minutes later, as the sounds of the cars leaving waft through the air, River clambers down from a hiding place in the ceiling, only to be called by Flyte, who had pretended to leave so that River could put his guard down. This is the first time Flyte meets River Cartwright in the flesh, caught red-handed.
The implication of River’s parentage being connected to Harkness is fascinating because it shapes this season into essentially a Cartwright family saga, with the Slow Horses caught in the middle. It’s a major swing, even by the standards of a series like “Slow Horses,” but I like it so far.
