Slow Horses
Episode 3 Preview And Review
Episode 3 of Slow Horses begins with news of the latest attack by the Sons of Albion. Of course, our MI5 rejects are watching, eager to get involved. Louise and Min have a drink together at a bar, but it turns into a kiss when they stumble into Slough House. However, they are distracted by footsteps from above, as there is someone in Lamb’s office.
The pair head upstairs and are eventually spoiled by a hooded thug. After knocking down the stairs, Louise unmasks to reveal… Jed Moody. He is also very dead, he has no pulse.
Meanwhile, Cartwright is saved from his predicament by Lamb, who shows up at the hospital and gets him out. Lamb is not happy about Cartwright’s call with Sid’s gunshot wound and continues to berate him for his “walk” in the ambulance. Sid’s condition is uncertain at this time, he may live.
As Lamb and Cartwright leave, MI5 appears and reports the pair are gone. While in the car, Cartwright confronts Lamb about hiring Sid to look after his case. He bites the lamb and asks about the thug who attacked Sid.
River Cartwright now concludes that the man never spoke, which may indicate that the attack was staged to make him appear to be part of the Sons of Albion. It also worked when we knew Jed Moody was the striker.
Naturally, the pair return to Slough House. There they examine Moody’s body. Lamb first finds the bug planted in his office, along with two cell phones, one of which is rarely used. Lamb’s sarcasm is wonderfully British as he bites back against Cartwright’s sarcasm and finally confronts Diana by the canals. Diana moves up the ranks, but Lamb pretends he forgot to tie his shoelaces and discovers the Moody’s dead.
It turns out that Diana has set up a really big game to take out the Sons of Albion, with one of her agents working undercover. Unfortunately, Hobden has overheard Diana’s big plan and MP wants Peter to reveal everything. It seems that this is all a false flag operation and the Sons of Albion are not actually going to behead Hassan.
It’s one hell of a gamble, though, and it’s also based on many different elements coming together. One thing neither the Sons of Albion nor Diana helped with was Hassan trying to escape. He heard her trying to break the boards in the basement and was dragged upstairs as she seemed close to freedom (except for the vent above, of course).
In exchange for keeping this all a secret, Lamb wants the Standish file to cover up for Lamb’s boys so they don’t take the heat for dealing with Moody’s death and Moody’s body. Diana agrees.
Hobden goes to see Peter in the middle of the night, reveals what he knows and begs Peter for help and to carry out the operation publicly. Instead, he punches her in the face and tells her to leave. But in her absence, Peter calls. And to whom?
Lamb returns to see the Slough crew and decides that they must rescue Hassan from his fate as agreed with Diana. Along with the Sons of Albion, Curly (one of the more volatile members of the group) begins to lose his cool. He was told to settle down and swing his ax at Diana’s underling after questioning one of his men. That was definitely not part of the plan!
When Lamb and the team show up, they find the Sons of Albion – and Hassan by extension – gone and their undercover man beheaded.
Episode Review
Slow Horses returns this week with another solid episode, this time ratcheting up the tension as more truths come to light. It turned out that the whole operation with the sons of Albion was actually a high-risk covert business. Unfortunately, this also has the powerful effect of Curly losing control of the whole operation and killing the mole. This will backfire on almost everyone involved now, with Diana likely to take a lot of heat for the incident. It also keeps things on a knife edge for next week’s episode.
There’s definitely an air of familiarity to this show, and the story takes a lot of run-of-the-mill influences from other British crime dramas. It’s still a solid show, though, and the ending leaves the door open for where next week’s follow-up could go.