‘Slow Horses’ Season 6 episode 1 recap: Fan-favorite character returns as assassins strike
'Slow Horses' Season 6 opens with an old Slough House face trying to build a new life. River Cartwright, meanwhile, prepares to bury his grandfather. By the end of the premiere, titled 'Circle of Life,' Jackson Lamb's team has reason to fear that someone is targeting its former members. An unexpected visitor at David Cartwright's funeral leaves River with another problem he cannot ignore.
The September 16 episode also picks up a loose thread from Season 5, as Diana Taverner faces questions about money seized after the attacks on London. At Slough House, meanwhile, the agents discover problems beyond their unpaid salaries. The building itself has become a problem, and nobody has a clear explanation. Here's how the premiere's storylines unfold.
Struan Loy, last seen in Season 1, now teaches karate to children and lives in a converted shipping container. He wants to sell similar containers as homes and is delighted when a man and woman turn up claiming to be interested investors. Their story falls apart when Struan asks how they found a business he has never advertised. The pair beat him, locked the container from outside, and set it on fire.
River has his own reasons to be distracted. David has died after a period of declining health, and Taverner tells River that MI5 will arrange a funeral that preserves his grandfather's Department of Transport cover. River resents having to follow the Service's rules while grieving. His mother, Isobel, has not answered his messages, and his colleagues' jokes about his inheritance offer little comfort.
Trouble also arrives at Slough House in the form of an estate agent. JK Coe mistakes him for an intruder and punches him, only to learn that the building is listed as vacant because its rent has not been paid. Catherine Standish visits Regent's Park for an explanation. Moira Tregorian finds that Slough House, its staff and its assets have been deleted from MI5's records on orders from senior leadership.
Meanwhile, Emma Flyte gives Lamb Struan's case file despite Taverner's wish to treat his death as an accident. Lamb and River inspect the burnt container and find wood that had been used to bar its doors from outside. Struan could not have escaped the fire. The same two attackers then kill Kay White, another former Slough House employee, at her houseboat. Their conversation identifies River as their next target.
At David's funeral, Peter Judd gives Taverner news about the offshore funds she seized following Season 5's attacks. He says the money was not his but belonged to an unnamed associate. The episode does not identify that person or confirm whether the funds have anything to do with the killings. Taverner is also confronted by Lamb about the erased records, which she dismisses as a glitch.
Taverner changes the subject by telling Catherine that Lamb killed her former boss, Charles Partner. Catherine had not known the truth and walks away from the funeral, shaken by the revelation. River, meanwhile, gives a eulogy that maintains David's cover story. His grandfather's burial brings the surviving members of Slough House together, but it does not settle any of the threats hanging over them.
As the service ends, River spots Frank Harkness watching from a distance. His estranged father, an American mercenary, has returned without warning. River confronts him and jumps onto the hood of his car when he tries to leave, but Frank drives off. The premiere offers no explanation for his appearance or any confirmed connection to the assassins. With River now on their list, that unanswered question carries into episode 2.
