Slow Horses – Season 4 Episode 5 “Grave Danger” Recap & Review

Grave Danger

Episode 5 of Slow Horses season 4 starts with Molly heading home. Unfortunately, she receives a call from none other than Frank Harkness. He shows off his gun, and invites himself in. He goes by an alias that Molly recognizes – Mitch Philpott.

Now, Mitch wanted details on Sam Chapman and David Cartwright, and she was happy to give the details. The thing is, he’s using her for information and given she’s tucked away in the dungeon, she’s not going to be easily missed when she’s gone from the Park for so long.

She tries to bluff her way out of this but Frank is not stupid. He knows she’s playing hardball, so he brandishes a knife and even threatens to cut off some limbs.

It does the trick and Frank accesses Molly’s database to get the gist on where Emma and River are. In that case though, River urges Emma to get the photograph out there and use it to try and get leverage on this case. Emma complies, sending the picture to Giti and asking for her help,

Now, Frank also has a live feed to the cameras outside, which he checks as he notices the Dogs arrest River outside David’s house. River wants to talk to David, just five minutes to talk to him and make sure he’s okay. However, when he brings up that he’s over at Catherine’s place, Emma is at the end of her tether. Diane won’t allow it and as she’s the superior officer here, she just wants him brought in and thrown in the basement.

Meanwhile, Jackson and Catherine try to extract information from David, who’s erratic and demanding to be brought to First Desk. While they’re AWOL, Louisa tries to rally the troops to work out what to do next. She tries to work out where Chapman has gone and they deduce that the hospitals may be the best place to start. But of course, we know that he’s dead.

Now, Claude tries (and fails) to deliver a PowerPoint presentation where the crux of the issue lies in the fact that two of their IDs have been grabbed. Claude also realizes that they ned to make sure Giti stays quiet, which is obviously going to be difficult given she’s been given orders by Emma to look into the photograph.

Of course, things are made all the more awkward when Giti shows up to see Claude and Diane with the results. This shows the whole family of course, and throws Claude’s plan of deniability out the window.

Jackson tortures David into submission claiming that he definitely killed River. This works quite well as David reveals that the woman Sam Chapman saved from Harkness was actually David’s daughter. He wanted to create an assassination squad, bred from birth. David wanted to get her away from him and that’s why he targeted her. And the only way to get her back for him and Rose was to give Frank what he wanted.

David is linked to Westacres, and anyone with that connection is, unfortunately, on that kill list. With the truth unveiled, Patrice shows up at Molly’s place alongside Frank. He has Chapman’s phone just in case Cartwright rings. However, Patrice is punished by Frank when he finds out that he was bested by the Slough House rejects. Frank demands that he step up and channel his grief and rage to make things right.

Meanwhile, Jackson Lamb realizes that Chapman hasn’t checked in and decides to regroup with the team. Given Frank Harkness has them all within his sights, this doesn’t pose well for them at all. That is especially bad, given Frank already has all the details he needs to take them out. He doesn’t kill Molly though, but does leave a bunch of cards on her desk, one of which reading “Claude”.

Disaster strikes though when Emma, River and the Dogs are ambushed. With River handcuffed to the car, they’re sitting ducks to Patrice, who shows up and causes chaos. He knocks Emma out and then shoots River’s handcuffs. Patrice stuffs him in the boot of his car and takes off.

The Episode Review

The penultimate episode to Slow Horses sees everything hit a dramatic crescendo. The shootout was intense and incredibly well shot at the end, eventually leading to big question marks over exactly who will come out of this in one piece.

Simultaneously, we see plenty of drama with the Slough House group but again, Jackson Lamb is barely in this episode and he’s really the lifeblood of the whole series.

However, we do get more of Hugo Weaving’s Frank Harkness who definitely cuts an imposing figure. All in all, everything is left on a precarious knife-edge, leaving the finale wide open for what may happen next.