Slow Horses Season 6, Episode 2 Review — ‘Daddy Issues’

This review contains full spoilers for Slow Horses Season 6, Episode 2, which is streaming on Apple TV now.

The thing we knew was happening from the first and only Season 6 trailer has happened: Olivia Cooke’s Sidonie Baker has popped back into the picture. The reappearance of the short-lived slow horse was hardly anything — that single “hello, River” line before the end credits roll — and yet raises so many questions. How is she alive? Why has she been in hiding? Why was she playing the spoof-call “triangulation” game with River? What’s she doing in his dead grandad’s house? Most importantly, why did Apple TV spoil this in the trailer?

It’s tough not to imagine how much more of an impact Sid’s return would have had if it had been saved for a jaw-dropping tag at the very last second of this episode. (I’m jealous of those who look at the internet less than me; and yes, I have reconciled with the fact that I am part of the problem. Have I learned an important lesson about the true meaning of “Moscow rules”? Probably not.) Regardless, it’s a welcome comeback for a beloved character, despite her only appearing in literally three episodes of Season 1, and it added a fun last flourish to an episode that was already cruising.

As one slow horse enters the picture, another one leaves — poor Moira (Joanna Scanlan) was crossed off the list of the mysterious killers (Kyle Soller and MyAnna Buring). She may have escaped Slough House, but the asterisk on her file would never be deleted. Though we still know very little about who this duo is and why they’re taking out agents who might as well be dead to the Park, something is obviously off. “Seems too easy,” says Buring’s character. “Are you sure we have the right list?” At least now Coe (Tom Brooke) and Shirley (Aimee-Ffion Edwards), in their unlikely yet effective team-up, have picked up the pair’s scent after investigating the house boat of their dead colleague. Even though we’re supposed to hate this horse-murdering pair, their brief characterization across these two episodes has done a ton to up their intrigue points — details like Buring being picky about the goopy soup she’d burn on Moira’s stovetop to cover up the murder and Soller holding Moira’s limp hand as he clicks through TV channels.

Details

This entire episode, “Daddy Issues,” is packed with moments like that — Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) barking at River; River mimicking shooting a projectile in the back of Roddy’s (Christopher Chung) head; Roddy talking about how bitcoin is about to “pop off”; Lamb teasing the Park archivist (Parchivist?) Molly (Naomi Wirthner) about her slay-queen, glam-rock outfit. Actually, this episode was especially stuffed with zesty Lambisms. Taking these extra beats to add a punchline to deeply serious situations is part of the Slow Horses appeal, and Season 6 has once again demonstrated that this is the house style, not something that left with show creator Will Smith after Season 5.

Speaking of deeply serious: We now know that River’s dad Frank Harkness (Hugo Weaving) is maybe at least somewhat involved with the Slough House erasure at the Park, commissioning (and then killing) the Dog who nabbed those files from the records archive. But he’s left a witness, presumed to be a kid, to the murder and has the go-ahead to take care of it. Meanwhile, Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) is not having the best time as First Chair now that she knows where the money she accepted from Peter Judd (Samuel West) came from and was blackmailed into a sit-down TV interview with the “very slightly right-leaning,” as Judd undersells it, news outlet Talkpoint. (Was that the first time we’ve ever seen Diana caught totally flat-footed?)

“Daddy Issues” is yet another Slow Horses episode that makes spinning a bunch of carefully managed plates look easy. But I’m cognizant of the time crunch; Season 6 has already burned through two episodes, and for as exciting as they are, all of these blank spots need to be filled in so that this web of intrigue doesn’t end in a jumbled mess.