Slow horses
A stranger comes to town
Season 4
Episode 2
Editor’s Rating
Photo: Apple TV+
River Cartwright is a seemingly capable agent, arguably the star sheep in Lamb’s flock of misfits. He wouldn’t even be at Slough House if he hadn’t been sabotaged during a field test, and his resume is enhanced by his grandfather, David, whose time as a senior intelligence officer paved the path of nepotism that River was to follow. And yet, for the second time in four seasons, River has gone alone to a small town where his presence is so conspicuous that it immediately sets off alarm bells for the people he’s after. He spent much of the second season in the tiny Gloucestershire town of Upshott, investigating the “cicada” theory of Russian sleeper agents hiding in British society, awaiting instructions to attack. He survived the ordeal, of course, but his adversaries beat him to the punch before he could tell foe from friend.
And now we have to ask again: What exactly is River’s plan? In the opening scenes of another great episode — investigative strategy quibbles aside, the series is running at full speed so far — we learn what actually happened at David’s house and which River doppelgänger was shot in the face in his bathroom. Although Lamb speculates that David may be exaggerating his dementia, he seems to be able to think clearly enough in that moment to realize that the man who introduced himself as River and immediately went upstairs to run a bath was not his grandson. As David tells River, one clue is that the stranger called him “Grandpa,” which River never does. When the real River shows up to assess the situation, he’s delighted to find a number of clues to the intruder’s identity and previous whereabouts, including a passport and a receipt from a cafe in Lavande, France. And so he just goes there.
As Brian Grubb wrote for Vulture earlier last week, “He’s very good-looking, well-meaning, and perhaps the dumbest person who ever lived.”
Admittedly, it’s his grandfather’s fault for putting him in this situation. Not only does David have a shaky report of the shooting that the park could exploit, but he also pressed a big red button to alert them, leaving River little time to act. So he takes dramatic action by shooting the dead man in the face to keep the assumption that it’s him alive for as long as possible. In the meantime, he puts his grandfather up with Standish and heads to Lavande, a town so repulsive that, as his taxi driver notes, no tourists go there. Yet here River has spent €95 on a taxi ride to this desolate backwater, where the first two locals he meets won’t talk to him and a vicious guard dog harasses him. Despite this, he manages to get the address of a bar/cafe called Blanc Rousse and asks the bartender point blank if he’s seen a guy who looks like him. He doesn’t even drink the latte he says he wants.
From there, River marches off to stick his face in the fan – and, no surprise, gets a little torn up by the rotor blades. It is difficult to know the exact number and shape of his opponents, but one of the men facing him is played by Hugo Weaving, who is still in the spotlight 25 years after his role as Agent Smith in The Matrix. We can see that River is being monitored by several parties across the city and even in London, where an agent casually accosts a cop outside David’s house, extracts some information from him, and leaves a surveillance device. (Incompetence is not limited to Slough House in this show.) River ends the episode by being knocked unconscious by a man he assumes is saving him. It seems like a just fate, considering how well prepared he was for this impromptu waste of money.
While Lamb and his colleagues rush to sort out River’s situation from afar – Lamb insists he’s “a regular guy and you don’t blow his cover” – the other major development from last week’s premiere, the Westacres bombing, is being closely examined by the park. An enterprising agent named Giti Rahman (Kiran Sonia Sawar) alerts Taverner that she has checked suspected bomber Robert Winters’ passport and found that it has been legally renewed several times over the years, but was issued by the old park headquarters 28 years ago. Kristen Scott Thomas as Taverner takes this disastrous information with her usual cool composure and immediately hatches a plan to cover it up. She flatters Giti by putting her on this very special project that she is to report on only to her. This leads to a hilarious scene where Flyte, who is working way below her pay grade, plays Giti’s babysitter. She even makes her an omelette.
Although Taverner dutifully reports the situation to Claude, her superior in title only, she has to fine-tune the whole strategy of burying the information in a pit, as Claude believes he can usher in a new era of transparency at the agency. Taverner does everything but roll her eyes as she gives his speech, but after so much professional experience, her philosophy is that opacity and secrecy are crucial at MI5. For obvious reasons, it wouldn’t paint a good picture for the agency if it had any possible links to the mall bombing. So she gets Claude to sign off on the destruction of incriminating documents related to Robert Winters, just one of the fires she puts out “every damn day.” The investigation will have to take a more idiosyncratic route.
No doubt that path will lead through Slough House, and damn if the house will look neat and tidy. In the episode’s funniest subplot, an interim office manager tries to clean up Lamb’s dirt-caked hovel, and he smiles through gritted teeth and offers to take the woman to lunch at his expense. On the way out, he whispers to his men, “I can’t bloody be in there like this. Make everything the way it was.” Pigpen doesn’t leave without his cloud.
• To what extent, if at all, is David Cartwright exaggerating his dementia? He was perceptive enough to suspect he was being watched, and perceptive enough to shoot the right man, despite his resemblance to his grandson. But his confusion and tears tell a more direct story. When the past connection between David and Lavande comes to light, we will surely learn more.
• Lamb, of course, knows exactly what River did before anyone else. He also seems to appreciate his bravery, even if he calls it a “probably stupid move.”
• Marcus is back playing and excitedly explains how he can turn the proceeds from a gun sale into a “sure thing” and use it to pay off a five-figure debt. “A relapse is a good sign,” he assures Shirley. It’s all part of the process.
• A good witty comment from Lamb to the new office manager at lunch, as she laughs at the “rejects” she has to teach at Slough House: “You don’t think the company you’re in now reflects badly on you?”
