In the middle of this episode of Slow Horses, James “Spider†Webb, the former MI5 agent and Diana Taverner lackey, boasts to River about his new position at Chieftain, a hotshot new security group. After the debacle detailed last season, Spider said he was given the choice between leaving MI5 or accepting relegation to Slough House. He chose the former. “No offense,†he tells River. “Literally none taken,†River replies.
It would, of course, upset the dynamic of the show if a truly inept, spectacularly vain and foolish agent like Spider wound up in Jackson Lamb’s flock, because the not-so-secret formula of the show is that Slough House, for all of Jackson’s grousing (to say nothing of his own hygienic challenges), consistently outwits their counterparts at the Park. That doesn’t make them flawless — Shirley should probably not be illegally busting into a suspect’s flat and feeding her drug habit in his bathroom — but they’re a scrappy bunch, exiled more for political reasons than for issues of competence. Starting with Jackson, who would not pass any literal smell test to get in the door, they would look out of place at the Park.
All of this sets up a comic tension that pays off repeatedly in “Negotiating with Tigers,†an episode that delights in the buffoonery of insiders and power players who are constantly left with their pants around their ankles. It starts with the extravagantly smug Peter Judd, right-wing boob turned Home Secretary, calling Ingrid Tearney, the notably dignified MI5 director-general, to his office to embarrass her formally. “I would offer you tea or coffee, but what I think you really need is a big slice of humble pie,†Peter tells her by way of introduction. The kidnapping of Catherine Standish, it turns out, was a “Tiger Team†operation designed to probe MI5 security for weaknesses. River’s ability to infiltrate the Park, then, was a sign that Ingrid’s operation needs some tightening up.
Ingrid comes prepared with a letter of resignation, but Peter tears it up, perhaps because tormenting her is far preferable to not having her around. What Peter doesn’t know is that the Tiger Team, led by Sean Donovan and managed by Sly Montieth at Chieftain, is about to go rogue. For Sean and his cohorts, fake-kidnapping Catherine for Tiger Team was only half the plan, the official one; the second phase is to kidnap her for real to negotiate for a series of files called the “Grey Books,†which document MI’s investigations into various far-flung conspiracy theories. Since those wacky files are naturally deprioritized, they’ve been tucked away in an off-site facility — boxes we’ve seen Diana manage and two Slough House members (River and Catherine) put together.
The situation is hugely embarrassing for Judd and Sly Monteith, who think they got the better of MI5 and now have a rogue unit on their hands. Then it becomes perhaps fatally terrible for Spider, whose lifeless body gets rolled out in front of a fancy restaurant. And then, over at MI5, Jed Moody gets his licks in on River, but no amount of punches thrown can paper over the humiliation of River infiltrating the Park by fooling him with a fake diamond. Jackson, River, and the Slough House gang could never be part of these Keystone Kop operations, which only the shrewd and politically adept likes of Diana and Ingrid could keep afloat. For the purposes of the show, you need the Judds and Jeds and Spiders of the world to have a “Kick Me†sign taped to their backs.
With three episodes left, Slow Horses marks the halfway point exactly as it should, with an elegant pivot in the plot where Catherine’s fake kidnapping becomes real and Sean’s ulterior motives start to emerge. The question of what happened to MI5 agent Alison Dunn, Sean’s professional and romantic partner, when she handed over a stolen file and wound up dead in the deal, has been hanging over the show since the opening of the first episode. (Frankly, I expected some flashbacks because Katherine Waterston, as Dunn, seems too major an actor to turn in a Police Squad–style “special guest star†appearance. But so far, we’ve stayed in the present.) There’s no telling how 9/11 conspiracies — will we learn whether it was really an inside job or if jet fuel can melt steel beams? — or other assorted crackpot notions will figure into this, but obviously we have to look into the puzzle box with the big question mark on it.
As Slow Horses shifts gears, it’s worth standing back and appreciating how swiftly and cleanly this season got off the ground. Obviously, there hasn’t been any heavy lifting necessary to establish Slough House or introduce new characters beyond Sean in the opening. So the show has been able to step on the accelerator from the start with Catherine’s kidnapping, River’s subsequent infiltration of the Park, and all of the twisty cloak-and-dagger that’s been happening around it. The writers and directors have put a premium on speed, taking advantage of pre-established relationships in order to move right into the suspense-comedy that makes it so entertaining. We’ll see if the new phase will keep that momentum going.
Shots
• Line of the episode, from Peter Judd on the PM vetting file River was manipulated to steal: “Is it true he gets his wife to piss on him or is that just a rumor I started? I forget.â€
• Catherine, with a comically quizzical reaction to her new situation: “So am I now an actual hostage?â€
• Another fine Judd line to Ingrid, as he refuses to accept her resignation: “I look forward to a new phase in our relationship, in which I am the daddy.â€
• On Elton John, do you lean Team Shirley (“cure for my insomniaâ€) or Team Marcus ( “greatest songwriter of the last 50 yearsâ€)? (Both of them are wrong. It’s just about degrees of wrongness here.)
• Jackson loves Catherine and hate-loves River, as illustrated in this speech: “I’d have done what they said and once they let her go, I would have killed every one of the bastards. If they’d threatened to kill you, on the other hand, I’d have bought them a beer and bullets.â€