‘Slow Horses’ Season 5 Ending Explained And Season 6 Theories: Is Frank Harkness Coming Back?
With yet another season of the Apple TV spy thriller series Slow Horses coming to an end, fans are already waiting to see the central team of MI5 outcasts back in action, and like always, the series lives up to its usual practice. At the end of season 5, we are given a brief glimpse into what Slow Horses season 6 is going to be about, in the form of a teaser. In this article, I will take a quick look at the ending of season 4 and all that can be expected from the next season of the Gary Oldman thriller, adapted from the novels of Mick Herron. Also, if you are looking for a recap and breakdown of the final episode of season 5, then you can find it here.
Spoiler Alert
Is River Cartwright still going to be a Slough House agent?
In Slow Horses season 5’s ending, River Cartwright gets a boost of confidence after his heroic acts at the public park, where First Desk Claude Whelan was being held at gunpoint by one of the Libyan terrorists, who had a personal vendetta against him. Had it not been for River’s intervention, Whelan would surely have been killed, and the MI5 Director’s extreme sense of relief and gratitude became evident from his acts right after River killed the terrorist. Whelan could not help but give River a hug and break down in front of him, absolutely rattled by the extremely tense and frightening experience. All this made River very confident that the Director would definitely do something special to thank him for his brave service, and he had just one reward in mind—to be brought back to the main MI5 office at Regent Park. After his mess-up during a mock drill way back in the 1st season, he had been exiled to Slough House, a department that was reserved only for losers and misfits in the agency.
Claude Whelan’s intentions to reward River are very clear in his own words as well, as he later plans on getting rid of the entire Slough House department but saves River’s job by having him promoted. But the quick turn of events just a few minutes later, which leads to Whelan himself resigning from the agency to hide his scandals, means that there is a new director now. This new director, Diana Taverner, makes it extremely clear to Jackson Lamb that she has no intentions of promoting River Cartwright or of bringing him back to Regent Park, seemingly because she does not believe that he is an agent good enough to serve in MI5 proper. Therefore, this means that River is definitely not going to be a part of the main squad, but since Lamb saves Slough House from being shut down, it means that he still has a job.
Firstly, it will be fun to watch River react to this whole mess, where his career was at a significant juncture, with professional progression clearly on the horizon, and yet it all vanishes in a matter of minutes. It can also be easily argued whether he even deserves a call-up to the main MI5 squad, as he remains as clumsy and hasty as ever. He literally becomes a witness to the death of Dennis Gimball because of his total misconception about Tyson Bowman being a terrorist. Even in the last episode, he and Shirley are almost on the verge of messing things up because of their constant bickering during an extremely tense moment. What would make the situation even worse for River is the fact that he actually calls up Louisa Guy at the end of season 5 and leaves a voicemail proudly stating that he too is going to leave Slough House, just like she had.
Although Louisa had categorically asked him to not call her again until she made the first move, River leaves her the voicemail, clearly out of a sense of accomplishment and pride. Perhaps he felt that the only reason Louisa was not interested in dating him was that they were colleagues, although that had technically changed when she had taken a break from the service at the beginning of the season. But the events from the end of the season mean that River will not be getting a promotion, and staying true to his promise to Lamb about not leaving MI5 completely, he is still going to be a Slough House agent. This is confirmed in the season 6 teaser, as River Cartwright appears extensively throughout it, and he will be in the thick of things once again next season. The same cannot be said for Louisa Guy, though, as she does not appear in the teaser, which might mean that she will genuinely not return to MI5 anymore, as she claimed at the beginning of season 5, or something more sinister, which I get into later in the article.
What will the main dilemma be in season 6?
The “Slough House” season 6 teaser lays out the main crisis that is going to be central to the season, where someone, or some group, is going to be hunting down Slough House agents, either attacking them or possibly killing them. Jackson Lamb is seemingly going to happen upon a lead through the most unusual of characters—a young boy whose father is apparently involved with the whole matter. The only problem is that the father is now dead, because of which the boy approached the Slough House agents in the first place. The boy’s father is revealed to have stolen a list of the Slough House agents, after which he has been mysteriously killed, and the file has seemingly been stolen. As of now, it seems like the theft of the list was completely coincidental, or like he might have had some minor and insignificant reason to have done so. However, his act also made him a target for the real perpetrators, who have possibly now killed him and stolen the file to carry out their main plan—hunting down each of the Slough House members. There are going to be multiple perpetrators this season, with a woman, seemingly a contract killer, and a man with possible connections to the government seen in the teaser. The man is seen with a very uncomfortable Diana Taverner in a scene in which he is seemingly congratulating her for becoming the MI5 Director, the one directly responsible for the security of the entire country. These perpetrators might be out for vengeance against the Slow Horses for some complicated reason, or they might have connections with the previous cases.
The fact that MI5 agents can very easily make enemies while essentially doing their jobs has been quite evident throughout the series, and perhaps some of the actions of the Slow Horses in the previous seasons now lead to them being targeted. It is unclear whether there are any fatalities involved, but the fact that we do not see Louisa in the teaser, added to Lamb’s sense of urgency to solve the case, might be taken as a hint that she might get killed early next season. Season 6 is supposed to be adapted from two Mick Herron novels, “Joe Country” (2019) and “Slough House” (2021), and the fact that Louisa is present in at least the first novel might also suggest that something major might happen to her in the series. Apart from her, all the usual suspects, like River, Catherine, Roddy, Shirley, and JK Coe, appear in the teaser, with Jackson Lamb leading them.
Is Frank Harkness coming back?
Based on the blurbs of the books from which Slow Horses season 6 is going to be adapted, multiple characters are going to be haunted by their respective pasts, seemingly with people and matters from their past now returning to create problems for them. This is confirmed through a scene in the teaser, in which River is seen coming face to face with his father, Frank Harkness, who had been the main antagonist in season 4. Along with being the biological father of River, Frank is also a dangerous criminal who had left his profession as a CIA operative to create his own kill squad. Although he had been technically brought down by MI5 at the end of season 4, the criminal had to be set free because of him threatening to leak confidential MI5 intel otherwise. In this brief scene, River confronts his father about his presence at a particular place, to which Frank admits that he has come solely for business purposes.
If we are to take hints from the books and also the developing situation in the recent Slow Horses seasons, then David Cartwright will possibly pass away next season, leaving a significant void in River’s life. Therefore, it is quite likely that Frank might actually turn up at David’s funeral, who was once his father-in-law (although they never had a friendly relationship, and there were numerous complications, as Frank had sort of abducted David’s daughter), which will enrage River even more. It is unclear what capacity Frank will be returning in and what his real intentions will be. Given his shady past and the fact that his death squad had been hired by MI5 numerous times as well, it might even be that he will return to work for the intelligence agency for some specific reason.
According to the books, Diana will also seemingly have to face an old foe at her workplace, although nothing of the sort is suggested in the teaser. She and Lamb are seen alone in a scene, though, in which the latter remarks how she has stumbled upon a major leak, either personally or through her position as the head of MI5. Maybe an old foe from her very workplace will come back to make her life difficult, since there are quite a few people she has pushed under the bus. Both Claude Whelan and Ingrid Tearney, from season 3, come to mind in this context, but it might be a completely new character as well.
Will Diana Taverner’s position be challenged?
In Slow Horses season 5’s ending, Lamb can be heard telling Diana that he does not want to be contacted by her or anyone else from Regent Park anymore, wishing to sever all ties from the main MI5 office like he has always wanted to do. It is possibly for this very reason that Lamb goes to the Dogs’ head, Emma Flyte, first, instead of to the MI5 Director when his agents are targeted, as seen at the beginning of the season 6 teaser. A very short scene later on also shows Diana having a stern argument with someone else at her office, and it is possible that there will be a rift between her and Emma Flyte. After all, the position of the MI5 First Desk is not at all an easy one, especially for an intelligent and resourceful individual like Diana Taverner.
We also see her being warned about how everyone must be held accountable for their mistakes, suggesting that some wrong decision made by Diana in the past is indeed going to come back to haunt her. Whether it will challenge her professional position in a direct sense will be interesting to watch, though. It is also possible that someone as driven and motivated as Emma Flyte might even start to eye the position of First Desk for the foreseeable future, and Slow Horses season 6 will include a fair deal of office politics as well. Aside from all of this, Slow Horses season 6 will most definitely have a lot of intense action and plot twists, with Jackson Lamb leading his agents in his usual demeaning and demotivating fashion, all for our enjoyment.
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