Last Stop
Richard Bough, a man in his 50s, is out for a walk when he sees someone he knows. The person walks by his shop and Bough gets a message on his phone that the person is coming back. He collapses and passes out.
Slow Horses is excited to have a new case to work on. Jackson Lamb, the newest detective on the force, quickly realizes that this could be their big break. They soon find out that retired field agent Bough had a heart attack and was kicked out of the agency just before the Berlin Wall fell. It seems he left behind a message for them, which reads “Cicada.” With this information in hand, the detectives set out to find Cicada, who may hold the key to solving this new case. ..
Dickie Bough was an agent assigned to go after the puppet master for these spies, a man named Alexander Popov. Dickie Bough infiltrated the man’s inner circle and discovered that he was using cicadas as sleeper agents to spread chaos and discord in British society. ..
Although the British concluded that the man was a fake, when Dickie ended up going AWOL before the Berlin Wall fell, coming back blind drunk and claiming brandy was poured down his throat after being abducted and taken by Popov. They immediately believed that it was him off on a bender and disgracing the agency – fired as a result – but it could be there’s more going on here than meets the eye. ..
The River family is on the move again. Min and Louisa have organized a new job, away from Slough House and working for Webb on a security detail ready for a big meeting with Russians. Things don’t go as planned when they ask about Jackson Lamb, but they are able to get by with the help of Min and Louisa.
The group of cyclists ride through CCTV footage from Slough House in an attempt to find out what happened. They quickly realize that the man they were following, Bough, was following them and they intend to try and grab the hard drives for the footage on trains to learn more.
When River tells his father about the Richard Bough case, he ends up getting spooked and heads off for a drink, claiming he’s shocked that the man was still alive. It’s clear there’s more going on here than first meets the eye, and River senses as much from his father.
Shirley managed to get into the datacenter and grab the files, after a quick getaway. The footage shows Bough on the train and it appears that he touched his arm before they exited the carriage. It could well be that he was poisoned, as the CCTV shows him rubbing his arm after he got off the train.
The confirmation from River that the cicadas are back and active is a big development, as it suggests that whatever’s going on here may not be a myth after all.
The Episode Review
AppleTV’s Slow Horses series returns with another intriguing case. The opening is pretty good too, and recontextualizing that scene through the investigative work after is a nice way of getting us invested in the Cicada situation.
There are still tensions at Slough House, but seeing the dynamics between the different characters is partly what makes this show so interesting. With River off on the case now, will they end up getting too close to this cicada situation? We’ll have to wait and see! ..
