Slow Horses Season 6, Episode 3 Review — ‘Resurrection’ feedzy_import_tag

This review contains full spoilers for Slow Horses Season 6, Episode 3, which is streaming on Apple TV now.

For as apt a title as “Resurrection” is for this particular Slow Horses episode, it also kind of undersells the amount of resurrecting — literal and otherwise — within. It’s a trifecta: Of course, there’s Sid (Olivia Cooke), who was revealed to be alive at the end of the last episode. But then there’s Louisa Guy (Rosalind Eleazar), living a new plush life in the corporate world whose past life as a Slow Horse is unmercifully revived when Shirley Dander (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) and Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves) drag her out of a meeting. Lastly, there’s Moira (Joanna Scanlan), who might have actually been dead for a minute or two after the hit attempt by the murder twins (Kyle Soller and MyAnna Buring), springing back to life. “Resurrection” is a real doozy and an overall excellent Slow Horses episode that takes full advantage of all the plot-building groundwork this season has done thus far.

It kicks off with River’s (Jack Lowden) understandably bemused expression watching Sid prance around his grandfather’s kitchen as if almost nothing had happened. He asks all the same questions we as viewers have: How? Why? What the hell, man? But their conversation is cut short as the murderers — who apparently have names (rather, obvious aliases), Jim and Jane — pull up on the long driveway to cross off their next hit. It starts an episode-long cat-and-mouse game between the two pairs that makes space for fun banter (ie., how much a cow costs) and big developments to the grander season conspiracy (the murderers are Russian, some of Sid’s current story).

It’s a thrilling framework that also reminds us of both the bumbling and occasionally competent sides of a Slow Horse. When Jim and Jane first break into the house after a lame attempt at non-forced entry (“We’re lost” — try harder!), I braced myself: Will River and Sid do some cool spy shit and take them out? The thought was answered with a cut to them sprinting through the field to escape. Again and again, they find a moment to breathe and unpack the lost years until Jim and Jane have found the end of the scent trail that leads directly back to Sid and River. The very end of the episode is no different: Just when you think the Slow Horses have shaken their tail, Jim and Jane come ominously skulking through the parking lot. (Coe, do something!)

Of course, “Resurrection” isn’t just the River and Sid show. The women of Slough House have formed a ragtag little band with Louisa and Moira in tow to keep in line with Blake’s grave protocol. Louisa is a welcome familiar face and the lingering effects of Moira’s gas poisoning give her some funny moments of delirium, but this team-up keeps up the weakest part of the season thus far: Standish continuing to grieve her ex-boss Charles Partner while suppressing her urge to drink. It’s a real shame that she’s been mostly sidelined to staring at wine racks so far given that she’s so often been an integral supporting role in the series.

Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas), however, has been given plenty to do — such is the life of First Desk — and is Going Through It after her disastrous interview with Talkpoint. Pretty much everyone has a bone to pick with her right now, and she takes it out on Emma Flyte (Ruth Bradley), demoting her from her head Dog duties and banishing her to Slough House. I can’t help but wonder how much more of this pressure Diana can take before her deflective front starts to erode. Or maybe she really is an impenetrable force after all!

Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) and Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung) have their own side quest, too, in picking up Reece Nesmith (Lenny Rush), the son of the ex-Dog that Frank Harkness (Hugo Weaving) strangled last episode — and sole witness to his murder. Given that Lamb is actually good at his job, they find Reece, who proves to be quite the match for both of his captors (and can go fart-to-fart against Lamb). Unfortunately for Reece, decades of experience beats out the energy of youth.