Slow Horses Season 3 Episodes 1 and 2 Review: Strange Games / Hard Lessons
Slow Horses Season 3 Episodes 1, “Strange Games,” and Slow Horses Season 3 Episode 2, “Hard Lessons,” find the team scrambling after realizing that Catherine hasn’t shown up to work. It doesn’t take long before they discover that she’s been kidnapped.
It’s a slow start to the season, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The focus of “Strange Games” and “Hard Lessons” is to set up this new threat while checking in with the team as they start to investigate it.
Catherine being kidnapped is a quick way to get us invested in this case, but right now, it’s hard to figure out what to make of this tiger team. We now know Catherine’s not in any immediate danger, but that could change if Jackson and Slough House anger them too much, which is what they excel at if we’re being honest.
Despite Catherine’s relative safety with these individuals, they are still highly skilled and good at their jobs, which means they are dangerous. Seeing as how we have a whole season ahead of us, something is going to go awry with this team. I just hope Catherine doesn’t get caught in the crosshairs.
The two-episode premiere delivers some superb tension as River tries to steal from the Park. Whenever he gets waylaid by someone, I stress out even more. River’s determined to take years off my (and probably Jackson’s) life. Now he has to deal with the dogs. Good luck, River.
I’ve missed the slow horses and their shenanigans.
If the premiere proves anything, it’s that Louisa and River need to be paired up more. Their banter is great, and we don’t see enough of them working together. Shirley and Marcus make an entertaining partnership, but I hope as the season progresses, we’ll see the pairs shift a bit.
Roddy being out in the field on Slow Horses Season 2 was fun to watch (if not a bit of a disaster), and it would be great to see him get out again this season. What are your hopes for our slow horses during Season 3?
Louisa having the missing diamond is an unexpected development, and I’m not entirely sure what to make of it yet.
Admittedly, I completely forgot about the diamonds from last season, so I had to refresh my memory. In case anyone else needs a refresher, here is a quick one.
On Slow Horses Season 2 Episode 6, “Old Scores,” Marcus kills Pashkin on a roof. Pashkin was holding a pouch of diamonds and planning to escape with them, but when he died, the diamonds spilled out onto the roof.
What we didn’t know about until now is that when MI5 went to clean up the scene and recover the diamonds, one was missing. The only people on the roof before clean up/recovery were Marcus, Louisa, and Catherine, and so those are Duffy’s main suspects.
Stray Thoughts
- It took me far too long to place one of the kidnappers — it’s Terra from Fate: The Winx Saga!
- The moral of Catherine’s failed escape from being kidnapped is to not help random people.
- I still think about Sid… I need answers, Slow Horses.
- Roddy creepily flirting with Louisa could be uncomfortably awkward, but knowing Louisa will shut him down immediately helps make those moments more funny than cringey.
- I don’t trust Louisa’s one-night stand, especially after she ran into him again.
What did you think of this episode of Slow Horses? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Slow Horses airs new episodes on Wednesdays on Apple TV+.
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Allison Nichols
Allison is in a love affair with television that doesn't seem to be letting up anytime soon. Slightly damaged fictional characters are her weakness. She loves to spend her free time curled up with a cat and a show to binge-watch. Allison is a Tomatometer-approved critic (Rotten Tomatoes).