Slow Horses Season 6 Episode 6 Review: Ending with a Bang

Slow Horses Season 6 Episode 6, “Judgment Day,” goes just about how you’d expect it to with a couple of surprises thrown in.

Lamb and Diana’s scenes serve as a much-needed dose of levity as the scenes at the safe house are tense and emotional. It’s a relief to take a break from the stress and laugh at the juxtaposition of Jackson Lamb at a child’s birthday party, and then getting to experience the joy of Diana pulling one over on Damien.

Of course, it isn’t a total victory. There is still Peter Judd to contend with. Diana getting rid of Damien is a band-aid on a wound. She’s no longer in immediate danger, but she’s not off the hook yet.

As much as I’d like to believe that the plan Diana suggests will rid her (and us) of Judd, that would be a bit too easy. He will likely continue to be a thorn in Diana’s side in future seasons. 

Slow Horses excels at delivering small moments that speak volumes about a character. On “Judgment Day,” there are two moments in particular that stand out.

First is Lamb’s reaction to learning that Coe has died. He is shocked and actually takes a minute to process this; he doesn’t immediately move on to some other topic or start yelling at River about a myriad of things.

While he comes across as callous, Lamb really does care about his team and doing what he can to make sure they all don’t die, especially when they are being hunted due to the Park’s machinations. He’s been trying to get the targets off his joes’ backs, but he was too late to save Coe.

As much as we love Lamb’s grumpy personality, moments like this are needed. They show a bit more human side of the man and remind us that he’s not as cold as he seems.

And then, there’s Roddy practicing a shooting game at the end of the episode.

He has his attempt at a heroic moment after learning Flyte’s dead, but he failed Shirley and Reece. Roddy realized he left himself and his team vulnerable in that moment, and he’s decided to make sure that it never happens again. 

Yes, Roddy’s a bit of a douchebag, but every now and then, the show lets us see a different, less disturbing side of him.

After surviving the stress of the safe house scenes, Slow Horses decides that we have not endured enough. Now, if the episode had ended with River running out of the church or driving up to his grandfather’s house, that would have been great.

But as soon as we see him go inside, it’s clear that something is afoot. And then, it’s simply a matter of waiting. 

Slow Horses really knows how to put us through the wringer, and it does so expertly, making it so we can’t look away. It’ll be interesting to see what the future holds for River and Sid, especially since River is noticeably absent from the Season 7 teaser that played at the end of the episode.

Stray Thoughts

• Louisa and Shirley’s argument should have gone on longer; there’s a lot of untapped potential there.
• Thank you for your service, Flyte. We deserved more time with you.
• Frank Harkness lives to fight another day.
• It looks like Shirley is going to take on a bigger role next season, which is exciting.

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Slow Horses is now streaming on Apple TV.

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