Slow Horses Season 6 Features The Return Of A Major Villain
by Joe Roberts · /FilmAdd SlashFilm on Google:
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This article contains spoilers for "Slow Horses" Season 6, Episode 1, "Circle of Life."
It's taken some time for audiences to catch on, but "Slow Horses" has been the best spy show on TV since its 2022 debut. The Apple TV series has been consistently brilliant for five straight seasons, and now it's back for a sixth. If the premiere is anything to go by, we're in for a heck of a season, not least because the inaugural episode reintroduces one of the show's biggest villains in Hugo Weaving's Frank Harkness.
"Slow Horses" is very much an ensemble show, but if there's anything like a hero among the cast, it's Jack Lowden's River Cartwright. He might not be your typical hero (he overestimates his own abilities and is, after all, stuck in Slough House with the rest of MI5's rejects), but he's been the de facto main character ever since the show began with a sequence demonstrating how he ended up being banished from the Park. In Season 4, we gained genuine insight into his background. River traveled to France where he discovered Harkness was running what essentially amounted to a mercenary factory, fathering children and raising them to be killers in order to create an army of hit-men for hire. He also learned that Harkness was his father.
The season ended with River getting the best of his old dad, only for Harkness to be released when it's revealed MI5 previously used his illegal army of killer scions for multiple covert missions. Harkness' release capped off one of the show's best seasons, and now the character is back in the Season 6 premiere. That bodes very well for the upcoming episodes.
River Cartwright's deranged dad is back in Slow Horses Season 6
"Slow Horses" made a mistake with its Season 5 storyline. The show's fourth season delivered an emotionally affecting story that revealed much about River Cartwright's history while maintaining the series' signature humor. Season 5, however, leaned too hard into comedy and shifted focus away from River onto the insufferable Slough House techie Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung). Now, the Season 6 premiere has plunged us right back into the human drama of Season 4, and just to emphasize the point, the writers have brought back Frank Harkness.
The premiere sees River grappling with the death of his grandfather and former head of MI5, David Cartwright (Jonathan Pryce), who was succumbing to a severe case of dementia in Season 4. That season ended with River placing David in a care home in one of the saddest scenes in "Slow Horses." Similarly sad was River coming to terms with his father being an international criminal that tried to kill him.
Now, that deranged dad is back. The Season 6 premiere sees several former Slow Horses killed by a mysterious duo, and apparently River is next on their list. Before these unknown mercenaries can get to him, however, River attends his grandfather's funeral, after which he waits outside the church and spots a figure watching him in the distance. Turns out, Frank is there — on "business," as he puts it. He refuses to say much more before chopping his son in the throat before trying to flee. Though River jumps on his car hood, Frank manages to shake him. At this point, then, it's not entirely clear why Frank is back. But given the events of the Season 6 premiere, there are several exciting possibilities.
What is Frank Harkness doing in Slow Horses Season 6?
Frank Harkness remains one of the most formidable villains in "Slow Horses" history, simply by virtue of his personal connection to both River Cartwright, River's grandfather and mother, and MI5. Harkness could become a major problem for the Security Service simply by revealing their prior use of his private army. What's more, during his brief scene in the Season 6 premiere, River mentions that he lost that very army following the events of Season 4, but Frank says, "There's no setback that can't be reversed."
What does this mean? Does Frank have his team of mercenaries back? With whom, exactly, is he doing business, and why does it involve him skulking around the church where David Cartwright is being laid to rest? Well, earlier in the episode, Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) tells River that there are concerns about possible attacks on David's funeral perpetrated by aggrieved parties from his past. Has Taverner, newly instated as the MI5 first desk, done the unthinkable and hired Frank as some sort of security?
Meanwhile, former Slow Horses members are being picked off by a shady couple who are apparently on the hunt for River. Is Frank somehow aware of this? Was he there to keep an eye on his son for some twisted reason? Could we actually see him and River working together this season? It seems unlikely, but so does the return of Olivia Cooke's Sidonie Baker from Season 1, and that's already been confirmed...