Slough House is on the move, looking to save politicians from potential harm. Can they get to each of the candidates in time? “Missiles” follows the rapidly changing situation on the ground in London. With dueling rallies, a missing honeypot, and Farouk still working his plan, there are plenty of things that can go wrong.
Slow Horses — “Missiles” Recap
While he’s in jail, Roddy (Christopher Chung) gets a call from Tara (Hiba Bennani), asking him to forgive her. Flyte (Ruth Bradley) agrees with Roddy that Tara seems honest, but he needs to protect her by bringing her in. Taverner (Kirsten Scott Thomas) and Whelan (James Callis) watch from behind the glass, acknowledging that Flyte is playing him.
Roddy agrees to call, and Flyte tells him they need two minutes to trace the call. When he calls, Roddy realizes he does not want to give Tara’s position away. He quickly hangs up, realizing that the actual window of one minute is approaching, but Flyte informs him afterward that it only takes 30 seconds. She spins around the screen to show they found her.
Lamb (Gary Oldman) arrives at Tara’s place before the Park, realizing River and Coe did not check the surrounding houses. Checking the trash, he finds a place with way too much takeout, and once he gets through the door, he finds a cell phone on the counter. Farouk (Monty Ben) shops at a home goods store, buying caulking guns. Later, Farouk is warned by Sami (Ahmed Elmusrati) and Kamal (Fady Elsayed) that the police will not let Farouk walk out of his mission after he “blows the head off” his target. He tells them to carry on if he’s caught.
Mayor Jaffrey (Nick Mohammed) works through his speech while Tyson (Abraham Popoola) preps him. An old woman dies because of the fuel shortage, meaning Jaffrey cannot comment on his son’s arrest. Lamb tells Flyte to come into Tara’s apartment with her dogs. She’s annoyed he beat her here, but after walking through his police work, he tells Flyte that Tara ran to Roddy’s house. She agrees to have Lamb join him as an observer for her apprehension.
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Whelan receives a mock-up of Dodie Gimball’s upcoming column, which puts him in the crosshairs. Whelan takes an intelligence briefing about her husband with him to confront her. Inside, Gimbal (Christopher Villiers) practices his anti-immigration speech, and Dodie (Victoria Hamilton) welcomes Whelan at the door.
The couple meets with Whelan and is shocked that he discovered skeletons in their past. Gimbal, despite his xenophobic rhetoric, is actually the son of a Turkish immigrant who was arrested and sent to jail. Meanwhile, Dodie planted cocaine on her college boyfriend, who was also the leader of the campus Marxist organization. Gimbal tries to show his wife that he recorded the blackmail against them, but Dodie storms off.
River (Jack Lowden) and Coe (Tom Brooke) arrive at Gimball’s rally and start scoping the place out for assassins. River checks the boxes first while Coe makes his way backstage. River thinks he spots a shooter, but it’s just crew from the venue doing drugs backstage. Coe maneuvers through the backstage area and watches over Gimball as he practices his one-liners.
Tara spots Flyte as she approaches the apartment. She bolts out and makes it down to the street, but Lamb pops her with a car door as she runs by. This allows Flyte and her team to arrest Tara.
At Jaffrey’s rally, Dander (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) spots the same boots Farouk is wearing as the boots she saw on CCTV recordings. Standish (Saskia Reeves) tells Dander to follow her gut. Dander begins to follow him, hearing that he needs to change a light. However, when she confirms the light in the bathroom was working, she starts searching for Farouk. At that moment, Jaffrey takes the stage. Standish sees the shadow from Farouk upstairs and texts Dander where to find him.
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Farouk pieces together his gun and aims. Standish sees Farouk aim, and she throws a water bottle at Jaffrey to cause him to move. This allows his security to jump and pull him offstage. Dander tries to take down Farouk, but he gets away and escapes into the van a few blocks away.
Gimball continues practicing his speech when Tyson arrives. He asks Gimball not to go after Jaffrey’s son, but then Gimball makes multiple racist remarks in a row. Tyson punches the politician but is tackled by River. This starts a fight, and eventually, Tyson runs away when River draws a gun. When Coe comes down the scaffolding to help, a paint bucket is knocked off the ledge and hits Gimball in the skull, killing him. The two men stand together, realizing they’ve been recorded on Gimball’s old recorder. They walk away from the politician’s body.
Is “Missiles” worth watching?
Yes, not only does “Missiles” work as a thrilling episode of Slow Horses, but it proves these kinds of shows do not need to be stuffy. There’s more than enough political intrigue throughout the episode, especially as existing stories like the gas issue and Jaffrey’s son continue to reverberate through the city. However, it’s the ways that Lamb, River, and Dander handle their business that spark the most excitement.
Lamb is undeniably the most effective of the bunch, picking up on trails that his team had already left cold. He’s still the best agent of Slough House and even outsmarts Flyte over the course of “Missiles.” Oldman is excellent again, and even more than in previous seasons, he’s proving his versatility as a comedic performer. It makes sense that Oldman keeps re-upping his deal.
Dander continues to shine this season, once again proving to have good instincts and attention to detail. She’s standing as the polar opposite of River, who continues to have poor instincts and bad judgment. While Dander was able to find Farouk, with Standish’s help, they stopped the assassination. Meanwhile, River and Coe accidentally killed Gimbal, achieving Farouk’s goal of political destabilization by accident.
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Lowden’s face after the death is one of utter exasperation. Even River knows he’s completely botched this moment and is not sure how he’s supposed to proceed. Ironically, the paint explosion might be the giveaway that something was amiss at the scene. Because the pink spray landed all over River, it seems likely that forensics will be able to tell someone was standing next to Gimbal when it happened.
Additionally, Tyson running away means there is a witness, even by accident, to River’s presence in the alleyway. After Gimbal’s death, Tyson is sure to go to MI5 and tell them about the agent claiming to be protecting Gimball. That alone should get Flyte and the dogs onto River’s scent. While this is a genuine accident on their part, Slough House could come under fire from Taverner and Flyte, further adding to their legacy as the worst agents in the field.
Watch Slow Horses every Wednesday on Apple TV. “Missiles” was released on October 15, 2025.
