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Slow Horses Season 2 Episode 1 Premiere Recap “Last Stop”

Don’t miss Celebrity Myxer’s recap of Slow Horses Season 2 Episode 1 Premiere “Last Stop.” This darkly funny espionage drama follows a team of British intelligence agents who serve in a dumping ground department of MI5 due to their career-ending mistakes. Led by their brilliant but irascible leader, the notorious Jackson Lamb, they navigate the espionage world’s smoke and mirrors to defend England from sinister forces. Here’s what you missed!

Air Date & Time: Friday, December 2, 2022, at 3 am ET, 2 am CT, and 12 am PT on Apple TV.

Stay right here, stay mixed in for exclusive updates! Drop your email to get insights into your inbox.

Slow Horses Season 2 Episode 1 Premiere Recap “Last Stop”

Previously on Slow Horses Season 1 Episode 6 Finale, there is a race against time to track down the Sons of Albion before they kill Hassan. Meanwhile, who will get the blame if things go wrong?

Warning… Spoilers below!

On Slow Horses Season 2 Episode 1 Premiere, the show begins with former field agent Richard David Bough, or Dickie, in his shop. He sees a ‘bald man’ talking on a phone outside his premises, with the rain pouring.

A young man is then kidnapped in a car and tortured as he is forced to drink alcohol. The implication is that Dickie was the said young man who recognised the person responsible for kidnapping him, the man outside his shop.

Bough follows the bald man to a train and then on a bus. Bough passes out and dies. As he does so, he writes something on his mobile and slides it to the side of his seat. The credits roll when the bus driver discovers Bough is dead.

Lamb Discovers Clue On Who Killed Bough

For the first time, we see Lamb at a train station. He asks a worker for a replacement bus and informs the worker that his brother passed away, hinting that it was Bough.

Lamb tries to convince the worker to give him the bus company’s name. It is clear to the audience that he is pretending to be Bough’s relative to learn more about his death under the pretext of wanting to see his ‘brother’s’ final moments.

The worker agrees to make a ‘few calls.’ We arrive at Slough House as Catherine Standish, the recovering alcoholic, opens the premises.

She walks in to find an angry ‘Roddy’ who demands his own office. The computer wizard is forced to share with Shirley. The two hate each other’s guts to the point where Shirley vows to ‘kill or maim’ him as she sips on some Red Bull.

As Standish walks off, she says hello to another new member ‘Marcus.’ As for Lamb, he is absent, which makes Standish suspicious.

Lamb, though, is with the bus company. He is informed that Bough died of a heart attack. Lamb boards the bus and asks the driver if the deceased did anything out of the ordinary.

The driver states he just had a hat near him, which will be in lost property. The driver gives him some time on the bus alone to digest things.

As the driver leaves, Lamb quickly searches the seat. He finds the phone and grabs it before the driver returns, stating they need to use the bus. The phone shows the word ‘cicada’ in the notes section, to which Lamb replies, ‘f**k.’

Louisa, Min Harper, And River Purse Jobs Behind Lamb’s Back

Meanwhile, River Cartwright is also absent from Slough House. We see a shot of River getting ready for a job interview at ‘Elessar Intelligence Specialists.’

The interview does not go as River wanted, as the interviewees want to know more about Lamb and Slough House. Standish also notices that Louisa and Min Harper are absent too. The latter two are on a park bench.

They have gotten engaged or married due to Min Harper’s ring. They are looking at house prices but are here to meet James “Spider” Webb, the MI5 agent based at Regent’s Park under the auspices of Diana Taverner, the Deputy Director-General of MI5.

Spider informs the pair that he will place them on a secondment under him in security for a week. This is off the record. They are here to meet with James and Arkady Pashkin, the representative of Ilya Nevsky, an oligarch.

He is a Russian dissident. Min Harper cannot understand why they are meeting him since MI5 is supposed to stay neutral. Pashkin had the idea to meet via his intermediary, Krimov.

And as Pashkin’s wealth is in oil and gas, while the British government is worried about energy security, a meeting made sense. The meeting point is at the ‘Glasshouse.’

Louisa and Min Harper’s job is to sweep the area to ensure it is safe. Despite doing it behind Lamb’s back, Louisa and Min Harper agree to take the job, knowing he might be angry.

River then sneaks back to Slough House to avoid being noticed that he has been to an interview while Louis and Min Harper have arrived back too.

Shirley Gets Her First Big Job

We see Lamb, Roddy, Catherine, Shirley, and Marcus reviewing the security footage of Bough before his death. River sneaks upstairs to change from his suit and then arrives at the office to get a lowdown on what is happening.

The coroner’s report states the cause of death was heart failure, but Lamb refuses to believe it. This is despite Bough being a heavy drinker and smoker. As for River, Lamb knows he went to a job interview behind his back, as they called him for a reference.

However, River tells Lamb he turned them down. River wants to know why Bough would be murdered, to which Lamb states the deceased left a message confirming that, but Lamb refuses to offer up what the message said.

After reviewing the footage, they realise that the hat next to Bough was from the man he was following. Lamb demands to know who that man is and wants information on where he is going. The footage is on the train’s hard drives.

Louisa and Min Harper can’t go to retrieve them as they are working for Webb. River is not allowed since Lamb is miffed that he went to that job interview, which is why Lamb chooses Shirley to do it.

River Visits His Grandfather

With nothing to do, River goes to his grandfather’s house, David Cartwright, to cut his grass. David knows about River’s interview, but unlike what he told Lamb, River didn’t get the job as opposed to rejecting it.

River lets on that Lamb is not letting him work on the death of ‘Bough.’ When David hears the name, he tries to act like he is not shocked but admits that he knew of him. Unfortunately, David knows more than he lets on.

As for Shirley, she is in a supermarket. She is tailing someone who appears to be a train employee. She bumps into him, takes his wallet, and then returns it to the cashier saying someone dropped it.

Shirley rings Roddy and tells him he needs to cut the power to the ‘Datalok building’ at 9 pm. Shirley has stolen the man’s security card and requires access to the building before he notices. She needs the power cut to avoid facial recognition, and Roddy agrees to help.

River Learns About Cicadas

Back with River and David, we learn the meaning of Cicadas, the name written on Bough’s phone. Cicadas are sleeper agents embedded in British society, as cicadas spend years underground before hatching. However, River and David concluded these were hoaxes created by Alexander Popov, a fictional person/bogeyman invented by the Russians to confuse British intelligence.

David lets on more about Bough by stating the British thought he had defected to the Germans. However, Bough returned drunk to inform them that Popov and his goon had kidnapped him. The British intelligence did not believe Bough, as he was thrown out.

David reassures River that Bough’s death is not strange. After all, heart failure is not the MO of the FSB. River suggests it could be the KGB, but David dismisses this. River then drives off.

Back with Louisa and Min Harper, they review the Glasshouse photos for the meeting. They must debug and sweep the building the night before the meeting once Webb gives them some passes. They examine the area from an opposite building.

It turns out that Nevsky’s company, Almaz Trust, made money as a gem trader. Back with Shirley, she uses Cal Fenton’s security card to access the building. Roddy is taking steps to turn the power off. As he does so, he hears a knock at the Slough House door.

Shirley Is Almost Caught

He goes to answer it but has left the command to turn the power off unexecuted. This gets Shirley worried as she cannot proceed any further. In addition, a security guard is scouring the area. Finally, Roddy arrives back at his desk. It was a pizza delivery.

He is enjoying the pizza without realising he needs to execute the command. Roddy then notices and executes the command. The power goes off, and Shirley manages to get through the door and away from the guard.

Once inside, Shirley proceeds to copy the files. However, Carl has arrived to let the other guard know that his card had been stolen, with him suspecting Shirley.

The two guards walk in as Shirley copies the files. She tries to hide. She takes the files, creates a diversion, and then runs out of the building.

River Guesses Lamb’s Clue About Bough’s Death

The following day, Shirley arrives at Slough House with the files. River asks Shirley why she is in Slough House.
She lets him know that she punched her case officer after he made a pass at her.

She then hit him again after he claimed she hit like a girl. The footage shows the bald man taking a train from ‘Oxford Parkway’ to Stroud, Cotswolds. He then proceeded to a taxi.

River then arrives to see Lamb eating at a Chinese restaurant. River tells Lamb he believes Dickie was murdered. Lamb knows, and River tells him how he thinks it was done.

River shows the security footage to Lamb. It shows the bald man touching Bough before he died as they boarded the train. This was how some poison could have been administered.

River bets Lamb £50 that he knows the message on Bough’s phone. River states ‘Cicada’ and is correct, leaving Lamb humbled. Lamb unashamedly uses the money to pay for his food instead of paying River.

This means that Bough’s story about being kidnapped was true. Therefore, even if Popov did not exist, maybe the cicadas do. And maybe Bough knew too much, which is why he was killed.

River informs Lamb he is off to Cotswold, as Lamb tells him to find out everything as the episode ends.

What did you think of Slow Horses Season 2 Episode 1 Premiere? Let’s talk about Slow Horses in the comments below! Missed any of the episodes? Catch up with our recaps!

Slow Horses Cast

  • Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb
  • Kristin Scott Thomas as Diana Taverner
  • Jack Lowden as River Cartwright
  • Phil Davis as Dickie Bough
  • Aimee-Ffion Edwards as Shirley Dander
  • Kadiff Kirwan as Marcus Longridge
  • Olivia Cooke as Sidney “Sid” Baker
  • Saskia Reeves as Catherine Standish
  • Dustin Demri-Burns as Min Harper
  • Rosalind Eleazar as Louisa Guy
  • Christopher Chung as Roddy Ho
  • Paul Higgins as Struan Loy
  • Freddie Fox as James “Spider” Webb
  • Chris Reilly as Nick Duffy
  • Paul Hilton as Robert Hobden
  • Antonio Aakeel as Hassan Ahmed
  • Jonathan Pryce as David Cartwright

Binge-watch on Apple TV+. Binge read our recaps on Celebrity Myxer! Stay right here, stay mixed in for Slow Horses Season 2 Episode 2, Lamb and the team discover the name of the person that killed Bough! Drop your email to get insights into your inbox…

Slow Horses Season 2 Episode Guide

Season Episode Title Air Date
1 6 Old Scores” Slow Horses Season 2 Finale December 30, 2022
1 5 Boardroom Politics December 23, 2022
1 4 Cicada December 16, 2022
1 3 Drinking Games December 9, 2022
1 2 From Upshott with Love December 2, 2022
1 1 Last Stop” Slow Horses Season  Premiere December 2, 2022

Photo credit: Apple/Apple TV+

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About the Author
Hasib Afzal is a writer on a mission to give you a low-down on the best TV shows, movies and celebrity news. Dream it, believe it, do it. Follow me on TikTok below www.tiktok.com/@funnyart4everyone

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