'Slow Horses' Just Set Up 6 Unexpected Season 7 Mysteries

Nairavoice | 1h ago 200 0 16 min read
'Slow Horses' Just Set Up 6 Unexpected Season 7 Mysteries

Spoiler Alert: This list contains spoilers for Slow Horses Season 6.Six seasons deep, Slow Horses continues to deliver extraordinary, high-octane thrills. The spy drama based on Mick Herron‘s book series follows the disgraced MI5 agents relegated to Slough House as they still find themselves dropped into the action, sometimes unwittingly so. Created by Will Smith, the critically acclaimed series pushed the envelope in one of its most shocking seasons yet.

For Season 6, the agents of Slough House find themselves literally fighting for their lives as Slough House agents, former and current, are being assassinated. Bringing back familiar faces from the past, Season 6 proved that literally no one is safe in the world of Slow Horses. With a brilliant Season 7 teaser revealing what’s to come, the finale set up major mysteries we need to see resolved. From the fates of beloved characters to how the season’s events will affect their psyches, Season 7 is destined for greatness.

What Actually Happened to River Cartwright?

  • slow-horses-6-jack-lowden-river-cartwright 'Slow Horses' Just Set Up 6 Unexpected Season 7 MysteriesImage via Apple TV
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slow-horses-season-6-episode-3-olivia-cooke-jack-lowden 'Slow Horses' Just Set Up 6 Unexpected Season 7 MysteriesImage via Apple TV
sh1-cropped 'Slow Horses' Just Set Up 6 Unexpected Season 7 MysteriesImage via Apple TV
slow-horses-jack-lowden-gary-oldman 'Slow Horses' Just Set Up 6 Unexpected Season 7 MysteriesImage via Apple TV
slow-horses-river-funeral-1 'Slow Horses' Just Set Up 6 Unexpected Season 7 MysteriesImage via Apple TV
  • slow-horses-6-jack-lowden-river-cartwright 'Slow Horses' Just Set Up 6 Unexpected Season 7 MysteriesImage via Apple TV
  • slow-horses-season-6-episode-3-olivia-cooke-jack-lowden 'Slow Horses' Just Set Up 6 Unexpected Season 7 MysteriesImage via Apple TV
  • sh1-cropped 'Slow Horses' Just Set Up 6 Unexpected Season 7 MysteriesImage via Apple TV
  • slow-horses-jack-lowden-gary-oldman 'Slow Horses' Just Set Up 6 Unexpected Season 7 MysteriesImage via Apple TV
  • slow-horses-river-funeral-1 'Slow Horses' Just Set Up 6 Unexpected Season 7 MysteriesImage via Apple TV
slow-horses-6-jack-lowden-river-cartwright 'Slow Horses' Just Set Up 6 Unexpected Season 7 MysteriesImage via Apple TV
slow-horses-season-6-episode-3-olivia-cooke-jack-lowden 'Slow Horses' Just Set Up 6 Unexpected Season 7 MysteriesImage via Apple TV
sh1-cropped 'Slow Horses' Just Set Up 6 Unexpected Season 7 MysteriesImage via Apple TV
slow-horses-jack-lowden-gary-oldman 'Slow Horses' Just Set Up 6 Unexpected Season 7 MysteriesImage via Apple TV
slow-horses-river-funeral-1 'Slow Horses' Just Set Up 6 Unexpected Season 7 MysteriesImage via Apple TV

Let’s just begin with the shocking conclusion of the finale. The season’s final cliffhanger centers on the fate of the beloved River Cartwright (Jack Lowden). So what exactly happened? This season saw the shocking return of Sid Baker (Olivia Cooke), which completely caught River by surprise. After spending much of the season on the run with her, it seemed Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) was using her as bait in her own dealings. Instead, Sid went back into hiding, this time with River in the know, as she was now stationed inside David Cartwright’s (Jonathan Pryce) empty home. After returning to his grandfather’s house, River set up a nice night in, with wine and candies included. Until he suddenly loses consciousness at the table. The season ends with River’s fate lying in the balance.

Based on the sequence of events, it seemed as though nothing nefarious happened from the moment River opened the door until he sat at the table. Though after moving a mysteriously placed crowbar, he does wipe his hands off. But major clues inside Herron’s books may reveal what happened and what his future may be. With Season 6 being a conglomerate adaptation of Joe Country and Slough House, the blueprint for River’s fate is clear. At the end of the seventh book, River is accidentally exposed to the nerve agent Novichok when touching his doorknob, completely unaware of the trap. We see River collapse, but with Season 7 based on Bad Actors, River will survive, though largely out of commission. If that’s the case, the teaser for the upcoming season proves it’s Shirley Dander (Aimee-Ffion Edwards), who will be forced into rehab, as the primary agent alongside Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman).

Can the Slough House Agents Recover From the Safe House Ambush?

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    Image via Apple TV</figure>

The Slough House agents were on the defensive this season! The action kicks off following the shocking assassination of former Slow Horse agents Struan Loy (Paul Higgins) and Kay White. Realizing that there was a conspiracy to systematically wipe out every agent on the list, the team went scrambling to protect themselves from Frank Harkness (Hugo Weaving) and the Russian assassins. While it appeared that the agents and their child witness, Reece Nesmith (Lenny Rush), were in the clear at the safe house, having a gay old time, they were ultimately ambushed, resulting in the tragic murder of Dog-turned-Joe, Emma Flyte (Ruth Bradley). After losing J.K. Coe (Tom Brooke) to assassin Jim (Kyle Soller), recovery will likely take time.

The last time the entire misfit gang came together, they met in a church to honor their fallen with one of David Cartwright’s vintage liquors. Though tempted, Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves) declined. This moment makes it clear they’re still shattered by the events, but with the attack on their lives seemingly concluded, they are more bonded than ever. That said, the psychological damage will stick. As teased for Season 7, the agents of Slough House can’t be stopped. Shirley is more hardened than ever, and it will likely take a major toll. Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung) now has field experience, so he might try to step up. Especially if River truly is MIA. They even brought Moira Tregorian (Joanna Scanlan), Standish’s temporary replacement, back into the family. Nevertheless, a new aura will be sensed inside the offices of Slough House. Though for Lamb, it is business as usual, signified by his extra drink of malt in the church, showcasing his signature zero emotion.

Does Diana Taverner Ever Get Punished?

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    Image via Apple TV</figure>

Sneaky sneaky! With great power comes very little responsibility, apparently, because it seems that First Desk Diana Taverner might be getting away with murder. It’s no secret that she is ruthless, but her clandestine wheeling and dealing set off a chain of unfortunate events. After a Novichok attack on British soil killed a civilian, Diana secretly ordered an off-the-books assassination of a woman connected to Russian intelligence using unofficial money tied to Damien Cantor (Harry Lloyd) and politician Peter Judd (Samuel West). To hide the identity of the agent who carried out the hit, Diana used Sid Baker’s identity and subsequently tried to erase Sid’s records. This was the catalyst that forced the Slough House agents to go on the run. Trying to cover herself, Taverner appeased senior GRU officer Vassily Rasnokov (Merab Ninidze) by willingly handing over Sid. Except here comes Jackson Lamb to the rescue!

With Lamb back on Taverner’s case, knowing she’s behind the cover-up, he’s back in control of their balance of power. He won’t let her go down; he’s got one up on her. But he’s not the only one who helped Taverner lose control. Judd leaves her vulnerable to blackmail, and she realizes that accepting private-sector and political strings has severely compromised her grip as First Desk. Even though she knows she’s compromised and a major threat to national security, her position still carries weight. After the Home Secretary chastises her, she says she’s shown a mix of brilliant strategy and appalling judgment, but she still gets the go-ahead to move on with Judd’s alleged treason. This will likely propel her narrative into the next season. For those who paid close attention to the Season 7 preview, Taverner does a fair bit of groundwork outside the office, even meeting Lamb at a laundromat. It’s safe to assume she’s ready to slum it to keep her hands clean.

Six actors. One role. Your answers point to the Bond who shares your presence, your method, and your particular way of carrying the weight of being the most dangerous person in the room.

You are the original — and you carry that fact without needing to announce it. There is an authority in the way you occupy a room that others spend careers trying to replicate.

  • You don’t explain yourself, justify yourself, or soften yourself for anyone’s comfort. The confidence is structural, not performed.
  • Connery’s Bond established everything — the tone, the danger, the cool — because Connery himself had the innate presence to make something that had never existed feel inevitable.
  • You share that quality: the sense that you were always going to end up exactly here, doing exactly this.
  • The name is Bond. In your case, it always was.

You understand something that more serious people miss: that wit is its own form of intelligence, and that making people laugh is not a retreat from danger but a way of mastering it.

  • Moore’s Bond is underrated precisely because the effortlessness looks easy — and effortlessness is the hardest thing to manufacture.
  • You have the same quality: a lightness that disarms people before they realise how sharp you actually are.
  • The raised eyebrow, the perfectly timed quip, the refusal to be rattled — these are not affectations. They are a philosophy about how to move through a world that would like to take itself too seriously.
  • You have never let it.

You took the role seriously when everyone wanted you to coast — and that refusal to take the easy version of anything is the most defining thing about you.

  • Dalton’s Bond has genuine moral weight: he feels the cost of what he does, he has lines he won’t cross, and he is not interested in the version of himself that pretends otherwise.
  • You share that intensity. You push harder than the situation technically requires, because you have a standard and you hold yourself to it.
  • He was ahead of his time — the Bond the franchise wasn’t quite ready for yet, arriving exactly when he was meant to.
  • You know what that feels like.

You are the complete package — and you know it, which is part of what makes you so effective and occasionally so infuriating to the people around you.

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  • Brosnan arrived at the role looking exactly like Bond was supposed to look, and he delivered on that expectation with a professionalism that made it seem effortless.
  • You have the same quality: a smooth competence, a charm that operates like a precision instrument, and the ability to make even difficult things look like they weren’t.
  • His era was the most commercially successful in the franchise’s history. There is a reason for that.
  • The reason is that some people simply fit their moment perfectly. You are one of those people.

You stepped into something enormous with less preparation than anyone around you thought was sufficient — and you delivered something genuine anyway, which is the more impressive achievement.

  • Lazenby’s single outing is, by many measures, one of the finest Bond films ever made — and he is not a small part of why.
  • You share his quality of raw authenticity: less polished than the alternatives, more honest for it, capable of something real that technique alone can’t produce.
  • He was underestimated, and then he wasn’t, and then history caught up with him.
  • You are the kind of person history catches up with. Give it time.

You stripped everything back and found what was underneath — and what was underneath was harder, more honest, and more human than anyone expected.

  • Craig’s Bond is the franchise’s most psychologically complete: a man doing a brutal job, carrying its costs imperfectly, capable of love and loss in ways that can’t be dismissed.
  • You share that depth. You don’t hide behind the role or the charm or the suit — you let the work show what it actually costs.
  • He was controversial from the moment he was announced and definitive by the time he was finished. The sceptics became the believers.
  • That arc — of being underestimated and then undeniable — is one you know intimately.

Have We Seen the Last of Louisa Guy at Slough House?

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    Image via Apple TV</figure>

Season 6 was a gift to long-time fans, with many familiar faces thrust back into the action. One such Joe was none other than Louisa Guy (Rosalind Eleazar). In one of the season’s more comical scenes, Louisa was snatched to safety by Standish and Shirley during a business meeting in her new life. Looking radiant, she was reluctant to be lured back, but it soon became clear that being a spy was old hat. She never lost a beat. After the ambush, Louisa sprang into action, but she was gruesomely wounded by a bullet to the leg. Her fate wasn’t immediately known, but she joined the rest of Slough House at the church, waltzing in on crutches. She left, letting everyone know this was it. She was not coming back. But for a woman who’s experienced immense grief and loss, could that monetary return to the field entice her to actually return on her own terms?

Though the show has yet to officially introduce new Slough House entrant Lech Wicinski, her storyline might be affected, but if Bad Actors is the blueprint, Louisa will be hungry for more action. Regardless of whether Season 7 follows parts of Louisa’s story, the return of the character sparked pure excitement about what could be with Louisa back in play. Deadline reported the addition of five new stars— Varada Sethu, Ethan Moorhouse, Tuppence Middleton, Merab Ninidze, and Joshua McGuire — who are joining the upcoming season, though it did not confirm whether Eleazar would return alongside them. The only confirmed names were Oldman and James Callis, who returns as Claude Whelan.

What Happened to Frank Harnkess?

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    Image via Apple TV</figure>

River has had such daddy issues. With a dad like Frank Harkness, can you blame him? When “There are deaths and deaths, at 83, dead in his bed, your grandfather would’ve counted himself lucky,” is his brand of consoling his son over the passing of his beloved grandfather, it’s clear he’s not winning father of the year. Though he did redeem himself after saving River’s life in the safe house from assassin Jane (MyAnna Buring) in pursuit down the stairs. After brutally executing Emma Flyte, his mission to put down the agents of Slough House was in motion, but it came short once Lamb forced Taverner to call in reinforcements. Before letting him seemingly get caught, the father and son had a brilliant conversation in the kitchen. Sharing one last glass of whiskey together, they engage in the closest thing to a heart-to-heart as the pair could possibly have. Harkness still cares deeply for his son, and the only way he can admit it is through dark humor. As River asked why he didn’t kill him, he joked that he took out the target with the gun and not the table lamp, which River brandished as a weapon against Jane.

As the rescue helicopter approaches, River finally takes the power by taking his father’s gun to ensure his capture is imminent. That is after he asks, “Can you not have been just a normal dad?” Harkness won’t take complete blame for being a contract killer dad, reminding River that his grandfather may have been just as bad as he is in his own right. As his dad leaves out the front door, River mimes firing the gun, signifying that as much as he wishes he could have killed his dad for what he had done, he never had the strength to. River altered the officers to Harkness, but we never saw them take him. Is it possible he got away? If they did take him in, what would happen to him now? If Slow Horses taught us anything, it’s that a person is never really gone unless we see a body. A Lamb-Harkness showdown would be a dream come true. Speaking about the scene, which does not exist in the book, showrunner Gaby Chiappe told Gold Derby, “It’s Frank. He could live to fight another day, but you never know with him.”

Where Did Damien Cantor End Up?

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    Image via Apple TV</figure>

One of the smarmy new foes to pop up in Season 6 is Damien Cantor. He is a wealthy media mogul with links to former politician Peter Judd. The money that Judd gave toward MI5 wasn’t his at all, but Cantor’s. That meant she was now in bed with a fringe right-wing tycoon. Cantor exerts dangerous control over Diana, trapping her in a web of dependency and humiliating her through a disastrous television interview on his network. Connected to Natasha Carrington (Zrinka Cvitešić), a Russian oligarch’s daughter, Cantor hires mercenary Harkness to track down and steal a sensitive MI5 physical file containing the identities of current and former Slough House agents. After former MI5 agent Andrew Nesmith (Dylan Smith) steals the file and is killed, his son Reece finds a burner phone and tries to blackmail Cantor. Now with the child witness and Slough House on the run, Lamb now has the ammunition to close in on Cantor’s entire operation. With ties to Russian operatives, it’s Taverner who forces Cantor out. But to where?

After admitting that she used Cantor’s money to authorize the killing of a Russian agent in Russia, Taverner alerts him that a car will be taking him to an airfield where a plane is waiting, and the pilot has flight clearance for four different locations. She needs him as far away from her. The catch is, when he gets inside the vehicle, good ol’ Jackson Lamb is in the driver’s seat. Cantor got got! Perhaps the best part of the exchange is Lamb blasting ABBA‘s “S.O.S.” to drown out Cantor’s screams. He is forced to abort the mission to kill Lamb’s agents, though Harkness doesn’t relent. In the book, Cantor is left handcuffed in the empty premises of an old spy clubhouse with an uncertain future. The finale is a little different. According to Lamb, he was shipping a very reluctant and distraught Cantor to Russia, where they would be eagerly awaiting him. Based on Taverner’s conversation, his whereabouts are in Russia, but he notes that they can’t be sure. Nevertheless, whether he physically returns or not, the preview for Season 7 reveals that Vassily Rasnokov arrived on UK soil unannounced, meaning Cantor’s storyline might not be entirely completed.

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Nairavoice

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