Slow Horses season 5 turns ferocious and farcical in episode 4, “Missiles,” welding slapstick catastrophe to ruthless spycraft. The hour yanks River Cartwright and JK Coe into a lethal accident at a London campaign event while Catherine Standish and Shirley Dander scramble to stop an assassination across town. It sharpens the political stakes around London Mayor Zafar Jaffrey and challenger Dennis Gimball, and it spotlights Park’s power brokers — Diana Taverner, Flyte, and Claude Whelan — as their pressure tactics collide with Slough House’s improvisation.

Episode 4 recap: a pink-splattered catastrophe and a foiled hit

At Zafar Jaffrey’s rally, Catherine Standish and Shirley Dander identify a shooter in the rafters. They derail the attempt with quick improvisation and raw nerve, keeping the incumbent alive. Across town, River Cartwright and JK Coe shadow Dennis Gimball after a heated clash with Jaffrey’s chief of staff, Tyson Bowman. As Coe climbs down a rickety scaffold, a heavy paint can drops, killing Gimball instantly, and splashes River in pink. Moments later, River and Coe find Gimball’s trusty personal dictaphone on the ground — it captured the entire incident — and make their escape.

Related: ‘Slow Horses’ Season 5 Episode 2 Recap: Tall Tales, Threats, and Lingering Mysteries

Tom Brooke explains Coe’s unnerving calm about the death: “I don’t think Coe set out to kill anyone that night,” but “I don’t think he’s particularly disappointed that he gets to put another notch on his scorecard.” He adds, “I feel like the more people he kills, the happier he gets… And that’s why he’s a real psychopath.” 

Interrogations, blackmail, and the Park–Slough House chess game

Roddy Ho is still under Park interrogation. Flyte counters Diana Taverner’s harsher approach by empathizing with him, using his feelings for Tara to lure Tara toward custody. Meanwhile, Claude Whelan tries to muzzle the Gimballs with MI5 intelligence, only to run into Dennis’s habit of recording everything — a practice that threatens to expose Whelan’s own blackmail attempt. The season’s “destabilization strategy” for London continues to drive the parallel operations and political chaos.

Cast and characters who drive “Missiles”

  • Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb — the caustic Slough House chief whose prescience and withering scorn keep his team sharp.
  • Jack Lowden as River Cartwright — stunned and “slimed” in pink after the scaffold accident, now holding Dennis Gimball’s recorder.
  • Tom Brooke as JK Coe — unflappable to a chilling degree; as Brooke puts it, “a real psychopath.”
  • Aimee-Ffion Edwards as Shirley Dander — fearless and bruised, yet instrumental in foiling the hit at Jaffrey’s event.
  • Saskia Reeves as Catherine Standish — steady hands and quick thinking under fire.
  • Nick Mohammed as Zafar Jaffrey — the sitting London Mayor whose campaign turns deadly.
  • Christopher Villiers as Dennis Gimball — the far-right populist who dies in the episode’s grisly final beat.
  • Abraham Popoola as Tyson Bowman — Jaffrey’s chief of staff, whose clash with Gimball helps set the catastrophe in motion.
  • Kristin Scott Thomas as Diana Taverner — Park’s calculating power center.
  • Flyte — the interrogator who coaxes Roddy while tracking Tara.
  • Claude Whelan — the MI5 boss whose blackmail gambit meets a recorder he didn’t plan for.
  • Roddy Ho — Slough House’s hacker, vulnerable because of his messy romance and pop-culture monologues.

Sharp details critics call out about “Missiles”

  • Episode title and slot: “Missiles,” Season 5, Episode 4.
  • Editor’s rating: 4 stars for “Missiles.”
  • The recorder: Dennis Gimball’s dictaphone captures the accident from start to finish.
  • Parallel ops: River/Coe shadow Gimball while Standish/Shirley protect Jaffrey — both threads tied to a continuing terror “destabilization strategy.”
  • Political stakes: The London mayoral race elevates the cost of every mistake and every image.

Pop-culture references highlighted in the recap

  • Roddy Ho fixates on Robert Palmer’s “Simply Irresistible.”
  • He frames his “I will find you” declaration with The Last of the Mohicans (Daniel Day-Lewis) versus Ricardo Montalbán in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
  • River’s pink splash is likened to being “slimed” on You Can’t Do That on Television.
  • Dennis Gimball’s death is compared to an “OK Go video.”

Why “Missiles” is the mid-season peak for Slow Horses season 5

Three threads click. First, the mayoral race turns every move into oppo fodder; that gives stakes to both the attempt on Zafar Jaffrey and the accidental killing of Dennis Gimball. Second, Park’s pressure campaign — Diana Taverner’s leverage, Flyte’s coaxing, Claude Whelan’s blackmail — collides with Slough House’s improvisation. Third, Coe’s arc steps out of the shadows as Tom Brooke embraces a colder, more decisive killer who still passes as an unflappable operator.

“Missiles” magnifies the show’s signature mix of mordant humor and sickening consequence. The climax triggers real fallout yet leaves just enough plausible deniability to keep Slough House in play. The dictaphone in River’s pocket could either damn them or save them, depending on who hears it first.

What’s next after episode 4 (“Missiles”)

Jackson Lamb will push his team to get ahead of the Park again. River and Coe must decide whether Dennis Gimball’s recorder is a shield or a smoking gun. With a campaign rocked by death and assassins still active, Catherine Standish and Shirley Dander look set to keep pulling protection duty. Expect Claude Whelan to double down while Diana Taverner and Flyte hunt for any handle on Slough House.

Slow Horses season 5: episode 4 quotes & credits to note

  • Tom Brooke on Coe: “I don’t think Coe set out to kill anyone that night,” and “I feel like the more people he kills, the happier he gets… And that’s why he’s a real psychopath.” 
  • Scott Tobias calls “Missiles” “the most satisfying episode of the season so far” and rates it 4 stars (recap published October 15, 2025).
  • North Coast Radio’s October 17, 2025, review highlights “tension, deception, and fractured alliances,” and praises Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jack Lowden, and Saskia Reeves.

Bottom line: Episode 4 is a showcase for the series’ tonal whiplash — a ruthless spy thriller that slips on a paint can and still lands a gut punch. Slow Horses season 5 is accelerating toward an endgame where evidence, optics, and intent never quite line up — and everyone pays for the gap.

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