Gary Oldman’s Jackson Lamb is a walking biohazard. He’s disgusting. He holes up in Slough House, a literal dumping ground for MI5 rejects who’ve screwed up so badly they aren’t allowed near real intelligence work. But here’s the thing: Slow Horses Season 2 isn’t just about losers filing paperwork. It’s a masterclass in how cold war ghosts never really stay dead. Honestly, if you haven’t watched it yet, you’re missing the sharpest writing on television right now. It takes Mick Herron’s second book, Dead Lions, and turns a slow-burn spy mystery into a claustrophobic, high-stakes sprint across London and the Cotswolds.
It starts with a dead man on a bus. Dickie Bow. He was an old-school "streetwalker," a low-level tail from the Cold War days who recognizes a face he shouldn't have seen. He dies of a "heart attack," or so it seems. But Lamb knows better. Lamb always knows better, mostly because he’s lived through the grime that the polished suits at Regent’s Park like to pretend doesn't exist anymore.
The Sleeper Cells Nobody Wanted to Believe In
The core of Season 2 revolves around "cicadas." These are Russian sleeper agents embedded in British society decades ago, meant to be activated only when the time was right. It sounds like a trope. We’ve seen it in The Americans or Salt. But Slow Horses Season 2 handles it with a gritty, unglamorous realism that makes you look twice at your neighbor.
When Dickie Bow finds a scrap of paper with the word "cicada" on it, the dominoes start falling. We get introduced to Nikolai Katinsky, played with a chilling, quiet menace by Rade Šerbedžija. He’s a former KGB officer living in the UK, and his connection to the "Dead Lions"—the dormant agents—is what drives the tension.
The brilliance here is the contrast. You have the "Slow Horses"—River Cartwright (Jack Lowden), Min Harper, and Louisa Guy—trying to prove they aren’t actually failures, while the "Dogs" at MI5 headquarters are too busy playing politics to notice a massive security breach. Min and Louisa get roped into a side job protecting a Russian oligarch named Pashkin, which seems like a boring babysitting gig until it suddenly, violently, isn't.
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Why Min Harper’s Fate Matters
Let's talk about Min. Dustin Demri-Burns plays him with such a relatable, bumbling earnestness. In any other spy show, the main characters have plot armor. Not here. Min’s death is a gut-punch because it’s so mundane. He gets run over. No cinematic shootout. No heroic last words. Just a tragic "accident" that Louisa—and the audience—knows is a murder.
This is where the season shifts gears. It stops being a quirky show about grumpy spies and becomes a revenge story. Louisa Guy (Rosalind Eleazar) is the standout here. Her grief isn't performative; it’s cold and focused. Watching her interrogate a suspect alongside Marcus Longridge (a new addition to the basement crew) shows a side of the Slough House team that isn't just about incompetence. They are capable. They’re just broken.
The Upshott Connection and River’s Undercover Blunder
River Cartwright spends a huge chunk of the season undercover in a sleepy village called Upshott. He’s pretending to be a journalist, trying to find out why a private plane is landing there. It’s classic River: he’s talented, but he’s also a bit of a "try-hard" who misses the forest for the trees.
He embeds himself with the Tropper family, and the tension is thick. Is the father a sleeper agent? Is the daughter involved? The show plays with our expectations. You expect a massive explosion or a high-tech gadget reveal. Instead, you get a bomb that might be on a plane heading for the City of London, and a desperate race against time that relies on radio frequencies and old-fashioned legwork.
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The Jackson Lamb Factor
We need to discuss the "Lamb vs. Katinsky" dynamic. It’s the heart of the season. Jackson Lamb isn't just a drunk who eats noodles and farts in his sleep. He’s a genius. He’s the only one who sees the move before the Russians make it.
The climax at the glass-tower office of the oligarch is a masterclass in subverting expectations. We think it’s about a political assassination or a terror attack. It turns out to be much more cynical. It’s a heist. A massive, digital bank robbery disguised as a geopolitical event. The Russians weren't trying to restart the Cold War; they were just trying to get paid.
- The Reality of Spying: It’s boring, then it’s terrifying.
- The Cost: People die for nothing, and the "higher-ups" like Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) will always find a way to spin it as a win.
- The Twist: Nikolai Katinsky wasn't just a handler; he was the mastermind seeking a very personal revenge against Lamb’s old boss.
Technical Brilliance and Narrative Pacing
The pacing of Season 2 is deliberate. It doesn't rush. The first two episodes feel like they’re barely moving, setting the board. Then, episode four hits, and the floor drops out.
Director Jeremy Lovering uses the grey, damp palette of London to perfection. Everything feels slightly oily. It matches the moral ambiguity of the characters. Even the "villains" have motivations that feel grounded in a world that moved on and left them behind. The "Dead Lions" are men who were told they were important, forgotten by their country, and now they want to prove they still have teeth.
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What Most People Get Wrong About Slough House
A common misconception is that the Slough House crew are "bad" at their jobs. They aren't. They’re just "wrong" for the modern, PR-focused MI5. River is too impulsive. Catherine Standish is a recovering alcoholic with a complicated past. Sidonie (from season 1) was too good for them.
In Slow Horses Season 2, we see that when the bureaucracy of the "Park" fails, it's these rejects who actually save the day. They don't do it for medals. They do it because they have nothing else.
Actionable Takeaways for Fans and Newcomers
If you’re diving into the world of Slough House, or rewatching to catch the clues you missed, keep these points in mind to fully appreciate the layers of the story:
- Watch the Background: Many of the "cicada" clues are planted visually long before the characters verbalize them. Pay attention to the recurring faces in the "public" scenes.
- Read Between the Lines of Lamb’s Insults: Usually, when Jackson Lamb is being particularly cruel to a subordinate, he’s actually testing their resolve or pushing them toward a realization they’re too scared to have.
- The Grandfather Paradox: Keep an eye on David Cartwright (Jonathan Pryce). His "Old Bastard" persona hides a history that is slowly being unpeeled. His role in the Cold War is the shadow hanging over everything River does.
- Listen to the Theme: "Strange Game" by Mick Jagger isn't just a catchy intro. The lyrics literally lay out the philosophy of the series—the losers, the misfits, and the "drifting through the day" nature of failed espionage.
The ending of the season isn't happy. There’s a funeral. It’s poorly attended. It’s raining. Lamb leaves a note that MI5 refused to acknowledge. That’s the reality of the service. It’s thankless, it’s dirty, and the only people who have your back are the other losers sitting in the room with you.
The shift from the "Cold War" mystery of the cicadas to the modern corporate greed of the oligarch heist is a perfect metaphor for how the world has changed, yet the people caught in the middle stay exactly the same. They're just pawns in a game played by people in nicer suits.