'Slow Horses' Most Devastating Character Fate So Far Proves That No One Is Safe
Erin Konrad's love for everything entertainment dates back to elementary school when she became obsessed with classic Hollywood musicals. When she's not catching up on all her favorite television shows, she's advising her friends and family on what they should binge watch next.
She has her Bachelor's degree in Journalism and a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Creating content for Collider gives her the opportunity to combine her writing skills with her passion for television and movies. She spends her free time trying to beat her personal record of reading 137 books in a year and cuddling with her dog, Gracie.
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Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for Slow Horses Season 6 Episode 4.
There have been some truly brutal character deaths on Apple TV's Slow Horses. Min Harper (Dustin Demri-Burns) was tragically murdered in Season 2, while Season 4 saw the loss of Marcus Longridge (Kadiff Kirwan). In Season 6 alone, fans have already had to bear the deaths of original Slough House member Struan Loy (Paul Higgins) as well as River Cartwright's (Jack Lowden) beloved yet complex grandfather, David (Jonathan Pryce). While viewers believed Sid Baker (Olivia Cooke) had been killed off in Season 1, she's recently popped up again, proving she was actually safe and sound the whole time. This week's episode, however, might just take the cake for one of the saddest character deaths that's played out in Slow Horses so far.
Another 'Slow Horses' Agent Tragically Dies in Season 6
Season 6 of Apple TV's brilliant spy thriller reveals that two dangerous assassins, named Jim (Kyle Soller) and Jane (MyAnna Buring), are hunting past and present members of Slough House, and the last few episodes have provided even more information about them. They're actually Russian agents, though who they currently work for is unclear. It's possible they've been hired by right-wing media mogul Damien Cantor (Harry Lloyd), but his motivation for wanting to take out Slough House agents is still a mystery. Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) is trying desperately to get to the bottom of the whole thing, even resorting to talking to River's biological father, American mercenary Frank Harkness (Hugo Weaving), in Episode 4, who is seemingly working for Damien.
For the last two episodes, River and Sid have been on the run from Jim and Jane, and J.K. Coe (Tom Brooke) ultimately comes to their rescue. The three agents take shelter in a bowling alley, but Jane shoots River in the hand before the Slow Horses escape. River, Sid, and Coe then seek refuge at a service station with multiple shops. It seems like a good place to hide, except that Jim and Jane track them down. When Coe confronts Jim in the men's restroom, Coe inquires whether Jim is working for the FSB, Russia's security service, but Jim reveals that he's with the GRU, a military intelligence agency. Jim notices Coe's push knife before the two agents engage in a brutal fight, and when River finally makes his way to the restroom, he finds Coe dead from a nasty knife wound to the stomach, the music in his headphones still blasting.
How Will the Slow Horses Cope With Coe's Death?
Coe's death is tragic, but it also seems somewhat inevitable. The stone-faced, quiet man, who always had his head covered by his hoodie, didn't seem to form bonds with anyone at Slough House, except for an odd mutual coexistence with Shirley Dander (Aimee-Ffion Edwards). His character always seemed filled with pain, so it makes sense that his death would also be in that same vein. Even though Coe hadn't been a long-term member of Slough House (he first popped up in Season 4), he's still helped save the other agents many times. He might not have been the most outspoken in the group, but he was still a member of Slough House's dysfunctional family, and it's likely going to be very hard for the other agents to accept his death. River may be hit hardest by Coe's murder, since it represents the second significant loss for him in a very short amount of time, but Shirley may also take it hard as well, given that she outwardly confessed to liking Coe when the team met at Blake's grave.
Collider Exclusive · Villain Personality Quiz Which Criminal Mastermind Would Be Your Nemesis? Lecter · Joker · Moriarty · Chigurh
Four of the finest criminal minds ever put on screen. One of them would look at you and see something worth their time. Eight questions decide which one comes for you, why they picked you, and what they would want when they arrived.
🍷Lecter
🃏Joker
♟️Moriarty
🪙Chigurh
01
What would a criminal mastermind notice about you first? Great villains choose their opponents carefully. Something about you got their attention.
02
How do they make first contact? The introduction tells you everything about what is coming next.
03
What do you actually believe about right and wrong? Every nemesis is really an argument about the thing you believe most.
04
What finally gets under your skin? Everybody has a pressure point. Finding yours is the whole plan.
05
They have made their move. How do you fight back? This is the part of the film where the audience finds out who you are.
06
What would they use against you? A good villain never brings a weapon you have not already handed them.
07
What do they actually want from you? The money is never the point. Something else always is.
08
How does it end between the two of you? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides who comes for you.
The Case File Is Complete Your Nemesis Is…
Four criminal masterminds. One of them was always going to be yours. Here is who comes for you, why they picked you out of everyone available, and what they want from the encounter.
Hannibal Lecter
Your nemesis does not want to beat you. He wants to know you completely, and he is patient enough to wait for it. The frightening part is how good the conversation is.
- Lecter is the most dangerous kind of opponent: the one who finds you interesting. He never raises his voice, because he has never needed to.
- You keep a great deal to yourself and you are careful about what you show. That reserve is exactly the door he would knock on.
- The films understood something other thrillers missed. The horror is not the violence. It is being perfectly understood by the wrong person.
- He would be unfailingly polite about all of it. That is the worst part.
The Joker
Your nemesis is not after money, territory or revenge. He is after a demonstration, and you are the person he has chosen to prove his point on.
- The Joker only picks opponents who believe in something. Your decency is not a defence against him. It is the entire reason he showed up.
- He has no plan you can predict and nothing you can take away, which removes every tool you would normally reach for.
- His whole argument is that you are one bad day away from being him, and you would spend the rest of your life proving him wrong.
- He would call it a magic trick. You would call it the worst night of your life.
Moriarty
Your nemesis respects you, which sounds flattering until you work out what it means. He chose you because nobody else was worth his time.
- Moriarty is the original criminal mastermind, the template every later one borrows from: a mind the equal of the hero's, pointed the wrong way.
- You enjoy being the cleverest person in the room. He is counting on exactly that, and he has already built the room.
- This is the rare nemesis who would be genuinely disappointed if you lost badly. He needs the game to be worth playing.
- It ends the way these things always end. Two people, one problem, and only one way down.
Anton Chigurh
Your nemesis has no personal interest in you whatsoever, and that is precisely what makes him unsurvivable. You are not a rival. You are a stop on the way.
- Chigurh does not negotiate, gloat or explain. He arrives, he asks one question, and the answer was decided long before you opened your mouth.
- You trust yourself to handle things. He is the one problem in the world that has no interest in how capable you are.
- No Country for Old Men rewrote the screen villain by removing the thing audiences quietly rely on: the sense that talking might work.
- Call it. He will wait.
There are only two more episodes left in the season for these major mysteries to be solved, chief among them being who wants the agents of Slough House dead and why. The last viewers see of Jim and Jane in Episode 4, they have successfully kidnapped Sid, while River realizes he's once again failed to keep the people around him safe. One thing is clear: Slow Horses never shies away from making brutal decisions when it comes to its characters, and Coe's death will be a hard one to move on from.
Slow Horses Season 6 is available to stream on Apple TV in the U.S. New episodes drop every Wednesday.
Slow Horses
- Release Date
- April 1, 2022
- Network
- Apple TV+
- Showrunner
- Douglas Urbanski
- Directors
- Adam Randall, James Hawes, Jeremy Lovering, Saul Metzstein
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.