Slow Horses Finally Fixes Its Long-Running Problem With Season Finales

Published Oct 24, 2026, 10:15 AM EDT

Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock.

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Slow Horses’ season 6 finale.

Slow Horses has just wrapped up one of its most exhilarating seasons on Apple TV. Based on the Mick Herron novels Joe Country and Slough House, Slow Horses’ sixth season felt like a class reunion of sorts. As a pair of assassins started picking off ex-Slough House agents, it was the perfect excuse to bring back all the characters who are either retired, like Louisa Guy, or presumed dead, like Sid Baker.

Slow Horses’ season 6 finale culminated in a brutal firefight between the surviving Slow Horses, who are all holed up at Taverner’s holiday home, and Frank Harkness and his hired goons, who have tracked them down to finish the job. It’s not uncommon for a season of Slow Horses to end with the good guys and the bad guys shooting at each other, but these shootouts usually feel weightless, because no one is getting shot. In the season 3 finale, when Marcus and Shirley were taking cover from intense gunfire from all angles, it just provided a backing track to their conversation; they might as well have been playing with B.B. guns.

But season 6's final shootout has some major character deaths and significant gunshot wounds — not just flesh wounds they can walk off; some of them have been left with lasting injuries — so the danger finally feels real.

Slow Horses Finally Brought Real Danger To Its Climactic Action

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As Harkness and his henchmen came for Jackson Lamb’s joes, Slow Horses viewers finally got to feel the weight of life-threatening danger. Major characters were getting shot and even killed left and right. You knew most of them would make it out alive, because Apple has already renewed Slow Horses for two more seasons, but you didn’t know which ones would make it, so it kept you on the edge of your seat, praying for your favorite characters.

Flyte got gunned down on the beach, and instead of making an unlikely getaway like Jack Reacher or Lioness’ Joe McNamara would, she just took a swift headshot to finish her off. Louisa takes a bullet in the abdomen, and while she does survive the shot, there’s a ton of blood, and it’ll be a long recovery; even at the end of the episode, she’s still on crutches. Finally, Slow Horses dropped the plot armor. Finally, it felt like no one was safe, and anyone could die. After the show had killed Flyte, all bets were off; there was no guarantee that Louisa would survive that shot to the gut.

Even after the bad guys had been stopped and the good guys were recovering, Slow Horses wasn’t done surprising us. Just as the show was setting up a romantic reunion between River and Sid, River instead succumbed to poisoning from a contaminated tire iron and collapsed. Slow Horses loves to keep us guessing.

Slow Horses' Season 6 Finale Had A Lot To Live Up To

What makes Slow Horses’ climactic action even more impressive is that season 6 already had a huge, climactic action sequence last week. In the season’s penultimate episode, as Sid was being handed over to the Russians, River sprang into action to save her. The ensuing car chase was one of Slow Horses’ most thrilling action set-pieces to date, and it was all rooted in emotion, because the potential for romance is what spurred River to rescue Sid.

Episode 5 had already given this season its biggest, wildest, most emotionally charged action sequence, so episode 6 had a lot to live up to. And yet, Slow Horses’ season finale still managed to top the excitement and stakes of that earlier sequence. The shootout on the beach had even more at stake, even more crazy stuff happening, and much deeper emotions at play.

Slow Horses