Season 5, episode 5 of Slow Horses builds incredible tension for the finale, putting its central focus on Tara and Regent’s Park. “Circus” begins with Lamb meeting with River and Coe, who confess their involvement in Gimball’s death. Lamb goes to Regent’s Park as they interrogate Tara and try to figure out what she did on Roddy’s computer. Whelan’s slip-up leads Lamb to Molly, who had been fired. Most of the episode focuses on Tara and Whelan’s growing fondness for her. With everyone believing that the next phase of the destabilization plan is to blind the enemy, River gets a call from his grandfather, who rambles about a second honeytrapper phase. He is ignored as Slough House digs through Roddy’s dating souvenirs. Tara is sent out into the field after manipulating Whelan, and Roddy rudely helps figure out what Tara did to his computer. Finally, Slough House discovers that Tara had a connection to every location attacked. Tara evades Flyte and meets up with her group, and the code shuts down the computers at Regent’s Park.
“Circus” was another excellent episode of Slow Horses, demonstrating the show’s ability to focus on certain characters based on the demands of the story. Notably, Shirley, Standish, and the rest of Slough House are hardly featured in order for the episode to prioritize Regent’s Park and Tara. With that, River and Coe’s dynamic was extremely strong this episode, especially in their hilarious yet tense scene with Lamb. “Circus,” however, gives most of its attention to the Park and characters that have not been featured very heavily all season. Whelan remains important, but the time spent with Taverner and Flyte was extremely refreshing, as they have not been as vital this season. Whelan, in particular, is so engaging to watch this season as he fluidly dances from clever to absolutely idiotic. Additionally, Tara was a very interesting character, especially as the twist brought her to a new level of intrigue. The fluidity of characters was at its most apparent with the seamless inclusion of River’s grandfather and Molly, appearances that strengthened the plot and built tension on top of being welcome cameos.
Unfortunately, this stylistic strength of the show has yet to fully touch the villain’s plot. Tara’s manipulation of Whelan and the final twist about her involvement were gripping, but the rest of her crew still came across as simple bad guys. The cold open helped their interpersonal dynamic slightly, but they are all lacking in terms of complex motivation. However, with Tara’s escape, there is hope that the finale will explore this group’s motivations and potential justifications further. Still, “Circus” was a remarkably engaging episode, with an incredible cliffhanger that worked wonderfully as a tense scene set to oddly haunting acoustic music and as a perfect setup to put London’s fate in the hands of Slough House. On the whole, this episode was a classic, tense story of Slow Horses that demonstrated the show’s ability to explore various characters, even if the main antagonists remain underdeveloped.
Rating: 8/10