Slow Horses Season 4 trailer spoils Episode 1’s big surprise

Slow Horses returns today with an explosive episode to open Season 4, but thanks to the show’s trailers, a major surprise has already been spoiled.

Slow Horses is one of the best shows streaming on Apple TV+, alongside the likes of Severance, Presumed Innocent, and Masters of the Air.

Starring Gary Oldman, Jack Lowden, and Kristen Scott Thomas – and based on the books by Mick Herron – the series focuses on a group of MI5 rejects who work out of a building called Slough House. Resulting in them being nicknamed Slow Horses.

The show combines action and drama, while the storylines are filled with twists and turns. But one of those twists – which dropped today, at the start of Slow Horses Season 4 – was ruined by teasers and trailers. So watch out for SPOILERS AHEAD…

Jack Lowden plays agent River Cartwright in Slow Horses, and the new series starts with the character fretting about his grandfather David Cartwright, a retired senior officer, who is suffering from the onset of dementia.

Early in the episode, he decides to visit his grandad, who is in a confused state. River appears to knock at the door and David lets him in, but while we hear his voice, we never see his grandson’s face.

Believing him to be an imposter, David follows the figure upstairs carrying a shotgun, and shoots him from a couple of feet away. David is then shocked and distraught when he sees what he’s done.

MI5 arrive on the scene, and find River’s wallet and phone on the victim, while boss Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) identifies the body, in spite of it now lacking a face.

The death of River Cartwright?

Meaning River is dead, with Jackson texting that information to Slow Horse House, who share it with his understandably distraught colleagues.

The teaser for Season 4 – which dropped last December – features Lamb complaining about the fact that one his his team is dead. Which ties in with what we’ve just watched.

But that trailer also features River being chased through a village later in the season, and making his getaway on a bike. Suggesting River is very much alive.

If River was dead, it begs the question why David shot him a second time, as revealed later in the episode. But with his mind gone, that could be explained away.

As it stands, however, anyone who watched that teaser – or the more recent trailers that followed – knows there’s no way that River is dead. Which prevents this potentially dramatic moment from having any real impact.

The truth is then revealed at the very end of the episode, during a final sequence that starts on a car driving through the countryside.

It’s quickly revealed to be a ‘Taxi Parisien,’ and the passenger in the back is one River Cartwright. Which comes as nothing of a surprise.

Episodes 1 and 2 of Slow Horses Season 4 are currently streaming on Apple TV+, with the rest of the series dropping weekly. You can also check out our roundup of the best TV shows of 2024 so far, and our guide to the best streaming services.