Apple TV+’s Sleeper-Hit Spy Series Just Revealed an Even Bigger Conspiracy Inside Season 5’s Mystery

Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Slow Horses Season 5.

If there’s one thing that the Apple TV+ sleeper-hit, Slow Horses, is good at, it’s offering terrifying villains every season. Each bad guy’s motives have been a little different, but that doesn’t make them any less creepy. Whether it’s homegrown terrorists trying to further their white supremacy cause or Russian spies trying to infiltrate the British government, their agendas have always been scary, yet fascinating. Last season, we thought we’d seen one of the best villains ever with the introduction of Frank Harkness (Hugo Weaving), who not only wreaked havoc by unleashing his trained-assassin sons on London, but also turned out to be River Cartwright’s (Jack Lowden) long-lost dad. Halfway through Season 5, a new group of villains that just might have Harkness beat.

‘Slow Horses’ Has Introduced a Terrifying Threat in Season 5

The Season 5 premiere began with one of the most shocking and disturbing scenes in Slow Horses history. A man opens fire in a busy town square, brutally murdering everyone in his path. But there’s more to the mass shooting than viewers are first led to believe. As soon as there is no one left out in the open for the man to slaughter, he’s shot down by a sniper from a nearby building. MI5 quickly realizes that the shooter was either hired to carry out the shooting or at least manipulated into doing so. Then, one of the Slough House gang, Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung), is nearly assassinated.

We learn that a group of four men is behind these two plots, almost killing one of their own after he’s injured during his attempt to take Ho out. They seem to be committed to their goals, no matter what. But even though their number is now winnowed down to a trio, they’re still able to continue with their very well-thought-out plans. Subsequent scenes reveal that these criminals have a much bigger agenda than they originally appeared.

Coe Poses an Interesting Theory in ‘Slow Horses’ Season 5

In Episode 3, the bad guys’ plans unfold in a major way. Previously, they provided a young teenager with the necessary supplies to tamper with London’s fuel supply. The following day, disturbing explosions start to occur throughout the city, as cars with the bad fuel start to catch on fire. We then see one of the men order an unhoused man to throw a bomb into a penguin enclosure at a nearby zoo in exchange for money. At first, these seem like unrelated, but horrifying, events — that is, until JK Coe (Tom Brooke) informs his Slough House mates that these incidents are all part of a larger plan.

Coe explains to the rest of the Slow Horses that the bad guys are actually following a surefire, bullet-point plan that is used to destabilize entire countries. The documented steps include transport disruption, which is exactly what has occurred by tampering with the fuel supply. There’s gridlock across the entire city, effectively making London way more chaotic and making it impossible for people to get around. Then there’s media distraction — precisely why they needed a video that would be disseminated around the country. Everybody loves adorable penguins, so the video of the bomb at the zoo is being shared relentlessly, causing a major distraction. The media and the public’s attention are focused elsewhere while they stage their next plan of attack. Unfortunately, Coe cites one more step that hasn’t been taken yet in the destabilization strategy.

The Slow Horses Have Their Work Cut Out for Them in Season 5

Image via Apple TV+

When Coe lays out the steps in the strategy that would be used to take down the British government, the next item on the list would be to assassinate a populist leader. This means that the current London mayoral candidate, Dennis Gimbal (Christopher Villiers), is presently in a whole lot of danger. Gimbal is a Member of Parliament who is running on a right-wing agenda against the incumbent mayor, Zafar Jaffrey (Nick Mohammed). Even more chaos would ensue if Gimbal was, indeed, assassinated. This type of killing would likely inspire even more political division, but it could also lead to things like guerrilla warfare, civil unrest, and a complete breakdown of British society. There are already many real-life elements that make carrying out this plot a lot easier, including internal conflict, propaganda, and a weakened economy. We also know that Ho was gullible enough to show his fake girlfriend, Tara (Hiba Bennani), how easily he can hack into the MI5 server. There’s no telling what kind of damage this terrorist group could inflict with this kind of insider knowledge. MI5 is responsible for all types of security for public figures, for spies, and for covert operations. Having access to their server could devastate the British government and have far-reaching, negative effects on the entire world.

The members of Slough House will definitely need to figure out a way to take down this terrorist group, but they have their work cut out for them. The entire team is currently fugitives since they’ve escaped the custody of Emma Flyte (Ruth Bradley). Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) will be livid when she discovers that the Slow Horses are in the wind. But the team is also down two people: Ho is locked up at MI5 headquarters, being questioned by Diana, and Louisa Guy (Rosalind Eleazar) has left the service. Will Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) and River be able to come up with a plan to bring down the villains before they can complete their destabilization plan? Shirley Dander (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) is already hanging on by a thread after last season’s events, and the team never truly lets Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves) do any real spy work. Can they really work together as a team to take down the most dangerous criminals they’ve ever come across?

These terrorists seem intent on causing a wild amount of harm to the entire British government and its citizens. We don’t know specifically what they have up their sleeve next (although the word ‘massacre’ was thrown around), or what their entire plan looks like. But it’s certainly going to take the Slow Horses working together to stop this terrifying plot.

Slow Horses is available to stream on Apple TV+ in the U.S. New Season 5 episodes drop every Wednesday.

Release Date

April 1, 2022

Network

Apple TV+

Directors

Saul Metzstein, James Hawes, Jeremy Lovering

Writers

Mark Denton, Jonny Stockwood