Slow Horses season 2 episode 4 recap & review: Cicada

The fourth episode of ‘Slow Horses’ season 2 sees Lamb trying to uncover the motives of the Russians while River attempts to confront Andrei Chernitsky. The episode is now streaming on Apple TV+.

Recap

Rebecca reveals to Lamb what really went down the night Min died. The Russians called her to the parking lot. She saw Min barely standing with the help of Piotr until someone from behind grabbed him and choked him.

Minutes later, Kyril drove Rebecca’s car into Min to make it all look like a car accident. There was a fourth guy watching the whole thing. He went inside Piotr and Kyril’s apartment after the car crash.

Somehow, Min managed to survive. The third man wasted no time in finishing Min off by spiking him with a needle-like weapon. Rebecca described the third man, who is none other than Andrei Chernitsky.

Upon asking, Rebecca also disclosed the location from where she picked up the money for this job. It wasn’t her usual pickup location. She picked it up at a language school.

Lamb suspects that she is talking about Nikolai Katinsky’s language school and that he is involved in this. He paid his office a visit.

Katinsky knew Lamb would be coming for him. He rang his office’s phone and informed Lamb that he was ordered to distract him so that they could carry out their mission in peace.

A frustrated Lamb came back to Slough House to see what Roddy has discovered from Min’s smartwatch. He then goes to the places where Min went before he died and visits the company from where the Russians picked up a package.

The receptionist goes through the records to see what was inside the package, but unfortunately, there is no record of it.

Next, Lamb staked out at Nevsky’s house with Shirley. He notices that the door is open. Lamb and Shirley enter the house and come across bodies, including Nevsky’s own body.

There is a Geiger meter by the poolside, which suggests that the culprit has used some sort of radioactive material. Lamb and Shirley find their way out as soon as they can. For now, Lamb suspects Pashkin to be behind this.

Catherine, on the other hand, meets Viktor Krymov, the man responsible for arranging the meeting between Webb and Pashkin. Catherine tries hard to retrieve some information from him, but Krymov is quite adamant.

Louisa, who is sure that Pashkin is hiding something, spends some time with Pashkin at the hotel. She plans to interrogate him later at night, but Marcus stops her from doing so.

Marcus calls Lamb, who informs them about Nevsky’s death, and asks them to back off for the night.

Amidst all of this, River spent a whole day with Kelly’s family and Andrei Chernitsky, who is going by the name of Leo.

During their conversation, Andrei questions if River is undercover. He also reveals that he has been traveling by bus in London and claims that he has probably seen River somewhere.

Kelly wonders if River is hiding something and tries to ask him the same. Before Andrei could leave, River drops his service phone inside Andrei’s bag.

Once Andrei exits Kelly’s house, River follows him. He asks Roddy to track his service phone. River soon realizes that Andrei is heading toward the Upshott Flying Club.

He observes that Pashkin is working with Katinsky to build a bomb. River confronts them. Alex, Kelly’s mother, arrives and tries to convince River that it is not what it looks like.

River reveals his true identity, and moments later, Alex manages to get close to him. She attacks River with a taser gun.

Review

• The fourth episode is certainly the one where things are starting to turn around. Lamb knows that cicadas are real, Katinsky is involved in this, and Pashkin is also somewhere responsible for this mess.
• The two plots, as in the case involving the cicadas and Louisa’s job with Webb, were going well on their own. Bringing them together feels a bit forced and unnecessary. This sounds like the same old crime drama tactic to make things interesting.
• So far, more than Pashkin, it has been Andrei Schernitsky who has been portrayed as terrifying. His every kill count makes him look more terrifying.

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Also Read: The cicadas in Slow Horses season 2 explained