'Slow Horses,' Season 5, Episode 2: In Communicado

Hello, welcome back to the Prestige TV podcast feed.

I'm Joanna Robinson.

I'm Rob Mahoney.

We're here to talk to you about episode two

of Slow Horses, season five.

Rob Mahoney, this episode is called Incommunicado.

And

I have a quick question for you.

Please.

I have a series of questions, actually,

pegged to this episode, prompts for you, but I'm also eager to hear from our listeners.

So can you tell me how our listeners can reach us if they want to send us emails about this particular show?

I thought you would never ask, Joe.

They can always email us at prestige TV at spotify.com, but they should especially email us at arstimethepope at gmail.com with all of their slow horses-specific comments, queries, theories, whatever you got.

I'm going to start you off with one, and it goes a little something like this.

Say you're Diana Tavener and you've come home after a long day of dealing with idiots and assholes and you're relaxing in your pristine white gleaming kitchen and there's someone at the door and you don't know who it is.

Given that you it would be a boring exercise if you could grab a knife.

Let's say the corkscrew that she grabs is off the table and knives are off the table.

What kitchen implement, Rob Mahoney, are you

presuming that Diana Tavener has everything in that kitchen?

What are you taking to the door with you?

The answer is very easy, Joe.

Meat tenderizer.

We're just going metal hammer, blunt instrument.

I'm not even bothering trying to stab or poke or mandolin anybody.

Like, I just want to beat somebody to death if that's what the situation requires.

Okay, brute force.

I feel like I would go for the micro planner, like the zester.

And

I don't know that it's a good choice but I feel like I would enjoy taking like little little shreddy slices off of an attacker you know that sounds fun to me I will say this too the one time in my life I told someone zesters aren't really that dangerous I immediately cut myself on a zester within 24 hours so I will not dare question your choice that's right for fear of what my own zest might do to me don't cross the zester gods they will come for you okay so if you have if you feel like you have a different answer for which kitchen implement one should grab when they go to the door, arsenethepopatgmail.com or press tv at spotify.com.

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Rob Mahoney, what did you think of this episode?

On the whole, I really loved it.

I thought this was classic Slow Horses yet again, and in particular, classic, like early in the season episode of Slow Horses, where we are getting a combination of a bunch of stuff thrown at us as regard to like the central mystery, a lot of information, a lot of you know, new characters we're trying to get up to speed with and their various plots to the point that there's so much you kind of can't possibly stitch it all together yet.

And at the same time, a lot of Jackson Lamb quips, a lot of Slough House versus the park stuff developing.

Like, this is right in our sweet spot, Joe.

Um, what do you feel are, like, what's the most important information that we learned from this episode?

I mean, how much do we know about what I, the group I have dubbed the Van Guys?

Yeah.

Um,

they will,

one of them at least will burn a comrade if they need to.

We're going to talk about that guy.

He had a terrible day.

Uh, just

very tough stuff for the guy who got burned alive.

Dissension.

I would say dissension in the early dissension in the ranks.

Sure.

Really tough that they were friends, but now they're, now it's business and friendships don't always survive business.

Now they're colleagues.

Right.

Let's see.

They're speaking Arabic.

That is also something we know, but we don't know what nationality they are.

And we know that they appear to be behind sort of what it seems to be is that they are finding people with causes and pushing them towards

violent terrorist acts.

Yes.

So that they can sort of hide their own agenda behind other people's like front page agendas.

Does that seem right to you?

That does seem right to me.

And we've seen it so far with, you know, whatever the shooter was up to at Abbottsfield in the first episode.

And then with this group of like, you know, young, seemingly very eager to disrupt the oil pipeline kind of protesters, or, you know, environmental terrorists, if you prefer, however you want to classify what they're about to do.

Rob Mahoney, I saw white woman blonde dreads, and it was all I needed to see.

It's all I needed to see to know exactly who those people were.

They coded them very, very quickly.

But I have to say, this kind of, if that is indeed the structure and that seems to be the way we're heading, I think is just like a really smart way to set up this season.

In a, in like a, you know, an evasive philosophy of a potential like terrorist or nationalistic group kind of way.

It's like, let's take a little of these people, a little of those people.

Let's just like create enough chaos so that no one knows what we're up to, as you said.

That's like a, it just seems like a great way to pull the wool over everyone's eyes, the park included at this point.

It's interesting because we were

sort of thinking that the Abbas Field shooting that we saw in the first episode was more of like a homegrown, even though we knew that like someone had assassinated the sort of young, angry white man who had done the shooting, but like that it was, we were thinking it was more of a homegrown threat this season.

That does not appear to be the case.

We don't know the motivation of the people who are behind this.

Um, something I should say, I'm

purposely staying behind where the show is, but I have started reading London Rules, the book that this is based on.

I am really well behind.

So I'm not like hiding any insights from you or anything like that.

I'm staying like super behind, but I'll just like maybe chime in, like, hey, you remember a couple episodes ago?

I just got to that part and like, et cetera, et cetera.

That's how I prefer it, genuinely.

But does London Rules, in fact, rule?

It's fantastic.

Our listeners

told us all last season that we should read the books.

Rob, as we know, does not enjoy enjoy fiction.

Something that we look past in our love for Robin.

I appreciate that.

It's very big of you.

But I do love fiction and I love British fiction.

And so

I have been listening to it on audio and it's really, really funny, like really funny.

And that's something that our listeners told us, but I didn't realize like how

just the way that McCarran does not let his sentence go by without the opportunity for a really dry, like crackling observation because the like the lambisms are there and a lot of them are the same.

But you know, we're bouncing around from people's point of view, which is something we did we talked about last week.

And

so in this episode, we are, of course, as always on Slow Horses bouncing around point of view.

I want to talk about, well, first of all, my condolences to you.

Hashtag, where's Louisa2025?

Yeah.

You know, we are on day seven of this watch.

She's going to be back.

It's just a matter of episode three or four.

She's coming back very, very soon.

I mean, based on where we are with these plot threads right now, three maybe seems like a bit rushed.

Like, I don't know how she would bump up back against any of these primary plots, except save for maybe

literally everyone in the story is calling River on his bullshit and telling him to talk to somebody and maybe process like one single problem he has in his life.

And Louisa is his only actual friend.

So I know she told him to stay away.

Yeah.

But who else is he going to talk to?

Okay, so you're saying, Louisa, please cut your mental health breaks short so that you can play therapist to River Cartwright.

For the record, I'm not saying she should do that, but will Rivers show up on her front porch like a sick little puppy?

I think the odds are pretty good.

Possible.

Very possible.

So Louisa, absent.

So let's go to your second fave, which is Shirley.

Shirley has a foot chase

sequence.

I was

like, as much as we love talking about them as fail spies, as much as we love watching them fail, I was a little frustrated with our girl, Shirley, because I was like, you can't outrun a guy who has had his back half broken, who is limping and shambling.

Now, when it came to like the hand-to-hand combat fight, and she was so outmatched by him physically, I was like, that's that I understand.

But the way that he was outrunning her for way too long, I was like, this man is dragging a leg behind him.

And, um, but, but what do you make of the needle being jammed?

Like, like, so the camera focuses so much on this absolutely disgustingly filthy needle that she jabs in him.

This guy's dead anyway.

Yeah.

So it's not like, you know, we have to wait to see what the needle will do to him, but will it help identify the body in some way?

Like, is there a reason why we should be focusing on this needle and how could that pay off in the future?

I think the reason is it's disgusting and I hated watching it.

And also it's an ingenious creation to not only have the needle in the leg, but then the skateboard slam of the needle to just like jam it in even further.

Yeah.

I love your take though on a potential like identifying mark, right?

Like these are everything else that Shirley had was like a little bit of physical description, a little bit of scarring or like reaction from the bleach that got thrown in this guy's face.

Like she just didn't have anything else to go by that would be able to corroborate

a burned body.

Right.

So this is one piece of evidence they might be able to use to connect some of these dots, if not like in a court of law sense, at least in a, you know, putting together the pieces and the trail of breadcrumbs for their own investigation sense.

That I love.

One bit of excusing evidence as far as the foot race goes.

So all of this is taking place after, you know, the kind of various stakeouts of Roddy's place.

Lamb has been upstairs waiting on the waterbed, sipping champagne.

Shirley has just been on the curb eating what appears to be the entirety of the pizza she stole.

So, yes, he has a limp, but she just ate a whole pizza.

It sits heavy.

It does sit heavy.

It does.

Yeah.

You need that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle metabolism to house a pizza and then like keep going.

That's fair.

Okay, fair.

Turtle power.

All right.

You mentioned the bleach.

Our guy, Jackson Lamb, continues to sort of like home alone his way through

the show.

Lest we forget, a couple seasons ago, he and Roddy together basically home alone their way out of a out of a tense situation in a country home.

Here we are in Roddy's well-appointed flat.

I have another query for you, Rob Mahoney.

Yes.

This was a freeze framer's dream.

A delight.

Do you want to call anything specifically that you saw here in Roddy's flat?

And once you're done, I have a question for you.

Yeah, I have a couple of things.

You know, as we as we pan across Roddy's walls, I will say very different from the shooter we open the season with, who has some like really troubling stuff going on.

Roddy is mostly just incredibly tacky and very strange.

Troubling in a different way, I think.

It's true.

Traveling in a way where, if this person was in your life, you might have some notes and some thoughts.

You know, he's got the tiger print that I would say is close to the level of design you would see like on the back of a tacky satin jacket.

You know, multiple video game posters, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, Firewall Zero Hour, which seemed like a fake video game to me.

I feel like apparently is real.

So shout out to everyone who loves Firewall Zero Hour.

A graded comic for something called Eclipse Warriors that I could not seem to trace to being real things.

I also tried to find it, and the closest I could find was the book series Warriors.

It has an installment called Eclipse, but it didn't seem to be that.

Okay.

Very cat-heavy book series, apparently, that is popping up with the same name.

But shouts to Roddy for getting that 9.6 grading.

Very important for any collector.

I support him.

But really, the Pista Resistance show, like the giant battle axe slash glowing broadsword with light-up effects mounted on the wall just for everyone to see and appreciate.

I appreciate the craftsmanship, the artistry.

There's a lot of good work going on here.

With the yellow dragon sigil behind it, of course.

I did Google giant light-up anime sword just to see if I could figure out what it was directly from.

And I came up with nothing but artstimetepope at gmail.com if you are both a slow horses fan and can identify what that sword is.

Or the prop masters just had a really good time making it.

Yeah, actually, now that you mentioned that, that, I kind of wonder if it's from that show sword art online, which I don't know personally, but I know by reputation, and I can only assume there is a giant anime sword in it that might look something like this.

So, if you happen to be a sword art online fan and recognize this, I guess also hit us up at arstimethepope at gmail.com.

Where does that show air, Rob?

Could not tell you.

It's probably on Crunchyroll, as most anime rests and then sits.

I would like to add just a few details to your beautiful list that you came up with here.

We've got got an open jar of marshmallow fluff

on the side table.

And I say side table loosely because what it actually is, is a mini fridge filled with monster energy drinks.

Okay.

We've got, there's also a head massager right next to the marshmallow fluff and a manga, which is hunter, hunter, the manga.

We've got an adjustable multi-way tree floor lamp that is the hallmark of every young man who is not quite sure how to light his apartment.

This is

the way that you go.

It's very true.

Giant flat screen, massive fish tank, LED lights on the wall.

And then I think the number one

prop set deck element is the pull-up bar on his bedroom doorframe.

I thought that was just like...

Absolute perfection.

We are two episodes in and two separate characters commenting on how absolutely jacked Roddy is.

It's just happened, like, this is just the season that we're having right now.

I mean, the guy has like whatever a Boflex-esque like situation right next to his work desk.

He's not, it's true.

He's not skipping arm day.

He's not skipping leg day.

ArsenthepupaGmail.com.

If we miss any detail in Roddy's apartment that you would like to let us know about, or if

what you think is the number, I really do think it's the pull-up bar, but what you think was just like the number one best, if there was like an obscure magnet we missed or something like that, let us know.

Especially the most Roddy detail of all well i mean the the circular waterbed with the red silk sheets is a lot it's a lot it's a lot it's not good uh jackson lamb does not approve but jackson does show up right he gets he gets a message from catherine that rotties with a with a very attractive girl and he's like something's not right here does show up for his joe uh despite all of his constant protestations that he does not give a shit about them.

He does show up and he does stay and he does defend.

And what, you know, that's consistent with Jackson's character, but what does that do for you here inside of this season?

I mean, surprising for him to show up for Roddy specifically, right?

There are kind of levels to his investment in the various Joes, and you would think Roddy would probably be at the bottom of that list.

And yet, he shows up for him too, especially when things seem to be like, you know, maybe not fishy in a way he can fully tape together yet, but there's just like enough warning signs that there's at least something worth looking into.

And, you know, you talked about the home aloneing that happens with Jackson and Roddy as well.

And I think there is something to be said about the way that plays into the structure of this show, too.

Where, especially for law enforcement, as we talked about last week, like guns are not a given, right?

It's not a given that a cop or a member of MI5 would be strapped up at any given point in time.

And so then you have to be creative, right?

Then when there's an assault on Slough House, you're throwing kettles at people.

Then when somebody is storming Roddy's apartment with a gun, you know, the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a broadsword.

Or a squirty bottle of bleach.

One of the two.

Does bleach come in squirty bottles in the UK?

Apparently, it does.

I mean, look, that guy, face full of bleach,

chased with the broadsword while Roddy is yelling, I believe I am death, which was a wonderful moment of this episode, falls off the ledge onto a concrete railing a few floors down.

Harrowing, looks incredibly painful.

There was such a crunch, just like the sound Foley was just, I was like, that's a dead guy.

And then he got up and he kept going.

And I was like, okay.

It's like they broke a whole bag of pretzels at once, right?

Right into a microphone.

It was tremendous.

Then, as you said, gets up, runs off.

We get the whole business with the needle, killed by his own friend, set on fire by who he thought was his friend.

I'm just saying, like, that's a bad Thursday, you know, like, that's just not what you want.

Um, you mentioned having to improvise with weaponry when you're when you're here uh as law enforcement UK.

How do you feel about a push knife?

Which is what our guy co decided to use when they went uh door knocking.

Doesn't seem like it would be terribly effective,

but who am I to question the methods of

a black site torturer, as far as we can tell from Ko's background?

Like pretty dicey stuff.

He seems, look, he knows his way around a knife.

I did appreciate that in this moment where he is maybe a little too eager with the push knife to the point of almost like executing a Polish grandmother.

Right.

I like that we see him bumble too.

That he's not just like the quiet, perfect killer sitting in the corner.

Like he is at Sloughhouse for a reason, and maybe that reason is that he's pulling pushknives on grandmothers.

But I do love that

River's like, wait, do you have another one of them

for me, actually?

I was unaware of what a push knife was,

but it's just like a little...

Deer.

Did you know about a push knife?

I don't know that I've had occasion in my life to know about pushknives.

I wouldn't have known it by name.

Honestly, I did not know it was called a push knife.

But this exact thing, I mean, it pops up in, I I would say, especially like British-coded, like gangster action-type movies, but ultimately, not really that different than Diana Taverner with the corkscrew.

Like, really, they're going for the same thing.

It is, it is a beautiful echo on the like arming yourself front.

We did get an email from a listener.

You know, Rob was asking last week about this, the mass shooting that happens at Outsfield and this idea of gun violence inside of like a UK storytelling

space.

And so, our listener Will wrote in to say, you requested feedback on the opening scene from people outside the U.S.

I'm British and lived in London for 20 years.

My feeling towards that scene and many like it is instinctively, that just doesn't happen here.

So it feels jarring on first viewing.

We obviously have terror events here, but attacks with guns, especially automatic ones like that, feel quote TV and bluntly, quote, American.

Now things are getting progressively grim in the UK, so there's a bit of a feeling that maybe it's inevitably around the corner at some point.

So while it doesn't take me out of the action/slash show, my gut feeling is always this feels a bit sensational and made for tv impact

so um

i mean

i think inside of a show where people are potentially like flying planes towards large buildings in london in previous seasons or we've got

cars exploding like it's an episode of Doctor Who at the end of this episode here.

Like we're in a heightened extreme sort of

space, but that's great feedback from Will, I thought.

It's always heightened, but there is like an echo of reality that happens with a lot of the violence on Slow Horses that I appreciate, how willing they are to like fly like just close enough to some things to make it feel somewhat recognizable.

And we should say, like, I think a little bit shocking that this season is airing as planned, given that other Apple TV shows are getting yanked off the schedule because of the way that their subject matter is brushing up against real world events.

And yet, this one, which opens with a mass shooting, we're just kind of rolling on.

I kind of wonder if part of the reason for that is because it is a British property, because it is, because it's seen as being like, you know, an ocean away or kind of silent, just removed enough to make it so that it's staying out of that particular like version of conversation.

And that's a reference to the Jessica Chastain show that was like pulled off of the schedule for now.

Apple says they're going to air it later.

The screeners are still up on the press site, so they haven't, you know, burned the negatives and buried the show entirely.

Jessica Chastain has voiced her, her, you know, displeasure with this turn of events.

Do you want to like, you brought it up, Rob.

How do you feel about it?

Do you want to talk about it?

I mean, the only thing I would say about it is if you as a production company or entity or network or streamer are looking to engage with, like that show is specifically talking about extremism on the internet.

and violent public acts and the way those things intersect.

If that's what your show is about, I'm not saying like, oh, chase the news peg, but like you need to not be afraid of your subject matter.

And it feels like they're afraid of having, you know, whether good faith or bad faith or not, any kind of discussion about the actual subject matter of the show.

It's interesting.

Like I was talking to you a little bit about it and to a couple other colleagues of ours and friends who I used to work with who are all in the media.

And there's,

there's this like feeling that it's

a cowardly move, right?

To sort of run away from the conversation like this.

And then I was thinking about, you know, a show we love, Buffy Vampire Slayer had a show called, had an episode called Ears Shot that was about a school shooting,

you know, that happened, that was set to air right around when Colabine happened.

And it was pulled and then sort of aired quietly at the end of summer and like without, you know, any sort of fanfare.

And so.

But is there a different difference between sensitivity, which is sort of what that felt like, versus fear of being targeted?

Did they, you know, draw attention to the show that nobody was paying attention to in the first place by pulling it?

And now, no matter when it airs, it's going to air with this conversation around it for good or for ill.

Is any attention, good attention?

Is what did that show have a chance to be judged on its own merit if it had debuted in the midst of this like really heated time?

Like, I think it's a complicated

question.

I don't want to excuse what Apple did,

and I'm not,

I guess.

But I also don't think it's just strictly like,

you know, a strict kowtow, if that makes sense.

You know what I mean?

There's layers to it.

So, well, especially when, as you're saying, there's like a business decision and an artistic decision that have to be made kind of in concert, but are always going to be at least a little bit conflicting.

I think the thing that I ultimately come back to is like, and I think what separates it from things like Buffy, again, the subject subject matter and the themes of the show.

This isn't like a fantasy or a sci-fi property that's like kind of using it as allegory or kind of dipping into real world events.

Like, that is the show in the same way that I would expect Slow Horses and everyone making it to be prepared about a conversation about the way that causes are co-opted, if that's the way this season ends up playing out, about the way that people can be manipulated by bad actors or public actors or politicians or terror groups or, you know, whatever the nefarious forces are within the season of Slow Horses.

Like, that's what the show is about.

So, let's have a conversation about what the show is about.

I'm really excited to talk to you about one battle after another once you've seen it.

Can't wait.

It's related.

And

I want to hear your thoughts on it.

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Okay, so going back to

Ko and River as this sort of team up, right?

Like with the lack of Louisa,

River is paired with Ko instead.

What did you think of this duo?

I did like it.

Like, I honestly never would have clamored for these two to be paired up, but I think within, you know, keeping in the spirit of of everyone kind of calling out River for everything that he has going on, Ko is actually like a really good agent for that.

I think because he's at a bit of a remove, you know, this isn't Shirley coming in with her usual demeanor.

This isn't someone who has like been in the trenches with River and kind of knows all the ins and outs.

It's just someone who can sit there and rattle off every single time he's fucked up.

And like force him to confront in that moment the fact that like, yeah, maybe your judgment isn't great.

He's like

season one, season two, like Tiger Team.

He's been watching the show, yeah.

He's a fan.

Um, the standstead one in particular, where it's like he's almost ducked into the car and then he pops back up to say Stanstead.

Yeah, just really, really funny.

Really good.

Um, yeah, I mean, this is a character who we were introduced to last season, but but it was like very background until the very end of last season.

We've been curious to see how he would sort of flourish as he was brought, you know, closer to the center of the team.

There was that like jump scare of him in episode one.

Yeah.

Um,

but if he's here to just hone his psychological know-how as a weapon against River Cartwright,

it's fairly enjoyable.

I don't mind it.

It's interesting.

So, you know, someone on the Reddit pointed out, I hadn't noticed this, that in previous seasons, I had noticed that

their billings had changed elsewhere, but in previous seasons,

the opening credits were Gary Oldman, Kristen Scott Thomas, and Jack Louden, and that was like it.

And then it was like co-starring the rest of them after the opening credits.

And the whole team has been moved up into the opening credits,

including the actress who plays Louisa.

So that's good news for all of us, I hope.

And they've gone from

co-starring to starring.

And that's part of that is just like a season five contract renegotiation thing, probably.

But I do think that with River,

with

losing the side plot of every season, which is River goes to visit his grandfather yeah with with losing the jonathan price uh angle of it which at least so far this season we haven't seen um then it really does feel like much more of an ensemble than like it's it's river cartwright

you know the two pillars of of uh the government with diana tavener and jackson lamb and then and also the team this is like rotty is so huge here shirley is so huge here and then ko is sort of coming into the fold.

And it just feels like I, you know, Jack Louden's doing great.

Again, he's going to play Mr.

Darcy.

He's a new dad with one of the coolest actresses in the world.

Like he's doing great.

So it's not like I'm like,

but River is much more of a punchline this season than he has been any other season.

And I, and I think that's really,

I'm not like, congratulations, Jack Louden for doing that, but I don't know.

It's interesting to me to see him move more and more into

the punchline that everyone else is.

He's always been mocked by, I think, because his grandfather took him seriously.

Yes.

There was someone who was taking him seriously.

Even when his grandfather was like saying, you can't do this, you need to do it this way.

He was taking him as a serious person.

Especially with Louisa gone, there's no one taking River Cartwright seriously.

And so it's just like a completely different mode that Jack Louden has to navigate inside of this series, which I think is interesting.

Well, and dare I I say, Louisa, most of all, at this point, is not taking him particularly seriously.

Well, I think it's good for the show, though.

I think it's good for the balance.

As much as I love Jack Louden, I also love him getting to play the fool in the way that everyone else gets to.

Like, it's good comedy, it's good fun, it's good for the structure of the show.

And I think making those elements textual, like you were just talking about how his relationship with his grandfather was sort of an anchoring force narratively and something that's like elevating that character in terms of how seriously everyone is taking him.

Like, that's the subject matter of what they're talking about.

It's It's like, since this happened with your grandfather, you are a mess.

You are, you know, like at sea, and you need to settle that before you're of use to anyone else here.

And I think Lamb calling that stuff out specifically as it is baked into the world of the show, like that's a really creative way to sort of tackle that problem and also broaden out the interesting plot line so that Shirley gets to do this and Roddy gets to do that.

And if Louisa comes back, she has something to do.

Like it can't be all river all the time.

Rob, allow me to pour you a brimming pint of Red Bull and invite you into

this restaurant that's in a hotel.

Is that where that restaurant is?

It seems like it.

How did you feel like this location was used throughout the episode as more and more of the team shuffle in?

Thank you.

I hate it.

I just hate the location as somebody who has occasionally stumbled into such places.

It's just like a strong visceral reaction that I would say is not quite on par with the one that Lamb is having in the elevator as the like projected floor numbers are ticking up behind him.

But it is a perfect slow horses setting.

Like the construction of let's go to the place that no one would think Jackson Lamb would ever go and also Roddy could never possibly afford.

Just a nice way to kind of duck between the cameras of where people would be looking for them.

Was that like a deconstructed burger on a skewer?

Is that what we got?

Okay.

And even the chips he gets, I mean, are just like zhuzhed up beyond recognition.

Just absolute like thick cut rectangular chips arranged in some kind of structural Jenga-like pattern.

Simply a no.

We were doing a lot.

Having the whole team just sort of spread out across multiple tables.

Excellent stuff.

My favorite was Standish sneaking bites of her like foil-wrapped sandwich or whatever that she brought from home.

Really, really good.

A person, though.

You got to respect it.

All right.

Let's go back to Diana's Kitchen, though, because we got the return of a character, Peter Judd.

Uh, you know, disgraced politician, is now here in a different guise.

Yeah, I mean, shocking.

Disgraced politician who became a consultant?

I didn't know that pipeline existed for the Zimbabweans, the Chechnyans, and the Libyans.

The laundry, again, the laundry list was so great.

It's like, I'm here for this one thing, but also I sit on many boards.

I'm collecting many fees.

How do you feel about the use of Peter Judd as like a returning character here?

I mean, first of all, I unapologetically love Peter Judd.

Yeah.

He is so slimy and such a great character and making him so, you know, he's not an MP anymore.

He's not home secretary anymore.

He's just kind of like on the edges of the political machine.

I really liked seeing him pop up and especially like coming up under the pretense of like, I am helping.

And by helping, I mean I'm trying to keep this arms manufacturer out of the news, publicly speaking, in a way that, you know, to go back to Will's email, you know, the idea of like gun violence in the UK being what it is, and if that feels jarring in and of itself, that's one thing.

This is like a crate of automatic weapons and grenades that have disappeared from some kind of like arms show.

Yeah, like a very sophisticated gun show of some kind where, look, I expect that you can buy hand grenades in American gun shows.

I didn't know that it was like that on the UK.

Yeah,

I don't know that.

I would have ever dreamt of a UK gun show.

Like thinking about a UK gun show, I'm just thinking about like, what does one take bird shooting?

You know what I mean?

Like on a country weekend.

Apologies to all of the UK for typing you that way.

Okay.

Something we didn't, I really regret we didn't mention last week that I want to make sure we me underline this week.

Jackson Lamb

has a frog tie, a tie full of whimsical frogs on

both last episode.

partway through last episode and this episode.

I don't know if it's his like party tie that he put on for Louise's party or what, but

I think you're right.

I've never like I was I, I was like, has he always been wearing whimsical ties?

And I never noticed, but I looked back through, and usually he just has like a heavily soiled dark green tie.

Is it?

It goes without saying.

Yeah.

Um, so these jaunty frogs is something entirely different and new, and I just thought worth noting.

So, I mean, if you're gonna eat half a caterpillar cake, dress the part.

That's true, it's true.

Dress for the job you want.

And ultimately, he's doing that.

Did it

not bother you, but does it matter to you one way or another that we got no, we didn't get any gimbal or or Jeffrey

in this, like our two politicians in this episode?

Did that matter to you?

It didn't really matter to me as much.

I think the thing that did matter to me is that we got so much Lamb and Taverner after, as we commented last time, it was like kind of a light episode for both of them in the premiere.

They are both like central components of this episode.

So getting them is great.

And we do, even though we don't get Gimbal himself, like we do get Dodie kind of, you know, chiming in, at least over the phone, and whatever PI-hired hired muscle associate editor she has dispatched to a couple of questions claude to get a to get an official quote slash really just to rattle up claude at the park okay um we have to rewind the other park the actual park we have to rewind

and uh take a beat to note uh claude's uh running uh i'm so glad you brought this up style

How would you describe it?

It's like a hunched shuffle.

Not hunched.

It's like

a forward-leaning shuffle is what I would say.

What would you say?

I wrote down toddler who needs to use the bathroom.

That's kind of the vibe that he's putting out there.

So Dodi is a columnist.

Yes.

But she's looking to like break news with photos.

And when I think columnists, I think opinion writers.

And I don't think of someone who like breaks scandals.

Sometimes it can happen.

So I started Googling like,

do columnists in the UK right routinely break news with like shocking photos, stuff like that.

And what I found wrong is the sad state of affairs of journalism, which is that opinion columnists are like the first journalists who are often sort of gutted from our dwindling print media.

And that

according to sort of like some J School articles I was reading, in order to make yourself feel more essential, a lot of opinion writers are sort of trying to break news more often.

So I was like, okay,

I guess I, well, I don't know.

Do you bump on that at all as like a columnist trying to like break a scandal?

Does that sound right to you?

Or I took it.

Well, I took it less as she is a columnist at a traditional newspaper trying to break a scandal and more that she is a tabloid journalist.

Right.

So like she's, she's getting comment in the way that TMZ will reach out to.

I guess because she said my column, like in my column.

Do you know what I mean?

So like whatever it's like Doty says or whatever, you know, like

the Doty reports or whatever.

Well, I got to say, so far, I really like her style.

Is it ethical?

Who's to say?

But I would read it.

Okay.

Well,

and that's all you need to keep your job in journalism.

You got my click, you know?

I want to hear about Claude Whelan's, you know.

Curb crawling.

The curb crawling.

I want to know the room service order.

I want the whole TikTok of the situation.

And if this is the state of journalism where I have to go to tabloid columnists to get it, then so be it.

Okay.

Sounds great for our profession.

Curb crawling,

like learning a lot of things about push knives and curb crawling in this episode of Slow Horses.

Thank you so much for educating me.

Pushknivesandcerbcrawling at gmail.com.

That's our alternate email address that we definitely don't have, but I would like it.

Yeah.

Anything else you want to say about this episode before we go?

I mean, I think there's some other taverner notes for one.

I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, Joe, but I don't think we had heard anything about her wanting to potentially get out of the service before.

In her conversation with Peter Judd, it seems like she's kind of angling in that direction.

Is that what she's angling for, or sort of he was implying that she should be?

He was implying that he had heard, you know, some little birdies had told him that she was asking around.

And her implication was, even if she was, she would not need his help, which fair.

But, you know, all of which is to say, Louisa not the only person potentially who's trying to get out of this what seems seems like an extremely shitty way to live.

Do you think it's the fact that she has to report to Claude is like what has finally broken her, knowing she's never going to be first desk and she's tired of fighting here at Second Desk.

I do think she is tired of it.

I think she is also still tired of Emma Flight, who submits like one work order in this episode and just gets red penned to death because it is apparently not what she wants.

So she's not succeeding in any particular direction right now.

Frustrations abound.

The fact that, like, it seemingly

is your sense that Diana and we're going to get some like Diana Tavener and Roddy stuff next episode.

Is that your sense?

Oh, wow.

I mean, some.

Well, first of all, somebody is going to be kind of interrogating Roddy.

I would think it would be Emma.

Okay.

And we do get Roddy winking at her on the way out of Slough House in a way that she has to like physically shake off.

She's so like bothered by this very minor interaction.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, you know, Diana, as usual, will have her hands very, very clean.

But, you know, how far do the London rules go?

Like, I think that's something with these episodes.

Like, why is it that this group, in their efforts to harness the power of all these other causes, like, what is it that they are getting out of pointing the finger at Roddy specifically?

Is it just as simple as he is the most co-optable agent possible, and therefore they're just trying to make the park look inward and be distracted so that they don't notice everything that's going on?

I honestly have no idea, but everyone is looking to cover their asses at this point.

And we know Diana is just about as pro as it gets when it comes to that particular maneuver.

Absolutely.

Anything else you want to say?

I do have one final note, Joe.

As, you know, as you mentioned, I do not myself read fiction, but you do.

I'm curious when we are going to get coverage of damsels and demons on House of R.

Is that on the schedule already?

Oh,

we've already done a nine-hour deep dive into damsels and demons.

I can't wait to dig it up.

I can't wait to go back.

Check off's Damsels and Demons hidden under a bunch of cords inside of Roddy's desk.

So what could possibly be waiting there that will be helpful for us at the end of the season?

Yes.

Tune in to find out.

PressETV at Spotify.com.

RSENTepope at gmail.com.

Meet tenderizers and microplanes at gmail.com.

Push knives and curb crawling at gmail.com.

Again, the riches that this show gives us, there's just so much happening.

And we've barely even commented upon it, but like the lamb zingers in this episode.

Oh, we need to do our lamb shank.

Well, I mean, there are so many potential candidates.

I have one written down, though.

What do you mean?

Including 50 at Roddy's expense.

And I think, in particular, before anyone else shows up, he is just like poking Roddy over and over and over and over in a way that I appreciate.

But honestly, I would say the best lamb shank of this episode.

is not a lamb shank at all.

It's a taverner shank when Peter Judge shows up at her house and she remarks upon, you know, the

I want to just get this over with, as many women in your life have told you effectively.

I mean, it doesn't get much better than that, even on slow horses.

My lamb shank that I wrote down was

when Lamb is drinking his quote-unquote champagne and he says, I was saving this.

For losing your virginity, it'll be vintage by then.

And he calls it, he's like, this is sparkly water.

Anyway, that has been Incommunicado.

We will be back.

We have a lot going on.

Allegedly, if everything goes according to plan, there will be a Sopranos episode of Hooked, our finale episode.

Rob, have you watched any Sopranos?

Don't expose the lack of homework that I have done to date.

No, you will do your homework.

You haven't started yet.

I have watched one episode of The Sopranos.

Okay.

Which is one more than I had watched yesterday.

You've broken the seal.

I thought I felt like something in the universe slightly shift.

It's just like the air was a little bit different.

It's like a million voices cried out and we're suddenly silent.

Suddenly silenced.

Yeah, it's a little bit of, oh my God, we didn't even remark upon Roddy talking about him and his would-be girlfriend being the twin sons of Tattooen.

Like, I mean,

and then Jackson Lamb being like, you have the same tattoos.

I'm ashamed to say how much that line worked on me.

You know, it's like, oh, this is actually very cute.

It's very sweet.

So, yeah, we're going to do Sopranos on Hooked, allegedly.

Rob and I will be watching some episodes of Sopranos and talking about it with a very special guest.

And

then we'll be back with Task

as it continues to wrap up.

A lot of things are happening on that show.

And

more slow horses and other things to come here on the Prestige TV feed.

Thanks so much.

We'll see you soon.

Thanks to Kevin Buller for his work on this episode.

Thank you to Justin Sales for his Tyler's work on this feed.

And we'll see you soon.

Bye.