Slow Horses season 3 ending spoilers follow.
The final episode of Slow Horses season three dropped on December 27, and proved to be a pretty explosive one, following on from the tense events of the previous episode that left all our beloved Slough House agents in danger.
Catherine Standish and Jackson Lamb were in a house about to be attacked by two of MI5 'First Desk' Ingrid Tearney’s goons, while River and Louisa were trapped at The Facility warehouse and under heavy fire – and as the screen faded to black, River was thrown to the ground by a grenade that exploded and knocked him unconscious.
What to Read Next
It certainly seemed that the secret file they had gone to retrieve from The Facility was important enough that Tearney – and her lead 'dog' Nick Duffy – were prepared to kill all the Slow Horses to keep it hidden.
So did any of them make it out alive?
Slow Horses season 3 ending explained: what was so important about the file at The Facility?
Sean Donovan, the former head of security at the British embassy in Istanbul, had gone to great lengths to find the secret file, kidnapping Standish and getting River and Louisa to help him infiltrate The Facility in an attempt to locate it.
He revealed to them that his girlfriend, an MI5 agent named Alison Dunn, had been killed after she had found out incriminating information about a failed operation in Istanbul that was in the document – information that Tearney would go to any lengths to keep under wraps.
Did any of the Slow Horses die at The Facility in the season 3 finale?
The episode begins with River lying on the ground and Louisa telling the men firing on them that they have just killed an MI5 officer. However, Sean thinks River may still be alive and provides cover so Louisa can get over to her teammate and wake him up.
The three of them (Sean's friend who accompanied them to The Facility unfortunately died in the shootout) realise they need to escape, but Sean is shot as they head towards an escape hatch.
He gives River the file and tells him to get it out to the public. They leave him with a gun as he can't go any further, and he shoots some of Duffy's men before more arrive and kill him.
Elsewhere in the building, Dander and Marcus, who have turned up to help, are pinned down by more of Duffy's trigger-happy team, but manage to get away in time to kill the guys who are guarding the hatch River and Louisa are hoping to escape from.
Marcus ends up in a brutal fight with Duffy that ends with Duffy pulling a knife and Louisa knocking him out with a concrete block that kills him. Marcus, Dander and Louisa are all safe, while River heads off in a car with the file before any remaining 'dogs' can catch him.
River takes the file to his grandfather David for advice, but is shocked when David throws it in the fireplace, saying that if the information got out, it would ruin not just Tearney's reputation, but that of the entire intelligence service.
Disillusioned by David for the first time, River leaves, and we see that there is a copy of the file in his car.
What happens to Lamb and Standish?
Realising that they will soon be attacked at the house after a car with two of Taverner's 'dogs' appears, Lamb rigs the house Home Alone-style ready for the intruders – placing crisps on the stairs so he can hear them, sticking a blade on the bannister and making Standish hide in a cupboard. He also gives Sean's friend Sarah a gun, and she manages to kill one of the men but is shot in the process.
Roddy arrives to save the day (in his eyes, at least), and just as Lamb's booby traps finish off the other intruder, he drives the bus that's parked nearby into the front room of the house.
"Can you talk me through your thinking here?" comments Lamb, looking at the wreckage.
Lamb, Standish and Roddy drive Sarah to the hospital (well, they drop her in the car park) but on the way back to London, Standish and Lamb get into an argument about Standish's former boss, Charles Partner.
Standish has always believed Charles was an honourable man who committed suicide (we know, from season one, that he was actually killed by Lamb, under orders from MI5) but Lamb loses his temper and tells her that Charles was far from honourable – he was a traitor. It turns out Charles sold secrets to the Russians and even implicated Standish to cover his tracks.
A furious Standish quits the Slow Horses and walks away from Lamb into the night.
Does Ingrid Tearney get away with murder?
In a discussion with Diana Taverner – Tearney's rival, who had secretly tipped off Sean Donovan to the existence of the incriminating file in the hopes of getting rid of her boss and taking her job – Tearney admits she is prepared to kill all of the Slow Horses to keep the file a secret.
She has faith in Duffy, but doesn't realise that everything is going wrong at The Facility (and at the house, too). She tries to call Duffy – not knowing he's dead by this point – and Taverner reminds her she will be in trouble not just for sending MI5 agents to kill other agents, but also for the events in Istanbul that she has been trying to hide.
Days later, Taverner meets up with Lamb. She grudgingly thanks him for leaking the file, which has led to Tearney being dismissed and Taverner being given the prize she most wanted – the job of First Desk at MI5. He corrects her and says it was River who leaked the document.
It seems the Slow Horses – minus Catherine, of course, who has resigned – will live to see another day, while Taverner has her work cut out for her, undoing the damage Tearney wrought on MI5. We'll have to wait until Slow Horses season 4 to discover how successful she is – or whether she is using as many dirty tricks as her predecessor now she has the top job.
Slow Horses is available on Apple TV+.
You Might Like...
Freelance film & TV writer, Digital Spy
Critic and writer Jo Berry has been writing about TV and movies since she began her career at Time Out aged 18. A regular on BBC Radio, Jo has written for titles including Empire, Maxim, Radio Times, OK!, The Guardian and Grazia, is the author of books including Chick Flicks and The Parents’ Guide to Kids’ Movies.
She is also the editor of website Movies4Kids. In her career, Jo has interviewed well-known names including Beyonce, Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Kiefer Sutherland, Tom Cruise and all the Avengers, spent many an hour crushed in the press areas of award show red carpets. Jo is also a self-proclaimed expert on Outlander and Brassic, and completely agrees that Die Hard is a Christmas movie.
