‘Slow Horses’ Season 6, Episode 3: A Petri Dish of Intrigue

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Hello, welcome back to the Prestige TV podcast.

We're doing a Robinson.

I'm Rob Mahoney.

We're here to talk about slow horses, episode three resurrection.

Among a few other things that we want to talk about today.

Certainly.

It folks want to email us because we have plenty of emails about this and many other things.

Prestige TV at Spotify.com.

But what if it's just about slow horses?

If it's just about slow horses, or you want to worm your way into our slow horses in box

for whatever reason, you could email us at arstimethepop at gmail.com.

And getting some some revelations from listeners who have revisited earlier seasons,

sorry, series of slow horses and bumped on the arstime gag has been a great delight for them.

They got really excited.

As they should be.

As was I, when that gag first dropped and every time it dropped.

Some of the sweet gave you your laurels.

They were like, Rob Mahoney, what a tremendous email you came up with.

Many people are praising my performance on these podcasts.

We also have a lot of listeners writing in from the UK to help us out with some UK specifics.

Last week we were asking about Damien's news channel,

where Diana Tavernor made an ask of herself on last week's episode.

Sure did.

And we were sort of speculating US comps to the channel.

We got a lot of emails from from UK listeners letting us know what the actual UK comp is for this.

The news channel is almost certainly based on GB news.

The channel was launched in 2021, which aligns with Peter Judd saying they were family new.

And it's very different to most other television news in the UK.

Most networks, BBC ITV, C4, Sky.

They're so cool. They sound so cool.

They don't seem cool though.

ITV, C4, Sky.

Aim for a relatively balanced, neutral point of view.

Whilst GB news is pretty explicitly right-wing and regularly pushes the boundaries

regarding what is allowed under UK broadcasting law.

So the comparison with Fox News is appropriate.

The channel is closed ties to the reform party and I have Nigel Farage even presents a show on there.

Wow.

Great.

Cooking show, what do you think?

Home decorating it.

I would love that.

Yeah, home decorating with that.

If anyone is in a position to give tips.

What if it's like make over your garage with Nigel Farage?

Okay, see now we're doing somewhere.

They say garage, so it wouldn't rhyme.

Oh, you're right.

Tough.

The pun just died on the vine there, but I thought it was beautiful while lived.

How do they pronounce Petry Dish in this episode?

I think it's like Petri Dish.

Petri Dish.

Loved it.

We also got, this is sort of like a visual gag,

which makes for great podcasting, don't you think?

Historically.

But we got an email from a listener, Shree, who wrote in sort of testing our knowledge of UK

matters, wrote in with a visual, a photograph that you have had a chance to look at.

Would you like to describe it?

Sure.

Just in case we can't get the licensing, it is rectangular.

Okay.

It is checked.

Yeah.

Blue and white checked.

Yes.

Is this particular one?

This may not be, if we get a visual on here,

it will have been getting images approved and it might not be the same color pattern,

but it will be a similar thing.

Oh, interesting.

You know?

And so we're supposed to identify what this is.

What would you call that?

It looks like a, like it looks to me like a kitchen towel.

Okay.

You know, like, and I wasn't sure.

And you would call it a kitchen towel.

I think I'm sure it has some more specific purpose that I am missing.

But to me, it looks like a check, like not quite gingham,

but gingham adjacent checkered.

Apparently the, it is case like navy blue and white, but could be red and white.

Could be anything from what you say.

Um, I was expecting you to say dish towel instead of kitchen towel, but the same thing.

I think what Shree is going for is tea towel.

I think the Brits call it a tea towel.

I'm saying the issue.

Yeah.

So that's, I mean, it's the same, it's the same item.

So does it?

It's just they call it a tea towel.

So it serves the same function as a dish towel or a kitchen towel.

But it's called a tea towel.

If we were trying to impersonate British people,

as we often do.

We were like, Farley, which had me the dish towel, they'd be like,

ah, your American or Russian or something, something like it.

Um, that goes into something I want to ask inside of this episode.

We open with, and we have some other things because we want to get into the New York Times

TV list.

We're not done beating that dead horse content horse.

But um, this episode opens with like,

Satan River in the kitchen.

And it's quite a fraught reunion.

And she's basically goes like cup of tea, right?

So my question is, do Americans have a similar sort of like,

ritualistic, let's all calm down and do a thing together?

And if not, should we?

Of course we should and we don't.

And this is part of why we're fucked up.

Not to say that the British have it all figured out.

No, they're perfect.

I mean, they've never done anything wrong globally.

And I think you know, that's true.

Clearly they've got a lot going on at their own problems.

But I do think genuinely, as Americans, we have like a distinct lack of ceremony.

We're at a lot of things.

Just like a lack of tradition, a lack of like daily routine.

That is more universal.

It's like we all have our little silos.

And we're mimaxing them and optimizing to various effects.

Uh-huh.

But we're not just in doubt and having tea together.

Right. And you can say like, would you like a cup of coffee,

but it's not as universally, like I just love that all across the UK.

And of course it is a part of their colonialist past that is,

it is more of the rituals.

But like that people have their opinions on how a cup of tea should be made.

Of course.

But you know, and when you should have it and what kind of biscuit

you should have with it, we all know that you're out on biscuits.

But you know, in general, that whole...

Wait, well, I'm out on biscuits.

You said so the other two episodes ago.

I think you're, I think you're misquoting me.

I asked you about Jamie Dodgers and a bunch of biscuits.

And you're like, I'm kind of out on biscuits.

No, I'm out on like those specific biscuits.

The concept of very open.

Okay. You said so.

You think I'm turning down a biscuit to be real joke?

I think you prefer a cookie over a biscuit and there's two different things.

All right, let's talk about the New York Times list.

Sort of an assignment we're giving ourselves for no good reason.

Is one do over on our own list, our own completely non-controversial list

that we posted on Instagram and people thought were very normal lists

and supported us with their whole arts.

I found that to be true.

Yeah, yeah.

So if you had one do over on your list, what would you do?

I think to do what you did, which is smuggle more shit into my list.

I did on the social asset, there's no smuggling.

And you know that to be true.

That was noble of you.

But on the pod, there was some real stolen validats.

I'm just, I just bracketed.

I just said it in brackets.

As you house of our people are out to do.

Where are what, so what would you smuggle?

I think for me, the Americans was the one that really, really heard.

Yeah.

And I would love to find six feet under our and or and or dairy girls or V.

Probably a room for a bunch of stuff.

But I think the Americans, when all is said and done,

especially is going to be one of those shows we look back on so fondly.

Yeah.

Because of the lead performances, because of the dramatic arc,

because of the way it pulled off, a lot of things that other prestige TV shows

fail at in terms of the sustained tension in terms of the teenage characters on that show.

Like they made a lot of stuff work that really should not have worked.

Yeah.

And it's just, it's really an amazing, immaculate thing.

So you're a big page guy.

I think page versus if you, like if you want to make,

if we want to make a bracket of prestige teams,

I think page is among the best options of it.

Page would go pretty far.

I think she might win Sally draper's cleaning up.

I think at the end of the day, but page would go pretty far.

How about you, Joe?

What do you feel in due overlaps?

Should we do a team bracket and pit children against each other?

I mean, other, like what is like battle royale?

If not that hunger, it's been hunger games to death already.

Why can't we get in on it?

Let's do it.

I think I regret not having like one of the big obvious ones.

I got like so in my, these are my favorites that I think you don't do that to me.

What?

The these are my favorites.

That's the list we were making.

It's best versus favorites.

Stop.

Just you know what you're doing and I need you to stop.

We are we're podcasting in front of many people.

I know we can't get bogged down in best versus favorite.

I'm just saying I think not having the wire or madman or succession like one of those three

on the list, I would put one of them on there.

Yeah.

You know, which if you were to pick which one would you pick?

Probably the wire, but the problem with the wire.

But but this is the same problem with justified is like some seasons are phenomenal and some

seasons are not as phenomenal with the wire.

So like, you know, you like get your school season and you also get your doc season.

Now I love Frank Sabaka.

I do.

But what I put that season up against some other shows.

No, but like the wire is, I think similar to justified and a few other shows that like

the seasons feel so distinctly flavored that it, you could almost get away with what they did with

true detective, which is putting, this is the New York Times sheet.

They put true detective season one on their list.

That was really something.

So if you can pluck out a season of the wire, it goes like straight to the top.

Yeah.

From a list making perspective, I thought they did a lot of interesting things.

I mean, clearly there's going to be debate about what's at the top and what not.

Plucking out one season of true detective is a choice.

I was also kind of shocked at how many active shows were on this list and how favorably they were

ranked shows that you and I love you and I cover.

You really get slow horses off this list.

Look, good enough for the press.

You TV podcast.

We had not good enough for the New York Times list.

Slow horses at 62 feels great to me.

Feel great about that.

White Lotus at 21.

A show I quite like in watching has never once occurred to me that this is a historically

great show.

It's good.

It's very good.

It's very enjoyable.

It is so different season to season is like in the true detective kind of way.

Yeah.

But is it the 21st best show of the century?

I just feel high.

I wonder if they're like, if you if you earn more Emmy nominations than any show ever,

you need to be high on the list.

Maybe so.

But then where's like the studio on this list?

Well, give the studio time.

Maybe so.

But that was the other one.

And that's one thing.

It's like white Lotus is a season to season anthology series for the most part.

Some minor carryover.

The one that maybe surprised me even more was Severance at 30.

A show I love.

But like it's mixed.

It's it's it's very mixed.

It's quality.

I would not put it nearly so high.

I wouldn't put it nearly so high.

But also as a puzzle box show,

like I need to know more than other active shows how that ends in order to properly rate it

in something like this.

Yeah, absolutely.

Anything else on the list that you want to talk about?

I mean, I think there's just like the stuff that I was happy was included.

You know, the like happy just to be here, happy to be nominated.

Like how to a John Wilson pen 15.

I think you should leave, especially where I think there's an understanding that when you get

into the top 25, there's going to be a limited range for comedy.

And maybe over represented the top 10 based on my expectations.

But finding any room in this list for like unconventional comedy,

I found to be among the delights of reading it.

I like how high I made a story you landed.

Yes.

That's like such a phenomenal show.

And and was a big deal the year that came out.

I feel like it has not stayed in the conversation the way that I would like it to.

So I feel like this sort of cemented however much this list

cements anything possibly cemented in that conversation.

I think it might help.

I know I know a good amount of people who have gone through the exercise of doing like the printout

sheet that the times has provided and going through and like checking off the ones they have seen

or not seen.

And I made a story was just high enough on this list for you like man, if you didn't know what this

was or missed it, you may really make time for it, which is that's a win in and of itself.

Is there any you didn't make the list at all that you were sort of surprised or disappointed by?

I mean, you were just reading through was it the men's health or men's journal list of snows?

Where's yellow?

Where suits?

Where suits?

I think several well you were you were talking about Hannibal.

There are several like geekier outlets I've seen are like hey,

some of the great genre shows are missing here.

It just never occurred to me that Hannibal was going to be on this list.

The times isn't up on all that.

Fargo if you're going to put true detectives season one, would you not put Fargo season one on the list?

It's a great point.

I'm seeing a Ted Lasso-shaped spot in this list that frankly any show could occupy.

So you know there's room here.

Ted Lasso season one.

No?

No.

Okay.

Great.

Great.

All right.

Upper Richmond does get a mention inside of the set so.

Somehow it does.

It does.

There you go.

The last thing I'll say maybe as a preamble before we talk about the set

sod is that the Obi-Wan Kenobi thing that we bumped on a lot of our listeners seem to

think that the premise of that scene is that river is intentionally fucking with Rani.

And I I agree that that's like a really reasonable interpretation of that.

I have rewatched that so many times now.

And if that's what our guy Jack Loudon was going for, like I don't think it came through in the

delivery.

I completely agree.

Okay.

Because I had this same thought going into our conversation about it.

Yeah.

Like what is the intent of this?

I think it's probably if I had to guess written one way, performed one way,

maybe even edited a third, a secret third way.

Yeah.

It just there's not a lot of unifying vision on what kind of gag that was if any.

Right.

All right.

So we're three episodes in.

And one big thing that comes out of this episode as we

get all the individual pieces, sharing what information they have with each other

is are you seeing the larger web that connects all the disparate stories so far this season?

Like what's your what's your understanding of what's happening and who the player is at?

Oh boy.

Okay.

So like what's Diana Taviner's role?

I'm not entirely sure.

Okay.

I think her role is primarily to be distracted by her own personal accountability and

culpability in a way that pulls her from seemingly caring about any of this other stuff.

Like there's so much glitching happening as regards to

Sid being sent these like travel plans, the slow horse dossier in general being kind of white

from the system.

Like maybe she is taking an active role in some of that stuff,

but maybe she's also just like distracted by the travails of being first desk.

I think that's possible.

I think that Jackson believing that Diana Taviner doesn't make mistakes sounds right to me.

It does.

So I think that like-

But also she just made a colossal TV mistake.

Well, but what she says in that interview is about retaliation.

Yes.

And so I think that retaliation has to do with this assassination that happened,

this off the books assassination that happened that Sid and River are googling on Anne's computer.

Right.

Shout out Anne, my MVP of the episode.

So good.

Like maybe my favorite character this season so far, big Anne fan.

She's like me too, not me, not for me.

So I think so Diana if Diana did something that has put all the slow horses in danger and she's

covering her ass on it, that's one way in which Diana could be involved.

Don't you think?

But what is the covering her ass in this sense, the deletion of the dossier?

Like what is she, how was she covering actively?

So what River's theory is that some assassin calling himself Sid Baker off the books assassin

was sent because they use the name of a dead person to sort of cover.

And so in deleting the digital files does that cover the trail even a bit more?

Seemingly not.

Yeah, I didn't work very well.

Well, they forgot about paper copy.

Like you got to have backups on backups on backups.

I also want to raise one thing as far as the putting the pieces together is concerned.

A good chunk of our understanding of what the plot is right now is coming from Sid just saying stuff.

Yeah.

And this episode like raises very directly the idea of like should River be trusting Sid and by

extension should we as an audience be trusting Sid?

I really don't know.

That's a great ending for cobing like do you trust me and all of a sudden we're like oh wait,

she's been gone an awfully long time.

And when we met her in series one, she was a double agent.

Her literal job was lying to River.

So it's like and one of those great like cut to someone at the car window moments that I just

like always really love.

Plus I think there's always for me a skepticism in these kinds of spy oriented shows when it's like

you drop a charisma bomb into the show like Olivia Cook where it's like the banter with her

and Jack loud and is so great like they have such great crackling chemistry.

Yeah.

That it makes me wonder like is all of this like song and dance like distracting me from what's really

happening here.

And in that case, I mean, I don't know that we know for certain that it wasn't the Sid Baker

who was dispatched to assassinate somebody in Russia.

You're really right.

She could be lying about that.

Absolutely.

It feels like she's not telling everything that she does.

Certainly not.

Yeah.

Certainly not everything she knows about Diana Tabivore.

Yeah, her saying I need to I need to call Diana.

I need to call Diana.

Interesting.

Okay.

Um, so that's potentially how Diana is involved.

Frank, we know is working for Damien.

Yes.

So, uh, doing cleanup is Jackson's sort of assessment of that.

So if, you know, so Jackson accuses Diana of doing something that would need cleanup by

Frank Harkness, uh, Damien hires the Reese's dad, the former dog.

Yeah.

To steal the physical files.

Frank has to erase that, uh, uh, uh, trace at the end of the day.

Yes.

Why would Damien need the physical files of the Sohorses?

I really don't know.

Okay.

What Damien is trying to cover up is in some ways even more obfuscated for me than what Diana's

role would be.

We find on this episode that Jim and Jane are Russian, right?

Sweet vindication for you on accent corner.

It feels really good.

Last week's episode, a lot of our listeners pointed out that when they were in whatever

the UK version of Home Depot is, uh, Jim said something like they have a problem with inflation

So that, that, that Chrome was already, uh, dropped that Russian T-cake was already dropped.

But here they are.

Um, how do you feel about this about them as, as to slinky Russians?

Wonderful.

Yeah.

I mean, I love these characters.

I love how, for as annoyed as they are, can never be bothered to run.

They're like never in that much of a hurry.

Yeah.

When she, well, it's like because they just keep going.

I love, um, you know, in like, which Cassie and Sundance are like, whatever it is,

I love when like the people coming after you just keep coming, you know,

and you think you're clear and then they're still coming after you.

Very, very T-1000 stuff for shortly.

Exactly.

And so there's a moment inside of this episode when they break into River's house,

where they sort of link around each other for a second, like cats before they figure out what's

going on.

And I just love that moment where it's just where like there's no reason for, uh,

for Jaintus Circle, Jim, the way she does.

She just like gives him just like one little feline circle around.

Is she, they're like prowling around.

They really are.

I love it.

They're here to prowl.

They're here to power walk around the countryside.

And I guess they're also here to run through slow horses and they're running through them.

What did Jim do in the kitchen?

That's my question.

So he, it looked to me like he was taking out the implements to stage yet another one of

these plausibly accidental deaths.

And it was like, so it was like a sore throat,

sore throat spray, some kind of like pipe application.

I wasn't quite sure what that instrument was.

If you do know,

proceed to be at spotify.com or arstime.com or the pubicgmail.com.

And then gloves, I'd just assume for them.

To hide their fingerprints.

Yeah, exactly.

Did you have any other theories on what that stuff was?

No, but I just thought it was like weird the way you looked at the crowbar.

I thought the crowbar was the reveal of like,

oh, they have someone has been here.

Oh, okay.

Well, I thought that was the kettle test.

She touches the kettle and it's hot.

So they know that they were just there.

This is the problem with the kettle.

And maybe this is why we don't drink tea.

It's just, it's too much of a tell when you need to run.

Always gives you a way to the kettle.

I see, I was waiting for it to really pop off.

Because that's, I feel like that's usually the move in these types of stories.

It's like, you need that auditory response.

So you get the jump scare of the kettle and the reveal of the kettle.

But instead, she's just checking it in.

They heat test.

They outed themselves, you know, be a camomile.

I don't think they're drinking camomile.

At night?

No.

No, what are they drinking?

That's a great quote.

That's a great point.

But I don't think they have any plans to go to sleep.

I mean, also, also very fair.

I feel like they're drinking like builders tea.

I don't know what that is.

I'm gonna be honest with you.

What is builders tea?

Is it like a standard black tea sort of thing, I think?

An ice-oral gray.

But you wouldn't drink it at night time.

Okay.

I mean, yeah, they do have a long night ahead of them.

Yeah.

Did you feel it all seen?

You know, you and I have gone back and forth on various food safety issues lately.

Yeah.

Did you feel seen it all by the like,

is this milk still good?

Yeah.

Should be.

And if so, do you feel more seen by river or by seed?

Like, how do you identify in this kind of great,

expired milk or cream debate?

I'm, I'm sad.

Like, you're by the date on the box.

Well, she's kind of smell testing.

She's doing a smell test and rivers not even bothering.

He's just like, should be.

Should be fine.

Uh-huh.

What if he just bought it?

Like, absolutely not.

Okay.

But also, I don't keep, I only drink oat milk,

so I don't keep.

Very free.

Not a problem for you.

Yeah, yeah.

But like, definitely a fear.

I mean, you should do the smell test.

Yeah.

That's a safe assumption.

The episode opens with just the sound of tea being made over a black screen,

which I just think is the most English way.

You can possibly open an episode.

And yeah, we get the smell test on the milk.

We get this back and forth in the kitchen.

But mostly we get Jack Loudon as a record right,

just looking at Sid.

Yeah.

He has thought was dead for three years.

And this could have been like a tremendously emotional scene,

but guess what?

This is slow horses.

And so instead they have this conversation where she's like,

are you making my trauma about you?

And he was like, it was really, really, really hard.

For you, obviously.

How did this play for you?

Wonderful.

I think it was such a great way

to reintroduce these characters to each other

and to end their dynamic to us.

The kind of like, to be continued at the end of last week

is a nice way to tease it.

But I just found myself like feeling like,

God, I missed this.

Like I missed this dynamic.

And some of it is the nature of the slow horses

and who is in Slauhaus has been changing a lot

over the last couple series.

And from the moment that Louisa leaves,

River doesn't have this kind of like counterpart

in quite the way that he's been looking for.

No, he should have made friends with Shirley.

I really, they kind of tried last season

and she's just like, you suck.

They didn't try that hard.

No, I'm saying like River was kind of like,

hey, I'm with Shirley.

It's really like, Lisa.

No.

I wish they would have more time together.

Because yeah, like, Roddy is such a different energy.

Lam does or doesn't have the time of day for anyone

at any given point.

Catherine Stan does she's not this sort of like,

repart tape, like counterpart.

And so getting Sid back in here,

I think gets to not just because she's in series one,

but like some of the roots of the dialogue

and the banter of the show that is so charming

and is such a key part of like the Slauhaus' DNA.

It's interesting because I think that,

and we talked about this last week,

they still haven't.

I don't believe they've made this explicit.

But we talked last week about the possibility

that if they couldn't have

convinced Olivia Cook to come back to Slauhaus'

that they had set it up to be able to do this plot line

with someone else and we were like,

it seems like Louisa is a good example of that.

That's right.

And so in order to,

if they were laying track from that from several series ago,

in order to do that, they would need to create a sort of romantic

tensiony,

because that's what Sid and River have.

Is this like, will they want they sort of energy?

Like, and look at you, a couple, like you're so cute.

And so I think they sort of made that Louisa river dynamic

a bit more after the death of the Great Men Harper,

like a little bit more of a,

they're awfully close.

They're close, but also like in a river also misreading

some signs kind of way.

Usually.

Yeah.

This is thing.

And frankly, maybe it was Sid too.

Again, this is what's so hard to read about Sid

and what's so fun about her as a character.

Like, how much of that flirtation is Sid

and how much of it is the job she was doing?

Tough.

Tough to contemplate.

What I will say, and maybe she's still doing the job,

you know, maybe she's still in the case.

But like inside of this episode,

you know, when she's like, whose funeral was it?

He's like, it doesn't matter.

She's like, it does.

You know, it's like they're, they're trekking their way through

Couchit actively.

And she's like, open up to me, man.

Tell me what's going on, you know.

What I thought was interesting is I felt like she had a very,

a much more low key reaction to finding out

she, everyone thought she was dead for three years.

Yeah.

Then I would expect, I think that's a good reason

to sort of suspect that there's something else going on with her.

Because if it's for me,

I would be like, what do you mean you thought I was dead for three years?

I thought you just did text me for three years.

But I just go to me.

You thought I was dead.

Interesting.

What did you make of this sneaking through the cow situation?

It was delightful.

Okay.

I mean, I would say it worked on the cyclops,

you know, the sneaking among livestock.

Jane is not going to be so easily fooled.

No.

She's like, is that cow?

She's got two eyes.

She's got two eyes that helps.

Yeah.

But also like, is that cow wearing oxfords?

It seems so.

Therefore, maybe not a cow.

All right.

P that cow, man.

Get another random animal death

in one of these colds opens, cold opens of these shows.

Oh my God.

Are we tracking this?

I mean, I think we have to at this point.

This is a lot of casualties out there.

Okay.

Why are you dressed like a Mormon?

Pretty good.

Pretty good line.

It's good.

It's episode.

Okay.

So if I'm buying the premise of this season,

they've stayed multiple times.

This is the same day.

Catherine's like, I was out of here.

I don't normally dress like this.

Yes.

Same day.

He's in his grand father's suit.

Grandfather's suit.

Same day.

What time is Louisa's meeting?

Business meeting.

You know, it's a great point.

It's quite dark.

That's a night meeting.

It's a night meeting.

Okay.

R&D is very excited about predictive AI

at Louisa's job.

I mean, maybe it is,

maybe it's in response to some kind of crisis.

You know, they're talking a lot about like,

compliance, about a data leak.

Maybe they have called everyone back in.

I really, you're right.

This is where it's probably straining

the timeline of the show just a little bit.

Like Moira had already made her,

like it could have plausibly made

that sad soup dinner.

Yes.

So she's off of work.

Off of work at home in her sweats.

Dying slowly.

Dying slowly and Louisa's in a meeting.

I gotta say, she doesn't seem like she wants to be in that meeting.

It seems like she's ready to drift off into another plane of existence

until she sees Shirley and Catherine.

Then she's like, I'm all about R&D's.

Yeah.

Now she's.

Perfective AI thoughts.

Okay.

Louisa and we saw this in the trailers.

Looks great.

And Shirley says so.

It really is, sir.

I mean, corporate Louisa looking quite posh.

I mean, the boots, the skirt, the hair,

everything looks fantastic.

She's driving an Audi.

She's been to Bali.

Yeah.

Shirley's got some thoughts on it.

Anything you want to say about that.

I'm thrilled she's here.

I'm thrilled she's here.

Thrilled she's back.

I get her resistance to wanting to be dragged

into this world yet again, especially when you see all of the,

all of the, you know, the consumer goods that her corporate life has done for her.

I don't think every slow horse could go this path.

You know, like they're not all quite so employable.

River probably could get a, a corporate, like a,

like a Kush corporate job.

Infatically, almost all of them aren't as we saw what was going on with Struinloy

and K-White living on her long boat.

I mean, it's one thing to be like disgraced and exited,

you know, from even the slow horses.

But I know like Jackson Lamb is not going to be one for this kind of meeting.

But at least River could have followed her down this path if he had wanted to.

And it seems like she seems like she's doing well.

Does not appreciate being jumped at work with even this kind of surprising news

and is fine with being potentially assassinated.

And also very much does not appreciate people going through the stuff in her car.

Do you think Louisa's posh life is simply a result of her

high-paying gig or does it have anything to do with the diamond that she stole?

You know what?

I actually forgot about the diamond.

How easily are recaching that diamond?

Like, can you just, can you go to the airport with the diamond and say one,

take it to Bali, please, and just slide the diamond across the counter?

It's a great take.

I mean, maybe this is me being like a little lanterns inclined.

But I think if you just show up with a big-ass diamond,

granted that was more of like a, you know, an M&M-sized diamond.

It does tend to raise some questions.

I feel like it puts you on a list somewhere.

Well, we should say this.

Louisa knows her way around.

I mean, like, she knows to go to Marcus' gun guy.

So like, she knows her way around like a back alley deal.

So I feel like Louisa could find a diamond guy if she needed one of all the people.

We need a diamond guy.

Yeah, we really think.

Why don't we just doing all of our transactions and diamonds?

Just like a cut-jumps-it time, you know?

You know, we're talking about like, oh, do we need like the British T kind of tradition?

What we need is like not even just like a wallet in our pocket or in our purse,

but like the big bag of coins.

You know, we just need like real physical, legal tender that is,

you know, kind of impossible to replicate,

but also impossible to place where the hell is this actually from.

You want to enter your like, Scrooge McDuck era?

I think so.

Okay.

I mean, always, but especially now.

Let's just follow the like sort of Louisa, Moira, Catherine Shirley.

Yeah.

This is one of our girls' night, girls' trip.

What do you make of this grouping together?

Moira's alive.

Yeah, Moira lives.

I'm glad I, you know, gave her a little eulogy last week.

But she also sucks in this area.

But her sucking is part of what makes Moira great.

Which surely is like, oh man, we have to go rescue Moira.

And I've actually been like kind of on Moira's team in her little like sort of Dolores Umbridge

esque, like, demeanor stuff like that.

Well, that is your land.

I mean, you're a huge Umbridge head.

I love Dolores, my girl.

But when she goes into the Badega and it's just sort of like yelling to Catherine about

or the assassin's here, what if they come back?

I was I was quite exasperated.

I was quite exasperated, but I mean, it did a couple things for one.

Having a character like Moira shows us how far Catherine has come, right?

Like she used to be a Moira-esque figure, maybe not quite harping on people in quite the same way.

But she's had so much time in the field now where she seems like a pro compared to someone like

Moira. And so having that counterpoint is nice. And we should also say Moira is alive,

but by the grace of Catherine Standish, who remembered because of her previous interaction

with her in the series and also her printer that she should go check on Moira.

Yeah. Also, if it had just been, let's say, surely who shows up at Moira's house.

She would knock twice and lift.

I'm going to say 10 seconds tops.

We're not staying to smell any gas.

We're not busting down any doors.

Like Catherine straight up saved her life.

And I'm here for any stand-in heroic moments we can get.

Absolutely. I'm a huge Catherine fan.

Okay. So smell your milk.

And also if your friend is missing, make sure you smell through their mail slot to see if there's gas.

I just smell through everyone's mail slots.

It just seems like good policy.

It seems like something to do.

And you're so tall soon.

Yeah. It's quite a thing.

I know we're sort of situation really tough.

Anything else you want to say about Louisa,

surely in Catherine and Moira.

Well, I mean, if we're not going to be saying Rest in Peace to Moira herself,

I think we have to say Rest in Peace to Catherine's bag,

which fell in the line of duty.

It deserves its own park funeral.

Yeah.

But like, there's no coming back.

It's over.

From Poison Vomit in your purse.

From one poison card to another,

the other grouping that we get tremendously great is Roddy, Jackson, and Reese.

This is a really fun combo of people.

Absolutely.

And actually, I know that Roddy had like his big season previously,

but actually I think this is my favorite Roddy season.

I'm just really enjoying his energy.

Like, I just think he's really finally calibrated.

I agree.

Though like annoying, but believably human.

He's just more believably human than we see before.

Yes.

And maybe it's that tattoo that he got to remind him

of his pain and trauma, but I'm big into the Roddy energy this season.

The pain is strength, Pete.

I'm with you that there is something a little less cartoonish about him.

Going from like neon sword on the wall, Roddy to again, just this kind of like

more competent than we've seen him be.

Like he is staked out by the back door.

He's doing his job as normal.

He's just like taking some hits here and there, especially from Reese who just like already has

him dead to rights as far as how unimportant he is in this entire mission.

But also like I think the.

He was PA.

His PA is wonderful.

The trio is great, but this episode is a reminder to me of like, so horses and part of what makes

it such a wonderful and replicable show is like all the pairings can be really fun.

There's so many missed like ways you can mix and match these characters.

Yeah.

And layman Roddy is one we don't get as often, but when we do, it just like really sings.

And that's without Roddy even having to do all that much.

Yeah.

The addition of Reese is so good inside the arcade scene when.

That's where kids go.

Night time arcades.

But when Roddy is like sent off to get the money, you know, like to get the box ribbed to get

the money. And then when when that the button on that scene being like, Reese putting his arms out

to be like, put me down.

So funny.

It's really good.

I really hope that keep going to that well.

Like he could just stick his arms up at any point in this season.

It would be a great returning gag.

But also the game that he's about to play.

Zombie hunt down is the least real video game I've ever seen in my life.

Okay.

I think for for a wonderful show that we delight in so much.

Did you check?

Of course I checked.

Okay.

Joe, this is not a real game.

It looks in no way like a real game.

I think we could have done a little bit better.

I don't know what the English are playing in their arcades.

That's honestly fair.

And apparently the fact that English kids and teenagers are in our

kids to begin with, which does not seem to be happening in this country.

A minor miracle.

Oh, do you do kids not go to our kids anymore?

I don't think so.

The way that people don't go to like bookstores.

Have you not read 15 think pieces about the death of third places?

Yes, but like you don't think that's affecting our teens.

Sure.

I mean, maybe they're they're good.

I think they're getting out in the world slightly more than they were five years ago.

Certainly.

Yeah, I just had about about our kids.

I mean, arcades are under fire from many, many fronts.

I mean, for once, just like,

are you really going there to play a video game

when you can play Fortnite at home?

What about your Dave's and our busters?

I think Dave and Buster are both doing quite well somehow.

Yeah, they say ampersand.

I think it's the ampersand that's shielding them.

And also like if you're just slinging like beers and onion rings,

like I think you just have a little more going on.

Okay.

So let the teenagers drink is your pitch.

I mean, that's that's certainly the British's pitch.

Is it not?

Yeah.

I think so.

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We're going to be right, 2026 Applebee's Restaurant LLC.

Before we move on from this arcade sequence, this is a lamb shank gold mine in here.

I think if you're going to pick one from this episode, which I simply won't, because I'm

just going to keep smuggling, the triple crown of its danger mouse, you are a golem looking

for his precious into.

I see why he put you in a home.

Come on.

Was golem looking for his precious is definitely my lamb shank of the week.

And it's very good.

I think it had whatever you're picking, it has to come from this scene with all due respect

to the woman working at the children's home who lamb also shanks a little bit.

He does.

But they aren't like tremendously creative shanks because she's just like an easy, like

some bench was on the phone or like you can't walk these stairs.

It's true.

They're not very clever.

The line is good, but it's more the way her face falls.

That really, it really works for me.

That's true.

It's not a lamb shank.

Lamb shank.

I don't think with the greatest lack of respect, ma'am, fuck you, fuck your job.

Let's talk about it.

Mom, fuck you, fuck your job.

Like, I'm like, it's fired, it gets bumped down to a slow house.

Something that we've been wondering if it was going to happen.

I don't know if you had been wondering, but I had sort of, she just had had so much

interaction with slow house.

It's true.

That it sort of seems like a place, a thing that would happen.

My only question is, is she going to be at a slow house?

I think the fuck you fuck your job.

Oh, she's just quit.

She's like, you can't bump me down to slow house.

Fuck you, I quit.

That's kind of what Taviner is suggesting, right?

I'm like, I'm moving you quote unquote parallel or not parallel.

Laterally over to slow house.

I can see him a flight being like, fuck that.

I'm going to go be a PI, like something more in the private sector, go work for some

other agency.

I don't know, but for the purposes of this season, I could see her getting looped in with

the horses, trying to uncover whatever needs to be uncovered.

I don't think there's any reason for Diana Taviner to tell Jackson Lamb that Emma flight

has been bumped off her surface.

Of course, but for Jackson Lamb to go fight Emma flight and use her this season.

And the reason he should, frankly, Emma flight at long last is on top of her shit.

She is seeing exactly what is happening with Taviner, gets fired for it.

Yeah.

And not just for it, but the way in which she calls it out dead to rights.

Like if you are being coerced, if you are being leveraged, if you are anyone, you know,

is being threatened, clearly Taviner is like in such a cover your ass, even by like London

rule standards mode, then she's just like, I got to get Emma out of here.

That said, my predecessor had a quick up down great admiration for you.

He may have allowed himself a little bias.

Yeah.

Oof.

Cloud Wheelie deserves that.

Emma didn't necessarily.

She did.

But this is the thing is like up until this point.

Yeah.

Diana is not wrong.

Like Emma flight had not done a lot to prove that this she was great at her job.

And then I mean, this is something we talked about.

And some of our listeners who were book readers wrote in about this.

Again, I think the actress who plays Emma flight is absolutely beautiful.

I think the description of that character in the book is like, this is like Denise Richards,

nuclear physicist sort of thing.

You know, you're like this Christmas Jones.

Yeah, this person is too hot for this occupation.

Yes.

You know, and I don't know that that's quite what I'm getting from this character design.

But I think if it had been Dr. Christmas Jones and you were like, you're only here because

you look great in a tank top.

I don't know if that's this show that so horses wants to be, but I think that's the story

of Emma flight in the book, you know, so.

So like I get from that perspective why you're dishin out these particular insults and

what how clawed gets kind of looped back into it.

But I mean, the irony of Emma actually does her job quite well and gets fired for it.

After everything that's happened, it's it's rich to say the least.

That's classic Diana Tappeners.

That's true.

But don't let her know that you've got anything on her because then you're cut and then she'll

probably gets good by that later.

This might be the reason more than any other we've seen so far as to why Tappeners must

be involved in some kind of more insidious way than what she's letting on.

It's like she's just so unfust by the fact that slow horses are dying.

A dog is getting picked off.

Like she's so unbothered even with everything else going on.

That it's like this just can't be even for someone who is so politically minded.

Can't like she can't be that disinterested in this stuff.

Right.

Time to talk about my friend Anne.

I'm surprised it took us this long.

She's wonderful Barbara Martin who is a legend of stage and screen.

Unfortunately, I know her best from a terrible show, dude, prophecy, but I really like this

act as a lot.

Who does she have?

She's a sister.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You can see it.

You can see the vision.

Absolutely.

You put her behind a veil.

Yeah.

Yeah.

She's fantastic.

The way she just like chucks the phone at Rivershead among other things, everything that

she says in the kitchen.

Like I think the kitchen scene with Sid and River is my favorite scene of the season.

I completely agree.

And what was your favorite part of it?

Let me count the ways.

Okay.

For one, I think we already alluded to this earlier, but anytime you get the, are you a

couple, no god, no simultaneous reaction?

I've worked for me every time in context.

But I think it has to be what will double as my most British moment of this episode,

which is the arrival of Freyventos.

Like a tend to meet situation.

I real, I real, it's he is it tinder's it frozen.

I think this has no, it's tins.

I don't know if this one was frozen, but in general, Freyventos is tinned meets.

That's, that's very alarming.

I got it.

So the fact that it's a tinned from 2006 is worse than frozen from 2006?

They're both quite bad.

Yeah.

But I, the rabbit hole, it's sent me down.

He's, he's eating like a, like a sticking kidney pie in a situation.

So they've, they, they do tinned meets.

It's more like straight forward, like sort of spam situation, but they also do pies.

I think the pies are also tinned, but maybe it's frozen.

Either way, how was that crust maintaining its integrity and a can?

It's a great question.

I mean, I will show it like there.

Here's a, do you want to see a photo of?

I saw this same photo and I assume that must be going into a freezer, but you're, I

think you're absolutely right.

Yeah.

Doesn't stop.

Ripper from kind of continuing to peck at it throughout the scene in a way that was

very funny.

And also, I think the rabbit hole, it sent me down of looking up for a bentos and finding

not only does it exist in the form you just showed me in that image, but like there's

something called gentle, minced beef and onion pie, which is just in case you thought the

standard version was too flavorful.

I see.

Yeah.

We got it.

We got to tone this down.

I mean, what could be more British than that?

I do think that like the physical comedy of him sort of slowly putting, and then as you

say, he keeps eating it.

But when he's like, and when did he pass?

That's in six.

Slowly put down the fork.

Sid saying that she calls a little bit of bullets still in her head, parro.

Yeah.

And then yeah, all those girls making a fuss about a little bottom pitching.

How are you to meet a nice boy if you can't go out with your boss?

And it's really something.

She's just phenomenal.

And you're right.

Barber Martin is just terrific in this episode.

And I think starting from the standard ground throwing the cordless phone while faking a phone

call is just like every second she's on the screen is thrilling to me.

She's like Castle Doctrine.

This is true.

Castle Doctrine stuff.

She's got to protect her home.

Were you surprised that River didn't try to recruit her to the dogs?

You know, I'm not so much.

I will say because the one time they tried to convince her not to open the door for

the assassins.

She's like, I got this guy.

Don't worry.

I'm on it.

I mean, it's like negotiating with a canned meat pie.

Like she just, she was not hearing it.

She was going straight to the door.

Politeness overall.

Best uses by craft.

River blowing up the car.

You don't think?

Quite good.

I think that's very good.

And he's so pleased with himself.

And like for once, he's allowed to be.

He's so pleased with himself in part because the light literally and metaphorically in Sid's

eyes as she, as she clocks what is happening.

Yeah.

I mean, she has never been more delighted and proud of him.

And therefore, he can never be more proud of himself.

Yeah, it was really good.

I think the only other one is if you take Sid at her word as to what has been happening

here, maybe that's the case.

Maybe everything she's saying is like more or less truthful.

She's the first target of these assassins yet to clock that she is in fact a target.

And so that would be great stuff to go right spy craft to.

I think that like when J&Jim show up and we see her hair from the back, I think that

her first like James hair first backlit even I think maybe even like a fraction of a section

before Sid is like, they're here for me.

We see your hair were like, Oh no, like it's not Frank Harkness, which would be bad enough.

It's Jim and Jane.

What if it was Frank in that wig?

And we have yet to see Jim and Jane fail.

So like when they roll up, I was not worried necessarily about River and Sid dying in this

episode.

No, I was a little worried about Anne.

Co at the end.

Yeah.

Some of these other characters I will say as far as Anne goes, River and Sid not terribly

concerned about the fact that Anne now has two assassins in her house or around her house

or.

And an exploded car in her driveway.

Who's to say her house is not burning down as we speak?

You know, price of doing business, I suppose.

Can we do worse spy craft in conjunction with this?

Please.

I don't know if assassins qualify, but Jane falling for the throw the rock over there routine.

Really tough.

The throw the rock over there and then run really fast.

Not even that fast.

Reasonably fast.

Like run noisily away.

Yes.

I can't believe that was the plan and I, you're right, I can't believe it worked.

So that was the plan later in this episode, River and Sid in ways that are just like you

do this because it's on TV and it looks better in camera, but walking down the dead center

of the road.

But what I will say is the point earlier when they're running another road and then they

came up and they're off the road into the woods, which is like go left, serpentine.

This is just something so many characters don't manage to do.

So I was proud of them for that.

I also really loved the moment when like, co is running them down.

Like we're inside the POV of Coast Car and like River just sort of slowly slows down

as he realizes who's behind him.

I thought that was funny.

Well, this, I mean, we've talked about and we've talked about like the Roddy Lamb dynamic,

the River and Sid stuff, which is all great.

This is an incredible co episode.

Well, honestly, one of my favorite co episodes yet, I think the slow build as he is like

working his way into the River Sid dynamic is so fun.

And then just like his attempt to finally connect with another human being at the end that

fails miserably.

The more people I kill, the more human I feel.

Is that what he says?

Do you feel that way?

Oh, yeah, usually.

The way this episode ends with the bisexual lighting and the sort of like synth wave

music, are we going into like drive?

Like what is next episode?

We had better.

At least, at least like John Wick and a club.

The vibe was so different at the end of the episode.

It's true.

It was wild to me.

But I kind of like that show.

Oh, yeah.

I'm interested in that.

I love the slow horses that we get week to week.

But you know, let's put these people on a club and see what they can do.

One thing I will say is when River, so when River and Sid are sort of spitballing the

assassination in Kazan and maybe they sent an operative and called them Sid Baker because

she's presumed dead and all this other stuff like that.

Sid mentions the GRU, which is the sort of Russian.

It's not quite the KGB.

It's like the military version of the KGB.

But like if Jim and Jane are GRU assassins, I'd be scared personally.

I'm already scared.

I don't care who they're working for.

I'd be even more scared.

They seem quite competent.

And I'll say as far as their pursuit of River and Sid go, I mean, they're kind of on top

of it.

Yes, they get fooled by the occasional thrown rock, but they keep showing up at every

place where River and Sid show up.

How do they find them at the end of this episode?

I really don't know to the point that I had to consider, like, is there a tracking device

in place somewhere?

Oh.

But there's no, like they've never been in the same spot with River, at least that we've

seen, to be able to plant it.

And Sid's whole story is she heard these people were asking about her and ducked out in

the van so they would never have been able to plant something on her.

So but like, how would they know where Kho's car is at the end of this episode?

That's, I have the same question.

Something that I don't know if this can be related, but something that Jackson says you

have a leak that Julian Assange would be proud of today and that, right?

So there's someone inside of the park.

Sure.

I don't know why the park would know where Kho's car is, especially when like allegedly

they've gone dark and they're off the grid.

If anyone Kho actually has, you know, this is not, I have my phone on my pocket secretly,

like that dude, torched his phone, you know, he's so happy to go off the grid.

I guess, but he's the one who's like always earbudded into a device or something.

Oh, so you think when, when he picks up River and Sid and is still listening to hip hop,

that's the tell that he's on Spotify.

I don't know.

And you guess what?

You could be tracked through your Spotify.

Yeah, you certainly can't.

I would.

If you're listening to us, we are tracking you right now.

We will find you.

Anything else you want to mention?

I think there's one other beat that is hit twice in a way that makes me take note of

it, which is Moira and Sid both noting that they are not actually slow horses.

And so it's like the idea that whoever is responsible for wanting to kill the slow horses,

wanting to wipe them out, wanting to cover up whatever it is that needs covering up.

Oh, it's not being very specific.

It's like they're, they're clearly working off the document and not with the context

of who actually does things or matter.

It's like if you're on the list, you're going to die.

There's not a lot of room for like debate or negotiation or qualification as far as

like who is doing what?

It's like if you are related at all to the slow horses, you are on the kill list.

Interesting.

And I still don't feel like I really understand why.

Nope.

Okay.

Let's be real.

The slow horses look, they've helped divert the occasional terrorist attack, help recover

the occasional hostage, but like they're not doing that much stuff that's really in need

of retribution.

Do we do all of our bits?

We did lamb shank.

We did besties as bycraft, worsties as bycraft.

Best dress, Louise, a guy obviously.

I mean, gotta be a special question.

Everyone else is still in their same clothes.

So by default, but also by matter of fact, Louise, a guy.

Did you have a most British moment?

I think it's Patrick Dish of Intrigue.

I think Patrick Dish of Intrigue is my most British.

Patrick Dish wonderful.

Also honorable mention to Jobsworth, a word that I was not familiar with until this episode.

And I will be trying to incorporate into future podcasts.

And the Freibentos information.

I think the Freibentos is the number one for me.

It seems disgusting.

Would you eat tinned like steak and kidney pie if it were not from 2006?

I would try it.

Okay.

I just am not optimistic.

Should we get some Freibentos?

Why are you bringing this up?

Why are you doing this to us?

Social only content.

I will consider it.

Okay.

I need to see the expiration date.

Yeah.

I need to know for sure this is safe.

A freshie Freibentos.

I just, I don't think it's going to be great even in the best of times.

Well, I think for example, I didn't even know they made these anymore.

So maybe we won't be able to find a freshie.

And maybe we'll be spared.

Would you would you consider a non-Freibentos branded meat?

Can't be found.

It's got to be Freibentos.

I need the genuine article.

Okay.

Freibentos are getting the fuck out of here.

Exactly.

Okay.

Great.

Stay tuned.

That has been the Prestige TV podcast, allegedly.

Somehow.

Thanks to Devin Aldo.

Thanks to Kai Grady.

Thanks to Jacob Gornett.

Thanks to you Rob Mahoney.

Thank you, Joe.

Thank you to Candepies.

Thanks to Anne.

Thanks for certain Anne to Zombie hunt down.

Yeah.

Anything else?

Any other thanks?

I think we did it.

Oh, and RIP that cow.

See you soon.

Bye.

This is USBanks' Cozy Cash Formations with your Chief Financial Playmaker for Nando

Mendoza.

You are worthy of financial security.

Budgeting is now restriction.

It's freedom.

You are smart.

You are capable.

You are giving your money a purpose.

You are learning the language of saving, of growing.

Now streaming.

Remember FDIC Copyright 2026, USBank.

This episode is brought to you by Whole Foods Market.

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