Slow Horses Season 5 Episode 4 recap: The team faces deadly chaos while an unexpected accident changes everything

Slow Horses Season 5, Episode 4, titled Missiles, was made available on October 15, 2025, Wednesday, and can be watched on Apple TV+.

The story centers on a growing crisis that the Slough House group is trying to get rid of by preventing a major political assassination at two mayoral campaign rallies happening at the same time.

The storyline depicts the character of Jackson Lamb, who splits the team up into two to keep an eye on the rallies, one being held by Mayor Zafar Jaffrey and the other by Dennis Gimball, as the intelligence reports say that the terrorists are planning to attack both events to create chaos.

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Slow Horses Season 5 Episode 4 recap

Slow Horses Season 5 Episode 4 comes after the previous episode became much darker in its tone shift. Roddy Ho is subjected to a thorough questioning at the MI5's Regent Park headquarters in the opening scenes. Emma Flyte steps in for Diana Taverner as the main interrogator and uses a gentler, more compassionate method, intending to win Roddy over to her side.

His girlfriend, Tara, is now being considered as one of the suspects, supposedly working for the enemy, as the recent terrorist attacks have been attributed to a honeytrap operation. Emma lies about a personal history of having been in love with a man she was stalking to get Roddy's confidence and make him think that Tara's love for him is real. The idea is to get Roddy to ring Tara so that MI5 can pinpoint her location through the call.

Ultimately, Roddy consents to get in touch with her but thinks that he can outsmart MI5. He notifies Tara to keep her distance from the agency, and before the two-minute mark, he ends the call, believing that this will stop her from being traced. Unknown to him, MI5 can now trace a call within thirty seconds, and Tara's position is already revealed.

While Emma and her surveillance group hurry to the place, Jackson Lamb has already found Tara through more traditional detective work, detecting the actual address concealed behind her phony one. When Tara runs away to Roddy’s apartment, thinking it is safe, Lamb cuts in and grips her before MI5 gets the chance. Tara gets arrested at last, but the precise measure of her complicity is still a question.

At the same time, Lamb splits the Slough House crew into two groups to manage the two mayoral campaign events in London, which are taking place at the same time. The information indicates that the terrorists, who have recently attacked in several places, would kill a popular politician to cause public disorder.

Since the two candidates, Zafar Jaffrey and Dennis Gimball, are both in danger, Shirley Dander and Catherine Standish are dispatched to supervise Jaffrey’s rally, whereas River Cartwright and JK Coe are designated to supervise Gimball’s.

At Jaffrey's event, Shirley and Catherine are always on their toes. A man pretending to be an electrician makes Catherine iffy, and she later sees his shadow moving in a room on the second floor, which overlooks the stage. The 'electrician' is none other than Farouk, the head of the Libyan terrorist organization that is responsible for the attacks.

He is putting together a sniper rifle to assassinate Jaffrey while he delivers his speech. Very swiftly, Catherine throws a bottle on the stage to make a diversion, and security guards come running to whisk Jaffrey away to a safe spot. The shot is never fired, and the assassination attempt is unsuccessful; however, Farouk manages to flee through the ensuing turmoil. Shirley pursues him but barely misses getting hit by a white van that comes racing toward her, a definitive indication that the terrorists are still operational.

The mission of River and Coe at Dennis Gimball's rally unexpectedly turns dark in Slow Horses Season 5. River, thinking that the assassins might be in the crowd, puts the gun to the wrong guys' faces, a couple of cocaine-doing party-goers, while Coe watches after him from a higher spot. In a neighboring alley, Gimball has a loud disagreement with Tyson, Zafar Jaffrey's chief of staff, who begs him not to bring up Jaffrey's son's involvement in a previous eco-terror incident.

Gimball insists on it and racially insults Tyson, which provokes him to hit the politician. River comes between them, and a mess of confusion ensues. Amidst the confusion, Coe inadvertently knocks off a paint bucket from the scaffolding, which drops and hits Dennis Gimball, killing him instantly. Such a darkly humorous accident could only happen in Slow Horses.

Oblivious to the fact that Gimball was taking a video of their conversation, River and Coe eventually discover his Dictaphone and understand that it has recorded their voices venting concerning the incident. The proof could very well be misconstrued as a confession, putting both agents in really dire situations.

Slow Horses Season 5 Episode 4 showcases the interplay between order and chaos. The very elegant and manipulative tactics of MI5 are in great contrast with the cynical intuition of Jackson Lamb, as well as the chaotic yet sincere methods of the Slough House team.

The episode, which is filled with dark humor and mishaps, nevertheless, brings to the surface the ethical dilemmas that come with espionage, where often the lines between heroism, incompetence, and luck are so blurred that they become indistinguishable.

Roddy’s misplaced loyalty, Emma Flyte’s subtle manipulation, and Lamb’s grumpy pragmatism all merge into a tale where every triumph is accompanied by collateral damage.

In the end, Tara has been detained, Zafar Jaffrey has managed to escape from an assassination attempt, and Dennis Gimball has been killed in a tragedy that is, at the same time, absurd. The repercussions of the incidents are definitely going to be very loud and, thus, will pave the way for even bigger political and personal drivers in the remaining episodes of Slow Horses Season 5.

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What is next for Slow Horses Season 5?

Slow Horses Season 5 Episode 5 release is set to be on October 22, 2025, Wednesday, at 3 AM ET / 12 AM PT. Episode 5 plot details are not out yet, but the expectations from the previous episode have confirmed that the plot will revolve around the consequences of the tight-knit mayoral rallies and the assassinations that went wrong.

The terrorist destabilization technique aimed at London, which targets the political stability, will most likely be elevated; this, in turn, will lead to the Slough House group being under more pressure to contain the situation from getting worse.

The personal stakes of characters such as Jackson Lamb and Roddy Ho, etc., will be much higher as the unmasking of the secrets and betrayals takes place. Also, the recent announcements about the mayoral candidate Zafar Jaffrey, particularly the shocking turn of events regarding his son’s eco-terrorist connection, have made the already complex political scenario even more tangled.

The crew would, however, still be accustomed to the hazardous mix of covert actions, imperfect alliances, and unexpected outcomes, which is very much characteristic of Slow Horses.

Nick Mohammed, who plays Zafar Jaffrey in Slow Horses Season 5, told Radio Times:

“I think everyone will appreciate that Slow Horses ends in quite an explosive way, and there are lots of twists and turns. And this season definitely does do that as well. There’s a pretty intense action sequence at the end.”

The last episode of Slow Horses Season 5 is set for release on Wednesday, October 29, 2025. There are a total of six episodes in Season 5.

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Also Read: Slow Horses Season 5 director and cast discuss the show’s intense turn, details revealed