During River Cartwright’s undercover situation in Slow Horses Season 2, where he is supposed to search for Andre Chernitsky, he gets a completely new identity as a journalist. When he arrives in the village in Slow Horses Season 2, he gets acquainted with Kelly, who offers to show River around Upshott. He eventually meets Kelly’s parents, Alex and Duncan Tropper.
Now, right from the beginning, River’s suspicion was towards Duncan. Duncan’s nature, which was quite hostile, made him the prime suspect. He had no suspicion towards Alex Tropper. It is truly a testament to how skilled Alex Tropper is at her job. Despite being in close proximity to an MI5 agent, she did not let her mask slide off even once.
How did Alex Tropper manage to stay out of River Cartwright’s radar in Slow Horses Season 2?
If we look back at how Alex Tropper handled each and every encounter with River from the time they first met, it would not be difficult to understand how she managed to stay away from River’s MI5 intellect and suspicions. Alex was a sleeper agent, but she managed to hide her identity extremely well. She used the facade of a loving wife and a mother to protect her true identity.

She even showed her flaws, which further made her the most unsuspecting person in the village. She also managed to use her husband’s hostile nature for her benefit perfectly. Duncan was not as calm and collected as Alex. Hence, River’s suspicion towards Duncan was legitimate. Alex Tropper in Slow Horses Season 2 perfectly manages to stay away from skeptical eyes with ease. After River follows Andre and finds that he and Nikolai were loading a plane, Alex arrives on the scene. Even then, River was not suspicious of her.
However, when Alex finally tasered River to stop him from shooting Nikolai and Andre, River understood his mistake. By the time he realized Alex was the sleeper agent, it was too late. Alex was already on her way to bomb the glasshouse, where a huge crowd of people were gathered. If she succeeds in her plan, she will be the reason for the death of a huge number of innocent people.
After Alex ties River up and leaves for her mission, Duncan and Kelly find him. When River tries to explain the situation to them, they do not believe him. However, soon Duncan finds Alex’s apology letter along with the ring.

He realises that River is telling the truth and Alex is indeed not the person they believed her to be. She deceived them for years, and for her, the mission is much more significant than anything. Kelly and Duncan try to communicate with Alex to stop her mission; however, in the end, things took a completely different turn.
The plot twist of Alex’s real identity was a shocking revelation for both River and the viewers as well. Slow Horses Season 2 perfectly captured the essence of the espionage world through Alex’s storyline. The manner in which Slow Horses Season 2 depicts that real enemies rarely announce themselves leaves a lasting impact. Catherine McCormack does a commendable job in bringing out the duality of Alex Tropper’s character in a nuanced manner.
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