Missiles Cranks Up the Pressure in Slow Horses Season 5 — Episode 4 Spoiler Recap and Review

Slow Horses hits the gas in Missiles, and it is exactly the chaotic, funny, and mean little spy hour this show does best. Two political rallies, one missing honeypot, one gunman with a plan, and Slough House trying to stop London from catching fire in real time. Spoilers ahead for the episode and the series so far.

Two rallies, one honeypot, and Farouk circling

Roddy (Christopher Chung) is cooling his heels in a cell when Tara (Hiba Bennani) calls to beg forgiveness. Flyte (Ruth Bradley) buys that Tara sounds genuine, but still wants to scoop her up before someone else does. From the other side of the glass, Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) and Whelan (James Callis) watch the play like it is a training video. Roddy agrees to make the call, gets told they need two minutes to trace it, and then decides he cannot hand Tara over. He hangs up early, trying to beat the clock. Flyte cheerfully lets him know the trace only needs 30 seconds, then spins the monitor: they have her.

"It only takes 30 seconds."

While the Park triangulates, Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) is already beating them to Tara’s bolt-hole. He clocks that River and Coe didn’t clear the neighboring houses, sniffs out a trash pile with way too much takeaway, and steps into a flat with a burner left on the counter. He’s there first, and he knows exactly where Tara ran next.

Elsewhere, Farouk (Monty Ben) is doing grim errands at a home goods store, picking up caulking guns. His handlers Sami (Ahmed Elmusrati) and Kamal (Fady Elsayed) warn him there’s no walking away after he, in their words, "blows the head off" his target. If Farouk gets grabbed, they’re to carry on. That’s the mission.

Mayor Jaffrey (Nick Mohammed) rehearses his speech with Tyson (Abraham Popoola) hyping him up. Then bad local news breaks: an elderly woman dies because of the fuel shortage, which means Jaffrey cannot touch the optics nightmare of his son’s arrest today. Timing is everything, and today’s timing is brutal.

Lamb v. Flyte, round whatever we’re on

Lamb tells Flyte to bring the Dogs to Tara’s flat. She’s irritated he beat her there (again). He walks her through the obvious breadcrumbs and concludes Tara legged it to Roddy’s place. Flyte agrees to let Lamb tag along as an observer on the grab. It is not lost on her who just did the actual police work.

Whelan tries to head off a headline

Whelan gets a mock-up of Dodie Gimball’s new column, and it has his name on it. He arms himself with an intelligence brief on her husband and goes to the couple’s place. Inside, Gimball (Christopher Villiers) is rehearsing his anti-immigration greatest hits while Dodie (Victoria Hamilton) plays host. Whelan drops the receipts: the would-be border hawk is actually the son of a Turkish immigrant who went to prison, and Dodie once planted cocaine on her college boyfriend, who happened to lead the campus Marxists. Gimball tries to turn the tables by pointing to a recorder capturing the attempted blackmail, but Dodie storms out. Marital bliss!

Security theater meets actual danger

River (Jack Lowden) and Coe (Tom Brooke) roll into Gimball’s rally doing their best impression of professionals. River pokes through boxes and calls a false alarm on what turns out to be stagehands doing drugs. Coe slips backstage to hover near Gimball as he punch-ups his one-liners.

Back at Tara’s building, she spots Flyte closing in, bolts down the stairs, and then Lamb casually opens a car door into her sprint line. It’s not subtle, but it works. The Dogs cuff Tara on the spot.

Dander and Standish actually save a life

At Jaffrey’s rally, Dander (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) clocks a pair of boots she recognizes from CCTV — Farouk’s. Standish (Saskia Reeves) tells her to trust it. Dander tails him as he claims he needs to change a light. She checks: the bathroom light is perfectly fine. Something’s off.

Jaffrey hits the stage. Standish spots Farouk’s shadow upstairs and texts Dander the angle. Farouk quietly assembles the rifle. Standish wings a water bottle at Jaffrey to force a jolt, security piles him offstage, and Dander rushes the shooter. Farouk still slips her and vanishes into a waiting van a few blocks out. Close save, no arrest.

The alley, the paint bucket, and the worst kind of accident

Back at Gimball’s venue, Tyson asks the politician to lay off Jaffrey’s son. Gimball responds with a rapid-fire string of racist barbs, so Tyson decks him. River tackles Tyson; it turns into a messy scuffle; Tyson bolts when River draws a gun. Coe climbs down from the scaffolding to assist — and somewhere in the scramble a paint bucket comes off a ledge, smashes into Gimball’s head, and kills him. Pink paint everywhere. River and Coe clock the worst part: Gimball’s old recorder has been running the whole time. They walk away from the body with that sinking feeling.

What it all adds up to

Missiles is a tight, nasty little thriller that refuses to be stuffy. The ongoing gas shortage and Jaffrey’s family mess keep the politics humming, but it’s the Slough House problem-solving (and problem-making) that sings.

Lamb is still the best agent in the room, whatever room he’s in. He reads the ground faster than anyone and even plays Flyte like a fiddle. Gary Oldman keeps finding jokes without breaking the show’s tone — the man makes competence funny.

Dander continues to be the sharpest knife in Slough House’s drawer. She and Standish literally stop an assassination. Meanwhile, River and Coe accidentally hand Farouk exactly what he wanted: destabilization. Jack Lowden sells the aftermath — River’s shell-shocked look says he knows he’s just detonated his day, maybe his career.

And here’s the kicker: that pink blast likely puts River at the scene in a way forensics can’t miss. Tyson saw him with a gun and will almost certainly tell MI5 that an agent claimed to be protecting Gimball. That’s enough for Flyte and the Dogs to put River on the board, and it gives Taverner fresh leverage to beat Slough House with. Even for these screwups, this is a new level of heat.

Where everyone is this hour

• Lamb (Gary Oldman): Finds Tara’s hide, outpaces MI5, rides along on the arrest
• Flyte (Ruth Bradley): Traces Tara in 30 seconds, bags her with the Dogs, now circling River
• Roddy (Christopher Chung): In custody, tries to shield Tara, accidentally helps the trace
• Tara (Hiba Bennani): On the run, gets door-slammed by Lamb, arrested
• River (Jack Lowden): Botches rally security, tangles with Tyson, pink-painted in a fatal accident
• Coe (Tom Brooke): Backstage overwatch, then co-star in the paint-bucket disaster
• Dander (Aimee-Ffion Edwards): Spots Farouk, pursues, helps save Jaffrey
• Standish (Saskia Reeves): Spots the shooter’s angle, throws the clutch water bottle
• Farouk (Monty Ben): Arms up, takes position, foiled at the podium, escapes in a van
• Sami (Ahmed Elmusrati) and Kamal (Fady Elsayed): Make clear the mission continues even if Farouk is grabbed
• Mayor Jaffrey (Nick Mohammed): Lives to stump another day, boxed in by fuel-crisis optics
• Tyson (Abraham Popoola): Tries to keep Gimball off Jaffrey’s son, decks him, flees after River pulls a gun
• Whelan (James Callis): Tries to spike Dodie’s column with dirt on the couple, gets recorded for his trouble
• Dodie (Victoria Hamilton): Publishes fire, has a past that can burn, storms off mid-showdown
• Gimball (Christopher Villiers): Anti-immigration candidate with immigrant roots, dies via falling paint

Should you watch Missiles?

Yep. It moves, it’s nasty-funny, and it pays off all the season’s spinning plates without feeling like homework. Also, Oldman keeps proving he can do anything.

New episodes of Slow Horses drop Wednesdays on Apple TV. Missiles premiered October 15, 2025.