TL;DR: Slow Horses Season 6, Episode 3 turns a tense cat-and-mouse hunt into the season’s best hour, backed by a sharp ensemble, though Standish’s stagnant storyline still drags.

Every great season of Slow Horses has an episode where the parts stop drifting and start grinding against each other, and “Resurrection” is that moment for Season 6. The first two chapters laid a lot of track: new threats, old ghosts, and a conspiracy spreading quietly behind the scenes. This third episode puts a train on that track and sends it downhill. It is the strongest hour of the season so far, and it succeeds because it trusts the groundwork already done instead of adding more setup. The Apple TV spy series has always been at its best when tension and comedy share a room, and here they barely stop elbowing each other.

The premise picks up from the reveal that Sid Baker (Olivia Cooke) is alive, which leaves River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) standing in his grandfather’s kitchen with the expression of a man whose save file has just been corrupted. Before he can get proper answers, a pair of killers played by Kyle Soller and MyAnna Buring, working under the flimsy aliases Jim and Jane, roll up the driveway. What follows takes up most of the episode, and it is where “Resurrection” earns its reputation as a real standout.

River and Sid’s cat-and-mouse chase is the season’s best set piece

The pursuit works because the show knows exactly what its heroes are. River and Sid are trained agents, but they are Slow Horses, which means their instinct under pressure is often to run first and plan later. I appreciate that the series refuses to hand them a slick action-movie takedown. Instead, the hunt plays like a stealth game in which the player keeps getting spotted, retreats, catches their breath and tries to piece together what went wrong. Those quiet pockets between sprints let River and Sid start unpacking the years they lost, which gives the chase an emotional undercurrent rather than just adrenaline.

Soller and Buring are wonderfully unsettling as the pair on their heels. They have the calm professionalism of assassins who have done this many times, with just enough dry humour between them to make them feel like a dark mirror of the Slough House misfits. The episode also uses them to push the larger mystery forward, confirming they are Russian and tying their mission to Sid’s present circumstances. By the closing minutes, the dread is thick, because no matter how much distance River and Sid put between themselves and their pursuers, the killers keep closing in.

The women of Slough House bring warmth, but Standish deserves more

Away from the chase, Shirley Dander (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) and Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves) drag Louisa Guy (Rosalind Eleazar) out of her comfortable new corporate life, and Moira (Joanna Scanlan) tags along while still struggling with the lingering effects of gas poisoning. It is great to see Louisa back among familiar faces, and Eleazar slips back into the role as though she never left. Scanlan gets some genuinely funny moments out of Moira’s woozy state, playing the confusion without turning it into cartoonish slapstick. This ragtag unit feels like a side quest party assembled from whoever happened to be nearby, which is very much the Slough House way.

The weaker thread is Standish, who is still grieving her former boss Charles Partner while resisting the pull of alcohol. Reeves plays it with quiet sincerity, but the writing has kept her stuck in the same emotional holding pattern for three episodes now. Standish has long been one of the show’s most dependable supporting characters, often the moral centre of Slough House, so seeing her reduced to wrestling with temptation instead of shaping the plot feels like a missed opportunity. I hope the back half of the season gives her something sharper to do.

Kristin Scott Thomas and Gary Oldman keep the pressure on

Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) is having a rotten time following a disastrous Talkpoint interview, and the fallout makes her even more dangerous than usual. She takes her frustration out on Emma Flyte (Ruth Bradley), stripping her of her role leading the Dogs and exiling her to Slough House. Scott Thomas remains superb at playing a woman whose composure is a weapon, and the episode leaves me wondering how much longer that armour can hold. Is Diana on the verge of cracking, or will she simply outlast everyone around her?

Meanwhile, Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) and Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung) track down Reece Nesmith (Lenny Rush), the son of the former Dog murdered by Frank Harkness (Hugo Weaving), and the only witness to that killing. Rush is a delight, holding his own against both of his captors, including Lamb in a crude exchange that feels exactly on brand for this series. Oldman continues to make Lamb’s competence land harder because it is buried under so much filth and indifference. This subplot is lighter on screen time, but it adds a vital piece to the season’s widening puzzle.

Verdict

“Resurrection” is Slow Horses doing what it does better than almost any spy show on television. The River and Sid chase is tense, funny and emotionally grounded, the villains finally feel like a real threat, and the ensemble is balanced well enough that almost every thread contributes to the bigger picture. The only real weakness is Standish’s stalled arc, which wastes one of the show’s strongest characters. Fans who have stuck with the season’s slower opening will find their patience rewarded here, while newcomers will still be better served starting from the beginning. This is an easy recommendation and a clear high point for Season 6.