There is a part of the fans who are tired of River Cartwright’s (Jack Lowden) incompetence and insistence on not only being in the middle of epic messes but also contributing to chaos, often getting caught by enemies and needing to be saved. Without denying that he really is a magnet for drama, I am on the side of those who love and root for him. In this fourth season, he will need our support. And the hint was not subtle in this episode.

In the series Slow Horses, River Cartwright is the first agent we meet, following a training where everything goes wrong and he is demoted to Slough House, the worst department of MI5, led by Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman).

Not only is Lamb unbearable to deal with as ambitious a young man as River is, but he is also outraged because he is the grandson of former MI5 Director David Cartwright (Jonathan Pryce), so he is desperate to restore his reputation and return to active duty. But River, as we already know, has no luck.

On the personal side, it is even more complex: he never knew his father, his mother lives with her current boyfriend in Turkey and his grandmother has already passed away. We soon discover that he was raised by his grandparents and David is the figure of a father/mentor/idol/grandfather, basically his emotional center. And, like many in old age, David is fast approaching the stage of dementia, which has broken River’s heart to pieces.

We know, through flashbacks and Lamb’s aversion to David, who was his boss in the Cold War, that River has no idea how ruthless and even cruel his grandfather was. At the moment, his paranoia about feeling persecuted is attributed to the delusions of his poor health, but we also know that this is not accurate. There is indeed someone trying to kill him, but we still don’t know why.

There are two events running parallel and that are linked, as the fourth episode confirms. And yes, David is equally connected. The terrorist who blew up the shopping mall in London was trained in an isolated camp in France, but River discovers this somewhat by chance. After a suspect, who looks very much like him, tries to kill David, River “assumes his identity” and goes to Lavande, in France, to try to find out who he is and why he wanted to kill his grandfather.

Upon arriving there, River is treated with suspicion in the city and sent to Les Arbres, a nearby estate. In the abandoned place, the agent finds a familiar image (more on this later) and a photo of the terrorist next to David’s attacker. River is attacked by a man (Hugo Weaving) and saved by another stranger, who knocks him out and pulls him out of the burning palace. The episode begins there.

River wakes up in a house and sees that outside a group of threatening men are organizing to invade the property. Before, he is interrogated by the man who saved him, Victor, and his sister who explain that River’s lookalike was called Bertrand, that he was estranged from his family. Although they are sad to know that Bertrand is dead, Victor comments that “It was supposed to end like this – with a father like that”.

River asks the two who are the people in the photograph he took in Les Arbres. That’s when he is informed that the man who tried to kill him is River Frank Harkness (Weaving) and that he is not only the owner of the complex, he is also Bertrand’s father. In fact, she comments that she was one of the many mothers that Frank brought to the complex – which included an English woman – and that after getting them pregnant, he kicked them out of Les Arbres as soon as they gave birth, leaving him alone with the children. River then realizes that Frank trained an army of loyal, blood-related child soldiers who are now adult killers, including the mall terrorist and the lookalike who tried to kill his grandfather. GET THE HINT? River still hasn’t gotten it.

Maybe there wasn’t enough time. The group of aggressive residents of Lavande invades the house and River barely manages to escape, we just don’t know where he ran to.

In London, Lamb continues to try to help River and decipher what’s going on. In his delirium, David Cartwright tells Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves) that he needs to tell the First Desk about a “bomb”, but she and Lamb are trying to postpone the event to save him, which is even more challenging with the clear sign of dementia that makes him constantly delirious. He mumbles that he killed the lookalike, Bertrand, “for River’s sake”, but only if you’re paying attention will you understand how it all comes together.

In any case, David needs to be removed from Standish’s house because MI5 is after him and now knows that River is not dead. Lamb makes a deal to avoid being arrested: he tells them where David is hiding, knowing that Standish will know how to hide him, and calls in the nags to support the operation. The problem is that while they are dealing with this, David actually disappears.

Lamb, of course, is now much more advanced in the story, even though he still doesn’t know everything. He manages to discover that David never went to France, but that he sent a man he trusted to Lavande in the early 1990s. At the same time, Frank continues to command another agent in London by phone to “kill the old man” and we thought it was David and then Lamb, but no, it was Cartwright’s agent who had gone to France for him. Lamb and the nags manage to save him, but Frank’s man escapes and they end up not finding out how and what is happening.

At the MI5 base, we see that Claude Whelan (James Callis) is determined to prevent Diana Tarvener (Kristin Scott-Thomas) from covering up another scandalous case and asks Giti to investigate other cold bodies. Secretly, he asks. Will he be able to?

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