Visiting Hours scatters the team across London as Taverner starts turning a failed operation into a case against Slough House. Lamb understands the threat quickly, but protecting everyone requires more than a clever argument. River’s concern for Sid, Catherine’s trust in Lamb and Struan’s longing to return to the Park each become vulnerabilities that other officers can exploit.
- Released
- 15 April 2022
- Runtime
- 43 minutes
- Source novel
- Slow Horses
- Director
- James Hawes
- Writer
- Morwenna Banks
Explore further
Watch and read
Open the official programme page or explore the source novel.
Detailed plot
Reveal episode spoilers
Lamb and the others have arrived at the kidnappers’ house to discover a beheaded man and a missing hostage. The dead man is Alan Black, an MI5 officer working undercover as Moe. His death removes the safeguard on which Taverner’s plan depended. Lamb knows that being found at this scene will make his own team easy targets for the blame. He gets them out and disposes of their phones so that the Park cannot simply track their movements.
The group divides to reach colleagues who have not yet learnt what has happened. River goes after Roddy, while Min and Louisa try to collect Struan. Lamb sets out to get Catherine. It is a race against MI5’s own security officers, the Dogs, who are now pursuing the staff of Slough House. The people trying to escape have access to much less information and fewer resources than the organisation that employs them.
Struan is taken before Min and Louisa can reach him. Taverner uses his desire for rehabilitation to draw him into her account of the operation. A return to Regent’s Park is dangled in front of an officer who has spent his time wanting exactly that. The bargain requires him to support a version of events implicating Lamb. Struan’s ambition gives Taverner a lever against colleagues who are still trying to bring him to safety.
River reaches Roddy, but his concern for Sid draws him back to the hospital. The visit exposes him to surveillance at exactly the moment the team needs to stay hidden. MI5 officers arrive and Roddy leaves him behind. River manages to escape, but he has made his situation more dangerous. At the same time, seeing Sid helps revive a memory of Alan Black that River has been struggling to place.
Lamb reaches Catherine and persuades her to go with him, despite Taverner’s efforts to unsettle her over Charles Partner. Their departure does not get them clear of the Dogs: Duffy and Webb intercept them and put them in a car bound for the Park. Lamb has prepared for this possibility. Catherine pulls the gun he has concealed in her bag, allowing them to take control and leave their escorts stranded.
The kidnappers are also moving, taking Hassan away from the house where Curly killed Moe. Larry and Zeppo are frightened by the murder and want to escape; Curly remains committed to killing their prisoner. The disappearance of the undercover officer has exposed the differences among the remaining men without freeing Hassan. By the end, Slough House has resisted parts of Taverner’s attempt to round it up, but Struan is in her hands, the hostage is still missing, and the fugitives have to regroup.
Turning points
Reveal turning points
Discarding the phones changes the team’s daily relationship with the Service into an immediate struggle to remain outside its reach. Lamb is treating the Park as an adversary because he understands how easily a scene can be made to support the wrong story. Getting away gives the officers a chance to act before that story hardens around them.
Struan’s interrogation shows a softer method of control than the pursuit by armed officers. Taverner offers something he has wanted for a long time, then makes agreement the apparent route towards it. The danger comes from treating professional advancement as proof that the offer must be legitimate.
Catherine’s part in the car escape gives her a decisive role. Lamb supplies the concealed weapon and the plan, but she carries out the action that changes their position. The scene complicates the office hierarchy: his assistant is capable of doing much more than absorbing insults and organising the workday.
Book vs show
Reveal book and television spoilers
1. Kay White
The book sends the fugitives to collect Kay White as well as their other colleagues. Kay is absent from the television team, so that attempted rescue and her capture by the Dogs are removed.
2. Who reaches Roddy
On the page, Min and Louisa look for Ho and meet Lamb at his house. Television sends River to collect him, making Roddy part of River’s subsequent decision to visit the hospital.
3. The getaway group
In the novel, Curly and Larry leave the safe house with Hassan after Black’s death. Episode 4 gives Larry a second frightened companion, Zeppo, during the getaway.
Mick Herron, Slow Horses (2010).
Characters and actors
The episode spreads responsibility across the Slough House ensemble. Louisa’s practical awareness becomes valuable during the escape, Catherine takes action when she and Lamb are captured, and Roddy’s self-preservation leaves River exposed. Paul Higgins plays Struan Loy, the colleague Taverner can pressure in custody; Freddie Fox’s Webb and Chris Reilly’s Duffy carry the Park’s pursuit into the street.
Linked locations
The action moves between the aftermath at the hostage house, Catherine’s home, the hospital and the routes used to escape the Dogs. The hospital offers River a chance to see Sid, while also giving his pursuers a place to look for him.
Trivia
Morwenna Banks’s agency CV specifically credits her as writer of Series 1 episode 4. That episode gives Catherine and the wider office group substantial parts in the escape, with several simultaneous journeys rather than a single operation led entirely by River.
Questions and answers
Who was the undercover kidnapper?
Moe was Alan Black, an MI5 officer and former member of Slough House. His murder leaves Hassan without the protection Taverner expected her operation to provide.
Why does Lamb get rid of the phones?
He wants the team to disappear before the Park can detain them. Keeping their phones would make the fugitives easier to trace.
How do Catherine and Lamb escape the Dogs?
Catherine draws the gun concealed in her bag during the car journey. They take control of the vehicle and leave Duffy and Webb behind.