Follies resolves the hostage story by bringing Slough House into direct conflict with the Park’s chosen ending. Finding Hassan is only part of the job: the team must also decide what to do when its superiors want the surviving evidence silenced. The aftermath offers River little professional reward and reveals a darker connection between Lamb and the man whose death still haunts Catherine.
- Released
- 29 April 2022
- Runtime
- 53 minutes
- Source novel
- Slow Horses
- Director
- James Hawes
- Writer
- Will Smith
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Watch and read
Open the official programme page or explore the source novel.
Detailed plot
Reveal episode spoilers
Taverner seeks information from Peter Judd after Lamb and River have used the photograph to defeat her attempt to frame Slough House. She presses the politician over his connections to the far right and the consequences of his contact with Hobden. At the same time, Catherine and Roddy work on the kidnappers’ vehicle. The Park and Slough House are both trying to find Hassan, but they do not want the same people left alive at the end.
Curly has killed Zeppo and is now taking Larry and Hassan towards a secluded place for the threatened execution. Larry finally turns against him, helping Hassan break free and attacking Curly with an axe. Larry escapes in the van, leaving the hostage in the woods with a wounded man who still intends to kill him. Curly recaptures Hassan and takes him to a ruin he regards as the right setting for his performance.
Lamb and River race towards the area while Min and Louisa make their own journey. Min and Louisa’s car runs out of fuel, forcing Lamb and River to collect them before the pursuit can continue. On the way, Lamb tells River that Sid has died. For once, the conversation is about the cost of the work rather than the humiliation of having been sent to Slough House. River has to continue the search while carrying that news.
At the folly, Curly prepares to carry out the killing. River reaches him and exchanges gunfire with the kidnapper, interrupting the execution. Hassan strikes Curly with a rock and leaves him unconscious. Having spent the series at the mercy of other people’s plans, Hassan contributes directly to his own survival. River then calms him rather than allowing the confrontation to become another killing.
The Dogs arrive by helicopter and want to finish Curly off. Min, River and Louisa stand around the unconscious man, placing themselves between him and the armed officers. Their refusal protects the person who has been threatening Hassan, but also preserves a witness to the operation. The rescue becomes a challenge to the authority of the Park. Elsewhere, the Service finds Larry and kills him, while Duffy also disposes of Hobden.
Afterwards, Slough House receives no public recognition for bringing Hassan out alive. Roddy tells River that Sid’s records have disappeared, unsettling the account of her death. Lamb obtains Catherine’s records from Taverner and tells Catherine that he gave Charles Partner the gun with which Charles killed himself. The closing flashback reveals a different truth: Lamb shot Charles, with David Cartwright involved in the arrangement. Hassan’s story has ended in survival, but the office’s older secrets are still being managed through lies.
Turning points
Reveal turning points
Hassan’s blow against Curly prevents the finale from making him merely the object of a rescue. He has been watching, enduring and searching for openings throughout his captivity; at the crucial moment, he acts. River’s role is then to stop the violence escalating further, a different measure of success from arriving first or proving himself right.
The officers standing around Curly provide the clearest answer to the Park’s attempt to control the result. Their action is physically simple and institutionally dangerous. They protect someone they have every reason to despise because allowing his execution would help conceal what has happened. The group finally chooses a shared obligation over its members’ separate hopes of rehabilitation.
Lamb’s final story to Catherine unsettles that victory. He can defend his people in the present while continuing to conceal an act from his own past. The flashback gives viewers knowledge Catherine does not have, leaving the relationship between them weighted by the difference between what he says and what he did.
Book vs show
Reveal book and television spoilers
1. Who completes the escape
In the novel, Hassan gets away through the forest and reaches the alerted authorities. Television brings River into a gunfight at the folly, turning the rescue into a direct meeting between hostage, captor and officer.
2. How Curly is stopped
The book has Curly trip and sprain his ankle before Hassan takes the axe. On screen, Hassan knocks him unconscious with a rock after River interrupts the execution.
3. The final refusal
Herron’s Hassan chooses to walk away rather than kill Curly. The episode extends that refusal to River, Min and Louisa, who physically protect the unconscious man against the Dogs.
4. Lamb’s confession
The novel ends with Lamb telling Ho he was responsible for an agent’s death and privately thinking of Partner and David. Television has him give Catherine a false suicide account, followed by a flashback showing the shooting.
Mick Herron, Slow Horses (2010).
Characters and actors
River, Min and Louisa carry out the decisive refusal at the folly, supported by Lamb and the tracking work of Catherine and Roddy. Duffy represents the Park’s violent effort to close the operation. Samuel West’s Judd and Paul Hilton’s Hobden complete the political thread, while James Faulkner appears as Charles Partner in the revelation that connects Lamb’s past with David Cartwright.
Linked locations
The pursuit leaves the office behind for a woodland refuge and an ornamental ruin. The title’s architectural meaning becomes part of Hassan’s confrontation with Curly: the apparently ancient castle is a folly. The isolated setting gives the captor a stage for the murder and the rescuers a place where they must confront him directly.
Trivia
The original finale included a preview of the already filmed second series. Contemporary reviews noted the footage after the conclusion, linking the end of Hassan’s captivity to the next adaptation. The title also carries an architectural meaning through the false ruin used for the confrontation.
Questions and answers
Does Hassan survive the finale?
Yes. River interrupts Curly’s planned execution and Hassan knocks the kidnapper unconscious. The Slough House officers then prevent the Dogs from killing Curly.
Why do the officers protect Curly?
Keeping him alive preserves a witness to the kidnapping and blocks the Park’s attempt to silence him. It also refuses an execution after the immediate threat has been stopped.
Did Charles Partner kill himself?
Lamb tells Catherine that version, but the closing flashback shows Lamb shooting Charles. David Cartwright is involved in the arrangement behind the killing.