Hello Goodbye

Flyte regains consciousness after the convoy attack and reports River’s abduction. Whelan orders that River can be shot, treating the possibility he has been compromised as grounds for removing him. The man awaiting that decision is taken to Harkness at the Lighterman in Granary Square. River has recognised the connection through his mother’s paintings and knows that Harkness is his father. Harkness offers him work, presents the mercenary operation as a place where he would be valued, and attempts to turn an abduction into a recruitment conversation.

River refuses the invitation and makes a concealed call that allows his colleagues to locate him. Louisa joins Flyte, and the official pursuit closes towards the restaurant. Harkness turns his son into a shield, then slips a grenade into River’s hood to create a chance of escape. Louisa removes it and throws it into the canal. Once the immediate threat has passed, River pursues Harkness but stops treating the chase as a contest of speed. Remembering his father’s advice about remaining still while being pursued, he finds him waiting at a bar and brings him into custody.

Elsewhere, Lamb reaches Chapman’s office and finds him dead. The discovery confirms the cost of the earlier French operation to somebody who had carried out another man’s instructions. A message revealing David’s return to Slough House has also reached Patrice through Chapman’s phone. He enters the building while the team tries to protect the old man. Marcus retrieves his gun and helps fight him back along the stairs. The others retreat towards Lamb’s room, improvising whatever protection the cramped office allows. Marcus goes back to confront Patrice and is killed.

Shirley faces the attacker as the defence collapses. Lamb arrives in time to strike him with a whisky bottle, giving the survivors the chance to overpower and restrain him. Shirley wants to kill the man responsible for Marcus’s death. Coe persuades her to step away, then kills Patrice himself. The danger to David has been stopped, but the office has lost another colleague. The practical victory cannot be detached from the people who had to pay for it or the grief remaining inside the room.

Harkness’s capture does not deliver the clean outcome River wants. The messages left with Molly reveal a blackmail arrangement involving the work he has performed for intelligence services. Lamb presses Taverner for the proper death benefits for Marcus’s family, and Moira uses what she knows about Whelan to regain her former position. River takes David into a care home despite the old man’s angry resistance and his own anguish about breaking a promise. Afterwards, Lamb calls him to sign operational paperwork at a pub. The episode closes with them sitting beside each other over their drinks, sharing a silence neither has to explain.