'Slow Horses' "Cicada" Brings a Satisfying Twist to the Show's Second Season

This time last season on Slow Horses, our characters sort of mirrored where they were by the end of season 2’s fourth episode. The conflict was escalating, and the strands were starting to unite, but there were still a lot of question marks floating about. Over a continuous, rolling time frame, the slow horses had to bury themselves deeper into their espionage to find out how to get the targets off their backs.

At this point in season 2, however, the show is lagging a fair bit behind season 1, and while “Cicada” succeeds in flipping our expectations by the end of the episode, it often feels like we’re a bit stop-and-start, only receiving small insights into storylines that should be expanding in front of us. We’re two-thirds of the way into the show; everything that happens needs to land a much more significant impact.

Last we saw River, he was undercover as journalist John in Upshott, having a nice meal with Kelly’s mother, Alex, and father, Duncan, and who were, if we remember correctly, a bit suspicious. (I wonder if that’ll be important later…) Our fears were confirmed when Chernitsky was welcomed into their gathering under the alias Leo, and for a lot of “Cicada,” River and Leo enjoy some back-and-forth James Bond-style as he picks at Leo’s facade while deflecting some of the Russian’s interrogations himself.