This post contains spoilers for “Slow Horses” season 4.
The recently concluded fourth season of the spectacular Apple TV+ spy series “Slow Horses” continued to prove that it’s one of the best shows on television, with the season culminating in a big revelation about River’s parentage, a literally explosive climax, and a fatal shootout at Slough House. But one of the saddest scenes of the season comes just moments before the finale’s end credits, when MI5 agent River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) moves his confused grandfather, former agent David Cartwright (Jonathan Pryce), into an assisted living facility because the man has been increasingly suffering so acutely from dementia. It turns out, the only reason it played out in that fashion was because of a different moment that happened in the previous season.
I spoke with the Emmy-winning showrunner of “Slow Horses,” Will Smith (no, you’d probably have heard about it if that Will Smith won an Emmy for writing a British TV series), about this season, and I asked him if there were any performance moments from this excellent cast (which also includes people like Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Hugo Weaving, and more) that surprised him. He shouted out a few names, but gave particular props to Jonathan Pryce and explained how that devastating last moment between River and David came about:
“That final scene where River puts him in the care home, I went and wrote that off the back of watching Jonathan and Jack record this scene in series 3 where Jack has to go down to the Member’s Club and tell him he’s no longer a member, he’s canceled his membership and he’s just forgotten, and seeing how much sadness and pride and pain there was in the way they performed that, I could just feel, ‘Oh, we can go even deeper, really, and sadder.'”
