What the Latest Episodes of ‘Slow Horses’ Reveal About River Cartwright’s Fate

The sixth season of ‘Slow Horses’ opened with the death of David Cartwright, played by Jonathan Pryce, and one critic noted that everyone except Gary Oldman and Jack Lowden is considered at risk of not returning. That unwritten rule has pushed many viewers to ask whether River Cartwright can make it through the season.

The question carries real weight because River is the center of the story this year. With his grandfather gone, the series focuses on his grief, which makes him feel more like the lead than ever. Here is what the episodes have shown so far about River Cartwright and the danger closing in around him.

River Cartwright’s Fate After the Season Premiere

The premiere confirmed that David had died, and the death of River’s grandfather leaves him reeling. In an interview with TV Insider, co-executive producer Gaby Chiappe said River is left with little anchoring him to anyone, even his Slow Horses colleagues.

All the main characters converge at David’s funeral, which sets the emotional tone for the season. River keeps reporting to Slough House rather than taking bereavement leave, even as former colleagues turn up dead and his own name lands on a list.

The killers who murdered Struan Loy are now identified as having River as their next target. That detail is what first led audiences to wonder whether he would be the next casualty.

Frank Harkness and the Threat Facing River

Frank Harkness, played by Hugo Weaving, resurfaces early in the season and sets up a confrontation with River that drives much of the story. Frank is River’s father and a mercenary. That makes the conflict personal in a way few earlier threats have been.

Harkness appears at the funeral, which is a shock for River. By the end of the second episode, River storms into his late grandfather’s house with a crowbar, ready to fight his father.

Lamb has become convinced that Harkness is running a clean up operation. If that theory holds, River may be less a target of opportunity than part of a larger plan to erase the people connected to Slough House.

Sid Baker’s Return Changes the Stakes

Olivia Cooke’s Sid Baker survived being shot in the head back in the first season, and she explains to River that she has been out of the picture for three years. River has spent that time believing he was responsible for her death.

Sid also reveals that Taverner originally assigned her to keep tabs on River. The revelation complicates their partnership, though the two escape together after Sid assumes the visitors have come for her.

In the fourth episode, River is shot through the hand during a tense encounter at a bowling alley. He later finds Coe dead in a bathroom and arrives too late to help. River is wounded and exposed, but he is still alive and still fighting.

Why the ‘Slow Horses’ Season 6 Deaths Raise the Tension

Former Slow Horses are being assassinated in gruesome style, and MI5 leadership has wiped the team from the system so that no records of them exist. That leaves River and the others without the institutional protection they might once have counted on.

One critic wrote that River is put through the wringer physically and emotionally, and wondered whether the show is steering him toward becoming a Jackson Lamb through betrayals, slain colleagues and bad diets. The observation suggests the writers may be shaping River through loss rather than removing him.

Apple TV has renewed the series through its eighth season, so at least some of the Horses are expected to survive. That renewal does not guarantee any single character’s safety, but it does frame how much of the story still lies ahead.

The final two episodes of the season are expected to deliver the answers. For now, River Cartwright has survived a funeral, a violent confrontation with his father and a shooting, so does the show let him keep his place at the center, or does it take the most Slough House step possible and pull that away from him in the finale?