Note: This story contains spoilers from “Slow Horses” Season 4, Episode 1.
When we last saw Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves) in Season 3 of “Slow Horses,” she had just walked out on her boss Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) and quit MI5 after several years of unappreciated service.
The Season 4 premiere of the Apple TV+ spy series revealed that Jackson never accepted her resignation and she’s still technically an MI5 employee, which naturally means she is drawn into Slough House’s latest case, whether she likes it or not.
Reeves spoke with TheWrap about Catherine and Jackson’s rocky relationship — and about that giant misdirect that may have convinced viewers that one of the “Slow Horses” team members was dead.
TheWrap: Catherine is a little bit like Al Pacino in “The Godfather” because she can’t really get out [of MI5]. They keep pulling her back in.
Saskia Reeves: (Laughs) That’s a good parallel. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Early on in the episode, we see River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) accidentally get shot by his mentally confused grandfather David (Jonathan Pryce) and then Jackson identifying the unrecognizable body in the tub River. Did you think viewers would believe he was really dead?
I hope so, because that’s part of the fun. Who knows what is happening with the chaos of it? I use that word a lot and it’s a really good word to explain the world we’re in. We don’t really know what’s coming down the line or what’s going to happen next.
And then Jackson turns up at Catherine’s apartment and she pretends to be in shock to hear that River is dead, when — we learn later — she knows quite well he isn’t.
We learn [the truth] backwards, don’t we? So we see the scene in the bathroom, and then you fill in [what really happened]. We see River tell Grandad, “OK, everything’s going to be all right. I’m going to take you somewhere safe.” And he thinks of Catherine. I love that she is the first person he thought of, that he could trust her and that she would protect David from the park [MI5 higher-ups].
Once again, we see how resourceful Catherine is (in the next episode), where she has to calm David down when he becomes confused and somewhat hostile.
What I love about that is also her tenderness. I’ve had experience with people with dementia or Alzheimer’s, and it’s a very particular talent to be able to maneuver your way around somebody’s mind without making them feel patronized or angry or upset. It takes a bit of thinking.
What was her working relationship like with David, back when she was his secretary?
I don’t think he gave that the time of day, really. If you have watched Series 1, there’s a flashback sequence. It’s very brief, but we did spend quite a lot of time doing it. When Catherine gets dragged into David Cartwright’s office to explain herself for not seeing that her boss’s partner was suicidal, and she is harangued by him and made to feel completely humiliated and small.
I think he was quite a scary person walking up and down those corridors of the old park. And he was a very powerful man. I think that seeing him struggling with his competence is very sad. She will have known him to be an incredibly complicated and powerful person.
What do you think Catherine’s been up to in the meantime, since she walked out on Jackson?
Not much. We did have a shot of her calendar. When Lamb says, “So I see you’re busy.” Obviously nothing is happening. And I said [to the producers], “Can you put a little weekly calendar on her cupboard door with nothing on it?” She has been keeping up with the news, though. I think if she didn’t get sucked back into it the way she has been, it would have taken her a while to find her feet and to work out what the hell she does next, because MI5 has been her whole life.
So is she a bit glad, in a way, to be back working again, even though she’s in for more verbal abuse from Jackson?
I would have hoped she had a private conversation with herself like, “OK, if I’m coming back, then this has got to change, and that has got to change,” but she knows that’s pointless.
Jackson can’t stand his new secretary Moira (Joanna Scanlan), who gives his office a drastic makeover. She’s the complete opposite of Catherine, who was always so supportive, even though she never got any thanks.
Exactly. She let people be themselves. But was there to catch them if they needed it. Yeah, she’s so undervalued, isn’t she?
The first two episodes of “Slow Horses” Season 4 are now streaming on Apple TV+. New episodes will be released Wednesdays through Oct. 9.