Note: This story contains spoilers from “Slow Horses” Season 5, Episode 4.
In “Slow Horses,” things can go from bad to worse at the drop of a paint pot.
Case in point: The shocking conclusion of the Apple TV series‘ latest episode, titled “Missiles,” which sees Slough House colleagues River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) and JK Coe (Tom Brooke) accidentally kill far-right populist politician Dennis Gimball (Christopher Villiers). How? Coe’s trip down from his perch atop a rickety London scaffolding results in a heavy can of paint dropping on top of Gimball’s head right as he is in the midst of accusing River of putting him in danger by doing “the deep state’s dirty work.”
It is at that moment that the paint can falls on top of Gimball’s head, instantly killing the man and splattering River in pink paint. “What did you just do?” River asked, turning to look at Coe. “I just came down the ladder. What did you just do?” Coe replied. Moments later, the two men discover Gimball’s trusty, personal dictaphone on the ground a few feet away, having recorded the audio of the entire incident. Slowly coming to their senses, they make their getaway.
It is a violent, darkly funny moment that stands in stark contrast to Shirley (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) and Standish’s (Saskia Reeves) successful effort to save the life of Gimball’s mayoral opponent, incumbent London Mayor Zafar Jaffrey (Nick Mohammed). It is also something that Coe, who has shown flashes of violence before, seems to take no responsibility for. Or does he?
“That’s the question, isn’t it?” actor Tom Brooke told TheWrap when asked about the jaw-dropping twist. “I don’t think Coe set out to kill anyone that night, but I don’t think he’s particularly disappointed that he gets to put another notch on his scorecard.”
For many viewers, especially those who have not read author Mick Herron’s original Slough House books, Coe’s dispassionate reaction to Gimball’s death will likely only shroud the character in even more mystery. For Brooke, it is just another step on a journey that he believes began when Coe mercilessly executed Marcus’ (Kadiff Kirwan) assassin in the “Slow Horses” Season 4 finale.
“I always felt that, at the end of Season 4 when he gets the gun and then he uses it, something has left him in that moment. Something negative leaves him and he is then more with us in the real world, having killed someone,” Brooke explained. “I feel like the more people he kills, the happier he gets.” In that same breath, Brooke added with a laugh, “And that’s why he’s a real psychopath.”
Below, Brooke tells TheWrap more about filming his and River’s pivotal scene in “Missiles,” the joys of getting to share so many scenes with Lowden this season and the strange, unspoken bond he believes his character shares with Slough House leader Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman).
TheWrap: Did you read Mick’s books before you started working on the show? Did you know what was coming for Coe this season?
Brooke: Yeah, I did, and I just have to say, the very, very special thing about [“Slow Horses” creator] Will Smith is that the first conversation I ever had with him, he said, “Listen, you’ve just read the books. You’ve got the gig. I read them three years ago. Anything that you feel like we have missed, tell us. We’ll put it in.” I thought, “Yeah, I don’t believe you for a minute.” But there were two things. The first one was in Season 4. I asked Will, “Is there any reason why he doesn’t describe what happened to him with the words ‘electric carving knife?’ Because that’s such a weird image.” Will said, “No.” I said, “Well, it’s a good line if you want it,” and it went straight in.
The other suggestion I had was Coe’s push knife. I said, “Can I have a push knife?” It went straight in, and we were off. Really, I was just so eager to talk about where he goes because I really wanted it to feel like a journey. You can only do hiding in the corner with your hood up for one season, you know? It had to be a bit different this time, and Will was all over that, so I didn’t have to worry.
What was your reaction when you found out about Coe’s role in Gimball’s death?
Brooke: I just wanted to see how they were going to do it. When I read it, I was like, “Perfect.” And then we ended up filming it over many nights. One night, we shot it and I remember Jack was just covered in yogurt the whole time. That was not a good day for him. [Laughs] But even my last day on this most recent season [Season 6] was a pickup for that scene. They rebuilt the scaffolding on the other side of London, so that’s the last thing I’ve done on “Slow Horses” to date. They asked me, “Can you remember where you were and what you were thinking here?” It’s so easy to slot back in because the writing’s so good, so I said, “Yep,” and off we went.
Coe is so unfazed by Gimball’s death, and he generally seems unbothered by everything that has happened so far on the show. Do you think there is anything that could really rattle him at this point?
Brooke: If there is, we haven’t found it yet. I think he offers a sort of lack of interest in things, which I think goes really well with River’s frustration with everything. Coe is not bothered by anything. He’s gone through such an awful experience before we even meet him in the show.
Mick wrote a separate book in which you find out what happened to him, and he was just, like, a data-crunching kind of geeky nice guy who people slightly took advantage of who ended up in MI5. And then he got kidnapped and tortured and he’s just gone to the other end of the spectrum now. He’s been through so much. So we haven’t found it, whatever the thing is that would bring him or cause him some consternation.
What was it like getting to form a kind of odd couple duo with Jack this season?
Brooke: It was great. I hadn’t ever seen Jack before “Slow Horses,” so when I was watching the show and he came onscreen, I was like, “Who is that guy?” And then I got the job, but his storyline in Season 4 was in France, so I never met him that season. Everyone else was all in Slough House that season except for him. So the first time we met, we had a chat and came up with some stuff that we actually ended up using. We just starting improvising a bit, including a moment after Coe has pulled the push knife out in the doorway [in Season 5, Episode 2]. When they’re walking back to the car, River goes, “Push knife?” And Coe just goes, “Push knife.”
That was something we came up with in rehearsal, and when we were shooting the scene the night of, it just wasn’t quite working. I said, “Remember that thing [from rehearsal]?” And we tried it and it stayed in. All of that stuff stayed in. It just worked really well, and Jack improvises a lot and, because I don’t talk much in the show, I quite enjoy if somebody’s getting sort of stressed out and anxious next to me. Story-wise, it’s heaven to just be able to look at him and respond like, “Oh, Jesus. He’s off again.”
Obviously, Coe spends a lot of time with River this season. But what do you think his opinion really is of his Slough House co-workers?
Brooke: That’s a really interesting question. In Season 4, he is clearly like, “Get away from me.” This season, less so. He’s not looking at the floor the whole time. His gaze is up. He’s sort of meeting the world this time and they’re also out in the world. I don’t think he’s forming any attachments to any of them, but he’s certainly tolerating them. [Laughs] There’s a lot of waiting in the books. Moments when Mick writes about them all just sort of sitting there in Slough House looking out the windows.
It’s the stuff that you can’t really put on the telly because it’s too boring, but I always got the sense that the minute it got to 5 p.m., Coe just vanished. Obviously, there’d be no after-work drinks. There’d be nothing. He would just [disappear] and then he’d reappear again at 9 a.m. the next morning. So I don’t feel like he’s connecting, particularly, with any of them. But having just done Season 6, that is something that Will was very interested in moving forward. So I feel like, the further we go in terms of the story, the fewer walls he has around him, maybe.
Coe and Lamb are two characters who strangely share a lot in common. How do you think Lamb sees Coe, and vice versa?
Brooke: On my first day on set, Gary came up to me and said, “So have you read the books?” I said I had and he said, “It’s funny, isn’t it? There’s a thing between them.” And I said, “There is.” Of all of them, it feels like Coe is the one that Lamb is most confident in, which is really surprising. But I feel like that speaks to Lamb’s intuition. He’s so clever. He just intuitively goes, “Oh, I know that guy can do that and he can clearly do it very well.”
In regards to the other way around… you know, there’s another book that Mick wrote. It’s a novella called “The List,” and you find out in it that Coe met Lamb before [he joined Slough House]. He goes to meet Lamb at one point and he tries to be this kind of tough guy and, obviously, just gets annihilated. But I’ve always had that in the back of my head — that they’ve actually met before in Coe’s sort of other, before life. I do wonder if something from that has carried over, because I feel like if there’s anyone in the world that he would like to try and impress, it’s Lamb. Maybe he cares a little bit about that, but only a little.
“Slow Horses” releases new episodes Wednesdays on Apple TV.
