It’s Wednesday, and Slow Horses episode two has dropped – and with it a flashback to the gruesome bathtub scene that saw ‘River’ shot dead.

*Warning, contains spoilers for Slow Horses series 4, episode 2*

First up – the flashback explained

The real River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) arrives soon after his grandad has killed his would-be assassin with a gunshot wound straight to the guts and sets about making it look as if it is actually himself that’s died.

“What are you doing?” a very confused David Cartwright (Jonathan Pryce) asks River. “Buying us some time,” says River, as his grandfather presses his panic button.

Sending his grandfather downstairs, River leaves his phone and wallet in the dead man’s inside pocket, before shooting him in the face. Good job, too, because after one look at the Frenchman we can confirm he looks nothing like River.

River’s being followed…

The real River is, in fact, in France on the trail of the doppelganger killed by his grandfather. A receipt in the dead man’s pocket leads him to a cafe in Lavande, where he discovers the man lived in the next town – Les Arbres.

Leaving the cafe, he starts the 3km trek into the woods to find the cottage – but he’s being followed. “It’s him,” a Frenchman in a car tells another on the phone. “He’s heading for Les Arbres. I’ll keep track of him.”

Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), meanwhile, heads to Slough House to break the news that River is very much alive. Bad news for Roddy, as he’ll have to give Cartwright his computer back. “He’s not dead, you dickhead,” Lamb tells Roddy. “River’s alive… for now,” he says, before instructing his team to let River “get on with it”.

“If he wanted help he would have asked for it,” he tells them.

The plot thickens

Action then cuts back to David Cartwright’s cottage, a crime scene being guarded by the police. Another Frenchman arrives, pretends to be lost, and plants a camera in the wall. He gets back in his car and calls a mystery American man.

“David is still alive,” he tells him. “You hit the second target,” the man is instructed. “Another old man? Let’s hope he’s less trouble than David Cartwright,” he says.

“I worked for him for years. He’s heard about Cartwright, he’s gonna be jumpy,” the American tells him. “He might have forgotten,” says the Frenchman. “He might not even know why he has to die,” he adds mysteriously.

Taverner frames Whelan

Back in London, it’s safe to say that Claude Whelan (James Callis) isn’t exactly growing into his role as director-general of MI5. Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) is still pulling all the strings.

She tasks young upstart Gitty with digging into the background of Robert Winters, who blew up Westacre Shopping Centre in episode one. And, when she finds out that Robert Winter (without the s) was a fake ID set up by MI5 at the end of the Cold War, she soon shreds every single piece of evidence that links Winter/s to MI5.

Taking Whelan for a ride – literally and figuratively – on a double-decker bus, she fills him in, telling him that not even a hint of Winter/s can get out. He soon threatens to expose the cover-up. But documents that she got him to sign earlier in the episode (that he didn’t have time to read) shows he ordered the search by Gitty. So now he’s in on it too. But in on what? Back to France for that…

Burn baby burn

Back in remote France, River makes it to a stately country manor where he finds what looks like a covert training ground, complete with abandoned vehicles and a firing range. There’s also a photo of an older man – Frank Harkness (Hugo Weaving) – on a hunting trip. And, as River runs his finger across the photo, he recognises another man in the picture and declares: “Robert Winters. Shit.”

Before we’ve had time to connect any dots, the house is set on fire and River’s whacked over the head by Harkness. Mid-tussle, they’re interrupted by the man in the car who said he’d keep track of River when he left the cafe.

“Get lost!” he tells Harkness, before shooting at him. The Frenchman then helps River out of the burning building and into a car. Poor old River is about to thank the man for saving him when he gets whacked in the face by his shotgun, rendering him unconscious. The pair then drive away from the burning building and the titles roll.

So… Many… Questions!

We’ve been left with more questions than answers after that ep. Who is Frank Harkness? A quick Google tells us he’s an American mercenary and former CIA agent. But who’s he after next? Lamb? He’s the oldest man in the show aside from David Cartwright… And why did they want to kill Cartwright in the first place? Also, how is the shopping centre bombing linked to the botched assassination on David Cartwright?

As well as that, Lamb’s on the tail of the Slow Horses’ new office manager Moira Tregorian (Joanna Scanlan) and what she did to end up in Slough House. Do we smell a plant? By Taverner, perhaps? On the subject of Taverner, just what is she up to this time around? And will Claude ever grow a pair? Somehow, with Diana around, we doubt it!

New episodes of Slow Horses drop on Apple TV+ every Wednesday.