We are a third of the way through the new series, but the questions keep coming quick and fast. Most pertinently: why are the slow horses under threat? And is it one threat or two? How do the soup-staging duo of killers fit with what Damien Cantor and Frank Harkness have going on? Is there a link to the stories raised in Diana’s interview: novichok and the betrayal of the First Desk whom we know to have been Charles Partner? But either way: how has someone arrived at the conclusion that the answer is to kill past and present employees at Slough House? And has an attempt already been made on Sid’s life, which has caused her to emerge from whatever shadow she’s been living in for the last however many story years it’s been since series 1?

Harkness had a dog on the inside, but it’s unlikely that Nesmith would have been able to delete the digital files. But, again, what is the end game? What is to be gained by erasing the service records of anyone who has at any time worked out of Aldersgate?

The killing of Moira Tregorian – would a tussy mussy have come in handy against a noxious gas? – probably not – reminds us that people have ended up at Slough House simply through bad luck or other people’s agendas. River was framed by Spider; Sid was sent by Diana to spy on River; Coe was broken during a scheme hatched by Ingrid for her own personal gain. Moira herself ended up at the Park for knowing about Claude Whelan’s escort habit. Office politics is particularly deadly in this line of business.

But as well as office politics, there is actual politics. Diana has always been as much a politician as a spy, but her cockiness has caused her to over-reach. Did she really think that, having been outwitted once by Peter Judd, that his ally simply wanted to give her the opportunity to preen on television? Her hubris when Cantor offers her the interview questions (would they have been the real ones? Would he have expected her to negotiate?) leads exactly where we would expect. Second Desk Diana would reach out to Lamb around now. First Desk Diana may have to learn the hard way.

Lamb and River; Dander and Coe: these are good pairings. River’s trying to open up about his grief, but no one’s interested – although Ho offers the kind of support only he could give. River thinking that the dogs would welcome his personnel recommendations plumbs a new level of delusion. It’s seasons now since we would have regarded him as a competent agent, but nothing can persuade him – and Lamb tries pretty hard – to face reality. His, it must be said, is a pretty bleak actualité to behold.

But River is the only one of the horses not to dine on the resources of dead former colleagues. Shirley’s stealing Kay White’s money is shocking, but it’s different only in degree from Lamb scoffing Nesmith’s crisps. Coe gets Shirley to pay for their street food with White’s money even if whether that’s an actual strategy or a consequence of Coe’s laziness is open to question. Maybe River doesn’t belong.

Sid, of course, never belonged. Did her appearance in the season trailer lessen the impact of her emergence from the gloom of David Cartwright’s landing? Probably. But we’re almost already on to the next thing. In the coming hours we’ll need to reintegrate Sid and Louisa and to meet Nesmith Jr.

Squeezing two books into five hours of television was always going to lead to dense, rich episodes, and so far it’s been done without losing the series’ gargantuan misanthropic heart. Top stuff.

Episode 3, Resurrection, will be available on Wednesday, 30 September 2026, on Apple TV.