S03.EP06: Footprints

[Souris]

Quote

The Slow Horses fight for their lives. Lamb shares some devastating truths with Catherine.

Surprised not to see a finale thread.

This season kicked ass! So good. But wow what a body count.

The MVP of the ep was definitely Shirley. She took out a ton without a working gun. Impressive. Very creative. (Though not as creative as Lamb. Obviously.)

Thrilled Louisa took out Duffy.

Poor Susan (or was it Sarah?). Dead sister, dead brother, destroyed house, destroyed wedding bus. But good on her for managing not to die and actually take out someone trying to kill her.

Edited December 31, 2023 by Souris

[aghst]

They really ramped up the body count compared to the previous seasons.

I don't think it's going to be typical of this show.

Finally, Taverner tells Tearney that ordering the deaths of MI5 agents isn't going to go over well at all, including in the Park, the building where they work.

Tearney thinks if Donovan and the Slow Horses are taken out, she can sell it.

Donovan finds the file and turns out he's a badass with killing mercenaries, takes out enough of them to buy River and Louisa enough time.

Otherwise they were so hopelessly outgunned and outnumbered.

Yes Shirley is a badass.  Seemed she and Marcus weren't too surprised that they're fighting Duffy and other UK nationals trying to kill MI5 agents -- Slow Horses are subject to ridicule by "real" MI5 but would they so easily try to kill them?

Duffy isn't just some foil for River and the other Slow Horses to outwit.  He will kill anyone that he's ordered to kill so Louisa had to put him down or he would have gutted Marcus.

So only the female Slow Horses had kills?  Not sure if River or Marcus killed any of the bad guys.

River goes to his grandfather with the file, who burns it because his lesson is that it would only get him into trouble.  Turns out River suspected that his grandfather would bury or burn the file so he made a copy and the lesson learned was to leak it anonymously.

Tearney is gone but you'd think there would be a huge scandal.  Well the Home Secretary is ousted as well.  That is like the head of the FBI or CIA being ousted.  For all the dead mercenaries, who tried to kill MI5 agents, it would get international headlines.

But somehow the damage control limited it to Tearney and Peter Judd?

 

[7-Zark-7]

Shirley is an animal. More coke for Shirley! More coke for Shirley! (The character this actress played in Skins would also be a ruthless killer).

It seems like the slow horses should be movin’ on up to the deluxe department in MI5. They (well, mostly Donovan and Shirley) took out at least 15 of the fancy agents.

However, leaking that information could also be seen as reason to shut them down, so it looks like they remain in place. But still, they should have some new cred amongst those in the know.

Lamb was brutal to Standish. He saved her just to wreck her spirit. Of course, while he was opening her eyes, he still kept his part in Charles’ death to himself.

[aghst]

Yeah I forgot to comment about Lamb and Standish.

Standish thought MI5 was better when Partner was in charge.  She also didn't want to believe that MI5 would kill their own.

Lamb doesn't suffer fools but he didn't mock or insult her like he usually does, just gave her the brutal truth about Partner, that he betrayed his country and that he was going to frame her.

Above all, that Partner made her his secretary because she was a drunk and would be oblivious to what Partner was doing.

Usually Lamb's zingers don't hurt their targets enough to make them want to get away from Lamb permanently.  Even as he berated Marcus and Shirley, they didn't want to lose their jobs.

In this case, Standish literally walked away in the middle of nowhere.

But the season 4 previews show she's still around.  Maybe she doesn't come back to Slough House right away.

[Athena5217]

I was surprised to see Duffy and the soldiers on screen at MI5 headquarters behind Diana and Ingrid. I had assumed it was an off book operation that only a few people would know about.

Lamb telling Standish about Parker seemed like a spontaneous emotional response, the first one I remember seeing from him. I think it was more about his disgust with the service for trying to kill its own agents than Standish’s naïveté about Parker.

Go River for putting the truth before his career. He will never leave Slough House now though.

I was expecting something to happen with Louisa and the diamonds, but I guess that will be a storyline next season.

[abbyzenn]

Great season.  All the slow horses did so well - well maybe not Ho - they really upped their game and used their wits to outlast those heavily (ridiculously so) armed guys.  Guess that private security company is out of business!!

Looking forward to season 4.

 

[krankydoodle]

I thought Ho was a bit less objectionable than usual. He at least did try to help, however poorly thought out his ramming the house was. And he was reluctant to leave Catherine when she chose to walk home after quitting.

I was disappointed that we didn't get to see the fallout from River leaking the documents. I wanted to see Judd getting ousted, Ingrid trying to take everyone down with her, and Cartwright Sr.'s reaction to it all.

Still a fun season, though, and the next one can't come soon enough.

[ShannaB]

Great Season but sad because of Donovan, Allison and Allison's brother.  I also feel bad that Standish HAS to face the truth about Palmer (I was beyond tired of hearing her praise him!).  River had to face the truth about his grandfather.  It was a Season of revelations and truths.  Have to admit that I was sad about Spider biting the bullet only because he was such a delicious  and enjoyable character to loathe.  Freddie Fox made the most of his scenes.  I didn't realize he played the Swedish King in THE GREAT until recently.  He just seems to disappear into the character he plays.

Duffy met a great end.Thank you Louisa and Lamb wasn't too shabby with his kill of Duffy's underling.  To me, thugs like this scare me most.

I look forward to the next Season and can only hope we get, at least, 6 Seasons.  I mean, how much more dirty, stinky, oily and flatulent can Lamb get?

 

 

[Souris]

I wish the season had one more episode that showed the fallout -- especially Siegfried Judd being ousted.

[pasdetrois]

On 12/28/2023 at 12:34 AM, aghst said:

They really ramped up the body count compared to the previous seasons.

I enjoyed the final episode less because of the violence. It's such a predictable way to pander to some viewers (for better ratings?) and is too similar to the meaningless violence we see in many movies.

At least the First Desk conflict was resolved, and the Partner story moved forward a bit.

Looking forward to the next season as I read Herron's latest book, which is fantastic.

[Rickster]

 I think the last two episodes would have benefited by cutting back on the gunplay and leaving more room for the bureaucratic fallout.

I liked the changes from the books in Season 2, but not so much in this season. The exception would be setting up Cartwright Sr.’s possible dementia.

[ribboninthesky1]

5 hours ago, Rickster said:

 I think the last two episodes would have benefited by cutting back on the gunplay and leaving more room for the bureaucratic fallout.

I agree - that part was much more interesting to me.

I am highly amused at the continuing theme of River channeling Ethan Hunt and shown in full sprint for implausible reasons every season.  

I enjoy the show, but this season seemed rushed.  And it's also a bit annoying how they release seasons that are already filmed.  Episodes are already released weekly, but now we'll have to presumably wait until Nov/Dec 2024 for the next season? Why?

[Bluesky]

On 12/30/2023 at 9:52 AM, pasdetrois said:

I enjoyed the final episode less because of the violence. It's such a predictable way to pander to some viewers (for better ratings?) and is too similar to the meaningless violence we see in many movies.

At least the First Desk conflict was resolved, and the Partner story moved forward a bit.

Looking forward to the next season as I read Herron's latest book, which is fantastic.

The shootout was more like an American show.   Since they have previews for next season which means they already filmed it I would think it will come out relatively soon?

[Rickster]

3 hours ago, Bluesky said:

The shootout was more like an American show.   Since they have previews for next season which means they already filmed it I would think it will come out relatively soon?

Seasons 1 & 2  were filmed back to back too and were released about 8 months apart. It’s all up to how Apple wants to plan its schedule.

[Snazzy Daisy]

I wasn’t interested in this show at first, turned off by the unkempt, greasy-looking Jackson Lamb. I can smell him from the screen, yuck! 🤢

Spy-comedy isn’t my cup of tea but I decided to give S01 a try after reading some good reviews. Surprisingly, am hooked.

The S03 finale is brutal. The chasing and shootings in the storage facility get a bit draggy though. Bravo Shirley for getting rid of Chieftain operatives at the hatch door, saving River and Louisa.

But the memorable (and unthinkable) scene belongs to Roddy when he drives a double-decker bus through the Dunn’s farmhouse. It’s hilariously stupid. 😂

There are some interesting dynamics in this show - Jackson/Diana, Shirley/Marcus and Roddy/everybody. I cannot believe that “Little and Large” can make an interesting pair, but they do.

With Spider dead, I hope River will get a new frenemy. And ohh, he needs to stop channeling MI’s Ethan Hunt. There’s a lot of running throughout the 3 seasons.

Anyway, so excited for S04 with Hugo Weaving joining the cast. 🤗

[dancingdreamer]

It's a really good show. Lamb is a great character, he's always one step ahead. River always seems to get beaten up, but I loved he took documents  out of the file he gave his grandfather. Smart! 

 

Roll on season  4! 

[ombre]

In reading the above comments on lamb and Standish, I've got to say that I think lamb was telling her exactly what he thought would get her to walk away from slough house and the service and never look back. He was shaken that she was kidnapped (and that she is such a vulnerability for his team - look at cartwright white knighting into the park!) and wanted to get her out of there. 

Edited February 27 by ombre

[Kel Varnsen]

On 12/30/2023 at 2:44 PM, Rickster said:

 I think the last two episodes would have benefited by cutting back on the gunplay and leaving more room for the bureaucratic fallout.

I didn't mind the gunplay but they could have definitely made it a bit longer and added some more fallout. At the very least have one final scene with the asshole home secretary before he loses his job.  Not to mention it seems like a scandal this big could also bring down the government. I mean it's a streaming show, so it's not like they are bound by a certain episode runtime.

On 12/28/2023 at 1:30 AM, 7-Zark-7 said:

It seems like the slow horses should be movin’ on up to the deluxe department in MI5. They (well, mostly Donovan and Shirley) took out at least 15 of the fancy agents.

I mentioned last episode that I liked that the guys the Slow Horses took out (other than Duffy and the guy Lamb killed) were private security types. So they made some dumb mistakes that got them killed, like the guys that got taken out by Donovan before he was killed, or the first guy Shirley hit with the car or the second guy who after not getting hit by the car head on decided to stand behind it. 

One thing I did thing was funny though was after everything was over no one thought it was a bad idea for River to drive away, by himself with the secret documents when he almost certainly had a concussion.

[Kel Varnsen]

Thinking about the episode more I really liked how it was a whole "the cover up is worse than the crime" think. Like if leaked the whole thing about British intelligence developing a device that could hack secure networks but also put someone in a coma probably wouldn't be that big a news story. Now if the person who tried to leak it died mysteriously that would probably be bigger, there might be some kind of outside agency investigation and the head of MI-5 might resign. But with what we saw in this episode with MI-5 killing people on UK soil as part of a cover-up, that's leading to probably a pretty high investigation, several people resigning (maybe even the prime minister) with some probably going to prison and possibly a non-confidence vote in parliament and an election being called (depending on the political situation at the time).

It seems like Tearney would have been better off letting the story leak but then orchestrating a bigger political story being leaked around the same time so people don't care so much about Project Footprints.

[Hanahope]

well, cleared the board alright, of side characters that is, Spider, Duffy, Duffy's side-kick, plus new characters, Douglas, Sean and Ben.  Poor Sarah, losing both siblings and damaged house.  will she get any compensation?

wonder which of the new slow horses will return, i presume the older ones will be back in S4.  both Shirley and Marcus are at least capable fighters.  Ho needs to stay behind the computer.

Yes Catherine, MI5 cleans house when it has to, though at least they stuck to traitors mostly before Ingrid.  i was under the impression that Cartright Sr was desk 1 to Partner's desk 2,  but Catherine made it sound like Partner was desk 1.  so who ordered Lamb to stand down, was it still Cartright as desk 2 and who was he taking orders from?  did home office know about Partner?

i had hoped that maybe those two chieftain soldiers would have balked after seeing Duffy kill douglas, but i guess not.  they just had no qualms killing anyone else.

guess river is finally wising up that the service isn't always doing the right thing.

can't wait for S4, though now i'll have to wait week by week for the episodes.