It’s fair to say that when audiences see River Cartwright at the beginning of Apple TV’s “Slow Horses” Season 5, he is not in a good place. The previous season revealed that River’s father, Frank Harkness (Hugo Weaving), is both a sociopath and the leader of a network of trained assassins. It was also revealed that Frank had fathered numerous sons and raised them to carry out his hits.
“I think for anybody, that would be quite traumatic,” says Jack Lowden of his character River’s damage, which carries into Season 5; his base of operations, MI5’s Slough House headed by Gary Oldman’s Jackson Lamb, has become a bit too much for him.
“When I was filming that season and Season 6, my grandfather is at the forefront of my mind. I feel like that begins to overtake his ambition because he wants to make his grandfather proud,” says Lowden. “He’s not in the best of head space, and he’s thinner physically. I think nerves-wise, he’s thinner. I don’t think he’s particularly in a happy place or particularly well, so to speak.”
Lowden details peeling back the layers of River and why the character ends up in a much more hopeful place as the show heads into its sixth season.
Let’s get right to it. In Episode 5, “Circus,” River is lying to Jackson about the death of politician Dennis Gimball (Christopher Villiers). Take us into his mind. Why does he lie?
