Slow Horses 3.4: "Clear the Board"

Well, Slow Horses 3.4 gets the prize for the best ending with the best phrase: "Clear the Board".

That order is given by Tearney, to the assembled force outside the Park.  The command, just in case you didn't know, has nothing to do with chess or checkers.  It means kill all the human players.  In this case, that's River, who has once again gotten into the Park -- MI5 headquarters -- along this time with  Louisa (they make a comfortable team) in pursuit of Donovan (that's his last name) and Dunn.   Except they're now all together, and the intended objects of Tearney's lethal order.

And that's where the episode ends.

We'll find out next week who survives the ensuing hail of bullets.  Now, ordinarily I'd say probably everybody, but after seeing Spider punched out in the worst possible sense of the phrase last week -- he dies as a result of Donovan's punch -- I'll say all bets are off as to who will survive Tearney's directive.  (Note that I didn't give you a spoiler warning about Spider, because he was killed in episode 3.3, and what are you doing reading a review of episode 3.4 if you haven't seen the previous episode?)

So who will be killed next week?  The most likely is Dunn, because he's easily the least important character of the foursome in this predicament.  Less likely is Donovan -- he's a central character this season.  And even less likely is Louisa, followed by the least likely River.  But even that logic may not apply to this wonderful iconoclastic series, which began killing seemingly central and crucial characters in the first season, or languishing in a hospital, out of commission and out of the series.

So if I had to bet on this, I'd put my money on Dunn, but I'd rather not bet at all.  And, come to think of it, every one of the quartet may survive, and not get shot at all, leaving the board totally uncleared.  That result would also be totally consistent with the winningly unpredictable narrative of Slow Horses. 

We'll know more, for sure, next week.

See also Slow Horses 3.1-3.2: Beatles Level ... 3.3: The Meaningful Difference Between "The" and "A" in the UK

And see also Slow Horses 2.1-2.2: Do Horses Eat Ramen? ... 2.3: Faster Than You Think ... 2.4-2.5: Lamb Firing On All Cylinders ... Slow Horses 2.6: Heralds of Humiliation

And see also Slow Horses 1.1-2: Fast-Moving Spy Thriller ... Slow Horses 1.3: The Fine Art of Bumbling ... Slow Horses 1.4: Fine New Song by Mick Jagger ... Slow Horses 1.5: Did You Hear the One About the ... Slow Horses 1.6: The Scorecard