SLOW HORSES season 4 episode 1 Reaction and Review: Is River Cartwright Dead? APPLE TV

hey and welcome to Matt and Jess TV I am Matt roast here with Jessica bun bun and this is our slow horses season 4 episode one reaction and review you are bursting at the seams I am so excited I love love slow horses here here's the best analogy that I can think about it you go to your favorite pizza place a place that you go to all the time I love pizza so I'm always going to pizza place you go to your favorite pizza place you get like the best pizza that you've ever had there the cheese is gooey you know you got the perfect crumb on the crust the sauce is just but like in general it is incredible it's not necessarily redefining Pizza as you know it it's not making you think about pizza a new way but it is the best pizza you've ever had that is slow horses to me as a show it's not redefining television but it is for the sort of show that it is like the best form of it imaginable it is so fun we are I I'm we so back I'm so excited yeah I mean Matt has been talking about slow horses for a really long time I'll admit I only just got into slow horses a few months ago because it was like you got to watch it you gotta watch so good Gary I love Gary man the first thing I ever saw him in was Dracula and I know not everybody loved that movie but oh my God I love that movie he was so good as Dracula I just love Gary Ol Man so it had been a little bit on my radar but there was nothing that was like urging me until you and I'm really thankful that you did because season one was great season two I was like but season 3 just blew me out of the water and this Premiere amazing the whole thing was so good I mean it took me on a ride yeah this is an outstanding Premiere they delivered so much there's a really good twist I mean we'll we can talk a little bit about some of the quibbles on like an Apple TV plus level when it comes to how certain things played out but I think the storytelling in this premiere was just so incredibly done and speaking of story we know that there's books out there we have not read the books so we're going into this just looking at it as a TV show so if you have read the books we just ask that you please don't spoil it in the comments for us or for anybody else who hasn't read the books and is just watching it as a TV show like us yeah and what we're really going to dive into here in this review are theories such as who's Adam lockhead what's going on that's the name that was on that passport that River had as he was driving off into France at the end of the episode what really went on with David cartright in that house we have watched this episode a few times we have sign a piece together Clues we have a lot to get to here also is chickadoo a real restaurant you know are we GNA go down and me good old Rody home my favorite down there having a Christmas party by himself you got a girlfriend good for you you Rody you need to work on your delivery Rody as to oh somebody's just died I have a girlfriend Rody is the absolute worst and yet also the best at the same time he's you got to be in the game to get played this he is the listen you people in flow house you were all there for a reason you all kind of suck at your job but that's also why I really really like you absolutely but before we get into too much further into this be sure to hit that subscribe button we are going to be here every week talking about slow horses for the whole season we're also going to be covering the old man with Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow that's going to be coming up starting next week over on FX we're really excited about that as well if you haven't seen that and you really like slow horses you will also really like this show as well we're also covering only murders at in the building here at the channel so there's lots of Thriller mystery content going on here so hit that subscribe button thank you guys so so much and you can support us for further by joining our patreon we are covering exclusively over there the penguin that is coming to HBO and Max very very soon we've got a link for that in the description below if you want to check out our reviews of the Penguin and thank you so much to everyone who has supported us there thank you okay let's start here with the big jaw-dropping reveal that river cartright is not dead they spent a good chunk of this episode making us think that he was taken out by his own grandfather and I okay here is my I'll put on the beef hat for a moment this isad oh my goodness this is nothing this is not the problem of slow horses the episodes themselves it's the problem of the previews that they have shown there's this scene in the previews where we see River taking a bicycle and just like awkwardly pedaling it and that hadn't shown up at the time in which river was you know quote unquote killed within the episode so I knew in my heart that unless they trolled us to an extreme level where they put that in the trailer and it's not actually in the show I knew that River wasn't dead and so it kind of ruined a little bit of the surprise at the end but if I just take that part out it was an incredible surprise I you're right the the preview ruined it and they they shouldn't have had him in the preview at all much like they didn't have ssh in the pre-season preview at all where I was like oh my God where's my girl she's not in the preview is she not in the season like my theory was we'll also put a tin foil hat on top of your beef hat was they were showing in the preview for this season there was this big hype oh who from SL house is dead who's not going to make it and whatever then we had this whole fake out that River was dead in the premiere my theory is is that and was was that they were going to have a fake out death which they did but later this season they're going to kill somebody because this show is completely unafraid to kill off big characters and that that's why this River reveal could have been really something if they hadn't shown him in this preview yeah because would the show kill off River yes and even if he's alive in the books I don't want to hear about because they always do things differently than they do in the books anyways and they can decide to kill off people whenever they want they made up all kinds of stuff in the last season of House of the dragon and they change things completely so I mean could they decide that they're going to take out River yes river is kind of the Roman Roy of this season where he's got some good ideas but his execution is really bad and he could easily die at any minute and I would not be surprised no but that that's the fun with river right like you never know what's he he's the Wild Card jumping out of the van you never know what exactly is going to happen with this guy but it is exactly like you spelled out where yeah we know that this show has killed people off before like they what happened to men like that really made it clear that something could have happened to River and I know what happened to Sid in season 1 I once again don't spoil it I don't think Sid is dead I mean go to the house of the Dragon mode here again I don't know if they're going to be able to pull Olivia Cook away from that show but I I think she's still out there alive but I just think they have earned the credibility to make us think that River was gone especially in the way in which it happened and then the aftermath of that this is the thing if they hadn't shown him in the preview rid that bike yeah would I have thought that he was dead the minute that they were like oh his face is unrecognizable I was like that's convenient isn't it convenient so the minute that they had kind of did that I was like okay well it's not it's not him then there's no way I I'll admit it I think I would have thought he was dead like I think I would have really bought into it just because I know that the show does kill people off before and also I was just thinking who else would have visited David and the way that they shot this entire sequence with River or quote unquote River showing up to David's place I watched this a few times because it was pretty thoughtful when we see the impostor River enter the home like you see them enter but you don't really get a good glimpse of their face but at that moment you know this person's talking a little bit like their River whoever it is clearly they knew to a certain extent of the relationship between River and his grandfather they may have also known on some level that you know David cartright was starting to lose his mental capacities and that that something that they were playing into but pretty soon after the arrival David was aware that that something was a miss or he thought something was cuz he pressed his little I don't I don't know the technical term for the alert button yeah he pressed the alert button at that point but we're all still kind of living in this world as like okay did he mean it did he not mean it we kind of learned later that okay he's pressed it multiple times but he's convinced this isn't River he goes up he takes them out in the bathroom but after he takes them out I think the switch flips at that point and he does legitimately think that he killed River in that moment that's the thing about this whole situation with David if what river is saying is true because we saw that him and Louisa are getting much closer as friends and he's like listen like I'm I'm pretty worried about my grandfather there's times that I've sat with him for 10 minutes and he doesn't know who I am and he's talking about me to me like oh my grandson River he's this he's that whatever he's like hey it's you know it's me so there is a a mental decline that's happening here whether it's Alzheimer's or dementia or you know something else that's happening so to me that means that David is an unreliable narrator in this story of who came in and when they came in and what he saw and what he thinks he saw we even saw him walking up to the house feeling like somebody's watching him he's not sure he's having these conversations in his head and out loud it it's very difficult to know what he actually saw and what he thinks he saw because it's changing as he's moving through life right now which is you know a terrifying sad horrible place to be so when he thinks that it's River and then he doesn't and then he does I mean for us as the viewers it's like okay well how much of this is really happening here's my tinfoil hat okay I feel like what he's saying about the Watchers and people watching him is true and that that is what's happening to him he is an old spy yes he has information for years that people are not going to want out there whether it's MI5 doesn't want that information out there people he's wronged don't want that information out there whoever it is don't want that information out there and now he's an old spy that is losing his memory and his ability to keep secrets so somebody is probably watching him I think somebody from MI5 is definitely watching him but it's possible that other people are watching him as well to ensure that whatever it is that he does know he's not talking he's not saying anything and if his you know mental Decline and memory gets worse at some point someone might be like it's time to come in and pretend that I'm River to take him out because he's at the point now that he may spill these secrets and we can't have that so my biggest question is who is behind it is it MI5 that's kind of like it's time for David to go and we know that they will take out their own people or is it somebody else and they've you know come in to take him out because it feels like that's got to be the purpose of why they were there yeah I think it's I'm kind of leaning into direction that it is some other organization because they're heading to France but at the same time there could be plenty of MI5 Connections in France because have just hired somebody out of the agency to deal with it yeah like this could be either way at this point and that's what kind of leads all this interesting ambiguity because this Adam lockhead person which we you know we saw the passport I froze the screen at a very specific moment right before I was just like I want to see if we actually see this person David is taking out it's it's the same guy and he looks similar enough I guess to River that if you're somebody whose mind is starting to go maybe you would think for a moment that that's River he didn't have the facial hair though you know Jack lowden's got like that Scruff going on on the show right now so to me he's not that identical to River but that's neither here nor there I think the biggest kind of question here on a technical sense is we see you know fake River enter the place you know he goes up he offers to draw his grandfather a bath and it is this question of okay what's going on here like a part of me thinks okay he is trying to take him out and he wants to make sure that there's no weapon on David so that he can't fight back but is he also just trying to distract him because he's trying to like find something or take something and if David's in the bath he can't be like sniffing out what he's doing around the place yeah that's my biggest question is if you if this guy is here to take David out then why would you lead him up to the bathroom you've got your back to him you're in an enclosed space like this you don't know where David really kind of is he's getting paranoid like did you just go to killer school or something and you just graduated I'm not exactly sure what the plot was here but we do know that River came there after the fact because we saw sort of this setup where River clearly planted his ID and his phone on this guy to make it look like it's him that's gone give himself not only a head start to figure out why was this guy in his grandfather's house what was he looking for or doing there was he there to try to kill him like what what what is the plan here with this so it gives him time to deal with it but it also makes it look like he's dead and it makes it look like this other guy isn't so it gives him so much more time to really be able to get all the way out to Paris and figure out what's going on here's the sad irony in all of this is that River seems to have come up with a decent plan and we'll dive more into it but the question I have is just do you really trust River cartright to go to France and get answers on all of this because has River done a single thing fully successfully on this show even ever since the training exercise at the beginning he he looks great on paper he's like somebody who you see them line up to do a Sprint and they're like oh that person's at the perfect athletic build they're going to and then they trip when when the alarm sound and they just fall on their face yeah and he's you know MI5 pedigree you know like David was a big deal I think we can say it I'm ready if you guys get mad at me in the comments because river is Rick River and jackon slam are my favorite characters river is the slow hores nepo baby like this is the only reason why River has a job at this point I see no other Logic for it I don't understand how else it would happen that's right he's the Roman Roy of the situation he's there because he's the grandson and it's not everything he does is terrible I say Roman Roy because he reminds me of him in that way where it's like he has good ideas he has right intentions but he cannot get that together to save his life no he can't but now now let's get into my guy Jackson lamb here who had had quite an eventful episode he did not enjoy being woken up in the middle of the night where he is sleeping on a couch he did not enjoy going there saying hello to Emma who he was very very snarky with but at what point does Jackson lamb in between farting and also talking about his favorite food does he actually figure out that okay riverart right is not actually dead yeah you guys leave it in the comments for us where where do you think he figured out what was going on because at least for me when he was at David's place and he saw the body and he saw the ID on it I think he thought that it was River at that point when we saw him in the car and there was nobody around for him to make snarky comments I it was just him with his thoughts and his empty package of cookies it felt very much like he thought he was gone yeah like I I wasn't sure at first but then when you said that argument like it really convinced me just because they had no reason to not show us Jackson lamid as most vulnerable in that moment and we know that lamb is not going to be somebody who lets anybody else see see him that way even us the viewers we never see him that way that's why that scene with him in the car really stuck with me I was like oh my goodness we are having this like very vulnerable look into him I think what ends up happening here ultimately is that as time goes on more and more it's a situation where when lamb is at this particular Crime Scene It is the middle of the night he is an older gentleman who does not have great eating habits and has a not great colon so I don't think his mind is fully thinking at full capacity here yeah he has some time to think about this he has some time to sort of process what's going on to sort of lineup okay where is David what's going on I think he sort of over time starts to feel like okay something doesn't smell right and it's not just him there's something else that's going on here as well one of my biggest questions was at the time that he sent the text to Rody hoe my guy Rody hoe being like River's dead and he's in there you know taking taking his computer and bragging about his girlfriend to these to you know our crew did he know at that point or did he have his suspicions at that point where he was like okay River's up to something and because he's up to something I need everyone to think that he's dead as well so that I can investigate why he's doing this because he's probably gonna feel like the crew is going to muck it up he's also got some new people on there he's got the dollar store sish on there who I do not like at all and I want sish back they got JK in there who doesn't speak JK is except for when you throw something at him JK was the ultimate like Rookie of the Year of this episode he says almost nothing the entire time he is he hates everyone this is a great example of someone who I look at him not even showing his face for a good chunk of this episode really it's like I already know why you're in slow house like you may actually be good at your job but you are the you are the new Rody and that nobody wants to work with you you are the most impersonable guy yeah I don't like the new Standish either but I think Jackson does realize yeah they're going to it up I don't think he also wants to give them any sort of false hope that okay he might be alive because lamb does have that tender heart somewhere within him so I think he just feels like if you're G to do a job right I might as well do it myself and start to piece some things together poor Louisa oh my goodness her reaction like was so heartbreaking she already had to go through this with men who she was in an actual relationship with and you know yeah we had that little funny haha are you ask me out on a date thing but like are these two going to really be a thing I don't know maybe there's a little bit of chemistry there but her having sort of like this second death on her she almost didn't make it through that Min death like it wasn't things were not going that well for her so to have this second one Weighing on her shoulders the way that it is where she's just like oh my God not again I told him to go there and now he's gone it was heartbreaking it was heartbreak breaking and I I I feel so bad for her I think now that the you know metaphorical cat is out of the bag a little bit everybody can be brought in a little bit more but let's talk now about you know your favorite Katherine Standish here because were you afraid at around I don't know the 30 minute Mark of this episode that you weren't going to see stish at all oh my goodness listen that trailer I hate that trailer I hate the trailer for this season with my whole heart my beef hat is on for that trailer because there was no Standish in it and I've been sitting here for like a month worried that she was had that fight with lamb at the gas station and then I just wasn't going to see her again and the minute that they brought in the new Standish I was really worried like I was not as worried about River but I'm telling you I was like on the edge of my seat about sish that she was gone and it wasn't until we got to this very end of the episode I think there was like five minutes left and we were at stand is house that I was able to breathe yeah it was nice to see her she's apparently you know at home trying to live her life a little bit I love that these two are like a couple that's trying to get divorced where the wife is like sign these papers lamb let me go I've sent them to you three times and he's just like what papers I didn't see any papers on my desk oh I'll get to it when I get to it sort of thing thinking if he doesn't sign the papers the divorce doesn't go through that's not how works man every every single thing about this scene with Lam and sish is just incredible because at first you just get the banter lamb forcing himself into the place him trying to get a drink offering her breakfast in the form of those cookies but then ultimately I was sort of thinking you know I know that you're pretty rude Jackson lamb but River did just die can you try to be a little bit more sensitive because he was being just really insensitive and really awful but that's before we knew that he saw the car and he was well aware that you know okay something's going on here she has seen River she has not only seen River but she has David there as well in the other room and she's has him stashed so I mean she's saying she doesn't know a lot more than that but maybe she does and she's able to help with some of that but she probably won't because her and lamb they are not on the best terms and she is trying to protect River and David from whatever is going on what I think must have happened here is that at some point in between David being asleep at standish's place and everything that happened with the fake River real River must have at least gotten some intelligence from his grandfather as to maybe who this person was what they might have been doing who they were working for and then he took it upon himself to go and do all of this now do you think that at any point in this you know River did give blam a call and said what was going on or has he communicated ated with lamb at all you think yeah I'm I'm really curious about that I think it's a I think it's a no I think he only went to stish because Standish was not going to look for him I think if he he knew that if he went to lamb lamb would start digging into it he might tell people it might get out there and I think it was just like a we know river right River just runs on adrenaline where it's like he shows up his grandfather has done this this guy is in the bathroom tub it looks like him and I think he just came up with this plan on the Fly and was like okay who's going to keep my secret Standish okay we are 25 minutes into this video and we have not even talked about the things going Kaboom in this episode and like I know it's crazy like it's just not the plot right now I know it's so funny like you know the majority of the budget in this episode is probably sent on the post chicken incident dister and then what happens at the apartment and it seems like these are Big stories because there's obviously a significant threat but we're not emotionally invested any of that like my question is are these stories somehow linked because it seems like it would be kind of weird timing unless there was something that David knew about in terms of the people possibly responsible for these explosions and if you take out David then there's nobody who's going to be able to help you with it but that is a pretty gargantuan leap at this point that's like me jumping over the Mississippi River like we don't have a lot of evidence of this yet but is this whole season really just going to be like two story lines that are pretty separate from each other yeah I mean anything's possible the show is a show that will shake things up so they could easily have a part of this season where river is off doing something else and the rest of the team is trying to figure out what is going on with the big Kaboom yeah the only thing we know this name Robert winter and you know we've seen like a little video message and it's just like it's fine but it's not the best stuff is obviously the river stuff in this episode also Diana how is Diana not you know first desk how how did this oh my goodness this woman has gone through it to try to get herself into first desk and after everything last season I was like we are definitely going to see her in first desk now it is it is her time she has earned this and the minute that Claude came in it's like uh I don't know anything that's going on but I'm the first desk now could you just do this for me and help me with this and have this meeting and do whatever I'm just like who are you and why is Diana not in that spot Claud I have a message for you straight from Jackson lamb that's why I that's what I think about you right now Claude you stink you have no purpose I don't I don't like you I want Diana have that job tavers deserved it yeah I'm I'm waiting for them to explain how she ended up not in that job like honest honestly I I don't understand it it makes no sense to me she is perfectly qualified for that job and she would have been the next in line so why is she not in that job she deserves it alone for putting up with lamb and these people Misfits who he calls them even if they like it or not but no that that's what we have on this Premiere but I I think this episode is every bit as good as everything in season 3 which was you know the best season and I think both of our mind oh yes so we will be here through all of season 4 hit that subscribe button so you guys don't miss any more of these Misadventures in slow house and you can support us further by joining our patreon we have a link in the description below we are covering the penguin exclusively over there thank you to everyone for your support and we'll see you here next time e