Slow Horses Season 6 Ends With Two Losses and a Cliffhanger for River Cartwright

Slow Horses lost two members of its Slough House team in the Season 6 finale, and its lead was left collapsed at the close. The episode aired on a Wednesday, and Variety has detailed the major spoilers that followed. If you have not watched yet, read on with that in mind.

Slough House is the office where Apple TV's MI5 drama keeps its misfit spies, agents who have been pushed out of the main service. This season, the team lost Coe, played by Tom Brooke, and Emma Flyte, played by Ruth Bradley. Bradley spoke about Flyte's exit in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

The final scene is the one fans will be talking about. River Cartwright, played by Jack Lowden, collapses and struggles to breathe in his late grandfather's home. Upstairs, Sid Baker is in the shower. Olivia Cooke returned as Sid after the character was presumed dead in Season 1, and she discussed the cliffhanger and working with Lowden in a separate Variety interview.

Director Adam Randall says the team filmed a happier ending for River and Sid but did not use it. Randall directed Season 6 and is returning to direct Season 8.

The teaser for Season 7 offers a hint of what comes next. Jackson Lamb, the team's gruff boss, refers to River as sending a postcard from "the afterlife." The teaser does not say whether River survives, and the show has not confirmed a plot for the new season.

Lowden is also in the running for the next James Bond, according to reports. Randall told The Hollywood Reporter in September that Lowden would be a "pretty perfect" Bond. Nothing has been announced by the film producers, and Lowden's casting in the role is not confirmed.

The sixth season concluded in October 2026, according to People, which published an explainer on the ending. The show's head writer, Gaby Chiappe, has also talked about the series in a recent Yahoo Entertainment interview.

For viewers, the big question is simple. Does River live? The show has left that open, and the next season will have to answer it.