Slow Horses season 5 recap: Everything to remember ahead of season 6

Slow Horses is back for season 6, and it really is the show that keeps on giving - each outing of this cult series seems to be more brilliant than the last.

Even better news for fans of Jackson Lamb and his ragtag gang of shamed, but lovably imperfect MI5 operatives, is that season 7 has already been filmed and Apple TV have just renewed it for season 8.

While this is exciting, let's not get ahead of ourselves. With season 6 airing on the streamer from September 16, we'll take a look back at all the key plot points you need to remember from season 5 before settling down to tune in.

Slow Horses season 5 recap

At the start of season 5, Shirley is still reeling from the death of Marcus, and Louisa is unsurprisingly stepping away from Slough House (and sadly remains absent for the rest of the season,) for a mental health break.

Shirley is anxious, jumpy and a little paranoid. Catherine is following her around to make sure she doesn't do anything stupid, but loses sight of her long enough for Shirley to manage jumping off a balcony in a nightclub to apprehend a man she thought had a knife - the babysitting wasn't really going to plan.

But the biggest talking point of the opening episode is that Roddy Ho has a girlfriend. Yes, it sounds just as improbable saying it again a year after we witnessed it happening on screen, than it did at the time.

More likely though, is that everything points towards it seeming highly likely someone could be trying to kill Roddy. And it could be something to do with the unlikely girlfriend who is seen tipping someone off about the time Roddy is most likely to be alone in his flat.

Anyway, stepping into the action, there's a massacre in Abbotsfield. Current London mayor Zafar Jaffrey is running for re-election, and is up a against fierce right wing populist, in the form of Conservative MP Dennis Gimball.

The radicalised Rob Trew briefly speaks to a man campaigning and handing out flyers for Jaffrey, before opening fire in a town square and killing 11 people with a military-grade assault rifle.

He's quickly shot dead by a hidden sniper, and this kicks off a series of attacks carried out by terrorists the Park and the Slow Horses need to find the identity of, with all their usual hindrances.

That very same (currently mystery) sniper is later found creeping around Roddy's flat, but Jackson has sniffed out the danger following his master hacker and is hiding out at the apartment ready to see off any assailants - the attacker is quickly dispatched through a window to crash land on the floor below.

If viewers still weren't suspicious of Roddy's girlfriend Tara, it's under no doubt she's up to no good when River and JK Coe are sent to an address found for her, and the Polish couple living there have never heard of her.

Fear not, Lady Di is now on the case. Making a connection between what's happening to Roddy and the Abbotsfield massacre, she arrives at Slough House to have Roddy immediately dragged to the Park for interrogation.

Still nobody is able to join the dots about how he's connected to a terrorist outfit apparently on a mission to destabilise Britain - it's not long before they strike again and manipulate eco warriors into sabotaging London's petrol infrastructure. But still, nobody knows who they are.

Because of the attack on fuel, London is at a standstill and the terrorists are already poised to strike again. This time they've hidden a bomb in a thermos flask and pay a homeless man to toss it into the penguin enclosure in Regent’s Park Zoo.

Slough House have difficulty getting to the bottom of any of this, because they're put on lockdown and unable to leave Jackson's office, guarded by Dogs. The Park believe Roddy is involved, and that makes all the Horses a risk.

The lockdown provides an opportunity for a Gary Oldman acting masterclass involving bodily functions and stories that may or may not be true, about a pregnant girlfriend once being set on fire.

All of this was a ploy to escape the Dogs and get on the terrorist case, but is also the standout reason to watch the season again.

Once free of their guards, the Slow Horses are off to protect the mayoral candidates because it looks like they could be next on the terrorist hit list.

River and Coe are assigned to Dennis Gimball, and Shirley and Catherine are tasked with watching over Zafar Jaffrey.

Jaffrey is later irked when it transpires his son, Irfan, was one of the climate activists who took part in the fuel attack.

Meanwhile, still under interrogation by Lady Di, Roddy reveals a horrifying piece of information: To impress Tara, he put his hacking skills on full display and hacked into the MI5 database in front of her.

He then LEFT HER ALONE to look at any of MI5's top secret intel while he strolled out to get takeaway.

Roddy still won't believe Tara could be using him, showing his total and utter lack of self-awareness in the process.

Meanwhile, Jackson and Emma Flyte have managed to hunt down Tara's real address but she's fled to Roddy's flat, believing nobody would look for her there - Jackson almost immediately works out where she is.

Zafar Jaffrey is a little more than irked when his son is now classed as a domestic terrorist after it turns out somebody died as a result of the fuel attack - Irfan thought he was taking part in a protest, not being used as a pawn to invoke death and destruction.

Knowing Gimball will use this against him, Jaffrey sends Tyson to have a private meeting with Gimball to plead with him not to use his son's scandal for political gain.

With a political campaign debate between the two mayoral candidates about to get underway, Coe and River are still protecting Gimball, and Catherine and Shirley are keeping a watchful eye over Jaffrey.

Shirley manages to foil an attempt on Jaffrey's life as he begins a speech ahead of the debate, and Gimball is outside rehearsing his own speech when he's approached by Tyson. The pair end up in an argument and River is forced to intervene.

Coe climbs down from his higher surveillance vantage point on some scaffolding to help, but accidentally sends a rogue tin of paint flying down onto Gimball’s head. He’s killed on impact - oh dear.

Later on, Lady Di is finally getting on board with Jackson and Coe's terrorist destabilisation theory, one she's been dismissing for the series so far. Jackson believes the attacker's next step is to "blind" their enemies, which a captured Tara agrees with.

We find out the terrorists are from Libya, and Tara believes this "blinding" could be something to do with a Libyan proverb about bodies raining from the sky. It's down to the Park and the Horses to work out what this could mean.

Using Tara to try and catch the terrorists backfires - she isn't a bystander they recruited, she's deeply ingrained in their gang. When sent undercover with a tracker to meet with them, she promptly dumps her coat containing the device and is reunited with the terrorist crew.

During the finale, Tara is on the phone to the Park, holding the Libyan ambassador at gunpoint - and she had many demands, and if they aren't met, a place of worship will be attacked.

She wants money paid into a Cayman Island Trust with links to none other than right wing politician Peter Judd, who has been taking money from the Middle East for "services rendered."

Jackson is one step ahead of Tara again and manages to have her taken down and arrested at the embassy. But her terrorist colleagues plan to go ahead with the next stage of their plan and carry out their "place of worship" attack at the Abbotsfield massacre memorial where Jaffrey is speaking.

An attack at the service gets underway with shots fired, but the Slow Horses step in to save the day and bring it to a halt, with one attacker escaping.

With everything now seemingly over and the terrorists dead or apprehended (apart from one), River visits his grandfather who has been trying to say something for a long time about bees.

In his confusion he can't quite articulate it, but it could be something to do with his in-depth knowledge of terrorist strategies and a final "sting in the tail" just when everyone think they're safe.

River calls Jackson to let him know about the escaped attacker, and it turns out Claude is the target for the final "sting." He is indeed attacked, with the terrorist holding policies he made during his political career responsible for Libyan citizens' hardship.

River is able to save Claude, but he shouldn't have bothered - Claude announces he's made a deal with Judd to blame Slough House for everything that went wrong during season 5, and it will be closing down.

But wait. Jackson has a recording of Claude threatening Dennis Gimball during an earlier episode he can use as leverage, and use it he does. Because of this, Lady Di becomes First Desk and Slough House won't be shutting after all.

That's where we leave our favourite misfit crew, although there's disappointment for River who believed his hero actions would see him returned to MI5 properly. Sadly for him, Lady Di is adamant she won't be having him back.

Slow Horses season 6 airs on Apple TV from September 16.