Slow Horses Season 6, Episode 5: Assassin Jim Dies in Cold Open

The Apple TV+ series "Slow Horses" continued its high body count in the Season 6 premiere of its fifth episode, titled "Sayonara," with the swift and violent death of the assassin Jim.

The episode picks up immediately after the previous one, with agents Jim and Jane escaping with a kidnapped Sid Baker. River Cartwright pursues them, eventually commandeering a vehicle. Jim and Jane plan to eliminate Sid, referring to a lake as "an area of outstanding natural beauty." However, Sid manages to incapacitate Jane by jamming her license plate into the driver's neck, causing the car to flip. Sid escapes the wreckage but is pursued by Jim, who believes Jane to be dead and seeks revenge for her death.

Their confrontation leads to a struggle in the woods, during which Sid bites Jim's arm before he drags her to the lake and attempts to drown her. River arrives and intervenes, throwing Jim off Sid. Jim then uses a knife to slash River's arm, regaining control. After a brief fight, Sid rescues River by striking Jim with a stone and dragging him into the lake. Jim ultimately succumbs after Sid and River hold him underwater.

Kyle Soller, who portrayed Jim, discussed the intense filming of the scene. "The atmosphere was fucking cold," Soller said. "It was pretty cold, but it was a beautiful setting. The stunt coordinators are really incredible on 'Slow Horses.' I mean, they just have a knack for making it psychological and truthful, and being very real at the same time."

Soller added that the stunt coordinators worked to capture the primal nature of the characters' actions given their exhausted state. "So at this point of the story, it’s all really scrappy, everybody has been up for days, and Jim’s just been in this horrible car accident. So you see this quite primal release from everybody."

"Working it through pre-shooting, there were a lot of stunt rehearsals trying to figure out exactly the right tone," Soller explained. "You got to get that right — who’s got the upper hand when, who comes in to save who, and all those politics. But I think the way it’s constructed itself is great, because it’s this kind of horror film chase through the woods, then you think Olivia’s all right, then she gets dragged to the lake. And Jim has this release of like, ‘I’ve finally done it, mission completed.'"

The death of Jim is particularly impactful as he was responsible for the earlier death of J.K. Coe in the Season 4 finale.

New episodes of "Slow Horses" Season 6 are released on Wednesdays on Apple TV+.