'Slow Horses' Plays "Drinking Games" in Season 2's Third Episode

Suspicions run high in “Drinking Games,” with over half of the supporting cast of Slow Horses placed under a skeptical eye and every plot thread asking us to think twice about the information we’re being handed. As the second season reaches its halfway mark, it’s a good mechanic to keep up momentary momentum in several ongoing storylines, but with the audience being encouraged to second-guess and doubt every development in the spy storyline, it threatens to undercut deliberately sincere emotional beats. The result is an episode that keeps up a good pace and constantly engages us, but on the slightest reflection, “Drinking Games” feels a little more hollow than it should be.

When last we met Min, he had a Russian gun to his neck. The situation seemed to have developed amicably enough, as we next find him playing some drinking games with Pushkin’s two Russian agents. These guys are, after all, just laborers; each has a job to do, and no one transgressed into offensive territory by tailing each other. Someone comes into the house, the agents keep it a bit hush (likely Chernitsky, no?), and they send Min on his way to drunkenly bike home.

The next time we see Min, he’s been hit by a car in a tunnel, killing him.