It’s fair to say that when audiences see River Cartwright at the beginning of Apple TV’s “Slow Horses” Season 5, he is not in a good place. The previous season revealed that River’s father, Frank Harkness (Hugo Weaving), is both a sociopath and the leader of a network of trained assassins. It was also revealed that Frank had fathered numerous sons and raised them to carry out his hits.
I feel like that begins to overtake his ambition because he wants to make his grandfather proud,” says Lowden. I think nerves-wise, he’s thinner. I don’t think he’s particularly in a happy place or particularly well, so to speak.” Lowden details peeling back the layers of River and why the character ends up in a much more hopeful place as the show heads into its sixth season.
What I’ve always found interesting about River is his pride, because I find pride in people incredibly petty, and it pushes people to do stupid things for the sake of how they look or how they come across. He’s trying not to look bad. This season, he’s not in a great head space.
I love the fact that, no matter that his personal life is falling apart, at the end of the day, at work, he still doesn’t want to look stupid. Jonathan and I talk about that quite a lot — losing someone is horrific, and the grief is terrible. But you are watching someone in front of you disappear slowly, with the terrible disease of Alzheimer’s or dementia.
I’ve not experienced it yet, but I can imagine it’s horrific. On top of that, his grandfather is his hero. He’s also trying to emulate his grandfather and follow in his footsteps, and to watch him evaporate in front of him is terrible.
But in true “Slow Horses” fashion, David will still give him a little seed of something that will sort of open up the entire thing for him. I took that as a real moment of hope. I think, in the moment, River is very much focused on the problem at hand.
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