The fourth season finale of Apple TV’s masterful spy drama Slow horses was probably the best episode of the entire series. The finale wrapped up the season’s storyline well and left a big wild card in play. It balanced highly dynamic action scenes with moments of real tragedy. All while leaving some breathing room for a moving conclusion and giving our heroes one of the best – and most understated – moments of calm in the entire four-season series.

I can tell you one thing: the preview for Season 5 at the end really made me sweat. I know Apple is keeping us waiting, but they’ve already filmed it, so at least we know there’s no impending cancellation in sight.

Slow horses is such a breath of fresh air in a TV landscape full of low-effort nonsense. Don’t get me wrong, I have many, many great shows on the schedule, but the tone is right Slow horses and the economy of writing style and pacing that really makes it shine. The Season 4 finale accomplished so much in one episode, but never felt rushed. The pacing was perfect and every storyline had a satisfying – if sometimes terribly sad – conclusion.

What I love about this series is that it can be so funny, exciting, and emotionally poignant all at the same time without feeling like I’m suffering from tonal whiplash. Spoilers ahead.

I’ll use an example from the season finale to illustrate this point. At some point in the episode, Frank Harkness (Hugo Weaving) sits with his son River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) in a busy London restaurant and offers him a job. He wants River to join his gang of assassins, an offer that River firmly rejects. As they talk, Harkness’ other son – Patrice the Terminator (Tom Wozniczka) – receives a voice message on Bad Bob Chapman’s (Sean Gilder) phone from Moira (Joanna Scanlan), alerting him to the whereabouts of David Cartwright (Jonathan Pryce). draws attention: Slough House.

He immediately heads there and the ensuing shootout is a desperate fight for survival as the Slow Horses try to fight him off. Luckily, Marcus Longridge (Kadiff Kirwan) has retrieved the pistol he pawned at the start of the season and is able to cover their retreat upstairs. Newcomer JK Coe (Tom Brooke) is innovative and throws a boiling electric tea kettle at his attacker. Meanwhile, in the upstairs office, Moira and Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves) try to barricade the door and hide David and Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung) in the bathroom.

Coe escapes to the rear and Longridge helps Shirley Dander (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) get to relative safety after winging the Terminator. Then he goes back out to finish the work. There’s an incredibly tense moment when he spots Patrice and a shot is fired, but we don’t know who fired the bullet. Neither do the cowering members of Slough House. They can see a figure moving through the fogged glass, but can’t tell who it is. Shirley has the half-loaded revolver pointed at the door when Patrice rushes in and manages to shoot him, but he doesn’t go down for long. Just as he is about to shoot her, Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) emerges from Chapman’s office. He throws the bottle he stole there onto the back of Patrice’s head and the assassin falls to the ground. Shirley pounces on him, knocks him to the ground and finally they manage to tie him to the radiator.

She sets out to find Marcus, but Lamb tells her not to. She goes anyway and finds her friend’s body. When she returns, she angrily holds the gun to Patrice’s forehead. “Do it!” he screams. The rest begged her not to do it. Killing an unarmed man in cold blood is not like killing out of necessity.

“Marcus wouldn’t have wanted that,” Coe says suddenly after materializing at some point. As we all know, Coe rarely speaks, but when he does, it is always from a position of remarkably keen observation. “How do you know what Marcus would want?” Dander snaps back.

“I know he loved you,” Coe replies. “And that he wanted you to love yourself.” This leaves her cold, and I have to admit that tears welled up in my eyes. I’ve already felt the pain of Marcus’ death, but seeing his and Shirley’s fractious friendship reduced to this harsh place really hit me hard. She angrily gives Coe the gun and storms out of the room.

After she leaves, Coe examines the gun and then points it at Patrice. He fires two quick shots into the killer’s chest and shoots him in the forehead for good measure. Then he stands up, puts down the gun, pulls his hood over his head, puts in his earphones and strolls away without a care in the world. Moira and Standish look on in shock.

This moment sums it all up perfectly Slow horses that I love. Real human emotions. Action from the edge of your seat. Humor. Surprise. Incredibly well-written dialogue and characters that surprise us, but never because they act stupidly or make decisions that don’t make sense. Marcus has always been brave, but his courage here was also an act of self-sacrifice. Lammchen, who shows up just in time and saves the day with a bottle of liquor, is hilarious (in the best way). Ho refuses to come out of the toilet because he thinks the all-clear is a trick? Classic Ho.

The final scenes of the Season 4 finale are also tough. River ends up putting his grandfather in a nursing home because he finally realizes he can’t take care of him on his own. The close encounter with the death of both men has led him to his decision, but David is not happy. “You promised you would never do this to me,” he says to his grandson. “How long am I supposed to live here?” “This is your home now,” says River. As he walks away, his grandfather calls after him. “You promised me, River! You promised me!”

It’s incredibly sad. You really feel bad for both men. Outside, River receives a call and meets Lamb at a bar, where Lamb gives him papers to fill out. “That’s why you brought me here?” River asks incredulously.

“Well, you can stay if you want,” Lamb says nonchalantly. “If you get your own and don’t say a word.” River smiles, orders a drink, and the two men sit in silence, sharing perhaps their first moment of real camaraderie and camaraderie with each other as the scene fades to black and the credits roll. It’s the perfect contrast to River and his father sitting opposite each other and Harkness yapping incessantly.

I talk a lot on this show about how much I love Gary Oldman, and that’s certainly still true today, but this season and this episode in particular really made me realize what an outstanding cast this show has and how great so many of them are are the characters, even in much smaller roles. It’s not easy to make each character shine, but this series does it deftly and makes us care about each of them in turn.

I can’t think of a better way to end the season, and honestly this would have been an excellent series finale, although I’m glad that’s not the case. I’m not ready to say goodbye Slow horses.

The villain is caught by his own son, but ends up getting away thanks to MI5 and the CIA’s own misdeeds. Our heroes save the day, but at a great cost. Our two main protagonists, Lamb and River, despite all their differences, grow closer and deepen their bond, whether Lamb wants it or not. And Moira gets her job back at MI5 thanks to a little gentle blackmail from First Desk, Claude Whelan (Jamis Callis), the new thorn in the side of Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas). All in all a brilliant season. Maybe the best yet.

I guess I can test this theory by re-watching the first three to surprise myself before Season 5. What did you think? let me know TwitterInstagram or Facebook. Also, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me here on this blog. Sign up for my newsletter for more reviews and commentary on entertainment and culture.