The second lead in the show, "Identity Theft," was not River Cartwright, but rather Jackson Lamb. River spends a significant portion of the season four trailer hijacking a motorized bicycle in a French village, which is difficult for him to achieve with neither head nor thorax. This suggests that Lamb would have been slightly more upset, as River is one of his Joes and can almost approach tolerating him. The end of their story did not involve River, who was seen speeding through the French countryside in the back of a taxi. It is unclear whether River was deployed to investigate the Westacres bombing or hunting down his grandfather's surprise visitor. Season four started off lower-key than season three, but it was all the better for it. The plotting and fart-soaked wit are what make Slow Horses stand out, rather than the glamour. The cheekiness continued when First Desk was called for and Taverner arrived at the bombsite. James Callis' character is still nice, but his dimness is incontestable. He is unable to dredge up sentiment other than "There are no words" in the face of 23 murders committed on their patch. Between his role in getting Diana to do his COBRA homework, falling apart when the bomber's booby trap exploded, and decorating his office with framed snaps from his ski holidays, he is clearly the lightest of lightweights and either somebody's useful idiot or somebody important's nephew. Joanna Scanlan returns as office manager Moira Tregorian and JK "Chatty" Coe in series four. Standish is no longer with Lamb, as she is now involved in the case of a killer. Her scenes with Lamb reveal the character's hard-to-pin-down nature. Lamb also has a new sparring partner, Head Dog Emma Flyte (Ruth Bradley), who helps Duffy recover from a coma. Lamb is kept from the public for 12 minutes before Mick Jagger's drawl prompts him to get off the sofa. He struggles with his low-key start, releasing guffs with better comic timing than most stand-ups. Oldman's performance in this role is so supreme that it's more entertaining to watch him debate the nutritional suitability of a breakfast Jaffa Cake than to watch any other screen spy do. The show and series excel in the everyday, with Oldman's supreme performance making it more entertaining to watch him debate the nutritional suitability of a breakfast Jaffa Cake than any other screen spy.
