Slow Horses season 5 episode 5 ending explained: What is step 5 ‘Blind the Enemy’ all about?

After Gimball's death, Slough House and the park lead two different but connected investigations in Slow Horses season 5 episode 5. Titled Circus, the new installment in Apple TV+'s spy series sees everyone scrambling. It turns out that the terrorists have planned to kill Jaffrey, and River thinks he's on the verge of getting fired from MI5 after his and Coe's connection to Gimball's death.

Meanwhile, the Park is honing in on Tara. And all the while, there's the looming step 5 in the destabilization strategy: Blind the Enemy. No one knows what's going to happen in step 5 until it actually happens. Blind the Enemy turns out to be a plan to blind MI5 and cripple the country's defenses in Slow Horses season 5 episode 5.

Slough House and the Park both fail to stop the destabilization plot, but there's also another looming threat that will cause wider destruction than the previous five incidents.

Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers for Slow Horses season 5 episode 5. Reader's discretion is advised.

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What happens in the 'Blind the Enemy' plot in Slow Horses season 5 episode 5?

Jackson Lamb of Slough House (Image via Apple TV/YouTube)

Coe and the entire Slough House team know what step 5 in the destabilization plot's 'blind the enemy' is. But they have no idea what it means and what's going to happen until it's too late, and the plan is happening in real time at the end of Slow Horses season 5 episode 5. 'Blind the enemy' turns out to be the plan to blind MI5, shutting down the entire intelligence unit and leaving the country vulnerable.

As it turns out, Tara's mission is not only to give the perpetrator, the Libyans, access to Roddy Ho's apartment. She's in on every step of the strategy, with the last one being honey-trapping Claude Whelan. During her interrogation, she reveals how the perpetrators forced her to input a code after Roddy hacked the MI5 database, and Flyte manages to get her to write the code.

At the end of Slow Horses season 5 episode 5, Diana has Roddy Ho find out what the code has done to the database by recreating what Tara did before. But it's too late when they realize that the code is part of a nefarious plan. Shortly after inputting the code, the entire MI5 system fails, and everything at the Park goes completely dark. Meanwhile, Tara has ditched Flyte and is back with her group.

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Slow Horses season 5 episode 5: Who predicted what's going to happen in 'Blind the Enemy'?

Coe is right when he suggested that the perpetrators are following the five steps of the destabilization strategy. But neither of the active MI5 agents predicted what 'Blind the Enemy' entails. Diana has suspicions that the target could be the air traffic control, but as explained above, she's wrong. However, there's one man who predicted and gave an idea of what's involved in step 5: David Cartwright.

David Cartwright returns in Slow Horses season 5 episode 5 (Image via Apple TV/YouTube)

River's grandfather, David, calls him after hearing what happened to Gimball and the previous incidents in London. He's a retired but legendary MI5 agent and, despite his worsening dementia, his long history in the service kicks off in episode 5. He tells River what's going to happen next, and it involves the honeytrap, and that the honey-trapping is going to happen again.

As established, Tara is the honeypot, and in episode 5, Whelan is her target, something that MI5 should already know. They already know that Tara copied Whelan's profile from the database, but they are dismissive about that revelation in the same way that River is dismissive of his grandfather's warnings.

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Slow Horses season 5 episode 5: Is the destabilization plot done?

After a series of suspicious incidents following the Abbotsfield shooting in the Slow Horses season 5 premiere, Slough House has been talking about the five steps in the destabilization strategy. Step 5 is done in Slow Horses season 5 episode 5, with the MI5 going dark. But while they have only talked about the five steps, Tara's reunion with the Libyans suggests that there's still a "final step" coming.

In a sense, Slow Horses season 5 episode 5 ends in a cliffhanger. While step 5 came about at the end, which is expected to evolve into a full-blown national crisis, the talk about the "final step" teases something even bigger and more destructive. The question remains if Slough House and the Park can save the day or if it will again be too late.

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Catch Slow Horses season 5 episode 5, along with the show's previous episodes, streaming on Apple TV+.