Slow Horses Season 6 Pays Homage To One Of The Greatest HBO Shows Ever Made

Warning: This article contains spoilers for "Slow Horses" Season 6, Episode 2, "Daddy Issues."

Don't look now, but Apple TV seems to be gunning for the television crown currently held by HBO, as the last season of "Slow Horses" proved with its strong showing at this year's Emmys. Anchored by Sir Gary Oldman, who has earned three straight Outstanding Lead Actor nominations for his performance as washed-up agent Jackson Lamb, the series is only aiming higher and higher with each subsequent season. Season 6 has brought that subtext all the way to the surface with its second episode, "Daddy Issues," and its brief allusion to one of the greatest HBO shows of all time.

Episode 2 of "Slow Horses" Season 6 dives even deeper into the conspiracy that appears to be putting a target on the backs of our Slough House team. It appears this deadly series of incidents connects back to the criminal activities of Frank Harkness (Hugo Weaving), the estranged father of Jack Lowden's disaffected operative River Cartwright. With mysterious assassins Jim (Kyle Soller) and Jane (MyAnna Buring) running amok, their latest highlight comes at a hardware store (of all places) as they shop for a nail gun (of all things). The two cold-blooded killers pause in front of a display, quip about inflation these days, and have a mild spat over whether they actually need this tool or not.

Remind you of anything? Season 4 of "The Wire" memorably opens with a very different criminal underling visiting a hardware store, shopping for a nail gun that will be used for nefarious purposes, and quibbling over specs in an exchange that teases all sorts of bad things to come. "Slow Horses" may not be on quite the same level as David Simon's masterclass, but the reference lands incredibly hard.

If you come for the king, well, you could do far worse than pay direct homage to him — to lightly paraphrase that famous line from "The Wire." Of the many reasons why the HBO series has stood the test of time and earned its reputation as an all-time great, its ability to make full use of the ensemble cast and bring even the most minor of supporting characters to life so vibrantly stands tall above the rest. All one has to do is drop the names Snoop and Chris, the two scene-stealing heavies played respectively by Felicia Pearson and Gbenga Akinnagbe, and fans will instantly remember several character-defining moments from the duo throughout Seasons 3-5.

Can "Slow Horses" match those lofty heights with its own pair of secondary antagonists in Season 6? The deck might be stacked against the Apple TV series (in this regard, at least), considering "The Wire" had much more time and space to turn what could've been anonymous enforcers into fan-favorite figures. Jim and Jane, by contrast, will have a grand total of six hours this season to make a similar impression on viewers. But, by evoking that specific moment from "The Wire," it can't help but set the bar very high for what the rest of Season 6 can accomplish.

"Daddy Issues" is a great start. Fresh off of burning Struan Loy (Paul Higgins) to death in a cargo container, the villains are back with an even more elaborate assassination: posing as workers performing a gas inspection and poisoning another Slow Horse in Joanna Scanlan's Moira Tregorian. Who knows what mischief they'll cause next, as new episodes of "Slow Horses" stream on Apple TV every Friday.