If you know Mick Herron‘s books on which the Apple TV hit Slow Horses is based, then you weren’t surprised by the news of Olivia Cooke‘s return as Sid Baker in the upcoming sixth season, premiering on September 16 and based on Joe Country and Slough House.
Cooke plays Sidonie “Sid” Baker in three episodes of Season 1, during which she gets on River Cartwright’s (Jack Lowden) case, confesses why she was really put at Slough House, and suffers a (seemingly) fatal injury in the field. Ahead of her coming back and surprising River, as seen in the Season 6 trailer, we’re recapping everything you need to know about Sid.
Who is Sid Baker on Slow Horses?
When we first meet Sid in Season 1 Episode 1, she appears to be just like any of the other members of Jackson Lamb’s (Gary Oldman) Slough House, the place for MI5 rejects who have messed up and are no longer welcome at the Park but haven’t been kicked out of the agency. Second Desk Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) calls her “the most capable” of the group.
Sid shares an office with River, who’s the newest member of Slough House in the series premiere. When she offers him advice as a friend, he questions if that’s what they are. She surprises him when she remarks that she’s invited him out for drinks before, and he’s turned her down.
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Why was Sid Baker in Slough House?
When Sid joins River on staking out the house of journalist Robert Hobden (Paul Hilton), he asks her why she’s on the rejects’ team since, as he sees it, she’s not like the others, who are “useless, but you’re … just doesn’t make sense. But whatever the reason for being put in Slough House, it must’ve come out of nowhere, right?” At first, she tells him it’s none of his business.
However, then “Aunt Zadie” calls her and Sid says she can’t talk and yes, she’s watching him now. River thinks she means the journalist, but she confesses she’d put that contact under that name so no one would know — she’s in Slough House on Diana’s orders to keep an eye on him.
Is Sid Baker dead on Slow Horses?
Well, obviously not, given that she’s back in Season 6. However, at the end of Season 1 Episode 2, it certainly isn’t looking good for her — and the season does end with the official story claiming she died.
Sid and River’s conversation about her spying on him is interrupted by them seeing someone breaking into Hobden’s house. River tries to talk the guy down as he holds the journalist hostage, and in the aftermath, that person goes to flee out the front door — running right into Sid, and during the subsequent struggle, she is shot in the head.
While in Episode 3, Lamb tells River that the doctors “say she might live,” and she’s still in the hospital in Episode 4, on a vent, when River goes to see her, in the Season 1 finale, the “update” comes. When River asks Roddy (Christopher Chung) to find out the latest, Lamb says he needs to hear it from him. “She’s gone?” River asks. Lamb says she is, adding about the ones he’s lost over the years, “I haven’t forgotten any of them. I won’t forget Sid. Besides, she’s the only one of you who wasn’t-” River knows where’s going and finishes for him with, “Complete s**t.”
Lamb uses this to teach River a lesson: “The moral of the story is get used to death. You’re going to see a lot more of it.”
However, near the end of the finale, Roddy tells River he has a lead on Sid. Not only is there not a record of her ever being in the hospital, but when he used his own private back door into MI5’s database, there was no record of her whatsoever: “No one named Sidonie Baker ever existed,” meaning, he spells out, she might still be alive.
Slow Horses, Season 6 Premiere, Wednesday, September 16, Apple TV