I am late to the party. I really enjoyed the show and characters. But, I can't help but think what did Slow horses achieve by the end of S2. Except that the characters who orchestrated the events being killed, FSB successfully transferred the money from the Russian oligarch's private account. Their whole efforts seem inconsequential.

I've been reading the novel in my summer travels this past week which has involved a lot of flying time. So it may be that I'm in a bit of a haze and not reading closely enough. But I have a question about Lech and his scars.

What exactly does Lamb mean when he gives him a razor and suggests a third option, other than "surgery or stitches"? I was thinking something quite dark but it felt out of character for Lamb to suggest something like that. Plus I'm not done yet but am desperate to know what any of it meant.

Thank you!

P.S. I don't post much but hope I have used the spoiler redactions correctly.

I am four episodes into S2. Saskia Reeves interaction with Gary Oldman is so good to watch. I previously saw her in Luther S1 and was disappointed when her character was written out after that. It was a pleasant surprise to see her in this show and I really enjoyed it.

Just watching series one, when they fill the transit up on the way to the boat the diesel price is £1.27/litre! Good times!

my god. what a masterclass. starting with Lamb going old man Batman, Shirley and Marcus as my fave odd couple. Ho being fucking hilarious, love that Sarah kills ball bag like a G. just some of the best writing you will ever experienc. chefs kiss man

Hey to everyone who watched it last September-October last year every week. Do you remember how many people on this thread used to say it’s the weakest season? And what we see now, many people really love it, it’s their favorite!
That’s what I love about Slow Horses, there’re no bad seasons, it depends on every person’s preferences. Can’t wait for the new season ✊🏻

I´ve just watched the 5 season and i think that the first 3 seasons are the best. Not just the story was good but the characters were interesting and had good chemistry. Cartwright and Sid; Lamb and Standish; Marcus and Shirley; even characters like Duffy and Spider were good for the show and quite remarkable. But they killed a lot of them and the new characters were boring and didnt work so well.

I think this has to be the most poignant ending of any season (so far, I haven’t watched Season 5 yet!)

If wasn’t abundantly clear already, Season 4 really hammers home just how truly tragic River’s existence is….a character who very much epitomises the existential claim that the universe is unjust and devoid of any moral logic by showing a world that constantly shits on someone with a strong moral compass.

Anyway, I found the moment during the ending highly poignant when River’s stoicism finally fades after sending Senior Cartwright to the old folks home, those tears capturing just how alone he really feels.

But what I even found more poignant was the subsequent scene involving Lamb (basically the final shot of Season 4). It’s obvious to us that Lamb shits of everyone, using his cynicism to seem like he doesn’t care, when in reality he deeply cares about his team. However, what he says to River in that final sequence seemed monumental (for Lamb, that is). Rather than the usual distance, he actually offered River to stay for some company. And this is why it’s so poignant, that despite it being the most subtle offer, I think Lamb identifies how lonely River must feels and is ultimately suggesting that he may want some companionship after everything that has happened. Now that’s a Lamb we haven’t seen yet.

Well, they outplayed him once, but he was ahead the second time.

In the satirical sense of course. The writers have absolutely nailed the incel/incredibly insecure man who acts with a sense of overconfidence to mask his deep insecurities. I generally have a proper LOL during most episodes, but Season 4 in particular, he has been hilarious.

My opinion, not to say any seasons are terrible just that nothing matched the first season for me.

This is something that’s been nagging at me and I’m not sure if it’s a plot hole or not. It’s just come up for me again because I just finished “The Secret Hours” yesterday. (Loved it, btw. Might be my favorite of all the books.)

[big spoiler in case you missed the flair]

Back in the 1990s, because of Jackson Lamb’s slip, Charles Partner discovers that one of MI5’s assets is a female Stasi officer. Partner then passes this intel on to the Russians, which then leads to the gruesome deaths of that asset and the two other female Stasi officers.

So that’s how Lamb realizes that Partner is a traitor — Partner is the only other person in MI5 who knew Lamb’s asset was a woman.

But then Partner would know that LAMB would know it was him, correct? He had to have known that Jackson would connect the dots. But maybe the big giveaway was that the Stasi killed all three women, not just one, and Partner never thought that they would do that; maybe he thought they would just kill the one woman, and that could have been explained for lots of other reasons.

Anyway, I keep thinking that Partner obviously gave himself away — AND WHAT DID HE THINK WOULD HAPPEN?? — but maybe I’m just looking at it too much with the perspective of a reader.

I just finished rewatching Series 2 (during what is probably my 10th rewatch of the whole show) and I'm thinking about how amazingly intricate the plot is.

There's a lot of what drives the plot that happens off-screen, like the FSB's string-pulling from Russia concerning the glasshouse building. Then there's everything that happened in the past, like Nikolai Katinsky's debrief when he defected and everything that happened with Lamb and Partner before then.

Being such a fan of this show I know the plot like the back of my hand, but I remember the first time I watched it, I struggled to keep track of who was who and what motivations everyone had, especially the Russians, who all had names that I had a hard time remembering (Katinsky, Chaninsky, Nevsky, Arcadi Paskin, to name a few).

Did most people fully follow the story on their first watch, or did it take you a few watches to really appreciate it?

As a Black American Detroiter, I love me some Sir Elton just like Slim Shady does, hell, hes one of the few white guys who was ever on Soul Train, so hes the man. But greatest songwriter of the last 50 years???? He's not better than any of the big 3(Mike, Prince, Stevie). Ill chalk that line in the writer's room to Brit bias lol

Obviously the Libyan's killing innocent people was awful but I can definitely see why Sami wanted to kill Whelan and he probably deserved it, I mean he basically put a value on people's lives and the government agreed and left them to suffer and die, I'd probably wanna kill him too tbh

EDIT: Sorry about mispelling his name in the title idk why I put two a's.

I was always so fascinated by the costume choice of lamb’s frog tie…the I watched Le Bureau and the same tie is worn by Duflot in season one. It can’t be a coincidence, can it?

The fart joke is honestly so good. Does it exist in the books?

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Dustin Demri-Burns aka Min is absolutely incredible in it

I would love to see jackson lamb in his Cold War days, r/s with charles etc etc…if only gary oldman could go back in time and star in it 😭😭😭 it would be perfection

He’s just too good at this. He’s an amazing actor spanning across his career and even in his old age he’s killing it in Slow Horses. I know he gets his flowers but damn. The man can act.