# Slow Horses (careful about spoilers, please) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [December 7, 2023, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-horses-careful-about-spoilers-please/994207 "2023-12-07T00:55:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2025, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-horses-careful-about-spoilers-please/994207/101 "2025-10-29T13:39:15Z")
Putting this in a spoiler box, though perhaps we can stop doing that soon? When the terrorist had Jaffrey at gunpoint and River and Shirley were arguing over shooting the terrorist, Coe sneaked up and stabbed him to death. Jaffrey congratulated them on the “staged” fight, except I thought perhaps the fight was real and they _weren’t_ creating a distraction. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-horses-careful-about-spoilers-please/994207/102 "2025-10-30T13:38:44Z")
“I’m not doing nothing, I’m sending my best agents…and you.” ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-horses-careful-about-spoilers-please/994207/103 "2025-10-30T13:42:29Z")
The last shot of the season. > **Summary** > > Are we meant to surmise from the state of Lamb’s foot that he was the Joe in the Berlin story? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-horses-careful-about-spoilers-please/994207/104 "2025-10-30T13:44:22Z")
Yes. But it looks less like he was tortured with spraycan blowtorches and more like he stepped on a George Foreman grill beside his bed. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-horses-careful-about-spoilers-please/994207/105 "2025-10-30T14:03:00Z")
To me, the scarring on his foot looked like he had been cut in a crisscross pattern. The point, of course, is to give us some idea of what horrors he experienced in the field as an explanation of why he is as he is. And by the way, Claude Whelan seemed completely wrong for the leadership role. And why are we still spoiler-boxing stuff? ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-horses-careful-about-spoilers-please/994207/106 "2025-10-30T14:05:45Z")
Which is why his telling that story was in the recap. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-horses-careful-about-spoilers-please/994207/107 "2025-10-30T14:10:12Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > And why are we still spoiler-boxing stuff? Because it’s still in the thread title. I wish the OP would request a change. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-horses-careful-about-spoilers-please/994207/108 "2025-10-30T14:12:30Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > And by the way, Claude Whelan seemed completely wrong for the leadership role If he was good at his job he wouldn’t be working at the Park. Nobody there is good at their job. That’s the whole conceit of the show. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-horses-careful-about-spoilers-please/994207/109 "2025-10-30T14:13:26Z")
I don’t know; Diana Taverner seems competent. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-horses-careful-about-spoilers-please/994207/110 "2025-10-30T14:17:20Z")
Just because she _sometimes_ listens to someone who could do her job a hundred times better doesn’t make her competent; just a little more self aware than the rest of the bumbling A-team. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-horses-careful-about-spoilers-please/994207/111 "2025-10-30T14:46:04Z")
Regarding “someone who could do her job a hundred times better”, it was _almost_ too hard to believe in the sixth episode how Jackson Lamb correctly predicted everything the terrorists were about to do. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-horses-careful-about-spoilers-please/994207/112 "2025-10-30T14:47:28Z")
Not just Lamb, but also a dementia patient in an old folks home. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-horses-careful-about-spoilers-please/994207/113 "2025-10-30T15:59:55Z")
It seems plausible to me in the setting that the show has established. The entire run of the show has shown the Yard to be a bureaucratic organization most concerned with image, appearance, and internal fiefdoms that ignores credible threats or data at the expense of protecting optics. Taverner has been the sole rational voice inside the yard, along with the new Chief Dog in the last couple of seasons as much as she is able. So Lamb is treading the line a bit of magical psychic superspy, but it seems justified to me, if only barely. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2025, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-horses-careful-about-spoilers-please/994207/114 "2025-10-30T18:45:37Z")
I think you thought right. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2025, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-horses-careful-about-spoilers-please/994207/115 "2025-10-31T12:51:33Z")
It’s the Park, not the Yard, isn’t it? And regarding River’s conversation with Lamb at the cafe, where he said “I’m really fucking good”, he’s not, is he? That’s the whole problem with him. He acts like he’s an A+, where at his best he’s barely a B-. If he was willing to be a B-, he’d probably have a fairly cushy & mediocre job at the Park, but since he demands to be an A+ agent because he’s Cartwright’s grandson, he just constantly fucks up. Hell, season 3 (? the one with the terrorist attack with a plane masking a huge robbery ?) the criminals based their plan on the fact he’d fuck up. And clearly River and Shirley were actually arguing, they had no idea Coe was sneaking up on the terrorist. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2025, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-horses-careful-about-spoilers-please/994207/116 "2025-10-31T13:40:24Z")
Yes to both. (Albeit in this specific bit he was smart enough to not dismiss grandpa’s sting in the end comment … which Lamb hadn’t thought of.) And yeah that was the obvious joke. Problem being that it beggars belief that neither of them, facing that direction, didn’t see Coe quietly approaching until he went stab-stabstab-stab. But ignore that for the funny. They were just too focused on bickering and the gun. Sure. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2025, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-horses-careful-about-spoilers-please/994207/117 "2025-10-31T14:12:14Z")
Yes, the [Behind the Black - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BehindTheBlack) trope. But I did enjoy how pissy River got when Shirley got a one shot kill as soon as Coe tossed her a gun. Heck, he’s not even a B- in Slough House. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2025, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-horses-careful-about-spoilers-please/994207/118 "2025-10-31T14:29:18Z")
I started to rewatch the episode. Pretty funny when Tara was on the phone with Whelan and asked to speak to someone in charge. He said something like “I am in charge of MI5.” But she wanted to talk to Taverner. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2025, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-horses-careful-about-spoilers-please/994207/119 "2025-10-31T23:05:31Z")
I wasn’t sold on this season in the beginning but it turned out to be pretty solid. The final scene was cringe-inducing in a different sort of way, if you know what I mean. The Season 6 trailer has me wanting more already. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2025, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-horses-careful-about-spoilers-please/994207/120 "2025-11-15T00:59:20Z")
We finished just now. I like the way the plot came around, an above-average plot across the five seasons, but I found it annoying that the plot relied - multiple times - on prominent political figures having no personal security during a crisis. Also, I hated the paint can, but it’s pure Mick Herron. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-horses-careful-about-spoilers-please/994207.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slow-horses-careful-about-spoilers-please/994207.md?page=7)