'Slow Horses' Season 5 Ending, Explained Actorsvaultpro

The fifth season of Slow Horses has come and gone, adapting another book in Mick Herron’s successful Slough House series. This time around, it was the fifth book in the series, titled London Rules, with the season detailing how Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) and his Slough House crew are forced to go up against a terrorist group’s coordinated attacks in the midst of an intense political campaign between two strongly divided mayoral candidates. Lamb must not only contend with the terrorists targeting Roddy Ho but also protect himself and Slough House from MI5 head Claude Whelan (James Callis), who wants to shut them down for good.

Slow Horses Season 5 was filled with plenty of exciting action and intrigue, giving some of the Slow Horses, like Ho and JK Coe (Tom Brooke), more time to shine alongside mainstays like River Cartwright (Jack Lowden). While the terrorist plot drives the six-episode season, the brewing scandal and feud between Claude and far-right mayoral candidate Dennis Gimball (Christopher Villiers) prove crucial by the finale.

The Ending of ‘Slow Horses’ Season 5 Ties the Season Together Perfectly

Apple TV

With the terrorists attempting to destabilize London by assassinating both mayoral candidates, Slough House decides to take matters into their own hands and visit the locations where both men will be giving speeches that night. Earlier in the day, Gimball had already attempted to blackmail Whelan, only for the MI5 head to get dangerous information of his own, threatening to ruin the conservative mayoral candidate should he attempt to start any sort of controversy. However, before Gimball could come up with a response (other than a secret recording he has of Claude’s threats), River and JK accidentally kill the possible mayor-to-be when a misplaced paint bucket comes crashing down on his head.

It’s one of the most hilarious moments of the series, as the one job the two Slow Horses had, which was to protect Gimball, ends up leading to the character’s death. Throughout the series, River has repeatedly blundered in his efforts to save his career, and this latest mistake may finally seal his fate. Still, the character is as determined as ever to prove himself, as he and the rest of Slough House eventually save the only surviving candidate (and current mayor), Zafar Jaffrey, with the group of disgraced MI5 agents thinking they have stopped all the assassins.

However, River soon remembers that the carefully planned steps of destabilization also include the death of the head of MI5, as he tracks Claude down and saves him from one last terrorist. It’s through this act that River (and the viewers) think that he has somehow done the impossible: he’s saved the one person who could get him out of Slough House and back into the main headquarters of MI5. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to River, Claude’s attempts to clean house will tear down any hope the Slow Horse had.

Gary Oldman’s Jackson Lamb Saves the Slow Horses in Season 5

Gary Oldman in Slow Horses talking on the phone in a restuarant

It’s with this complicated and engrossing setup that the ending of Slow Horses Season 5 is as exciting and clever as ever. After the catastrophe that was the terrorist attacks on London, Claude wishes to save the reputation of MI5 by blaming all the blunders and mistakes on Slough House. No one would think twice that a group as unconventional and disgraced as Lamb’s Slow Horses would mess up the prevention of attacks like what happened this season. Though, as usual, Lamb is always thinking two steps ahead.

Lamb’s Cold War experience always has him watching his back and his Joes (agents). Earlier in the season, he tells a disturbing story about how he once distracted MI5 operatives who were holding him captive at Slough House. His story is about a field agent during the Cold War who has been tortured, with the soles of his feet being burnt with a torch, while his local German lover (pregnant with their child) is beaten to death with a fire extinguisher. Lamb plays it off as a made-up story to distract the agents just long enough to get the jump on them.

This all comes into play when Lamb reveals that he has the now-deceased Gimball’s recording of Claude threatening him, something that River and JK retrieved from his body. By using this blackmail, it would look like Claude (the head of British Intelligence) had something to do with Gimball’s death (which, technically, he did since one of his bumbling agents did it by accident), Lamb gets him to resign from MI5, leave Slough House alone, and doom River to his place there for what feels like forever.

‘Slow Horses’ Season 5 Ends With an Ominous Image

It Alludes to Jackson Lamb’s Dark History

Roddy Ho and Jackson Lamb in 'Slow Horses' Season 5

It’s with Lamb’s triumph over who should be one of the most influential and powerful men in the UK that the season gives us one of the most powerful moments through some gross imagery. Lamb, shoes off and up on his desk, calls Diana Taverner to “congratulate her” on her new position as First Desk at MI5, taking Claude’s job. The camera lingers on Lamb, eventually moving down to the soles of his feet, which are incredibly scarred and calloused. In the final shot of the season, it almost seems as if the creators of the show want to tease the idea that not only was Lamb’s graphic story true, but that it was his own story, not one of a Joe he was responsible for.

Oldman’s portrayal of Lamb has always been a great mix of hilarity and intensity. The character teeters on the edge of darkness, hiding how much his work in the service has truly scarred him on the inside (and now, apparently, the outside) through belligerent drunkenness and abuse of the agents under him. Still, he clearly cares enough about them to protect Slough House, and the season ends on a note that suggests that there’s a lot more trauma behind the master spy Jackson Lamb than many are led to believe.

The ending of Slow Horses Season 5 is like a microcosm of the entire series: it features Lamb in an intense power play that he undercuts with clever spycraft, and it also ties into the season’s larger story in an unexpected and exciting way. In this latest ending, Slow Horses continues to cement itself as not only one of the best spy series but also one of the best on Apple TV in general. Slow Horses is streaming now on Apple TV.