Spoilers follow slow horses season 5 episode 6.
slow horses Season 5 has officially ended, ending Claude Whelan's comical run as his MI5 boss in a decisive finale in which his bureaucratic rigidity is pitted against real-world dangers.
Following the episode's release on October 29, fans of the Apple TV spy show will now know that the season five finale brings Whelan to his breaking point after being threatened at gunpoint by one of the Libyan terrorists who had been behind numerous attacks in London.
Saved at the last moment by none other than Slough House agent River Cartwright, Whelan doesn't have time to properly recover, because he needs to save his job by taking the blame for the agency's mishaps, and who better to blame for all that than Jackson Lamb.
However, the plan ends up backfiring when Lamb outmaneuvers Whelan by blackmailing him in return with a recording revealing the MI5 chief's previous threats and the scandalous scandal that came to light in slow horses season 5 episode 4.
Lamb's final checkmate move brings what James Callis described as Whelan's “most impactful role” in slow horses comes to an end, as he is forced to step down from his position as head of the first desk, leaving Diana Taverner to take the reins.
Being the scapegoat will no doubt take its toll on Whelan, but Callis says it's more likely that his character will be left reeling from the shock of almost being killed.
“Those kinds of things don't go unnoticed by people,” Callis told TechRadar. “Maybe if you're special forces and you're used to that kind of combat zone, but if you're used to executing strategy from an office, that's not what you strategized for. There would be some kind of emotional consequences.” [because]Realistically, if you've been in any kind of hostage situation, or if someone actually pointed a gun at you intentionally, you'd probably be in therapy afterwards.
“You imagine a very different person emerging from all of this. I'm not sure if it would be a phoenix rising from the ashes, but there are certainly a lot of ashes,” Callis added.
Why Slow Horses is the perfect British spy show
While such a shift in power dynamics would leave a character like Whelan lashing out in anger, Callis plays the entire exchange with Lamb at the end of episode 6 with a cool composure that masks her underlying shame. It's part of the show's quintessentially British tone, showing humor and restraint even in the midst of chaos.
“And that's part of the Englishness of it all, isn't it?” Callis said. “The stiff upper lip, the idea that what doesn't kill you is a big story. There's a lot going on under the surface. You think you're fine, you convince yourself you're fine… and then comes the delayed shock.”
It is this formula that has helped make slow horses One of the best British spy shows not only in the UK but globally. In fact, classic espionage with a dose of Britain's signature sarcastic wit is particularly popular in the United States, Callis noted.
“slow horses “It's emblematic of something distinctly British,” he said. “There's a back-and-forth between how seriously you take something and how you approach it with humor, and I think self-deprecating comedy really travels well, even across the pond.” In the United States this is not seen as much.
“As an audience, we don't always laugh with the slow horses, we're laughing in them,” he continued. “Roddy exists in a world a little apart from everyone else, Shirley is immediately irritable and aggressive, and River is paddling around trying to keep up. And Claude, well, we certainly had fun because Claude isn't that comfortable.
“The British do this very well. We know about crippling embarrassment, like being late to a party and only having one chair in the center and having to walk around everyone to get to it. That awkwardness, that social embarrassment, is something natural to us. It's part of our charm and part of our fragility.”
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