Years later, some are still wondering why exactly Gary Oldman's Jackson Lamb killed James Faulkner's Charles Partner back in Slow Horses Season 1.
The hit Apple TV+ drama is back for Season 4, continuing the ever-unfolding exploits of Slough House, an MI5 unit where the renowned intelligence agency sends all its leftovers.
Leading this group has, at least as far as the series is concerned, always been Oldman's curmudgeonly Lamb. While looking like a drunken, down-on-his-luck, agent, Lamb has his moments of always knowing when to make the right decision for the rest of his cast of agents (read more about the Slow Horses cast here).
Why Did Lamb Kill Charles in Slow Horses?
One of the major throughlines of the first couple of seasons of Slow Horses surrounds the reason why Gary Oldman's Lamb killed Charles (played by James Faulkner) in Season 1.
Faulkner's Charles Partner is seen in several flashback sequences in the first season of the beloved streaming spy drama, as the former Director General of MI5.
In the series, Partner led the intelligence organization through the later years of the Cold War, having employed Saskia Reeves' Catherine Standish before she was demoted to Slough House.
However, he meets his untimely demise after sustaining what many believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot.
Lamp tells Standish that her Partner's death was likely due to the end of the Cold War and spy networks across Europe being folded across the board.
That was not the case though, as it is revealed in Season 1 that Oldman's Lamb was the one behind Charles' death and it was the grandfather of series protagonist River Cartwright (Jack Lowden), David Cartwright (Jonathan Pryce) who gave Lamb the order.
David previously worked as a senior agent within the MI5 organization, with Oldman's Lamb being just one of the agents answering to him.
While at the time, the exact reason for Charles being ordered dead remained a question, fans would eventually find out what went into Lamb's murder of his former superior.
Later in Season 2, Charles is revealed to have been a traitor to MI5, working alongside the Russians to leak Western secrets to the Soviets. MI5 eventually discovered this and flipped the former Director General into a triple agent working for them again.
However, as the Cold War came to an end and the Berlin Wall fell, the English government felt that Partner had served his purpose, but had not yet answered for his crimes against his country.
To tie up the loose end, the international intelligence agency orders Charles killed, with Lamb eventually being given the go-ahead to pull the trigger.
Lamb's involvement in Charles' death gets tied back into the story yet again later in the series, as the Russian spymaster Katinsky (played by Rade Šerbedžija) sets his eyes on the Slow Houghs headman to hopefully get revenge for his fallen comrade.
[ Slow Horses Season 4: Is River Cartwright Really Dead? ]
Slow Horses is now streaming on Apple TV+.
