Why Slow Horses’ ridiculous Roddy moment this week was a thrilling cliché-buster

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There’s a truly distinctive quality to Slow Horses, and it’s not simply about how consistently it releases new seasons each year-something that’s becoming increasingly uncommon with today’s streaming services.

No, what sets Slow Horses apart is its ability to portray the typically glamorous world of espionage with a raw and realistic edge. The fifth season is even expected to include a rather crude moment – described as a “story-based fart” by showrunner Will Smith (Empire) – and it doesn’t get much more down-to-earth than that.

The show’s strength lies in its realism, which allows the writers to include surprisingly outlandish scenes like these. However, those moments are still meaningful and contribute to the overall story.

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The new season, inspired by Mick Herron’s fifth Slough House novel, London Rules, began with a surprisingly shocking development: Roddy Ho is in a relationship.

Honestly, we were all a bit shocked when we heard about Roddy getting a date! I mean, who would actually want to go out with him? He’s the team’s hacker, and while he’s good, he’s also totally convinced of his own genius. It’s a huge ego, honestly – only really surpassed by just how strongly Jackson Lamb smells! It’s a tough competition, though. Seriously, the guy is something else.

As Lamb observes, there’s something immediately suspicious about a woman genuinely enjoying your company, and for good reason. Following a near-miss incident with a van at the premiere, the second episode strongly suggests that Roddy’s supposed girlfriend might actually be a spy working against him.

When Roddy returned home late one night, he noticed someone was already inside. Instinctively, like any MI5 agent would, he reached for the oversized, decorative fantasy sword he kept on his wall.

It’s incredibly large and difficult to manage, to the point where Roddy accidentally hits the ceiling lights with it. Plus, it actually changes colours, which is quite something.

The intruder is just Lamb, but then they hear someone break in for real.

Lamb surprises the masked intruder by spraying bleach in their face. Then, Roddy, who had been hiding, unexpectedly leaps out from under the covers, wearing only his underwear, and yells, “I am DEATH!” before forcefully pushing the intruder out the window with his sword.

“You pick a fight with the best, you’re going to regret it!” Roddy jeers. However, the situation quickly escalates when additional attackers arrive, now armed with guns, making things far more dangerous.

Despite all of that, it’s still quite amusing to watch an adult man – wearing silk boxers – defend himself from an intruder using a large toy sword, as if he were the hero from one of his favorite fantasy stories. This is particularly true considering he usually acts so serious. It’s a funny contrast.

Even so, there is a real issue worth discussing, and we ask you to stick with us to get to it: Roddy is in incredible physical shape. Seriously. His physique almost fits the heroic image he’s trying to create in this scene, if only Roddy wasn’t such a comical character.

Even characters who aren’t eager to compliment Roddy can’t help but notice his physique. That’s just how impressive his abs are.

Presenting idealized male physiques isn’t a novel concept in spy films; Daniel Craig famously built a career around those form-fitting blue swim trunks in Casino Royale. However, what is truly innovative is the notion that a character as nerdy as Roddy could also be portrayed as physically appealing.

In addition to possessing that fantasy sword, Roddy later makes a reference to Star Wars that only he seems to understand. And this detail is significant as well.

For many years, movies and TV shows have relied on predictable stereotypes. So, it’s surprisingly refreshing when characters traditionally considered nerdy are shown as attractive – Freddie Stroma’s Vigilante in Peacemaker is another good example. This is still unusual, even though stories that were once considered specialized or geeky – like those from Marvel, Star Wars, and anime – are now incredibly popular.

Even in the initial Slough House novels by Herron, Roddy was primarily known for his thick, black glasses. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but it’s a welcome change to see a character like him – a nerdy hacker – depicted as surprisingly attractive. This is further enhanced by the fact that actor Chun Chung is of Malaysian Chinese heritage.

In a recent conversation with The Guardian, Chung recalled how rapidly directors would typecast him in stereotypical Asian roles prior to his work on Slow Horses:

He remembers an executive producer on Waterloo Road once implying his character’s storyline could involve simply “going to China on a boat.” He explains, “They basically said, ‘This is the Asian storyline,'” adding, “I didn’t know how to respond at the time – I didn’t have the words to say, ‘What do you mean?'”

Facing these kinds of stereotypes, Chung had to confront his own unconscious bias, frequently auditioning for parts he wasn’t truly interested in – roles like the delivery driver or the Asian nurse – minor characters who lacked independence.

For a long time, Western media has tended to typecast Asian actors into limited roles – either as criminals and action heroes, or as unappealing intellectuals. They were seldom, if ever, portrayed as desirable romantic leads. However, in Slow Horses, the character of Roddy breaks away from these traditional expectations of how an Asian character is ‘supposed’ to be.

He’s a bit of a nerd, but also good-looking, and surprisingly capable physically without being the typical martial arts expert. Even when he’s holding his fantasy sword, Roddy still comes across as clumsy and awkward, despite being incredibly muscular.

After five seasons, Roddy is finally getting a prominent role, which lets Chung and the writers develop a complex Asian character within a British show that is largely focused on white characters.

He’s not fully developed as a character right now, but we promise future episodes will explore Roddy’s story in much more detail. This will remind viewers why this show – and having diverse representation on screen – is so important.

Slow Horses season 5 began streaming on Apple TV+ on September 24th, with new episodes released each week. You can also watch seasons 1 through 4 on the same platform.

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2025-10-01 22:21