'Slow Horses' Pays Tribute to Heath Ledger
The writers of the fifth season of Slow Horses appear to have included a subtle nod to the late Heath Ledger. The reference emerges in the fifth episode of the latest Apple TV series season.
Gary Oldman, who portrays the lead role of Jackson Lamb in the spy comedy, also played Lt. Gordon in Christopher Nolan’s 2008 film The Dark Knight. In this new episode, Oldman’s character expresses frustration toward a colleague with a line that caught viewers’ attention:
“When you talk, I wanna stick a pencil in my eye and headbutt the table!”
Fans quickly linked the line to an unforgettable moment in The Dark Knight, when Ledger’s Joker intimidated a group of mobsters by asking,
“How about a magic trick?”
He then drove a pencil into the table and followed it with,
“I’m going to make the pencil disappear.”
In a shocking twist, the Joker slammed a thug’s head into the pencil, delivering the dark punchline,
“It’s gone.”
Ledger passed away at 28, before the premiere of The Dark Knight in 2008. His haunting performance earned him a posthumous Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and remains one of cinema’s most powerful portrayals of villainy.
Author’s Summary
The fifth season of Slow Horses includes a clever and touching allusion to Heath Ledger’s Joker, blending tribute and cinematic nostalgia within its spy-comedy world.