Summary
Joseph tries to scare the family out of the business in “Rival Gang”, but one disaster after another put more strain on them than ever.
This recap of Family Business season 2, episode 2, “Rival Gang”, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
You can check out our thoughts on the previous season by clicking these words.
Check out our spoiler-free season review.
“Rival Gang” picks up right where the previous episode left off, with Jaures laughingly telling Jo that he must have a death wish if he thinks he’s quitting. He makes a counter-offer, though — the recipe for the weed. As he explains, the vast majority of the weed production is handled by Ludmila, an 87-year-old woman. That’s a bit risky for business. She agrees to send their best botanist over so he can be taught the recipe, and she agrees, though not convincingly, that she’ll let them all walk away if she can make the weed on her own. Jaures also makes a point that now she knows the rest of the family aren’t useful, she won’t hesitate to “drown them in a sack.”
Once again, Jo takes his problem to Youssef, who suggests he tricks the family into quitting on their own by using the threat of a rival gang. Meanwhile, Gerard and Aure are having difficulties laundering money through the butcher’s shop. He doesn’t have the patience to do it bit by bit, so he’s — hilariously — printing out 500 Euro receipts. Once the operation expands laundering the money will be even more difficult, but Aure apparently has something in mind.
Jo, meanwhile, tries to cut the head off a horse with a bread knife to imitate The Godfather, but naturally, he can’t go through with it. Instead, he goes to the pet shop looking for sick or dead rabbits, which doesn’t go down well with the pet-loving shop assistant. Two funny scenes back to back. Jo eventually settles for a dead, gutted crow, which he leaves on the doorstep and pretends is a very strong message from a rival gang, but nobody believes him — Olivier even points out that it’s a raven. That didn’t go as planned, did it?
Jo continues trying to convince Olivier — while stopping him from spending thousands on vintage rifles — while Gerard attends rehab, despite still smoking weed constantly. Catherine, the blonde lady who approached Gerard in the previous episode, is currently without a sponsor and picks Gerard to be her new one. He says no at first, claiming he’s not ready, and Catherine gets really upset about it so he has no choice but to be her new sponsor after all.
Aure’s new financial idea is to launder money through the sales of Enrico’s album. They’re going to recruit as many people as possible to buy the CD all over the country — the more albums get bought with cash, the more money they launder, so the majority of it goes straight to their label. That leaves them with a lot of surplus albums, which they have to bury. That means Aure isn’t available for dinner with her girlfriend, so she continues the ruse that her dad’s a homophobe as justification.
Catherine meets with Gerard, whom she apparently needs right now. She listens to Enrico’s music, and he tells her how he and his son wrote and produced his latest album, which she confesses isn’t his finest. Gerard tells Catherine he thinks she’s very beautiful but doesn’t think he’s ready for a new adventure. They end up kissing regardless.
To further the idea of a rival gang, Jo tries to set the van on fire, but it goes badly wrong and ends up setting Olivier’s car alight instead. Jo tries to convince everyone it was arson, but Olive thinks it was just because he bought the car on the cheap. Clem also saw Jo committing the act through the window, but she doesn’t let on to Jo that she knows what he’s up to. Instead, she tells Olivier, but he doesn’t believe her. She confronts Jo about it and guarantees that she’ll expose him. He confesses to her that he was aiming for the van because he needed to scare everyone because he made a deal with Jaures. In two days, everyone needs to agree to quit the business. She agrees not to say anything, but she wants to help him scare them.
Their next step is to spray paint a threatening message on Jo’s mother’s grave. Clem adds a swastika which Jo tries to turn into a little house. Gerard, driving with Ludmila and Aure, gets pulled over by Aure’s girlfriend Elodie, who Gerard believes is her ex and who believes Gerard is a homophobe. She gives him a ticket and he tests positive for cannabis. Jo keeps asking about the grave, but apparently it was fine — he didn’t use waterproof paint.
Jo and Clem’s next scheme is to leave a threatening message with a photo of Aida and the triplets. She’s in the park with a handsome fella and his giant trouser bulge, which doesn’t go unremarked upon by Clem. Jo wants to create the impression he’s been beaten up using movie makeup, but Clem decides to save money by beating him up herself with a fake foot. Jo, with his new wounds, bursts into the room pretending to have been assaulted and threatened, but Jaures is already there and has told them everything. They all think he’s an idiot. Jaures wants them all to honor the deal and give her the recipe anyway, but Ludmila refuses. She eventually agrees when Jo is held at gunpoint. They’ll share the recipe with the botanist tomorrow, and if it doesn’t work, they’ll all be killed. Jaures also fits them with electronic tags so they can’t flee. Lulu will be Jaures’s only contact — if Jaures calls and she doesn’t answer, she’ll be killed. Right on cue, after everyone has left, Clem throws the threatening brick through the window.
Ludmila, suddenly under a lot of pressure, collapses, which is where the episode ends.
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