Summary
A very good episode delivers action and emotion in equal measure, and the midpoint of the second season ups the stakes even more considerably.
This Gangs of London season 2, episode 4 recap contains spoilers.
Luan’s wife, Mirlinda, is being buried alive, which is hardly a cheery opening to an episode, but then again little about Gangs of London is cheery at the best of times. Mirlinda’s dwindling air supply provides a nice ticking-clock device for the opening half of the episode. Koba wants Luan to tell his men that they all work for him now, not Marian Wallace, and if he does then he’ll give Luan Mirlinda’s location. But that’ll be hours, so Luan takes the initiative and forces Ed at gunpoint to take him there.
Gangs of London season 2, episode 4 recap
Ed neglects to mention, as is his way, that Luan’s phone was being tracked the whole way, so Tamaz and his goons arrive to interrupt the party. Luan fights back, and Ed even intervenes, but the latter is quickly overpowered and the former, despite giving a valiant effort, seems to finally be dead via shovel to the back of the head, Mirlinda along with him. It’s a brutal fight, this, enhanced by the rain and the mud, but it still doesn’t have the kineticism of the first season’s best brawls.
Speaking of ticking clocks, Elliot gives Singer an ultimatum — either he finesses an out for Elliot and his father, or Elliot will tell Koba who’s really pulling the strings. Elliot still has the microchip for leverage, of course, but he’s playing a dangerous game. So, too, we discover, is Shannon. When Marian uses Floriana’s fingerprint to log into her bank accounts she discovers that two-thirds of Finn’s fortune has been cleared out. So, she goes to Shannon. We learn that it was Marian who got Shannon out of jail, so Shannon agrees to visit Rutherford and find out what’s happening with the money. By the time Elliot gets there — Rutherford is the next of his marks — he finds him dead already, killed by Shannon’s silenced pistol.
Elliot and Shannon have a bit of a moment, or even a string of moments, both at gunpoint and in slightly more relaxed circumstances back in the car. There’s still an obvious connection between them, but so much water has passed under the bridge now that it’s impossible for them to trust one another. Shannon also causes problems for Elliot because she leaves a witness at the scene who later files a police report detailing two assailants. The Investors make it disappear, but they know that Elliot is keeping things from them. Luckily, at least according to Singer, he’ll be gone pretty soon, so he agrees to hand over the evidence.
Meanwhile, Billy leaves Roze at a church, apparently to protect her from Marian, and Lale’s people gear up to attack Koba’s entire network at a meeting that night which will see all the major figureheads assembled. As it happens, the raid is pretty fortuitously timed, as Koba has both Ed and Luan there, the latter still alive it turns out, to make an example of them. In the chaos, Luan is dragged outside by Marwen, and even in his near-dead state, he still insists on taking Ed with them. Ed chooses to go his own way, but the gesture is noted.
Koba, of course, manages to escape, but Sean sends him a message via Basem’s people, Faz and Saba, that he’s coming for everything he has. Elliot watches the explosions flare up from his car, swigging from a hip flask, as the ruckus makes the news and a very nice aerial shot shows London burning.
At the very end of the episode, Luan heads back to Mirlinda’s burial site and digs her free. She’s alive.
