By Guy Ritchie’s standards, the ending of The Gentlemen is quite neat and tidy. Sure, there’s a bit of finesse to it, but it mostly plays out in exactly the way you expected it to, with the most unpleasant characters meeting their ends, the “heroes” putting their differences aside and working together, and the conclusion feeling complete enough to be satisfying but ambiguous enough that… well, you just never know. Let’s unpack Season 1 Episode 8, “The Gospel According to Bobby Glass”.
Gospel John
Picking up where the penultimate episode left off, the finale begins with Susie giving Gospel John the go-ahead to kill Freddy and Eddie. She sold Eddie out because she thought he had sold her out by working with Stanley Johnston, when in fact Eddie had already gone to her father to double-cross Johnston.
This case of crossed wires almost results in a nasty shootout at Halstead Manor, where the Gospel and his followers arrive heavily armed and looking for Freddy. Luckily, Geoff spotted them milling around on the premises and was able to arm Eddie and some of the others, ready to repel the attackers. Susie, after having learned the truth, also sends some backup with military-grade hardware.
It doesn’t come to that, though. Bobby calls the Gospel just as it’s about to kick off, and he stands down without a fight. We don’t learn exactly what Bobby promised him – or threatened him with – to get him to back off, but it worked either way.
The Glass Auction
In the aftermath of this, Bobby has decided he wants to sell his business and retire. He’s willing to accept any offer to the tune of £150,000,000, and he wants Eddie and Susie to ensure he gets the best deal. All bids are to be sent by carrier pigeon.
There aren’t very many suitable candidates. One of them is Johnston. Despite his Machiavellian efforts to sabotage Bobby’s business throughout the season, he’s still a viable candidate since he has the most money. However, his negotiating position is undermined slightly since the list of lords Eddie supplied to him, which were ostensibly the other locations of Bobby’s weed farms, were just the Horniman family doing voices on the phone.
The second potential buyer is Mercy, and the third is Peter Spencer-Forbes, aka Sticky Pete. With a bit of nudging from Freddy about how he was born to be a criminal, Eddie also decides to make a bid of his own.
Eddie Makes A Bid
Since he doesn’t have the capital on his own, Eddie turns to the legitimate list of lords who already have sites on their premises, as well as the Ward family and, controversially, Henry. He’s feeling especially apologetic after the close brush with death he experienced in the previous episode, so he agrees to put up £15,000,000 and volunteer himself for a few favors, which we’ll discuss shortly.
Eventually, after some prodding from Sabrina, Susie also pitches in with Eddie.
Does Charlotte find out Geoff is her father?
Earlier in the season it became clear that the Halstead groundskeeper, Geoff, is the father of Charlotte. However, he wanted this information to be kept from her. He nonetheless taught her everything she knows about life in the classic way that “the help” always raise the children of the extremely wealthy.
Following Geoff’s shifty behavior – he acts differently around Charlotte as soon as he realizes she’s pregnant – and an earlier conversation with her mother, Charlotte can put two and two together. In the finale, she reveals that she has figured out the relationship. Geoff explains that he didn’t want her to be ashamed, and she says she could never be – he’s the best man she’s ever met. Aww!
Who buys Bobby Glass’s business?
Once all the offers are in, Bobby makes his decision. However, thanks to Eddie, there isn’t a decision for him to make.
Johnston is out of the way. Thanks to Henry and his accountant Thick Rick, Eddie gets him arrested for tax fraud and other financial offenses. He’s out of the picture.
Sticky Pete is similarly removed from the equation. Eddie tells Mercy that his bid was higher than hers, and since she’s under a lot of pressure from her cartel overlords to close the deal, she angrily hacks Pete to death with a machete. Immediately after, Henry, on Eddie’s instruction, shoots her dead in a drive-by.
With Eddie having subsequently betrayed Henry and taken his money, there is only one viable offer for Bobby Glass’s business – Eddie and Susie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyEOwHrpZH4
How does The Gentlemen Season 1 end?
The “twist” ending of The Gentlemen Season 1 comes when Bobby reveals that he never intended to retire in the first place. Instead, he was testing the resolve of Eddie and Susie, seeing if they were willing to work together to expand. Now, with £235,000,000 of investment capital and no real rivals, they’re ready to do just that.
Eddie completes his embrace of the dark side by killing Henry rather nonchalantly.
The final scene of the season takes place three months later, where we see that Johnston has been incarcerated with Bobby. They seem to be getting on.
What did you think of The Gentlemen Season 1 Episode 8 and the ending? Let us know in the comments.
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