Summary
MobLand makes some missteps in Episode 4, but it’s still a fun romp that promises a lot more problems – perhaps too many – for Tom Hardy to deal with.
Harry Da Souza has given his life for the Harrigan family in one way or another, and that’s going to become a literal statement sooner rather than later. Blood is thicker than water, or so the old saying goes, and it’s proving true in Episode 4 of MobLand, which finds the “Rat Trap” of the title steadily closing around Harry for something he clearly hasn’t done.
Unless MobLand is about to pull a blinder in terms of who’s really manipulating events here, the obviousness of Maeve’s double-cross is becoming a bit of a narrative issue. It’s getting actively irritating to listen to her massage Eddie’s ego instead of rightly declaring him a dangerous psychopath, and lead Conrad to suspect his most loyal acolytes. It makes him look stupid. “Rat Trap” makes a bit of an effort to emphasize Conrad’s near-biblical depravity and general terribleness, but it’s hard to be terrified of him when he can’t seem to see beyond the end of his own nose.
Anyway, you’ll recall that in the previous episode, Harry came up with a Hail Mary play to convince Richie Stevenson that Valjon was responsible for Tommy’s death. The first half of the episode builds tension by having Harry and Kevin lounge around without knowing whether Richie bought it or not, and the second half sends Harry back into the lion’s den with us pretty sure that he didn’t but pretending otherwise all the same.
That first half is really neatly constructed, criss-crossing between a bunch of different characters and conversations while everyone has a nice cup of tea and discusses their various problems, which are about to become everyone else’s problems in due course. There’s Harry and Jan, still living on a borrowed riverboat and trying to work on their marriage against the backdrop of a brewing gang war, and there’s Conrad and Maeve, trying to figure out how the police managed to find Archie’s body. Since the only two people who knew the corpse’s location were Conrad himself and Harry, that seems to narrow the suspect pool.
And then the conversation partners switch as an outgrowth of those earlier chats. Conrad goes to see Jan, and Harry talks to Kevin while they’re waiting to hear from Richie. Both of these scenes have the same purpose – to make us incredibly wary of Conrad. There’s a creepy, threatening aura to him when he subtly threatens Jan into staying with Harry, even though their relationship isn’t working, that is informed by what Kevin tells Harry about Conrad’s past with Bella. She was one of his many mistresses who graduated up the ranks until Maeve found out about her, at which point she was tactically introduced to Kevin. Hearing Conrad’s entitlement and promiscuity framed this way makes his grabbing Jan’s knee that much more worrying.
L-R Tom Hardy as Harry Da Souza and Paddy Considine as Kevin Harrigan in MOBLAND | Image via Luke Varley/Paramount+
Jan gets a lot of focus in MobLand Episode 4. Her perspective is really interesting because she isn’t a part of the Harrigan family, even though she knows that Harry’s work for the family has facilitated a lifestyle she enjoys. She loves Harry but doesn’t want to know what he does during the day, and she wants to work on their marriage even though she knows how much he’s juggling. I like that she considers herself demisexual, as it takes the easy option off the table. She isn’t interested in anyone else, but that doesn’t mean she’s satisfied with the relationship she has with Harry. She also has the good sense to tell Harry about Conrad’s visit, and he clearly gets the message, showing much more fear and panic than we’ve seen thus far from a character whose entire persona is being completely even-keel no matter the circumstances.
But Harry has enough to worry about in the meantime. Richie summons him and makes it clear that he’s well aware something’s amiss, but is willing to take Harry’s word for what happened to Tommy, seeing as he likes him. This reads like a nice gesture, but it’s anything but. Richie is essentially making it clear that he’s holding Harry personally responsible for whatever subsequently emerges about the Harrigans’ involvement in Tommy’s death, which gives him something else to be worried about. He also has Harry “clean up” the Valjon problem himself by violently stabbing him to death, which he does with no hesitation whatsoever, but secure in the knowledge that he’s being tested. Richie also invites the entire Harrigan clan to Tommy’s funeral, which, if they weren’t involved in his death, they should have no issue attending. Eddie and Maeve in the same general vicinity as Richie and his wife Vron seems like an utterly terrible idea.
The house of cards is collapsing; that seems clear. There’s clearly also more to the story of Harry and that old prison guard – and Kevin seems to be involved in this also – and someone from Harry’s past gives his number to Zosia, asking Harry to call him. Oh, and Bella is still adamant about working with Antoine despite Harry going out of his way to procure the videos he recorded and used as blackmail material. It’s a lot to be dealing with, even for Tom Hardy.
RELATED:
