Summary
MobLand takes a few surprising turns in its finale. Episode 10 has its share or carnage, but it’s a new beginning more than an ending.
And here I was thinking that the ending of MobLand was going to be a showpiece for Harry Da Souza, the moment when he played all his cards and revealed that he was taking over the Harrigan family by hook or by crook. As it turns out, Episode 10, “The Beast in Me”, is basically the exact opposite of that. It’s a reiteration of Harry’s unflinching loyalty that leaves enough on the table to confirm he’ll still be fighting the Harrigan corner next season – and potentially in a third – against even bigger, nastier enemies, including Kat McAllister. And that’s if he manages to survive being stabbed in the chest by his wife, but more on that in a minute.
If you’re looking for resolution, though, you’re not going to find it in this finale. There’s plenty of death and destruction and it’s fair to say that the status quo has been irreparably shaken up, but there’s so much more left on the table that it feels like the real story is just beginning. Which is good, since this show is good, and I’d much rather Guy Ritchie worked on it than wasted his time on dross like Fountain of Youth.
The Reinvention Of Kevin
A big theme in this finale is the reinvention of Kevin Harrigan, who has undergone something of an epiphany after exorcising one of his most sinister demons last week. As he explains to the corpse of Rusby, his son is really his brother, his wife is his dad’s sloppy seconds, and his parents, especially his mother, are bonkers. It’s time for a change.
A bit later, Kevin visits his father in prison to tell him about Rusby, but really to tell him that he’s coming for Conrad next. After all, who’s really to blame for Kevin’s circumstances? He was born into this. He hasn’t had any choice in the direction of his life. Conrad determined everything, and even took from Kevin – his wife, his “son”, his dignity – all the things he tried to claim for himself. Paddy Considine and Pierce Brosnan are both excellent here, dripping with fury and disgust for the other.
But the message is clear. Kevin is the head of the family now, and when Conrad inevitably gets out, which he will since Harry recorded Alice’s confession that he was being set up for something he didn’t do, he’ll enter a new world in which he’s no longer in charge. And Eddie will be his problem – although perhaps more accurately, he’ll be Maeve’s.
Rat Trap
MobLand Episode 10 finally reveals who the rat in the Harrigan kitchen is. It should have been obvious in the penultimate episode, to be fair, but I thought the show was teeing up a cleverer move with Harry. But the snitch turns out to be Conrad’s lawyer, O’Hara Delaney (hilariously on-the-nose Irish name, by the way – it’s like calling a Scottish guy Haggis McDuff.) And Harry has a plan.
This plan is rather complex, involving three locations – O’Hara’s office, where Richie usually meets her, a safehouse in the countryside where Bella, Jan, Gina, Eddie and Seraphina have been stashed, and the Sinful Monkey, Richie’s pub and base of operations, where he’s hosting O’Hara to iron out the details of a counter-ambush he thinks is going to end this war once and for all. In brief:
Richie thinks Harry is planning to ambush Richie at O’Hara’s chambers, so sends some men there to get the jump on him. At the same time he sends another coterie of goons to the safehouse to wipe out the remaining Harrigans. In one swoop, he can clear the table. But Harry has already foreseen this. Paul has planted a bomb in O’Hara’s chambers, Kiko and Zosia are at the safehouse, and Harry and Kevin are on their way to the Sinful Monkey. It’s a massacre that results in the deaths of Richie and O’Hara (executed by Kevin and Harry, respectively) and sadly Kiko, who catches a stray. But all in all, a job well done. The war is over.
Tom Hardy and Joanne Froggatt in MobLand | Image via Paramount+
The War Isn’t Over
Oops, sorry, the war’s not over after all. This is due to several reasons, one of them being Maeve and Conrad. While in prison, Maeve summons Eddie on a burner phone and reveals the truth about his parentage to convince him that Harry and Seraphina are making a play against the family. He’s under explicit instruction to kill them both, but because he’s fundamentally a coward, his first target is his own mother, who he tries to strangle to death until he’s interrupted by Kiko and Zosia (this obviously occurs prior to the safehouse ambush).
Either way, Eddie is angry and has his sights set on Harry and Seraphina. This is obviously setup for Season 2 more than anything, since we barely see Eddie again after this, but he’s symptomatic of a larger problem, which is that even on the inside, Conrad and Maeve, now on the same page, have enough power to cause serious problems. And they’re not the only ones.
We should also consider Colin Tattersall. Colin thinks he has gotten away clean by having Alice killed to cover his tracks, but Richie’s unexpected murder has thrown him for a loop. Surely there’s going to be some evidence that ties him to Colin? How far will Colin go to cover that up? And what will his next play be now the power in London’s underworld has very much tilted away from his current benefactor? One to keep an eye on.
And then there’s Kat McAllister. In a surprising turn, when she pitches Harry a deal to help her clean up the rest of the Harrigans, he refuses outright, reiterating his loyalty to the family. It’s a surprising turn for the ending of MobLand to take, since I firmly believed that Harry would ultimately seize power for himself. But it’s quite the opposite. And he’s willing to make extremely powerful enemies rather than switch sides.
Happy Families
MobLand is very quickly morphing into a story about couples, all of them extremely dysfunctional. There’s Conrad and Maeve, obviously. There’s also Kevin and Bella, who reconcile in Episode 10 by bonding over their shared history of abuse. Bella knew about Rusby because Kevin talks in his sleep, but what he didn’t know is that she was raped by her own father as a child for years – which is why she conspired with Antoine to bring about his ruin. It wasn’t a power play. It was revenge.
I’m not sure Eddie and Gina count here, but maybe. Gina, like Jan – more on her in a minute – isn’t wildly keen on the frequency with which their lives are uprooted and the floors of their safehouses are littered with corpses, but if she’s stupid enough to climb into bed with Eddie in the first place, she might also be stupid enough to get behind him when he makes a move.
What about Harry and Jan? Well, as mentioned, she’s had quite enough. Harry’s nonchalance about having just assassinated a mobster sends her spiralling, and she starts chopping carrots for dinner so vigorously that she cuts herself. When Harry tries to intervene, she lashes out and plunges the knife into his chest. It’s clearly an accident and she regrets it immediately, but it might be too late either way.
That’s where MobLand ends, with Harry’s fate uncertain and Conrad being regaled in prison by a chorus of support from the other inmates. The king might not be in his castle, but he’s still very much alive and kicking.
