Summary
A Thousand Blows Season 2 delivers the nearest thing to a happy ending it could manage given how bleak the story was, while also leaving plenty of meat on the bone for Season 3.
It’s difficult to pull off a happy ending in a show as bruising as A Thousand Blows, especially since Season 2 is notably darker than the first outing. Considering it wasn’t a barrel of laughs to begin with, maybe “happy-ish” is a better descriptor. Steven Knight will surely be pretty pleased, though, as Episode 6 rather neatly sets up Season 3, leaving all of the characters in a much more fruitful position than we found them in.
In many ways, this was the hook of Season 2, which, after the events of the Season 1 finale, left Hezekiah, Sugar, and Mary at their lowest ebbs. The arc of these six episodes has been them finding themselves and each other again, uniting in the face of a common enemy. In true Forty Elephants fashion, the finale revolves around a boxing match and a clever heist, and includes a fair few twists and turns that we’ll happily unpack now.
A Common Enemy
The bad guy of this season is Murtagh, who finds his way to Wapping to stop Mary from using a stash of dynamite hidden by French anarchist Henry Duval. The dynamite factors into the ending, so this is important.
As his inside man, Murtagh recruits Sugar. Since Treacle, who’s spiralling and mentally compromised after the beating Sugar gave him in Season 1, is the prime suspect in the murder of a sex worker, Murtagh was able to strongarm Sugar into spying on Mary’s movements. However, in the penultimate episode, she was able to figure this out.
She also learns through a local cop, Brenner, that Murtagh has manipulated the case to frame Treacle. When Sugar asks his brother outright if he’s guilty, even though he can’t recall the event, he knows in his heart he wouldn’t be capable of the crime. It’s enough for Sugar, who summons Hezekiah and Mary to unite against their common enemy.
The Graften Heist
After losing her grip on the Forty Elephants in Season 1, Mary has concocted a scheme to regain her position as queen of the East End underworld by defrauding English aristocrat Lord Graften of a priceless Caravaggio. The scheme is her most audacious yet; its planning and preparation are threaded through the entire season and culminate in the margins of Hezekiah’s boxing bout with American champion Nathaniel Washington.
With Alice posing as the daughter of a shipping magnate, American mesmerist Sophie Lyons causing a distraction, and several more of the Elephants in disguise in and around the venue, they’re able to acquire the painting. However, they aren’t able to slip out unnoticed, since Mary jeopardises the plan by intervening in the assault of a choir girl.
Mary’s forced to pull out a gun to make her escape, blowing everyone’s cover.
Double and Triple Cross
The heist going awry upsets Sophie, who is angry that everyone was compromised for the sake of one girl and refuses to pay up what’s owed. She even pulls a gun on Mary, and surprisingly, Alice supports her and does the same. Sophie had been poisoning Alice against Mary for the entire season, using her distraction over her mother’s death to bring her leadership into question.
Sophie and Alice make off with the money and the painting, implying that Alice has betrayed Mary. However, this is revealed not to be the case, as Alice, suspecting Sophie, had made a separate deal with Graften. When Sophie hands over the “Caravaggio” to her oil magnate client, it turns out to be the portrait of Mary.
The money and profit from the real painting go back to the Forty Elephants, courtesy of Mary, with some words of thanks, good luck, and hope that her previous mistakes have been atoned for. Mary is leaving London for pastures new, in the hopes of giving the Forty Elephants a more international foothold.
Murtagh’s End
Everyone being on the same page finally allows Murtagh to be toppled. He thinks he has gained the upper hand by grabbing Treacle and forcing Sugar to take Mary to a house where he can deal with her. However, Hezekiah is able to free Mary and then fight Murtagh’s men outside with Lao to free Treacle, while Sugar goes into the house to confront Murtagh.
Sugar beats up Murtagh and lights the stolen dynamite. He neglects to strangle the villain to death, so he has time to get out of the house, but Murtagh sits up and shoots him. When the house explodes, it seems like Sugar has been caught up in the blast, but he eventually emerges unharmed, other than a bullet in the shoulder.
Brenner covers up the explosion as an accident, and Sugar and Treacle return to the Blue Coat Boy, which they won’t be selling after all.
Hezekiah and Mary Are Heading to New York
After their falling out in Season 1, Hezekiah and Mary finally make amends in A Thousand Blows Season 2, and the ending finds them in a new alliance in New York.
In exchange for training Prince Albert Victor and securing his win against his arch rival, Hezekiah was granted a plantation in Jamaica’s Morant Bay, which he gifted to Alec’s family. Instead of returning to his homeland, he decides, inspired by his American opponent, to travel to America, where the prejudice Black men face isn’t quite as virulent and stifling. There, he can make a name for himself as a boxer and become part of a community that accepts him.
Mary accompanies Hezekiah, leaving Alice in charge of the Forty Elephants. She plans to make a name for herself in the Big Apple, too, with the Elephants going trans-Atlantic. As they sit on a bench and look out over their new surroundings and future, Hezekiah and Mary hold hands.
