The first episode of MobLand opens with Tom Hardy’s Harry Da Souza mediating some kind of dispute between two gangs, the Dogans and the Lazarous. It’s only after Harry is sure that the gang leaders, Costa and Mehmet, are ready to shake hands and bury the hatchet that he consults his boss, Conrad Harrigan (being played by the amazing Pierce Brosnan), regarding the next step. Now, Harry thinks that this agreement between the Dogans and the Lazarous isn’t going to last very long. Meanwhile, Conrad reveals that both Costa and Mehmet have been scamming him. Hence, apparently the best decision is to kill them all. While Harry and his associates get the job done, Conrad arrives to put the finishing touches and tells Harry to inform the Maltese that they’ll be filling the gap that’s been left by the death of the Dogans and the Lazarous. Now, the repercussions of this decision aren’t what this episode is about. The onus of that lies on the bar-hopping journey that Eddie Harrigan (Conrad’s grandson and Kevin’s son) and Tommy Stevenson (the son of Conrad’s rival, Richie Stevenson) are on. So, let’s talk about it.
Spoiler Alert
Eddie Stabs a Guy
Despite their fathers’ rivalry, Eddie and Tommy seem to be good friends. Eddie intends to spend his time with Tommy, but when Tommy’s friends join them, he gets a bit miffed. He doesn’t like it when one of them takes a picture of the two together; however, he doesn’t send them on their way home. Instead, Eddie takes Tommy and his pals to a nightclub even though he is reminded quite a few times by Valjon, the manager of the joint, and his employees that he is allowed to bring just one other person along with him.
Tommy is overwhelmed by the atmosphere of the nightclub and the fact that so many people have seen him with Eddie, and he tries to leave. When Eddie attempts to pull him back in, he collides into a partygoer, who gets aggressive and threatens Eddie. Since nobody de-escalates the situation, Eddie pulls out a knife, stabs the guy, and then makes a run for it. After giving the guards the slip, Eddie reunites with Tommy and promises to make it up to him after causing him to panic so much. And that’s the last of Tommy Stevenson that we see in this episode, by the way.
Archie Meets Conrad
The following day, Archie shows up at the Harrigan estate to meet Conrad because he asked him to. But before meeting his “oldest friend,” Archie runs into Maeve, thereby making this a The Queen (2006) reunion because Dame Helen Mirren played Queen Elizabeth II in it while Alex Jennings was in the role of then-Prince Charles. Maeve sort of foreshadows Archie’s death at the end of this episode as she, purposely or accidentally, confuses him with his dead brother, Pete. Once that doubt has been cleared up, Archie heads over to Conrad’s fishing spot, and they have a chat about fishing and molestation.
After heading back home they talk shop and arrive at the topic of peddling fentanyl, which is where Archie says that Richie won’t be happy if Conrad enters that business because that’s considered to be Richie’s turf. Archie even warns Conrad that if he goes ahead with selling fentanyl, then he’ll be inviting a war with the Stevenson gang. Conrad makes a joke out of that outcome, but it’s evident that he knows that Archie is batting for Richie; he doesn’t really care about the Harrigans. Although this particular meeting seems irrelevant to Eddie’s subplot, you’ll see how it influences a decision that Conrad makes later down the line.
Harry Covers Eddie’s Tracks
While talking about cars with Zosia, Harry gets a call from Kevin (played by the ever-brilliant Paddy Considine) asking him to fix the situation that Eddie has created by stabbing a guy at a nightclub before Conrad learns about it. If I were to describe the scene between Eddie, Harry, Kevin, and Bella (Kevin’s wife and Eddie’s mother), I’d be doing it a disservice, but it’s so brilliantly written and full of the tiniest moments of comedy—the Italian shoes, the oat milk—that you have to watch it at least twice to truly enjoy it.
Technically, the same can be said about every scene in which Harry tries to destroy every last piece of evidence that ties Eddie to the stabbing. He is intimidating and hilarious at the same time. It’s all very elaborate, yet not boring; it’s marvelous. Anyway, Harry takes care of the CCTV footage from the nightclub, learns the name of the guy who got stabbed (he is called Hughie Campbell, which could be a reference to the character from The Boys), coordinates with the police and the hospital authorities to set up a meeting with Hughie, politely compels Hughie to tell the coppers that he doesn’t remember the face of the guy who stabbed him, and then disposes of Eddie’s clothes. Problem solved, or so we think.
Richie Searches For Tommy
We are introduced to Jan, Harry’s wife, who is seen going to therapy and forming a bond with a woman named Alice. The reason behind that—therapy and making new “friends”—is her complicated relationship with Harry and the frequent arguments they have about the fact that Harry doesn’t want to do couples therapy. Gina, Harry and Jan’s daughter, hilariously tries to help out her father when he’s getting berated by her mother, but Jan is too smart, and she berates him anyway for quarreling with her the previous night and then forgetting what they were bickering about. Now, parallel to this subplot, Vron Stevenson gets Richie to look for their son since he is missing. Richie sends Charlie, who is like Harry but for the Stevenson gang, to see where Tommy is at.
Predictably enough, Richie isn’t happy when he learns that Tommy was out partying with Eddie Harrigan of all people. So, he directly calls up Kevin and tells him that if anything has happened to his son, there’ll be war. He even accuses the Harrigans of using Tommy to get him to back out of the fentanyl business. Kevin stands his ground while coming to the realization that his own son has left out some important details of his night out. He calls Harry again to deal with this new update, thereby forcing him to end his conversation with Jan. That said, he does tell her to book a couples’ therapy session, which means that he is either apologetic about his actions or he is actually trying to be a better person. Will that be enough to save Harry and Jan’s marriage? We’ll see in the next few episodes.
Harry Meets Richie
Since things have gotten really serious, Harry fills in Conrad about everything that has been going on with the Stevensons and decides to set up a meeting at Moody’s gym with Richie. Conrad approves this decision, but he tells Harry to take his associates with him so that they can kill Richie if he gets too feisty. Harry brings in Zosia and Kiko to the meeting and tells them to wait in the van until they get the signal to spring into action. By the way, Moody, the owner of the gym where the meeting is happening, has an interesting policy. He takes 50 grand from either party, and if they behave properly for the next 48 hours, they get their money back in full. I am guessing that that’s rare, which is why Moody is still in this business.
Speaking of the meeting, Richie starts off on an aggressive note, while Harry and Moody try to keep things on the downlow. It’s only after Harry promises that he is going to personally speak to Eddie and get to the bottom of this whole situation that Richie says something agreeable: he gives Harry and the Harrigans around 18 hours to drop Tommy in his lap, or else things will get bloody. Harry accepts this offer, but when he exits the gym, he calls up Conrad and asks him if they should take out Richie because there’s a chance that Tommy is dead. So, if the Harrigans kill Richie now, they’ll be avoiding an all-out war and establishing their dominance. It seems like Conrad wants to put a bullet in Richie’s head, but Maeve “saves” Richie largely because she wants to look him in the face when they kill him.
Conrad Kills Archie
At the end of MobLand episode 1, Kevin, Seraphina (Conrad’s daughter), Brendan (Conrad and Maeve’s eldest son), O’Hara (the Harrigans’ family lawyer), and Archie show up for a meeting with Conrad and Maeve. Before heading over to the living room for the chat, Maeve tells Conrad that Archie is a traitor and he is probably working for Richie. Conrad doesn’t believe it, so Maeve tells him to bring up the topic of fentanyl and notice what Archie does. Initially, Conrad talks about how they are doing great business, thanks to the work done by the people in that room. And then he talks about expanding their reach via the fentanyl business. So, from what I understood, Conrad is letting the Mexicans and the Stevensons destroy each other in an attempt to get the top spot when it comes to selling fentanyl. When they hit rock bottom, Conrad plans to enter the market and undercut them by selling at a lower price, thereby earning enough money to fund his expansion program.
As predicted by Maeve, Archie says that Conrad should just let Richie handle the fentanyl business. That’s apparently enough for Conrad to bring out his gun and shoot Archie in the chest. When Maeve tries to pacify Conrad, he tells her to keep her hands off him. This reaction can mean one of two things. It’s possible that Conrad is just sad that he has had to kill his old friend for betraying him. Since Richie has hurt Conrad by poaching Archie over to his side, there’s a chance that Conrad is going to hurt him back by doing something to Tommy, if he is alive in the first place, which will inevitably lead to a gang war. It’s also possible that, right after shooting him, Conrad realized that Archie wasn’t a traitor and he had killed an innocent man. Do you want to know who I think the real traitor is? It’s Maeve. She saved Richie from getting sniped. She has gotten Archie killed, which has made Conrad emotionally vulnerable. Maybe when the time is right, she is going to go in for the kill and become the queen of London. Let’s see if my prediction ends up being right in the upcoming few weeks. What are your thoughts on that ending though? Is Archie the traitor or Maeve? Let me know in the comments section.
