Episode 4 of MobLand was largely about the Harrigans waiting to see whether or not Richie had fallen for the ruse that Valjon had killed Tommy, while also trying to figure out who had leaked the location of Archie’s body to the police. During this period, Maeve cast a lot of doubt on the Da Souzas, causing Conrad to meet Jan face-to-face and tell her to not go yapping about the work that Harry does for the Harrigans. Conrad’s visit worried Harry, because he knew that if the trust between them was gone, it was game over for the Da Souzas. In addition to that, the episode featured a bunch of revelations. The first one was about the fact that Bella used to be part of Conrad’s harem until Maeve put a stop to it and got her married to Kevin. The second one was about Eddie killing Tommy on Maeve’s orders because the old-timer was sick and tired of Conrad’s apathy, which was hurting their business, according to her, and she wanted to stir things up to get her husband feeling lively and alert again. And the third one was about Alice, Jan’s friend from therapy, being an undercover cop! The waiting and the scandalous gossiping came to an end when Richie called the Harrigans’ bluff by inviting them to Tommy’s funeral. What happened next? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Conrad Calls For A Meeting
Episode 5 of MobLand opens with Kevin and Harry addressing the preposterousness of this whole affair, about not only going to a Stevenson funeral but also attending Tommy’s wake at Richie’s house. Kevin interrupts this train of thought by bringing up the topic of Rusby, the guard from the juvie that Kevin and Harry were in, who had sodomized Kevin and is now in the same old-age home that Maria’s mother is in. Last week, when Harry had mentioned Rusby’s name, Kevin pretended to recall nothing because the man had traumatized him (and maybe even Harry) so much, but his memories of the security guard were clear as day. Now, it seems like Kevin is inching towards getting some closure on this matter by talking about it with Harry. There are some deeper implications of the kind of impact Rusby has had on Harry and Kevin and how that has impacted both of their family lives, which I will address in a bit. For now, let’s bring back the focus to the Harrigans planning to go to Tommy’s funeral.
Conrad calls Harry and Kevin to the Cotswolds. While en route to the Harrigan residence, Harry informs Jan that she needs to attend the aforementioned event with him. Jan doesn’t understand why the Harrigans are walking into what seems like an obvious trap and why she has to attend it when she has nothing to do with the Stevensons. Well, as explained later by Harry to the Harrigans, they are damned if they don’t go to the funeral, and they are damned if they do. If they reject Richie’s invite, it’ll send the message that the Harrigans are guilty, thereby allowing Richie to start a war. If they accept Richie’s invite, it’ll give the Harrigans the chance to delay the inevitable. And since it’s customary for a married man to show up at occasions like these with his partner, even though said partner doesn’t know the bereaved party, Jan has to tag along.
I’m not a big fan of Jan, but the way Joanne Froggatt says that she is willing to go to the funeral since she has been contemplating suicide for a while anyway got a laugh out of me. What’s even funnier is Brendan’s reaction to not being invited to the “council of war” meeting, which is being attended by Conrad, Maeve, Harry, Kevin, and Eddie. The guy is in his boxers and has unwashed dishes in his sink, and he genuinely thinks that he is capable of saying anything worthwhile in a situation as volatile as this. The words that Conrad and Maeve use to describe their son are incredibly funny.
The Harrigans Strategize
Once the Harrigans and Harry are done having breakfast, they begin dissecting what Richie’s invite is about and how they should conduct themselves once they are in Richie’s territory. As per Harry, Richie isn’t going to do a Red Wedding-esque massacre of the Harrigans because the press and the police (Alice, Fisk, and Mukasa) will be there too. Which means that Richie is doing this to show that he is more powerful than the Harrigans. As in, he is trying to prove that even though it’s clear that the Harrigans are guilty, they have to pretend that they are innocent to avert Richie’s wrath. He wants to show the world that the Harrigans cannot “stand on business” and just say that they have killed Tommy, and that they won’t be attending the funeral because they simply don’t care how it reflects on them. Truth be told, the Harrigans can’t actually risk doing something like this because it might impact their already shaky business negatively, and Richie knows that. Hence, he is doing everything he can to push the Harrigans’ buttons without actually doing something drastic like killing Harry.
I don’t want to even address the points raised by that arrogant brat Eddie at this moment because every time he says something, he makes my blood pressure spike. I mean, just listen to him say that the reason Richie didn’t kill Harry is because he “isn’t a Harrigan.” Everybody bloody knows that the Harrigans are what they are currently because of Harry. Yeah, when the Harrigans stepped into the world of crime, Harry was probably not even born. However, the only person who is thinking clearly during the Harrigans’ toughest hour is Harry. Meanwhile, Eddie, the “true Harrigan,” and Maeve, the “Queen Bee,” are messing things up because they think it’ll make their family rich and powerful. I don’t know about Maeve, but Eddie for sure doesn’t have a clue of the kind of trouble he has put this family in.
Apologies for the rant. Getting back to the conversation between Harry and the Harrigans, the former advises everybody to not drink so that they can stay in their senses and in control of their emotions. In addition to that, just to be on the safe side, Harry says that he is going to smuggle some arms and ammunition into Richie’s house so that, if things go sideways, the Harrigans will be able to take down some of the Stevensons and their people with them. Eddie and Maeve try to oppose that as well, probably because they want Conrad, Harry, and Kevin to die if a shootout ensues, thereby making way for Eddie’s ascension to the throne. I don’t know from where they are getting the confidence to wade into treacherous waters unarmed and come out of the whole ordeal without a hole in their head, but I have to commend the consistent display of arrogance and stupidity of the granny and her grandson. Thankfully, Conrad disregards that advice, packs a bag full of guns and grenades, and gives it to Harry.
Brandon, Seraphina, and Rubies
We get a brief scene between Brandon and Seraphina at a gorgeous-as-hell restaurant (if somebody knows the name of this place, please let me know in the comments, and also take me along for lunch or dinner because I, for sure, won’t be able to afford dining there on my own). Previously, Brendan had approached Seraphina with a business proposal, and the latter didn’t take him seriously at all, because Brendan has a history of bad business decisions. When Seraphina told Conrad about Brendan’s plans to impress him by contributing to the family in a productive way, even Conrad told Seraphina only to hear Brendan out, but never commit to working with him or anything like that. That said, at the restaurant, when Brandon pulls out a ruby from Mozambique, Seraphina’s interest is piqued (because she is a jewelry expert).
Since Seraphina is genuinely surprised, Brendan hilariously decides to gloat about his discovery by showing off his wine-tasting skills. The only place where wine tasting has looked cool is the Apple TV+ show Drops of God. Everywhere else, it looks like a bloody joke. But Seraphina doesn’t interrupt Brendan and lets him have his moment. After he is done, Seraphina reveals that, based on the hints that Brendan has provided about the seller of those rubies and the potential buyer, she knows exactly who they are, which is why she thinks that this isn’t a good business prospect.
Brendan continues to try to persuade her, so Seraphina says that she’ll be a part of this project if she gets a 75 percent commission. Brendan isn’t okay with that, but he has no option but to accept Seraphina’s terms, or else he won’t be able to enter Conrad’s good books in this lifetime. I don’t know why I have a feeling that this ruby-related stuff is going to lead to a massive debacle. I am not sure who is getting the short end of the stick yet. Maybe Brendan is both about to go down and take Seraphina with him. Or Brendan will try to use this arrangement to humiliate Seraphina and prove to Conrad that he isn’t the weakest link in the Harrigan household. What do you think this ruby business is leading to? Let me know in the comments section below.
Harry Meets Freddie
While Kevin remembers his painful memories of being sexually abused by Rusby, which I will address in a bit (don’t worry), Harry goes to meet Freddie, one of Richie’s men, at a pub. Now, at first glance I thought this was where Harry was going to indicate that he was working against the Harrigans and was walking them into a trap that had been sprung by Richie. Because we didn’t see what happened between the moment when Harry killed Valjon and when he called up Kevin to tell him about Richie’s funeral invite. So, I assumed something must have happened offscreen, like Richie promised Harry that he’ll protect his wife and daughter from Conrad after Maeve sowed the seeds of doubt in Conrad’s mind regarding a mole in their midst who was leaking information to the police. Yeah, that’s not the case at all.
Harry is meeting Freddie because he wants the latter to smuggle his arms and ammunition into the Stevenson household and keep it in a place where it won’t even accidentally be discovered by Richie and his men but will still be easily accessible to Harry and the Harrigans. Now, why would Freddy do Harry a favor and jeopardize his position in Richie’s army? That’s because Harry has proof of the fact that Freddie has been having an affair with Vron. If Freddie doesn’t do Harry’s bidding, he’ll reveal Freddie’s secrets to Richie, and then Freddie will probably be tortured to death.
What does Freddie do? Of course, he puts the bag full of guns and grenades in a discreet location in Richie’s house and tells Harry how to get to it when they are in the Stevenson residence for the wake. But this is a big risk that Harry took, right? I mean, Freddie could’ve put the Harrigans in a vulnerable spot by not giving them their weapons and watched the information about his affair with Vron die with the Harrigans and Harry if Richie launched an attack on them. Since that’s a very big “if,” and Harry was confident about Richie not doing anything drastic at his son’s funeral, I suppose he decided to roll the dice on Freddie. Well, good for Harry that his gamble worked out and he was able to arm the Harrigans to the teeth during the wake.
Eddie, Kevin, and Harry’s Prickly Dynamic
Coming to the funeral and the wake (where Hitchcock’s theory of treating tension like an elastic band is used so beautifully), three major things are happening simultaneously. Firstly, Richie is trying to intimidate the Harrigans; Conrad, to be specific. Secondly, Maeve and Eddie are trying to exacerbate the conflict between the Stevensons and the Harrigans by constantly irritating Vron. And thirdly, there’s a subtle rift forming between Kevin and Harry because of Bella’s feelings for Harry and her lack of trust in Kevin. But there’s a fourth thing happening between Kevin, Harry, and Eddie, which I suppose has everything to do with Rusby. Yes, that’s correct. I think that one of the main reasons why Eddie hates Harry and Kevin is because they have kind of made him their punching bag for all the repressed feelings they have for having a hard time at juvie.
It’s sort of obvious that Harry and Kevin have constructed these uber-masculine, tough-guy personas to hide the fact that someone took advantage of them in their youth. Kevin thinks that his weaknesses have been passed down to his son, and he needs to “toughen him up” so that he doesn’t go around acting like an idiot. Since there’s a theory that Eddie is Harry’s son (because of Harry’s probable affair with Bella, which, if true, will make Eddie’s taunts at Harry not being a Harrigan pretty ironic), maybe even Harry thinks that he needs to “toughen him up”. And this combined anti-idiotic bullying has affected Eddie negatively, thereby prompting him to side with his grandmother.
As much as I hate Eddie—and I did laugh at the scenes of Tom Hardy and Paddy Considine constantly antagonizing Anson Boon, who BTW is giving a brilliant performance, especially in that nail scissors moment—I think this goes to show that you need to process your traumas before starting a family. Because once the kid has entered this world, there’s no way to “control” them. The more you control them, the worse they get, and eventually they become the very thing that you fear. Anyway, when Kevin and Harry notice that Eddie and Maeve are tag-teaming to incite the Stevensons, Kevin puts some kind of a sleeping pill in Maeve’s champagne glass while Harry advises Eddie to go home. Richie prevents the Harrigans from taking Eddie somewhere safe, though, because he needs to hash out a few things with them.
Vron Is Dead
At the end of MobLand episode 5, Conrad, Kevin, Harry, Richie, Ollie, and Charlie retire to one of the many rooms in the Stevenson household—with Kevin and Harry totally expecting Richie to do something drastic—to talk about Tommy’s death. Straight off the bat, Richie addresses the genocide being committed by Israel against the Palestinians, to which Conrad says that he doesn’t care about somebody else’s war. Now, this seems like a throwaway reference, but I think there’s a point to it, which I’ll circle around to in a bit. Richie says that he is well aware of the fact that Valjon didn’t kill Tommy; Eddie is the murderer. But Richie is willing to let bygones be bygones so long as Conrad ensures that Eddie isn’t seen alone anywhere in London, the United Kingdom, or the rest of the planet. If he shows his ugly mug anywhere, Richie is going to have him killed. Conrad doesn’t verbally agree to these terms, but I think he has no option but to abide by the rules set by Richie.
Later on, we see Maeve waking up from her medically induced slumber and assuming that Vron had her “roofied” at the party after insulting her looks. So, she orders Paul to plant a bomb in Vron’s car, and the following day, the moment she starts the car, it goes up in flames (very The Godfather-esque). Vron is dead. Maeve has officially started the gang war. Blood will be shed, and Maeve and Eddie will be responsible for it. With all that out of the way, allow me to dissect this explosion. For starters, when I saw that white car in the driveway of the Stevensons, when the Harrigans were entering the house for the wake, I immediately knew that it was about to go up in flames and take a Stevenson or a Harrigan with it. Because if you have seen the opening credits as many times as I have, you must have noticed a car on fire and recognized it. Hence, the revelation that it belongs to Vron got me to clutch my head because I knew what was about to happen as soon as she entered it.
Then there’s the case of Maeve. I think she is an idiot with way too much self-confidence. Or else why would she immediately assume that Vron had spiked her drink instead of her own son, who handed her the bloody drink? She had already set her sights on Vron; she envied her for her youth or her curtains, and she just needed a half-baked reason to kill her. She doesn’t care if she is right or wrong. She just wants a gang war because she thinks it’ll give her and the Harrigans the power they deserve. She doesn’t care if her methods will yield the right results. She just wants to kill.
And that brings me back to the Jews-Arabs reference. If you think about it, the Stevensons have done nothing. They have been doing business just like the Harrigans have. It’s not the Stevensons’ fault that the Harrigans are lagging behind. However, the Stevensons are not doing anything unfair yet. Maeve and Eddie went out of their way to kill Tommy, and now Maeve has killed Vron. Just because we’ve been watching this whole show from the perspective of the Harrigans and the Da Souzas, we are rooting for them to protect their business and their families. Should we, though? Especially after this? The Harrigans are not the victims. They are the aggressors. The Stevensons are the victims. The only thing they are doing is reacting to acts of instigation. Richie has been polite so far. I mean, it takes a special kind of patience to not retaliate after one’s son’s death, and the Harrigans haven’t even respected that, and they’ve gone ahead and killed his wife! If Kevin, Harry, and Conrad rush to defend Maeve and Eddie, they’ll lose all the reputation they’ve garnered over the years (or the last few episodes). If they give up the granny and her grandson to Richie and let him punish them as he sees fit, the Harrigans will recover some of their lost aura. If not, they are the villains of MobLand in my eyes.
