You see, mob business is never about the money. It’s always about respect. And for an outsider like Harry Da Souza, earning that respect means the world to him. His loyalty lies with the Harrigans, but he’s not a lap dog. He’s a fixer, which shouldn’t be confused with an errand boy or a lackey. Harry is what Mike McLusky was to Kingstown. Many people confuse Mike for a broker, or a middleman, but in reality, he’s the mayor of Kingstown. I won’t bother you with the many similarities between Mike and Harry because the list is endless, but I will tell you this: there are two mottos Mike lives by: never start a war, and always be the one who ends it. So, Conrad, Maeve, and of course, Eddie, in their utter stupidity and greed, started this “nuclear war” with Richie Stevenson, just to take over his fentanyl business.
Maybe in a very different time, Conrad and Maeve’s grand plan might have worked, but like Harry told Freddie, the king is dead, and Maeve is a lunatic. It’s just a nice way of saying that Conrad and Maeve’s days are numbered. They are old and weary, making all sorts of reckless decisions as a show of their power, and it’s just about time for them to lose their minds completely, which means someone calm and composed has to take over the reins. And many of you may think that Harry wants the throne for himself, especially because he had been acting all mysterious of late, but that’s not who Harry Da Souza is. I don’t think Harry wants to be the king. He’s the kingmaker, which makes me believe that once he has got rid of Conrad and Maeve, he is going to make Kevin the head of the Harrigan family, while he himself will be working from the sidelines like always.
Out of all the people in the family, it’s only Kevin who can see the flaws and faults in his father’s declining reign. He and Harry had very nearly prevented a war with the Stevensons by convincing Richie that it wasn’t Eddie who killed his son. However, Conrad and Maeve in their madness literally blew up the truce by placing a bomb in Vron’s car. Harry knew it was a misstep because he was the one who had told Freddie earlier that even though they were gangsters, they shouldn’t stoop so low as to target family. Maybe that’s the reason why Harry wasn’t happy being with the Harrigans, as mentioned by both Jaime and Richie in Mobland episode 9. You see, Harry could bring down an entire army to prove his loyalty, but being a man with a backbone, he preferred to be on the right side of things. In Richie’s case, it was Conrad who broke the rules and paid the price with a son.
It is likely that, moments before his death, Freddie told Harry that the mole in the Harrigan family was none other than Maeve, because she was constantly leaking information to his boss, Richie. Maeve had told Richie that Harry wasn’t happy with the Harrigans, and therefore she assumed that he would betray them sooner or later. Maybe that was why Richie threatened Harry to step aside so he could destroy the Harrigans to avenge his son’s murder. I am assuming the moment Freddie revealed the identity of the mole to Harry, the latter quickly connected the dots and deduced that Maeve had tried to frame him for Archie’s murder because she wanted him gone, just like Archie, Tommy, Seraphina and Vron. Though I am still not sure why Harry threw Freddie off the building and why he fixed a meeting with the family lawyer O’Hara Delaney the next day. Maybe he had a plan in mind to deal with Maeve and force her out of the picture, and to add to his luck, Alice, an undercover police officer showed up at the Harrigans’ house to plant DNA so Colin Tattersall could frame Conrad and Maeve for the murder of DS Ivan Fisk and DC Mukasa. If Harry wanted, he could have stopped Alice from doing so, but he didn’t, because he too wanted Conrad and Maeve gone, at least for the time being.
I think there’s a reason why we get to see those flashbacks from Kevin’s past, especially the part about how he met Harry in Newgate Prison. Because it’s not Conrad who brought him into the business. It was Kevin, which makes me believe that Harry is comparatively more loyal to Kevin than he is to Conrad. But this doesn’t mean that Harry’s going to let Kevin disrespect him if he decides to turn out like his father. During the brief exchange with Eddie in episode 8, Harry made it quite clear: if he can put a crown on someone’s head, then he can dethrone them as well if they dare cross the line.
So, with Maeve and Conrad out of the picture, Harry, with O’Hara’s help, is going to make Kevin the head of the operation so as to move forward with the fentanyl deal. As of now, Kevin’s a safe bet for Harry, mostly because he doesn’t agree with his loudmouth father’s medieval methods of either humiliating his business partners or blowing his enemies up for amusement. However, Harry and Kevin might have a falling out in the future because of Bella, as he suspects his wife of having an affair with Harry. Bella is one of the millions of reasons why Kevin hates his father, because back in the day, she was his mistress, and I think she will become the reason for a clash between the two prison mates. Well, we’ll find out, but as of now, it’s safe to assume that Harry and Kevin are going to take charge of affairs.
