Netflix’s new crime thriller series The Gentlemen marks the debut of Guy Ritchie in the format, as the English filmmaker builds on the criminal world of his 2019 film by the same name. The focus of the story this time around is on Eddie Horniman, who suddenly inherits his family estate and apparently dwindling wealth, only to realize that something very unlawful has been going on inside the estate for a long time. The Gentlemen does not end up being anything extraordinary or totally new, but its execution and the ever-present comedic touches make the series very entertaining.
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Plot Summary: What is the Netflix series about?
The Gentlemen begins somewhere on the border roads between Turkiye and Syria, where the protagonist, Eddie Horniman, is serving as a soldier as part of a UN operation. Eddie’s job is to command a troop in the border region, regularly checking each vehicle that passes on to both sides. But the job is interrupted when he sees a known face roll up to the place in a car, for it is his family attorney, Ahmed Iqbal. Ahmed informs that Eddie’s father, the present Duke of Halstead, is in critical condition after having suffered a fall. Repeated calls made to Eddie by his family could not get him informed about the situation, so the eldest sibling, Freddy, sent the lawyer to bring Eddie back home to England. The protagonist immediately follows suit and gets to meet his father, Archibald, who still complains about the young man’s decision to not be invested in the family business and play around with his life in the army instead. Archibald passes away within a few hours, leaving his wife and children devastated but also eyeing the long-awaited prize—the family estate and fortune.
After the funeral service is over, the family is gathered by Ahmed to read out Archibald’s last will, and it is expected that the eldest son, Freddy, will inherit all the wealth and property. This has been the custom in the Horniman family for centuries, and the title of Duke of Halstead is also expected to be given to Freddy, until a shocking twist is revealed. Ahmed reads out the will to state that the title, property, and estate have all been left in the name of the younger son, Eddie, and he is to become the sole proprietor of the legacy. Freddy immediately enters a state of rage, only to be calmed down in some time, for he desperately needs his brother’s help. Believing that he would inherit all the family wealth one day, Freddy developed a horrific gambling habit, due to which he has a lot of debt in his name. He soon asks Eddie for help with the matter, but the younger brother is unsure how to go about it.
However, the sudden inheritance is not the only surprise awaiting Eddie Horniman, for he soon learns a very different truth. At his father’s funeral, Eddie spotted a young woman in the distance, attending the ceremony yet not interacting with the family members. Now that he is officially announced as the new Duke of Halstead, the woman comes and makes introductions with him, revealing her name to be Susie Glass. In fact, Susie is the daughter of notorious marijuana drug lord Bobby Glass, and since her father is currently in prison, Susie has been running the operations of the whole business. As it turns out, Susie had been running a large marijuana production unit inside the Halstead estate, and she now makes a new deal with Eddie to continue the same.
How does Freddy cause more trouble for his family?
The Freddy situation is the first major crisis that comes Eddy Horniman’s way after he inherits his family wealth and his illegal family business. Freddy is addicted not only to gambling, placing absolutely mindless bets and enormous wagers, but he is also hooked on cocaine and other hard drugs, which obviously further hampers his judgments. As a result of the drug-fueled frenzy, Freddy now owes 8 million pounds to a dangerous lender named Tommy Dixon, which he had intended to pay back with the family fortune. Therefore, Eddy has to reveal the matter to Susie, and it is she who uses her father’s influence to cut out a deal with Tommy. Only the original loan amount of 4 million pounds is to be paid, along with a few batches of alcohol and marijuana, accompanied by a video of Freddy being shot in which he has to dance around in a chicken costume.
Despite the obvious humiliation involved with the plan, Freddy agrees to it and is rather cordial with Tommy and his companion, Jethro, who has come only to count the money. However, he is unable to take the repeated insults and jeers by Tommy, and in the heat of the moment, he shoots the money lender dead with a family gun. This causes a massive problem for the Hornimans, for Tommy’s own brother happens to be a notorious cocaine dealer known as Gospel John, named so because he also runs a dangerous religious cult. The only witness to the murder, Jethro, is made a part of Eddie’s plan, as he appoints the help of Susie and makes the whole scene look like Jethro had killed Tommy and had run off with the 4 million pounds. Eddie ensures that Jethro leaves England and will never return, but unbeknownst to him, Susie actually gets Jethro killed, for she does not want to take any chances.
Gospel John does arrive at the Halstead estate with his men, but he is rather easy to convince that Tommy had indeed come to the place and then left with the money and the video of Freddy. However, towards the end of The Gentlemen, Susie decides to put Eddie in trouble, and so she tells Gospel John that his brother had been murdered by the current Duke and his brother. This makes the cult leader return to the estate with his entire army of followers, intending to kill Freddy and his family for revenge. It is Bobby Glass who manages to save the situation, as he tells Gospel John to step away, and the latter has to follow the order since Bobby is the most respected and feared drug lord in the country.
What is Stanley Johnston’s real intention?
Stanley Johnston arrives on the scene as a potential buyer interested in owning the entire Halstead estate, and he first makes contact through a letter to Eddie. The focus of the letter is on the fact that Eddie did not want to have anything to do with his family inheritance at first, but since he has changed his mind, the protagonist does not respond to the letter. Soon, Johnston sends his secretary, Stevens, to the Halstead estate with a considerable amount of money, which is offered to Eddie only to meet with the businessman. During their first meeting, Johnston tells Eddie about how he is very interested in British aristocracy, history, and culture, for which he wants to buy the estate and make it part of his fancy collection. However, once Susie Glass hears about this new development, it is revealed that Johnston is actually a drug dealer as well, running a huge meth empire.
It becomes clear that the real intention of Johnston in wanting to buy over the estate is simply to get hold of the space that is currently used for the production of marijuana. Johnston knows all about the link between drug gangs and the aristocratic families in England, and he is also aware of the lucratively large shelter inside the Halstead estate that can be used for the production of any drugs. Therefore, Johnston wants to buy out the property and use the shelter to produce his own methamphetamine supply, essentially wanting to oust the Glass family and take their place. As Eddie refuses to make any deal, irrespective of the tremendously high price he was paying, Johnston appoints a different strategy to dry out the Glass’ marijuana business. He appoints two young women to steal supplies from the warehouse and destroy stocks, which are all done with the help of the simple-minded worker, Jimmy, whom one of the women, Gabrielle, brings under her charm. Thus, it was Johnston who got the truck full of marijuana stolen from Jimmy and who then also robbed the cash from the warehouse. The man had also bought over henchmen who oversaw the marijuana trade in foreign countries like Belgium and attempted to block the business in this way.
When Gabrielle is finally caught and Johnston’s original plan fails, he makes his strategy very direct and clearly demands Eddie. By this time, Eddie had also approached Johnston for help, and the latter took full advantage of the scenario to ask for a list of the names of all the noble families owning estates that were being used for drug production. With information about this network, Johnston would easily be able to expand his business. Towards the end of The Gentlemen, Eddie is seen handing over an entire list of the names of noble families with criminal ties, seemingly giving all control to Stanley Johnston.
Why do Eddie and Susie doubt each other?
Despite Eddie having to work with Susie Glass from the very beginning of his time as the Duke, and despite Susie being his advisor in every matter, the protagonist always remains part of the Glass family. Eddie desperately wants his family to get out of these criminal ties, and so his very first demand is to end the partnership with Bobby Glass within a year. Because of the gradual developments in the business, Eddie wants to shorten the time of their partnership further, and Susie states that her family would part ways once an amount of fifteen million pounds had been laundered. The tension and doubts between the two characters start to take a very real shape when Eddie directly approaches Henry Collins with the matter. Collins is a money launderer who had been introduced to Eddie by Susie Glass herself, but when the Duke approaches the man without informing Susie, things start to go awry.
It is to be remembered that Susie is also not entirely accustomed to the ways of this illegal business, as she started to run it only after the imprisonment of her father. Although she is not as inexperienced as Eddie, Susie also starts to suspect that the Horniman family will make use of her and her family to ultimately abandon them. Therefore, when Henry Collins threatens Susie to sell off the business to him or else have her brother terribly beaten up, she assumes it to be the plan of Eddie. However, the real truth is that Stanley Johnston had hired Collins to make such threats, attempting to buy out the marijuana business while also successfully sowing seeds of doubt between the two families. She then also hears that Eddie has handed over the list of names to Johnston, and this marks the final nail in the coffin.
As a result, Susie betrays Eddie and decides to tell Gospel John all about the murder of his brother, Tommy, and this creates further trouble for the Horniman family. But when Bobby Glass gets to know of his daughter’s impulsive act, he is enraged and has to finally step in, bringing a certain feud to an unexpected end. Eddie and Susie both realize how their doubts about each other have been cleverly used by their enemies, and they have a meeting with Bobby, in which he reveals that he wants to finally sell off the marijuana business.
Who gets to keep the marijuana business?
Although Bobby’s sudden decision to sell off the business he had dedicated his entire life to is a bit odd, Eddie and Susie diligently try to find interested buyers who would be ready to pay the enormous amount of money being asked. Although Eddie had been trying to distance his family from crime and illegalities, his easy relationship with violence and similar drastic steps already made it seem like he pretty much enjoyed running such a business. Now that the business is being sold off, it becomes clear that Eddie’s only problem was with someone else running the trade and him having to work for the Glass family. Thus, he now wants to buy the marijuana business himself, and he manages to get Susie on his side, despite her initial unwillingness to buy her father’s drug empire. However, the two together also cannot fend off the other interested buyers, and since Bobby will sell to whoever offers the highest price, Eddie comes up with an exorbitant plan.
The list that Eddie had given to Johnston was completely false, as the phone numbers mentioned were fake, and he had his family members receive all the calls. Instead, Eddie managed to get hold of Johnston’s tax evasion details in the process of this ploy, and he now calls the IRS on the man, getting Johnston immediately arrested and out of the scene. Along with Johnston, Eddie, and Susie had also given the offer of buying the marijuana business to three others—Sticky Pete, the bookie who used to cheat Freddy Horniman; Mercy, the owner of a large car smuggling trade; and Henry Collins, the money launderer who had been working with Johnston earlier. Right after the arrest of Johnston, Eddie tells Mercy that although Sticky Pete had won the bid, he was yet to gather the money, and so if something was to happen to him, she would get the deal since her bid was the second-highest. As expected, Mercy kills Sticky Pete, only to be eliminated by Henry Collins, who had been told a similar lie. None of the competitors actually knew that Eddie and Susie were also in the running, and so they were easily convinced against each other. Finally, Eddie gets Collins kidnapped and kept hostage at his house, while his and Susie’s bid is accepted by Bobby, and they are about to become the new owners of the business.
During The Gentlemen‘s ending, Bobby Glass finally reveals his real intention, stating that he has no desire to sell the business but has made this whole plan only to get Eddie and Susie more invested in it, both financially and in terms of their commitment to running it. Eddie is seen killing Collins, as there is truly no need to keep him alive any more, and instead of being able to end the partnership or own the business completely, he has now invested a great deal of money in it, becoming a stakeholder in the Bobby Glass marijuana business. The Gentlemen ends with a scene directly from prison, where Bobby Glass and Stanley Johnston have become good friends after the latter has been put up at the same place for tax evasion. Perhaps the two might start a different partnership, and we might see more of Eddie and Susie if the show returns for a second season.
