This post contains spoilers from MobLand episode 2, "Jigsaw Puzzle."
The events of episode 1 left Harry Da Souza (Tom Hardy) in quite a tight spot, with multiple problems to fix. It’s no big deal, though, as those places are exactly where he feels right at home and does his best work. As the action escalates and more information unfolds in MobLand episode 2, we learn Brendan (Daniel Betts) is the one Harrigan who’s been out in the cold since he botched several family jobs, but he thinks he’s found a way to earn back his parents’ trust.
Harry’s wife Jan (Joann Froggatt) reaches a breaking point after he misses their therapy session and worries about her family’s safety in the wake of Tommy Stevenson’s (Felix Edwards) disappearance. Also, Harry cleans up the Harrigan family mess, crime boss Richie Stevenson (Geoff Bell) makes a threatening move, Maeve (Helen Mirren) reveals her true colors, and Harry makes a gruesome discovery that is sure to start the war they’ve all been dreading. Here's a recap and review of the episode on Paramount+.
Harry deals with the Harrigan meeting aftermath
When Harry arrives at the family estate, Kevin (Paddy Considine) tells him what happened at the family meeting and suggests Archie’s (Alex Jennings) death was all because of Maeve, that she knew what was coming in the wake of her accusation: “Stick or twist, baby,” she told Conrad before easing out of the line of blood spatter. Kevin feels something is not right, and so does Harry.
After disposing of Archie in the same way that he disposed of evidence in episode 1, Harry goes home, where he remembers when he first met Kevin: They were in juvie together. After crawling into bed, police kick his front door in and arrest him, wanting to know when Harry last saw Archie. Det. Sgt. Fisk (Luke Mably) tells Harry that the Harrigan Express is running out of steam and a lot of people will go down. “I can provide you with a parachute,” he says, but Harry is unfazed.
Back at Conrads’s, Harry feels like Fisk was tipped off, that someone on the inside called the cops. The Harrigans have a weak link, and guess who will be tasked with finding it? When he relays this to Conrad, all he can focus on is whether Harry believes Archie was a traitor. He rants about how he should’ve cut his tongue out, not killed him, and is upset that Archie went behind his back, yes, but he’s more upset to think his oldest friend was a snitch. As such, Conrad wants proof of his treachery, and he tasks Harry with finding it.
Richie makes a threatening move
With his son still missing, Richie is reaching the end of his rope of patience. He and his goons block Kevin on the road and demand Eddie tell Richie to his face that he doesn’t know where Tommy is. He then gives Kevin one hour before he comes for Eddie. So, Kevin hurriedly has Eddie moved to the protection of the Harrigan estate, aka The Cotswolds.
Zosia (Jasmine Jobson) and Kiko (Antonio González Guerrero) barely get Eddie to safety, and on Conrad’s request, Harry goes to Eddie to get the truth any way he can. Harry is calm but brooding and politely intimidating, letting Eddie know he saw the CCTV footage. Eddie tells him he was with Tommy but after they got separated, he never saw him again. Instead of giving him the beating Conrad requested, Harry gives Eddie a rain check then goes to talk with his friends, who confirm Tommy was with them the night of the stabbing and the reason they all got away so quickly was because Eddie knew the owner/manager of the club.
At Richie’s, Harry relays how Conrad does not want a war, so Harry promises to find Tommy. To ensure he does, Richie makes a threatening move and hands him a packet of leverage: photos of Harry’s daughter. Richie says if Tommy isn’t returned that night, he’ll break Harry’s heart in two, “and then I’m going to descend on the Cotswolds like a plague of f-ing locusts.”
Maeve shows her true colors
Maeve is by far my favorite character in MobLand. She lurks and slithers and intimidates with piercing looks and taunting dialogue, so it’s no surprise to learn how much control she has in the Harrigan family. Conrad might be the patriarch, but she is the matriarch who allows him to be, and in reality, it’s she who calls the shots, as we saw in the beginning of episode 2 when Conrad asks her what to do about the fentanyl: “Yes. 100% all the way. You have to follow the money,” she advises.
The day after the family meeting, Kevin and Conrad talk privately in the kitchen. Conrad tells Kevin that in the moment, he might’ve thought Archie was “a grass” (a snitch) but now he isn’t so sure, and before he can say anything else, Maeve interrupts and the energy changes. It seems Maeve is the real puppet master here, and she consistently proves it.
“Your mother means well, but she’s cold,” Maeve tells Eddie in his room. “I raised you and raised you right. A man disrespects you and you take care of it. That’s the Harrigan way. You did good,” she says before asking him how it felt when he plunged his knife into the guy from the bar. Eddie says it felt great, which makes her happy, and she pulls a baggy of cocaine out of her bra and gives it to her grandson.
Conrad later tells Maeve he feels Eddie is a liability, and Maeve shows her true colors when she contradicts him and says Eddie will make a great Harrigan someday, reminding Conrad that she “made all of them,” that Eddie understands who he is as a Harrigan: “an Irish gangster first and an English gentleman second.”
Harry makes a gruesome discovery
Harry, Zosia, and Kiko pay a visit to the club from whence Tommy disappeared. They find then beat and relentlessly question the owner/manager about Tommy, who admits he knows where the lad is and can prove it. He leads them down to storage, where a black chest sits in middle of a locked room.
Inside? Tommy Stevenson’s dismembered body. The owner says it took him three hours to cut Tommy up and wrap his parts in plastic. Impressed by his work, Harry asks if he did this by himself, to which the owner replies, “Yes. My dad was a butcher.” In the wake of this gruesome discovery, it seems we indeed will have an unfortunate war on our hands.
MobLand episode 2 review
Our dynamics are starting to change with MobLand episode 2. Even though Harry is highly trusted and well respected, he’s not untouchable. Series creator Ronan Bennett does a nice job of weaving in his vulnerabilities to this gritty story. It humanizes the fixer and also creates an emotional attachment to him. On the other hand, we have Eddie, who is so arrogant and entitled that we can’t help but feel nothing at all for him and his selfish actions.
So far, the series has worked hard to prevent this impending penultimate crime family war, but episode 2 places that war front and center with the gruesome discovery of Tommy Stevenson, which I must say is neatly done, Guy Richie style. And I love the reference to butchering and pigs, which serves as a massive shoutout to Richie’s hit comedy thriller, Snatch.
Things are just amping up, and we still have eight episodes to go, guys, so expect everything to escalate with intensity as we see more problems, more violence, more arguments, and more plays for power with Maeve, of course, serving as the quiet little puppet master behind the curtain of alleged innocence.
MobLand releases new episodes on Sundays on Paramount+.