MobLand season 1 episode 7, "Crossroads," might be my favorite of the season thus far, as it finally brings us into the heart of this crime family war. Spoilers below.
While episode 6 kept us glued to the screen for its revelatory insight in the wake of Vron’s (Annie Cooper) death, this week’s episode brings some heated action that is heart-pounding, nerve-wracking, and full of absolute carnage. Brendan (Daniel Betts) only thought he saw carnage as he and Seraphina (Mandeep Dhillon) were being kidnapped, but he has no idea what awaits him.
Episode 7 on Paramount+ has a lot going on, but our main focus is, of course, on Brendan and Seraphina, as well as Harry’s (Tom Hardy) efforts to find and save them, which also yields total f-ing carnage. Before we recap that, let’s set the stage.
Bella (Lara Pulver) defies Harry’s request to put her business with Antoine (Grégoire Colin) aside and arranges a meeting for him with the Home Secretary. Why? We still don’t know. Kevin (Paddy Considine) considers taking action to locate the monster from his past, Rusby (Nigel Lindsay). Eddie (Anson Boon) develops an intimate relationship with Harry's daughter, and lastly, Alice (Emily Barber) continues using Jan (Joanne Froggat) to get closer to the Harrigans. Now, let’s dive into the heart of what happened in MobLand episode 7.
There’s a rat in the family
Episode 7 opens with Harry arriving at the warehouse where Brendan and Seraphina were making their deal, but they aren’t there. In fact, the only things that are there are dead bodies and the word WAR written in blood on the floor.
After learning of his children’s kidnapping, Conrad prepares for nuclear war. Maeve fakes being upset and rushes off to call Richie (Geoff Bell), who no longer cares about his old friendship with the matriarch, telling her he took Brendan as insurance then ending their call.
The Harrigan family lawyer arrives with one message: There’s a rat in the family. Not only was Harry recently detained for no reason, but also, the police were tipped off on where to find Archie’s (Alex Jennings) body, and now someone sold out Brendan and Seraphina to Richie. Clearly, there’s a rat, but we’ve known that, haven’t we?
Maeve works hard to place emphasis on Harry while Conrad leans towards Jan being the rat. It’s sad he can’t sense what’s right under his nose.
Brendan and Seraphina face absolute carnage from Richie
Richie has kidnapped both siblings… actually, he called the Lopezes (Mexican cartel), who had the Moroccans do it since they were in Antwerp. The Moroccans then transported them to Amsterdam, to Jaime Lopez’s (Jordi Mallà), who runs the cartel.
Jaime tells the siblings he used to see Conrad as all powerful, but now, he’s just an old, chaotic madman who has wronged Jaime’s business associate, and who's about to be taught a lesson.
As Brendan and Seraphina sit in a warehouse strapped to chairs, Jaime calls Richie, who then sends a video link to Conrad, Maeve, and Kevin. He has given them a front row seat to the death of their own family members.
To their shock and horror, the Harrigans watch as a grisly scene full of absolute carnage unfold when a cartel member takes a chainsaw to Brendan’s neck and, we assume, proceeds to saw off his head . While we don’t see the gore, we feel the intensity of it in the gush of blood that spatters across Seraphina’s face as she screams in pure terror.
Harry indebts himself to the devil
Kevin needs Harry's help to stop his siblings' death, and here’s where we meet a new character: Kat McAllister (Janet McTeer). All we know about her is that she's extremely powerful and widely feared, and she is someone from Harry’s past. We can tell how much it pains Harry to ask her for a favor, and we absolutely get the sense he’s just indebted himself to the devil.
He needs her to stop Jaime from killing the Harrigan siblings, and apparently, she’s the only one who can do that. Kat delights in this as she tells Harry, “You owe me.”
Just before Seraphina meets her fate with the chainsaw, Jaime’s phone rings and her death is called off, much to Richie’s dismay. The look on Harry’s face after he hangs up with Kat lets us know that, in addition to being 100% loyal to the Harrigans, no one else is in a more dangerous position than the one he just placed himself in.
MobLand episode 7 review
As a hardcore fan of crime dramas and gore, this episode was my favorite, but not just for the gore. Everyone is on the edge of the edge, and tensions are running high.
We’ve learned that Harry’s life goes much deeper beyond the Harrigans and his own family, and he indeed is in the most dangerous position by episode 7 after sticking his neck out to protect them. While we don’t exactly know who Kat McAllister is to him yet, we do know she’s dangerous, and Harry is hesitant to open that door for her to enter.
I’m also loving watching Maeve slither around methodically and strike at random just as much as I’m loving seeing her squirm when her efforts backfire. She lays it on thick in episode 7, but is it thick enough to continue duping those around her?
Lastly, I have to say, it’s annoying that we still don’t know what game Bella is playing. We’re 7 episodes in and still have no idea what her end goal is. This whole subplot, at least for now, feels superfluous and irrelevant, but we’ll see what these last 3 episodes of the season yield as they unfold.
MobLand releases new episodes on Sundays on Paramount+.