This post contains spoilers from MobLand season 1 episode 8, "Helter Skelter."
Finally, we’re getting somewhere with MobLand season 1! Episode 8 reeks of disorder and confusion, foreshadowing two major bombshells, and if you aren’t paying full attention, you just might miss them.
Episode 8 takes us deep into the aftermath of episode 7's carnage. Harry (Tom Hardy) brings Seraphina (Mandeep Dhillon) home, where she plays right into Maeve’s (Helen Mirren) web. Maeve works to convince Kevin (Paddy Considine) that Seraphina is a threat. Harry learns that Eddie (Anson Boon) is sleeping with his daughter, and we uncover more about who Kat McAllister (Janet McTeer) is.
Meanwhile, Conrad (Pierce Brosnan) tries to assert his control when he asks Bella (Lara Pulver) to spy on Kevin and questions Jan (Joanne Froggatt) about Alice (Emily Barber). He also sees an opportunity to ice Richie (Geoff Bell) out of the fentanyl game, and additionally, the cops make a deadly move.
Let’s take a deeper look at what happens in episode 8 of the Paramount+ series in this week’s recap.
Seraphina returns
Seraphina returns home, and while Conrad is relieved to see her, Maeve is not. After recounting what happened in Antwerp, Conrad consoles her as Kevin reassures her nothing is her fault.
Maeve slithers in quietly and glares at Seraphina, who tearfully apologizes for Brendan’s (Daniel Betts) death. Maeve moves closer to embrace her, telling Seraphina that her willingness to help Brendan makes her “truly and always a Harrigan.” While she takes Maeve’s “comforting stepmother” bait, Harry sees through the bulls*** and knows it spells trouble.
Who is Kat McAllister?
Conrad and Kevin are shocked that Harry knows Kat. Harry reveals that two years ago, she tried to recruit him to do some work for her. He said no. He knew if he crossed the Harrigans, he’d be dead within a week: “That’s just business.”
Conrad says a man thinks twice before picking up the phone to call Kat McAllister, so that tells us right away she’s a heavy hitter who’s likely at the tip top of the criminal world. No one goes near her, and everyone (respectfully) fears her. On the other hand, Conrad now sees who Harry is precisely because he picked up that phone. He might’ve lost a son in Antwerp, but he also gained one in Harry – one he now uses as a pawn to get what he wants out of Kat.
Conrad sees an opportunity
In light of Jaime betraying Richie, Conrad sees an opportunity: The enemy of my enemy is my friend. He plans to ice Richie out of the fentanyl game and take his place, then together, he, Jaime, and Kat will reign over that empire. Kevin doesn't like it, and neither does Harry.
This means one of two things: Either Conrad’s head is fully in the game, or he’s planning further untold carnage. He dispatches Harry to rope Kat into brokering the deal, which means Harry must, once again, indebt himself to the devil, on behalf of Conrad.
MobLand episode 8 bombshells
Harry meets with Kat, who agrees to the deal, then he goes to see Freddie (Bradley Turner). Harry tells him that the king is dead: “Conrad isn’t running things anymore. Maeve is, and she’s a dangerous lunatic. Kevin and I are taking over … [and] we need you.”
Freddie agrees and gives up the deets on the fentanyl, revealing the first bombshell. Archie (Alex Jennings) was never involved in The Fire (the Stevenson-controlled gang in the fentanyl trade), but an actual Harrigan was. While we don’t hear who, we know it’s major, because Harry throws Freddie off the top level of a parking garage as a result.
The second bombshell comes right out of Maeve’s mouth, when she reveals there is another Harrigan brother. After drugging Seraphina and putting her to bed, Maeve works hard to make Kevin think his half-sister is maneuvering for the Harrigan throne, but he doesn't buy it. “If there’s an heir to this throne," Maeve says, "it’s not her. It’s either you or your brother.”
When Kevin reminds her Brendan is dead, Maeve says, “I mean your other brother.”
Cops make a deadly move
The Yard brings in Colin Tattersall (Toby Jones), a retired detective from the Organized Crime division, to help with the Harrigan case. He knows them and the Stevensons all too well – he put Richie away twice. As such, he tells Mukasa (Gemma Knight Jones) and Fisk (Luke Mably) that all they need to do is align themselves with Richie.
Mukasa and Fisk take the bait and go to see Richie, who sniffs out their plan from a mile away. He knows if he doesn’t own them, they’ll own him, so after they make their case, he kills them with a bullet to the head and one to the chest. Afterwards, he walks into another room where Tattersall is waiting, and after it is confirmed that Richie is in control, a deal is made. It seems Tattersall and Richie are more than enemies.
MobLand episode 8 review
Episode 8 sees big, confusing moves made at every turn... Helter Skelter. With Harry indebting himself to the devil again, it makes two favors he now owes, and we get the eerie sense he could wind up paying with his life in some way.
The bombshells: We know that whichever Harrigan has been working with The Fire is someone important, because Harry wouldn’t kill Freddie over just anyone. Who would he kill over? I think Jan, his kid, and Maeve. It would be imperative no one find out if Maeve is the rat.
As for this “other brother,” I find it suspicious that Eddie enters the room directly after Maeve says this. What if Eddie isn’t Kevin’s son but is Conrad’s son with Bella? That could be why, upon breaking things off with her, Conrad pushed Bella into a relationship with Kevin. He wanted to keep his (new) son nearby. It would also explain why Maeve has continuously used Eddie and referred to him as “a true Harrigan.”
MobLand releases new episodes on Sundays on Paramount+.