MobLand Season 2, Episode 2
Credit: Paramount+
One thing I really love about MobLand is just how much fun they have with the dialogue. This is a show with some very high-octane, heart-pounding action, but its best bits are often quieter moments. There were plenty of both in “Song 2”, the second episode of MobLand’s second season.
Take, for instance, newly minted antagonist Frankie (Johnny Flynn) and his meeting with bent copper, Colin Tattersall (Toby Jones). They meet in a beauty salon, and Frankie opens by examining Colin’s hands and then his feet which aren’t as bad as he expected. He even takes over for the salon worker and cuts Colin’s nails while questioning him about Harry (Tom Hardy) and the fate of Colin’s last criminal pal, Richie, who fared rather badly in his war with the Harrigans.
Colin’s response is a diatribe on François Ravaillac, the Catholic fanatic who assassinated King Henry IV of France on May 14, 1610. Henry had been raised a Huguenot and converted to Catholicism after taking the French throne, famously attempting to end the country’s religious wars with the Edict of Nantes, which granted limited rights to French Protestants. That tolerance, along with Henry’s efforts to consolidate royal power, made him plenty of enemies.
The Assassination Of King Henry IV By The Coward François Ravaillac
Ravaillac was a religious zealot who became convinced that Henry was an enemy of the Catholic faith and that he, Ravaillac, was the guardian of the Pope who, in his twisted delusions, was God on earth. On May 14, 1610, he waited for the king’s carriage near the Louvre. When it became stuck in traffic, leaving Henry exposed, Ravaillac rushed forward and stabbed him twice in the chest. The king died and Ravaillac made no attempt to escape.
Which brings us to the part of the story Tattersall actually cares about: Ravaillac’s execution.
L’écartèlement de François Ravaillac
Public Domain
After being tortured for information about possible accomplices, Ravaillac was subjected to an exceptionally gruesome public execution. The hand that stabbed Henry was burned with sulfur; his flesh was torn with heated pincers, and molten lead, boiling oil, wax and sulfur were poured into his wounds. Finally, he was drawn and quartered by horses, his remains burned and his ashes scattered.
Tattersall’s version differs slightly from accounts I’ve read. In those, the horses struggled to tear Ravaillac apart and members of the crowd actually helped, eventually tearing at his remains themselves with swords, axes and knives, such was their fury and bloodlust. They dragged his remains through the streets, trampling and burning until nothing was left.
Harry And The Four Horses
What an odd story to tell your would-be ally. Tattersall’s point is that Harry is bound to four horses, that he’s being pulled in four directions, and that it will only take a little more pressure to tear him apart. But why use Ravaillac as the example? He’s hardly the only historical figure to be drawn and quartered. Does he mean to suggest that Harry is a fanatic, that his devotion to Conrad is similar to Ravaillac’s devotion to the Pope?
The horses tearing at Harry include: His wife, Jan (Joanne Froggatt) and daughter Gina (Teddie Allen); Conrad (Pierce Brosnan) and Maeve (Helen Mirren) Harrigan; Kevin Harrigan (Paddy Considine); and one that Tattersall doesn’t name. One that he says might surprise people.
The scene turns to Harry showing up at Bella Harrigan’s (Lara Pulver) doorstep. Clearly Tattersall is speaking of Bella, though how he knows that she fancies Harry is beyond me. I suppose that’s just what he does: He schemes and he knows things, like a much less lovable, but more sober, Tyrion Lannister.
The show continues to be rather suggestive about a potential fling between Bella and Harry, and Bella certainly throws herself at him every chance she gets, and in no uncertain terms, telling him last season and again tonight that she’d run away with him. “Just let me pack my bags,” she says, and makes more direct and lewd suggestions later on. Harry, however, doesn’t seem interested in sleeping with his best friend’s wife. Ostensibly, he’s there to discuss their children. And yet . . . I wonder. He clearly cares about her in a way that might go beyond platonic, even if he refuses to take those feelings any further. Harry’s an honorable chap in his own way.
One can hardly blame him – or her, for that matter – for their feelings. Jan wants a divorce. She’s benefited enormously from his criminal endeavors but the moment these cause any inconvenience in her life, she’s out the door and has the audacity to call him “poison” and tell him that he’s worse for his daughter than the scoundrel sociopathic Eddie. It’s worse for Bella, who was Conrad’s plaything before he dumped her on his son. There can be no happiness or trust in that marriage. I feel equally bad for Bella and Kevin.
I feel worse for Harry, who is indeed being torn in many different directions. Four horses is an understatement. Jan is pulling in a very different direction than Gina, for one thing. And Conrad and Maeve are hardly working together 90% of the time. Never get between them, Paul (Emmett J. Scanlan) advises his cousin, and then finds himself there. We can see that clear enough this episode, both in their hilarious conversation over the phone and when Maeve orders Paul to call a vet to put down Conrad’s dogs, though we learn soon enough that she has other machinations at work.
Maeve’s ploy seems to be rather diabolical: Convince Conrad to get Seraphina together to “bury the hatchet” and then poison her with antifreeze, the “advice” the vet unwittingly gives her about how he’d poison someone, her true motive for having Paul fetch the vet in the first place.
Seraphina, of course, has been brewing her own nefarious concoction. She’s been in talks with Kat McAllister (Janet McTeer), and this week appears to be working closely with Donnie (Alex Fine), who remains rather mysterious but is clearly working for Kat. He spends a good portion of the episode trying to get close to Jan as well, and then warns Seraphina to not show up to the meet with Conrad and Maeve. It’s unclear how much she knows, but she must know something is going down and she doesn’t press for answers.
The Fight Comes To The Harrigans
This is when the proverbial manure hits the fan. After a rather calm episode, the last few minutes ratchet up the violence. Tattersall must have convinced Frankie with his speech about regicide and torture, because several well-coordinated hits go down all at once. Paul’s cousin is shot in the head. The two enforcers working for Gina and Eddie (Anson Boon) are taken out, moments before Harry shows up and takes out Frankie’s men. Gina and Eddie have already fled by the time he reaches their flat.
Another crew kidnaps Zosia (Jasmine Jobson) and Frankie himself shows up at Bella and Kevin’s house, his men killing their bodyguards and Frankie breaking down the door to the bathroom where Bella is hiding (Kevin is elsewhere). He calls Conrad at the restaurant, on the restaurant’s phone to let him know that he knows where he is (“Who knows we’re here?” Conrad asks, miffed). Seraphina (Mandeep Dhillon) calls his cell while he’s away and Maeve ignores it, her mind already starting to piece together that something is amiss, and Seraphina is involved – a good outcome as far as Maeve is concerned.
Frankie doesn’t say anything when Conrad answers the phone. He holds his cell in one hand and his pistol in the other, pointed at Bella. Then: “Bang!” he says, as the credits roll.
What a thrilling end to an excellent episode. This show is every bit as good in Season 2 as it was in Season 1, if not better, which is such a relief. I don’t know how many times I’ve watched a show with an excellent first season only to find myself shaking my head in disbelief at the drop-off in quality for Season 2. It’s not perfect. I find myself a little annoyed by the entire Jan and Gina storyline. I’ve mentioned before that I have a pet peeve when it comes to the nagging spouse in crime shows, whether it’s a criminal’s wife or husband or a detective’s. It’s just so predictable at this point.
It’s not as though MobLand succeeds by being totally free of tropes, but most of its tropey stuff is top-tier in execution. The Jan storyline is the one thing that really drags the plot to a standstill and has since Season 1. Gina breaking bad isn’t much better. If I had a nickel for every moody teenage girl doing stupid things in a crime series, I’d go buy myself a fancy dinner with all that scratch. Some beluga, perhaps, while Maeve wolfs down her fish and chips.
We also learned that Conrad’s actions of late are indeed related to changes in his brain chemistry. The parts of his brain that govern impulse control are diminishing. He has perfect memory, no signs of dementia, but his self-control is badly compromised – something we hardly needed a medical diagnosis to know. Naturally, he threatens to kill the doctor unless he “destroys the evidence.” Maeve, on the other hand, seems perfectly clear-headed. The only problem is that her mind is warped and twisted with malice. What a delightful pair they make.
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