![]() ![]() The tower that Sean blew up is of course major news, dominating headlines and landing a major disaster in newly elected Mayor Nasir Afridi’s lap. Let’s go linearly to keep things straightforward. John), who is some kind of anti-terrorism official? Elliot had nothing to do with Sean blowing up the Wallace tower, so why is he even being accused of terrorism? What happened at the Hotel Reno, and why were cops shooting at Elliot? Who’s in the body bags? Does anyone know he’s being held? All of those questions are thrown out before we shift back in time by one day, and the episode continues forward by jumping back and forth between these time periods. Why is he being questioned by Joseph (Cornell S. And now in his adulthood, we open with Elliot seemingly being set up to take the fall for something, too. ![]() So Elliot’s father took the fall in the boxing ring. Who cares when you need to put food on the table and a roof over your family’s head? Wouldn’t you do whatever you could to make those things possible? “Pawns can’t be kings,” his father says, but what they can be is “free.” But it’s not freedom that drives Elliot’s father to take that fall, is it? The man needs money, and financial survival is more important than maintaining his name or his reputation. The episode begins with a focus on Elliot, and with a childhood experience that shaped the man he would become. He is Sonny Corleone, and remember what happened to Sonny Corleone? Look how they massacred my boy. And the way of this world - one in which the investors are the ultimate evil, the face of British old-money doing whatever they want to whomever they want - was that Irish immigrant and young tough Sean Wallace was always going to die. If Sean couldn’t be the top guy, he would destroy everyone he could. Finn set Sean up to fail, and although Sean’s heel turn in the penultimate episode was definitely rushed, parts of it felt right emotionally. Build the Wallace skyscrapers, and stay out of the way. He must have noticed the way Finn, Ed, and Alex all kept him at arm’s length. ![]() But he also saw how close Finn and Alex Dumani were. Sean may have been hot-tempered, and he may have been too worshipful of his father. The same goes for Sean - did he really ever think he was going to run the Wallace organization? I have gone back and forth on this all season (which, yes, is I think a result of inconsistent writing). He just needed somewhere to put his energy after his world was destroyed by the loss of his family. I don’t think nailing the Wallaces, in particular, ever mattered to Elliot. Of course Elliot would do whatever to protect Shannon and Danny the deaths of his wife and son were what propelled him forward into chasing a big case. Of course Sean would die in the way Finn did he’s spent the majority of his season chasing his father’s shadow. ![]() If I step back, though, so many of these developments make sense. I know I just said that I was surprised by all the killing in this final episode. But crucifixions, cut-out tongues, and bullets to the face and stomach - all of the deaths in this finale were intimate and personal, loaded with the histories, anxieties, and frustrations of the entire first season of Gangs of London. Yes, the cleaver scene, the attack on the travelers’ compound, and the siege (probably still my pick for the best episode of the season) were also egregious acts of violence. But director Corin Hardy and writer Claire Wilson sure did clear the board, didn’t they? I thought that because Gangs of London has a second season on the way, we could expect most of these characters to survive. I am a wimp! I did not expect Sean to get a bullet in the face, in a death so similar to that which befell his father, Finn! I did not anticipate that Elliot would let his few-weeks-long relationship with Shannon and Danny drive him into the clutches of the mysterious white people who seem to run the entirety of the U.K.’s (and maybe a chunk of the world’s?) shady financial dealings! I did not think Jevan would die in such a gruesome way, or that Nasir would die in such a gruesome way! Silly me. I will admit to you: When Elliot shot Sean in the face, I screamed. ![]()
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