Following several action-packed episodes, MobLand Episode 6 was a time to regroup. After having fled the attack by Frankie Cooper (Johnny Flynn), and after Harry (Tom Hardy) rescued Gina (Teddie Allen) and Eddie (Anson Boon) from certain death in Ireland, all the Harrigans were, more or less, under one roof. This time, everyone, well, mostly everyone, ends up on an island in Spain, the island of Majorca, to take temporary refuge with Seraphina’s (Mandeep Dhillon) biological mother and her stepfather. The result is another utterly botched Harrigan confab, in which a good deal is left on the table by Conrad (Pierce Brosnan) for no reason other than he’s stubbornly insane.
But the big news of Episode 6 isn’t that Maeve (Helen Mirren) is scheming again, or that Conrad is unhinged. The greatest thing about this episode is also, somehow, not about meeting Seraphina’s family, even though she’s easily one of the best characters on the show. No. The reason MobLand Episode 6, “A Different Corner,” is so great is that it affirms why the show is fantastic by sneakily making the entire episode about not the Harrigans, but actually the Da Souza family. Spoilers ahead.
MobLand Episode 6 is a strange healing moment for Harry and Gina
Although Harry and Gina have been estranged for most of the season, this episode finds Harry specifically telling Gina that she can talk to him about the wild world of organized crime whenever she wants. Although outwardly hostile to pretty much everyone at this point, Gina relents a bit toward the end when she embraces her father. Earlier, Harry had explained to Gina that she can basically ask him anything about the nature of his work, including the reason why he “can never leave.”
While Harry is tough to read, his actions in this episode are clear: He told Maeve that he would kill her if Gina was ever put in danger again, which, in a way, is a big step for Harry. The long game, it seems, is that Harry will prioritize his family over the Harrigans, if forced. This, in theory, is what Jan has wanted all along, which is more than a little bit ironic, since the true ending of the episode finds Jan taking a step nobody ever thought she would.
Mobland Episode 6 ending changes everything for Jan
Although MobLand Episode 6 could have ended with this tender moment between Harry and Gina, smartly the show moves the gangland-style violence away from the rougher characters, and instead, puts a gun in the hands of one of the more delicate and reasonable characters: Jan (Joanne Froggatt), Harry’s estranged wife and, of course, Gina’s mother.
After figuring out that Jamie, aka Donnie (Alex Fine), is really playing her, Jan takes matters into her own hands and, in the final moments, shoots Donnie. This is a big deal for two reasons. First, Donnie works directly for Kat McAllister, the biggest baddie on the entire show. So, the fallout from Jan actually shooting an agent of Kat’s could be huge.
But it’s more than that. Jan, Harry’s kind and totally relatable wife, has, up until this moment, kept her hands clean. Jan has never been directly involved in any major crime, even if she has been complicit throughout Season 1. Throughout Season 2, Jan has wanted nothing more than to push away Harry and everything that connects her with the mob and the Harrigans.
And yet, this episode ends with Jan shooting an enforcer of a major rival and superior gang. Harry and Gina might be reconnecting a little bit, but the third member of the family, Harry’s wife and Gian’s mother, just took a brutal step into a violent world, and there may be no going back.
Will the Da Souza family all end up happy and together at some point? There’s little chance of that in MobLand, but the brilliant tension in this episode is the fact that the showrunner, Jez Butterworth, is fully aware that all we want is for Jan, Harry and Gina to return to their domestic dysfunction of Season 1. But what makes MobLand unbeatable is the way that it utterly owns massive shifts in the status quo. We didn’t see this coming with Jan, but we should have.
MobLand streams on Paramount+. There are four episodes left in Season 2.
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