The Gentlemen is Netflix's excellent and darkly hilarious new gangster thriller series from Guy Ritchie, based on his 2019 film of the same name. The series is a spinoff and introduces us to a new story and characters, so don't anticipate many connections to the film. That said, the series is just as good, maybe even better.
If you'd like to jump ahead to a specific episode, feel free to use the table of contents below.
- The Gentlemen episode 1 recap: Refined Aggression
- The Gentlemen episode 2 recap: Tackle Tommy Woo Woo
- The Gentlemen episode 3 recap: Where's My Weed At?
- The Gentlemen episode 4 recap: An Unsympathetic Gentleman
- The Gentlemen episode 5 recap: I've Hundreds of Cousins
- The Gentlemen episode 6 recap: All Eventualities
- The Gentlemen episode 7 recap: Not Without Danger
- The Gentlemen episode 8 recap: The Gospel According to Bobby Glass
Keep reading to see all of our episodic recaps for the series by episode, so bookmark and follow along!
The Gentlemen episode 1 recap: Refined Aggression
The Gentlemen begins with the death of the 12th Duke of Halstead, thus bringing together his immediate family members to divvy up his will. Those family members include his eldest son, Freddy (Daniel Ings) and his wife Tamsin (Chanel Cresswell); the Duke's youngest son, former British Army captain Eddie (Theo James), their sister Charlotte (Jasmine Blackborow), or Charly/Chuckles, as they nickname her; their mother/the duke's wife, Lady Sabrina (Joely Richardson); the gamekeeper Geoff Seacombe (Vinnie Jones); and the butler, Ahmed (Ranjit Krishnamma).
Everyone anticipates the estate, which has been in the Halstead family for over 600 years and includes multiple other properties including a home in the South of France and a nearby dairy farm, will be passed onto the eldest son Freddy, since that's typically how these things go.
But they're all shocked when Ahmed reads the Duke's will and reveals his choice to leave his estate to Eddie. It quickly becomes apparent why the Duke might have made that business decision despite the lineage dictating otherwise.
Freddy is a known cocaine addict who likely would have spent the entire estate on blow. Further proven by the fact he's £8 million in debt to a notorious Scouse cocaine dealer named Tommy Dixon (Peter Serafinowicz) and his brother, John "The Gospel" Dixon (Pearce Quigley) after getting involved with several bad investments with a shady guy the Halsteads refer to as "Sticky Pete."
We're privy to a frightening flashback showing Tommy and The Gospel locking Freddy in a freezer and warning him his interest will go up 25% for every week he doesn't hand over the initial £4 million. Since then, he's accrued an additional £4 million in debt and now that debt is going to become Eddie's first official problem as the new Duke.
His father didn't leave behind enough cash assets to make the debt go away, so Eddie looks into selling off the estate to Stanley Johnston, an interested buyer who might be willing to pay far above asking price. Before he can meet with Stanley, Eddie crosses paths with Susie Glass (Kaya Scodelario), daughter of the renowned Bobby Glass. Through Susie, Eddie learns that the Halstead-owned dairy farm is a cover for a massive underground marijuana grow house.
Each month, the Halsteads receive a significant, multi-million pound cut of the profits, signifying the magnitude of the operation, with dozens of these grow houses across the country. Given that it's lucrative for both parties, Susie would prefer Eddie not sell the estate and thus takes it upon herself to assist with eliminating Freddy's debt. On respect for the Glass family name, Tommy agrees to meet with Susie one-on-one and they agree to terms.
They're willing to cut down the debt from £8 million to £4 million and some of the Glass family product, in addition to one other little caveat. Tommy wants Freddy to perform an embarrassing and apology that he intends to film for posterity. Still, cutting the debt in half is significant, so Susie agrees to it. Between her and Eddie, they can easily come up with the £4 million, in cash. Meanwhile, Eddie visits with Stanley Johnston (Giancarlo Esposito) to inform him that the estate is no longer for sale.
Discovering Stanley is quite the wine connoisseur, Eddie sells him several cases of extremely rare vintages from the estate to make a quick few million pounds to pair with the remaining cash his father kept on hand. Everything appears to be going according to plan until Eddie learns that his idiot brother has taken their father's cash out of the safe and used it to make a bet on an underground boxing fight with... Sticky Pete (Joshua McGuire). You can imagine Eddie's fury at this.
With some assistance from one of Susie's acquaintances, she and Eddie infiltrate the secret fighting ring and learn that Pete is pulling a scam. He never placed the bet and instead pocketed the money. Eddie confronts Pete, demanding he give them the money back. It doesn't go well, so Susie offers to step in and have a chat with Pete. That "chat" involved beating Pete to a bloody pulp. Eddie is rattled by the sight of Pete and clearly starting to wonder about the family he's now in bed with.
Having gotten his money back, Eddie and Susie plan to make the deal with Tommy, who arrives alongside his assistant Jethro (Josh Finan), who is responsible for counting the money to verify that all £4 million is there, and a chicken suit in tow to ensure his video of Freddy apologizing will be as humiliating as possible. Freddy is reluctant to do the whole (literal) song-and-dance apology, especially with it being on film, but Tommy refuses to back down.
After snorting a few lines of cocaine, Freddy prepares to do what Tommy asks, but Tommy doesn't make it easy. He humiliates, degrades, and berates Freddy to "become a chicken," demanding he peck the ground and "fly off the couch." To the point Eddie steps in and Tommy barks at him to back off. It all comes to a devastating climax when Freddy returns from the bathroom with a gun and blows Tommy's head off, much to the shock of everyone in the room.
The Gentlemen episode 2 recap: Tackle Tommy Woo Woo
In the aftermath of Freddy's reckless decision to murder Tommy Dixon, the bulk of The Gentlemen episode 2 revolves around Tommy's assistant Jethro and the dilemma presenting itself now that he's the sole witness to Tommy's murder. Do they kill him? Eddie is opposed to it and asks Susie to give him 24 hours to figure out another way to solve this without shedding anymore blood.
We pick up right after Tommy's death, with Jethro making a break for it as Tommy, Eddie, and their gamekeeper Geoff give chase. Just before they snag Jethro, he manages to shoot off an ambiguous text (see episode title) to John "The Gospel" Dixon's right-hand man Errol (John McGrellis). Susie warns Eddie that The Gospel is far more dangerous than his now deceased brother. He also believes he has some divine affinity with the Lord.
But Eddie has a plan. He intends to pin Tommy's murder on Jethro and then give Jethro £2 million pounds and send him on a ship to Australia so he doesn't get killed. Thanks to Jethro's text, Errol tips off John that something might be off, especially since Tommy never returned. They choose to pay the Halstead brothers a visit. Eddie and Freddy pretend not to know anything about what happened to Tommy, but Eddie does suggest there was bad blood brewing between Tommy and Jethro. Planting a seed that he intends to use later.
Speaking of Jethro, for the time being they keep him locked up in the grow house. While he's in there, Eddie goes to Jethro's apartment to retrieve his passport. Problem is that The Gospel has already sent a man to Jethro's place and Eddie crosses paths with him while there. Their violent skirmish ends with Eddie taking a page out of his brother's book and blowing the man's head off. Ironically, Eddie killed a man to try and prevent having to kill his witness. Oops.
He recruits Susie's "clean-up" guy Felix (Dar Salim) to take care of the latest body. They make it look like Jethro killed this guy with the same gun he used to murder Tommy. Then they put Tommy's body in the trunk of his car alongside the gun. John finds the car and his brother's body inside, plus the murder weapon. Case closed, right? But John is curious as to where Jethro would have gotten such a fancy gun. He puts two and two together.
Returning to the Halstead estate, John questions the brothers regarding the murder weapon. Eddie says it belonged to his father and Jethro could easily have taken it out of the gun locker, which was unlocked. For now, John appears pacified by this explanation, though he does ask to keep the gun until they take care of Jethro.
The other important subplot in this episode involves Stanley Johnston. He sends Eddie an invitation to a gala at his manor. Susie invites herself along so she can meet Stanley in person as she suspects his interest in the Halstead estate involves her father's business. Stanley is a lucrative meth dealer who has a habit of leaving carnage behind wherever he goes. In other words, he's perhaps the most dangerous out of all of the drug dealers we've met thus far. Susie's inkling turns out to be correct.
Eddie introduces Susie to Stanley as the family's long-time antiques dealer. Stanley asks her to settle an argument between him and a friend regarding the worth of a specific watch, one said to have set on Winston Churchill's wrist when he signed the papers ending World War II. Susie proves she knows her stuff, impressing Stanley enough to ask her for a conversation in private. He leaves his watch behind, noting that his reputation is so strong that no one will dare to steal it, even with it sitting out in the open.
Stanley wants to become a partner in their marijuana business. Their entire conversation feels like a veiled threat on Stanley's part, as he suggests that if Susie wants to maintain her business and its stability, she will have to change some things, including getting a powerful partner. Susie doesn't seem phased by his suggestion, but says she'll mull over his request.
Elsewhere at the party, Eddie has a run-in with an old friend of his, Princess Roseanne (Gaïa Weiss). She patches up his bullet wound when he bleeds through his shirt. Sensing some romantic tension there.
After the party is all said and done, and now that the Dixon brothers mess is behind him, Eddie asks Susie to set a meeting between himself and her father, the fabled Bobby Glass (Ray Winstone). There's a nice little aside earlier in the episode where Eddie discusses the family business with his mother, Sabrina. She insinuates that she knows all about her late husband's drug dealings and fears that it will poison her son the same way it did her husband. Eddie assures her that he intends to get out of the entanglement with the Glass family business very soon, hence why he then asks Susie to introduce him to Bobby.
And though Bobby might be in prison, he's got the entire place wired just the way he wants it and the staff wrapped around his finger. The place Eddie is invited to meet him is basically a glorified winter resort, complete with a legendary barbecue chef to serve them. Eddie tells Bobby he wants his business off of his property by the time the year is up, and if so, he guarantees him he will make him so much more money. How? Don't know yet.
Once the meeting is finished, Susie lays into Eddie for tricking her into setting it up, having led her to believe it would just be a meet-and-greet, not a renegotiation. Eddie notes she would have shut him down if he'd told her the truth and she confirms that yes, she would have. Well, Eddie says she needs him to stop the killing. Just to confirm, they're letting Jethro go, right? The last we saw him Eddie and Susie saw him off on the boat set for Australia. Susie says yes, "He's gone, isn't he?"
Except in the final moments of the episode, a man approaches Jethro from where he stands on the dock and invites him inside for tea. When the man turns toward the camera we see that it's actually Felix... you know, the guy Susie calls when she wants to dispose of a body, or witnesses. RIP Jethro.
The Gentlemen episode 3 recap: Where's My Weed At?
Susie's weed guy Jimmy (Michael Vu) goes on a little adventure in The Gentlemen episode 3, one that ends with a significant portion of Susie's supply getting nabbed by a mysterious new group of characters.
Jimmy is on his merry little way (stoned out of his mind) to deliver a weed haul to one of Susie's many customers, this time, Tonibler (Cameron Cook), yes that's really his name, when he stops at a local fast-food joint to satisfy his munchies. There, he bonds with a beautiful woman named Gabrielle (Ruby Sear) over banana shakes and cheesy rings, only to not notice when Gabrielle swaps his keys.
By the time Jimmy makes his way back to the Halstead estate through a hallucinogenic adventure that includes hitchhiking and shrooms, he's recuperating in Geoff's house when Susie questions him about what happened on the trip. With the weed missing, now Susie is in the hole to Tonibler and to make amends, she agrees to steal an expensive car, specifically a Lamborghini Huracán, for him from a dealer.
Well, more specifically, Susie recruits Eddie to assist her in this endeavor in exchange for setting a specific date that she'll be off the estate by and a specific number to aim toward for this supposed promised "increased profitability."
With that squared away, Eddie recruits Freddy to assist him with the grand theft auto. The plan is for Freddy and his wife Tamsin, or "Wham Tam," as they call her, to disguise themselves as prospective buyers and distract the owner, Mercy (Martha Millan), while Eddie slips in an copies the keys to the Lamborghini. For some reason, Freddy puts on a ridiculous accent to get Tamsin test driving a car that keeps everyone in the facility occupied so Eddie has the chance to go unnoticed and make the copy. In the process, he finds a severed finger tucked inside a drawer.
Once the recon part of the mission is finished, Eddie mentions the finger to Susie. It's worth noting that Mercy and her people might be more dangerous than Tonibler told them and that becomes evident later when Susie does some digging and finds she's got some serious Colombian muscle behind her.
Regardless, Eddie and Freddy return later to actually do the stealing. But Eddie gets distracted when he hears a man's cry for help, specifically the owner of said severed finger. He rescues him and drives out of the lot in the stolen car, unaware that Freddy ignored his warning to go home and has now been kidnapped by Mercy's crew.
We learn that the guy Eddie kidnapped was hired to do the same job that Eddie was hired for by Tonibler and he freaks out when he realizes Eddie doesn't know what he's gotten himself into. It turns out that Tonibler wanted the car stolen because the trunk is stuffed with over £1 million worth of cocaine. Mercy is pissed about the theft. Susie thinks they can make a peace offering with her by returning the cocaine and offering up Tonibler in exchange for Freddy.
It mostly works according to plan, except we get to see just how unhinged Mercy is as she brutally murders Tonibler with a machete while Freddy is tied to a chair and forced to watch. He immediately vomits when Eddie and Susie leave with him. Susie notes that it's impressive that Eddie doesn't have a similar reaction. It proves he has a stomach for this, something she had previously noted to her brother, Jack Glass.
Eddie is one of the few dukes in the county who can assimilate into the criminal underground while still rubbing elbows with high society. He doesn't lose his head over murder. That said, it did feel a little inconsistent with Freddy's character to have him react so violently to Tonibler's murder when he just shot a man in the head point-blank two episodes prior and didn't appear phased by it in the slightest.
As for the missing weed that started all of this, well, Gabrielle does finally get in touch with Jimmy. She calls him to trace his location and further flirt with him as part of the overall ruse, though her accomplice, an unnamed woman hanging out nearby, thinks Gabrielle's feelings are real. Whoever they're working with then lights the truck and all of Susie's weed on fire. It looks like some new players have entered the field.
The episode ends with Eddie, Freddy, and Geoff shooting clay pigeons when Sabrina takes a seat next to Eddie to scold him for what almost happened to Freddy. She also mentions that he's supposed to be getting the criminals off of their land, not becoming one of them. Eddie assures her that's still his plan, but the writing is clearly hinting that it won't be as easy as Eddie suggests, especially with Susie believing he's built for this criminal life more than he might want to admit.
The Gentlemen episode 4 recap: An Unsympathetic Gentleman
Something I'm really starting to appreciate about The Gentlemen is that it has a little bit of a procedural/case-of-the-week approach that's been missing from many of these streaming-era binge shows. Sure, there is an overarching plotline, but each episode has also had its own (mostly) self-contained story to tell in which Eddie and Susie end up taking on various criminals in pursuit of their different, but aligned, goals.
In the fourth installment, the duo is faced with a strange situation in which Eddie must track down a blackmailer to potentially pawn off the Glass marijuana industry on another royal nearby. Beginning with a naked man opening fire on a group of tourists, the fourth episode then introduces us to the Bassington family. Said naked man was Lord Bassington VIII and his passing means that his son, Max (Freddie Fox) will inherit the family's estate and fortune.
Eddie senses a potential opportunity here after Princess Roseanne, who was also in attendance, tells him that things aren't going so well for the Bassington family. Eddie suggests a business proposal involving moving the marijuana business to his estate. In exchange, Max wants Eddie to retrieve some very damaging files pertaining to his father from a blackmailer.
The blackmailer in question is a former journalist named Frank (John Thomson). After some unfortunate mishaps, Eddie and Susie track Frank down to his house and take him with them to Max's so he can hand over the damaging documents in person in exchange for the money. Initially, Eddie doesn't intend to look into the envelope, saying it's none of his business, but then Frank reveals that he wasn't blackmailing Max's father, but Max himself.
Wanting to know who they're potentially getting into business with, Susie and Eddie press Max for more information, so he leads them into a secret room hidden behind a bookcase that empties out into what essentially amounts to a shrine of Adolf Hitler.
It turns out Max is obsessed with Hitler and a proud Nazi. He has a collection of Hitler's art and a lot of other... unsavory items, such as Hitler's right testicle, preserved in formaldehyde for 80+ years. Susie isn't necessarily planning to shut it all down, it means now she has leverage and has a "special rate" for people like Max. But then Frank tries to record the shrine with his phone and all hell breaks loose, guns get drawn, and ultimately the episode ends with yet another body between Susie and Eddie after Eddie tosses a grenade at Max. And with that, Eddie is back to square one, or so he thinks.
In reality, while all of this is happening, Lady Sabrina and Geoff visit the neighboring estate belonging to Mr. Rokes. He's fallen on hard times as of late and Sabrina is able to convince him to use his 200+ acres to make space for the marijuana plantation. Eddie laments he's done unspeakable things in the last 48 hours and his mother has apparantly solved everything over a glass of sherry. Susie agrees to a meeting with this Rokes fellow.
And elsewhere, poor Jimmy continues being duped by Gabrielle, who convinces him to take her into Susie's growhouse. Jimmy also reveals that there are 12 others throughout the country, some even bigger than the one he's in charge of. I'm assuming this is not going to end well for Jimmy.
The Gentlemen episode 5 recap: I've Hundreds of Cousins
Susie visits with her father to discuss the development of the business, specifically as it pertains to Eddie and his involvement. Bobby doesn't think Eddie truly wants them off his property, thinks he's developed a taste for criminality. Instructing Susie to keep him in line, Bobby makes it clear that there is no walking away from this business and if Eddie tries to, then he'll chop his head off.
On the heels of her conversation with Bobby, Susie offers Eddie a long-term position within their criminal empire. Eddie remains adamant that he wants out. For now, she recruits Eddie's "military expertise" on a new task, to get a second opinion on a sketchy Belgian guy named Florian de Groot, who is causing a hold-up in Susie's product where they export it through his port in Belgium.
De Groot blames it on Brexit, demanding £1.5 million to keep things running smoothly. Based on watching De Groot's body language, Eddie determines that De Groot is messing with them, that he likely tipped off the border police and is now using that as leverage to hike up Susie's fee to almost double the amount.
Their negotiations are interrupted when a mysterious crew suddenly cuts the power and pulls off a heist to steal the farm's generators. Eddie, Geoff, and Blanket intercept the theft and catch a woman named Kellie Ann Ward and two young kids.
She gives them a bleeding heart story about needing the generators because theirs were stolen and she needs the electricity to heat her home and keep her family safe. Out of charity, Eddie allows them to take one generator and Geoff warns him that the Ward family are big in these parts, with hundreds of cousins all with business ventures such as dog fight, cockfighting, and more. They could be a problem. With the lights back on, Eddie convinces Susie to give De Groot what he wants temporarily until they figure out an alternative.
Eddie and Susie pay a visit to the Ward family caravan to receive assurances they'll stay off the Halstead property. It's not that simple though, the Wards have figured out there is a weed farm on the Halstead estate and they want in. Susie initially declines, but Eddie tells her to reconsider. This could solve their De Groot problem if the Wards are able to take over distribution and get their product into Europe. Susie and Eddie meet with the Ward family head JP at the Halstead manor to discuss terms.
After partying with the Wards, they make a deal and Eddie drunkenly agrees to let the Ward caravan park it on their estate for a few days, much to his mother's annoyance. The plan is for the Wards to pack a bunch of statues of the virgin Mary with the product and transfer it across the border.
We pivot to an interesting scene between Lady Sabrina and Geoff where they watch as Kellie Ann takes to one of the Halstead family's horses. They watch her ride and it reminds Sabrina of Charly, the implication from their conversation being that Geoff is Charly's biological father.
De Groot meets with his contact to hand over intel on Susie's new transport enterprise. An unnamed man assures De Groot he'll take care of it. And more problems arise when Eddie returns to the estate. Susie informs him that someone has stolen £4 million from them. Obviously, their first assumption is that JP and the Wards stole it. JP doesn't take kindly to that accusation. Susie has her men install CCTV and security. But Eddie thinks that De Groot could be behind this, as he'd have the most to benefit from wrecking Susie's new transportation setup with the Wards.
Eddie and Susie kick things up a notch, calling De Groot to a meeting at a restaurant where they poison his food and only intend to give him the antidote if he reveals whoever he's working for, and thus the person who would have stolen from him. Well, we learn that the person who stole from Susie is one of her own men, Keith. Eddie gives JP his name to make up for accusing him in the first place, allowing the Wards to deal with the guy who tried to frame them.
They shoot Keith, but not before he sows some discord between Eddie and Susie by revealing what really happened to Jethro. Eddie is clearly upset by this revelation, especially since Keith tells him that he's never getting out of all of this. He's in too deep now. Meanwhile, Susie confers with her father again and they agree that Keith is just a symptom of a larger threat and they need to figure out who is behind all the stuff that's been going on lately (stolen weed, stolen money, etc.).
The Gentlemen episode 6 recap: All Eventualities
Seeing as Geoff was one of the first people to warn Eddie about the Glass family, it makes sense why Eddie would turn to him when things start to sour between himself and Susie in light of what he now knows about Jethro. Geoff advises Eddie to keep playing friendly for now, but in secret, prepare for all eventualities.
Eddie calls a meeting with Susie to ask her for an update on the status of her leaving his property. She wants to pocket at least another £15 million before then, meaning they need to meet with her guy Chucky, who washes her money for her (as in, money laundering) since it cannot be considered profit until its been properly washed. Susie sets a timeline of about three months.
Sensing Eddie's agitation, Susie fast-tracks a meeting with Chucky. They attend her brother Jack's latest boxing match where Chucky is in attendance, as is the smooth-talking boxing promoter Henry Collins (Max Beesley). Susie introduces Henry to Eddie.
Susie and Eddie get their chance to chat with Chucky, an odd guy with an interest in unconventional business ventures like Korean corn dogs. Chucky says he can wash £15 million in four months, that's too long for Eddie. But then it turns out not to matter because Jack Glass is caught having sex with Chucky's girl, Stella. Chucky tells her, in no uncertain terms, to go f**k herself. But Susie isn't rattled, she assures Eddie she'll get things sorted.
After the match and subsequent fallout, Eddie goes out for a drink with Susie and Jack where they run into Henry again. This time, Eddie takes a one-on-one with Henry and the two bond over their shared army background. Like Eddie, Henry is an ex-army man and he obliges Eddie's request to find a different money launderer now that Chucky is out (and neither man was impressed with him to begin with).
From there, Eddie goes to a different bar to meet with Princess Roseanne. He admits he's gotten himself into a situation he might not be able to get out of and wants her to put him in touch with Stanley Johnston once more.
The following day, Chucky posts a bunch of anti-Jack stuff on social media, calling on his friends and followers to take matters into their own hands. Susie tells Eddie she's working on things, but for now, she needs Eddie to let Jack lie low at his place for a few days ahead of his next big fight so that Chucky and his minions don't decommission him.
While all of this is happening, Freddy has been cooking up his latest harebrained scheme with Jimmy. Crack weed. Basically, sativa seeds grown with coca leaves and over time it harnesses properties of the cocaine, etc. Freddy believes it to be a genius plan, but Eddie tells him he's trying to untangle this mess, not shove them deeper into it. With this idea, Freddy thinks maybe they should maintain their relationship with Susie and not push them off the land. Yeah, no. Eddie makes it clear he won't change his mind. He wants the marijuana business off their land. End of story.
Henry Collins makes good on his agreement with Eddie, introducing him to a money launderer who goes by Thick Rick. A former accountant, Rick knows his stuff and has been washing money for Henry. He's reliable and his commission is reasonable. Plus, he can get the £15 million washed in two weeks vs. months.
Susie does stick to her word though, and she fixes things with Chucky. We don't see how, but we do see Chucky fervently apologizing to her, which makes it seem like she threatened him somehow. While waiting for Chucky to come retrieve the money, he gets a call from Stanley Johnston's assistant who says his boss is excited about an idea for an alternate proposal and wants to schedule a meeting ASAP.
Chucky and his guy show up at the Halstead manor to take the money. Chucky is more interested in airing out old grievances than he is doing his job. He starts ranting about how Eddie treated him last time they met and even tries forcing him to eat one of his damn corn dogs.
The final blow comes when Chucky informs Eddie that Susie told him he could take his time washing the money, three-four months, doesn't matter. That doesn't go over well, as you might imagine. Eddie throws some punches and takes the money to Collins and his man instead. Then he informs Susie he's made an executive decision and will use Henry Collins to wash the money because he can get it done quicker.
During Eddie and Susie's next meeting, they finally lay their cards on the table. Susie admits she had Jethro killed and that she and her father are never letting Eddie out of their arrangement. Eddie warns Susie that she's underestimating him because there is nothing he won't do to protect his family. Susie, in turn, reveals that thus far, Eddie has only seen her nice side, but she certainly has a not-so-nice side. Looks like we're done with all the pleasantries.
Susie goes to the ring to support Jack in his next fight, while Eddie takes his meeting with Stanley. Eddie pretty much sells his soul to Stanley, saying he's willing to do whatever it takes at this point to get what he wants. Despite everything, though, Eddie still doesn't want more bloodshed if he can avoid it, so he asks Stanley to agree to this deal with as little friction as possible.
Enter Freddy, likely about to mess everything up yet again. He tracks Susie down at the club to discuss his new strain of weed. And here we have Freddy low-key selling out his brother to try and make a deal with the Glass family as he mentions that if something were to happen to Eddie, the estate would go to him. Susie closes out her conversation with Freddy by telling him that she would do anything to protect her brother. The warning seems somewhat ominous and random, but we get more context when Henry Collins makes a weird phone call to an unnamed person about "pushing the first domino."
Henry then invites Susie to see him and notes that when he sees a chance to expand his business, he jumps on it. Henry has calculated just how much money the Glass family business makes, which is over one billion pounds, and Henry wants it. In a particularly sinister scene, Henry informs Susie that he is taking over her business and she has two paths, the one of least resistance or the difficult one that might result in the loss of her brother's life.
See, Henry fixed the fight and even though Susie delivers an impressive speech of her own about Henry underestimating her, it kinda looks like he's won by the episode's end as Jack is rushed to a hospital due to Henry's ringer seriously injuring him and Susie finds herself alone with a difficult decision to make, though I imagine she'd rather go to war.
The Gentlemen episode 7 recap: Not Without Danger
Oh boy, the penultimate episode of The Gentlemen introduces several significant moments that set us up for a serious showdown in the finale between Susie and Eddie.
The episode begins in the immediate aftermath of Jack Glass' boxing match against Henry Collins' ringer. Jack is currently in a coma in the hospital and Eddie visits Susie at her apartment, after getting her address from Jimmy, to apologize for what happened with Jack and Collins. He assures Susie he can fix things with Collins and make it right.
For Susie, that's not good enough. She wants vengeance. So she recruits her foot soldier Blanket to help her get revenge on Collins in a very Godfather-esque hunt for his men. Her dad, Bobby, isn't happy with Susie getting all this blood on her hands. He tells her to stop killing people, go home, relax, and he'll take care of Collins.
Eddie takes another meeting with Stanley Johnston's right-hand man Stevens to come to terms on their deal. Stevens wants Eddie to get him a list of the lords who own the estates that harbor the Glass family's 12 other grow houses.
Back at the Halstead manor, Charly arrives for an impromptu visit. She's pregnant and needs a place to stay for a bit. Geoff escorts her into the manor and, yes, it's confirmed that Geoff is Charly's real biological father. He and Sabrina have been keeping Charly's paternity secret for years.
Eddie learns from his mother that a few years ago, there was a big dinner hosted with all 13 of the lords hosted by one of them, a man named Tibsy with whom Freddy is familiar. Eddie and Freddy make for Tibsy's estate and are rather shocked to find the entire place in disarray, taken over by a group of sketchy guys I'm assuming are low-level dealers.
See, Tibsy refused to continue his contract with the Glass family and lost everything because of it. The mess of his estate is what could happen to the Horniman family if they're not careful. But their trip is a success, Eddie retrieves Tibsy's diary containing the name, though not without having to forfeit his watch (and Freddy's pants) to one of the men terrorizing Tibsy.
Outside the manor, Freddy and Eddie have another confrontation where Freddy admits he wanted Eddie dead and that he conferred with Susie at the boxing match. Eddie is clearly really hurt by this confession, especially since he's been taking care of Freddy and cleaning up his messes their entire life. Freddy apologizes for his recent behavior, but this is a serious fracture in their already tense relationship.
We pivot to Susie's apartment where she's just sitting down to enjoy some takeout when she gets a threatening phone call from Henry Collins. He's pissed that Susie has been going after his men and promises to take her out when he gets the go-ahead from his boss. Seeing as Collins somehow now knows where she lives, she goes to Eddie to find out where he got her address and Eddie points to Jimmy.
They follow-up with Jimmy to see if he told anyone else where Susie lives and yeah, Gabrielle, who Eddie and Susie finally meet. With a gun pointed at her head, Susie forces Gabrielle to tell them everything. We learn that she's a hired gun who has been working for Stanley Johnston all along. Johnston has been behind all the hiccups in Susie's business, well, specifically Stevens who does the actual groundwork for his boss.
Stevens was the man who set the delivery van full of weed on fire and instructed Florian de Groot to stop transport to Europe. He also enlisted Keith as one of his other inside men and he's the one who was on the other end of the phone call with Henry Collins in the previous episode. That said, apparently Collins did go too far with the whole Jack Glass thing. He was never supposed to send Jack to the hospital. In short, Johnston has been playing games this whole time and he is coming for Bobby Glass's business, hard.
Susie asks Eddie if he's with her and he assures her is, but, in secret, he's gone behind her back to give Stevens the list of names. It seems like Eddie has made his choice, to get in bad with Stanley Johnston due to their promises that the Hornimans will be able to extract themselves from the marijuana business once Johnston's takeover is complete. As soon as Eddie hands over Tibsy's diary, Stevens gives Collins the green light to do whatever he wants re: Susie.
As we know, though, Susie is smart and she's prepared for Collins at the hospital. She and Blanket kill his men and prepare to finish off Collins when he reveals the truth: Eddie has been working with Johnston, she's been played.
The thing is, though, I don't think Eddie really betrayed Susie. After he hands the diary over to Stevens, he visits Bobby Glass directly in prison. We don't hear their full conversation yet, but Eddie tells him straight-up that he went to Johnston, yet also mentions he has some kind of plan in mind.
Well, sadly, Susie doesn't confer with Eddie before making her next move, which is to dial up John "The Gospel" Dixon from the second episode and tell him the truth: that Eddie and Freddy killed his brother and then covered it up.
The Gentlemen episode 8 recap: The Gospel According to Bobby Glass
John "The Gospel" Dixon doesn't waste any time pulling up to the Halstead manor, prepared to get revenge for his brother's death by killing Freddy. Bobby calls Susie and tells her that she's behind on the news cycle and thus, Eddie did not sell them out. But it's too late for her to fix her mistake. Still, she does tell Eddie the cavalry is on the way.
It ends up not mattering because Bobby calls The Gospel directly and makes him clear out, promising to make it worth his while. He then informs Eddie and Susie that he's tired of the business and wants to sell, recruiting them to go find him the best offers and have the bidders send him their offer via carrier pigeon. He's old school like that.
With Eddie and Susie back on the same team, they go to people like Stanley Johnston, Sticky Pete, and Mercy Moreno to get the offers. Eddie then stumbles upon his brother playing with a carrier pigeon. Freddy wants to invest, too. Eddie talks him out of it, but during their conversation, Freddy says that while this line of work might be for him, it's definitely for Eddie. He should embrace it. He's good at it.
Eddie takes his brother's advice and chooses to make an offer for the business himself, even getting his mother to agree with his decision. He and Susie get the other 12 estate lords to chip in a percentage and pool the money before ultimately meeting with Bobby Glass again. Bobby actually chooses Stanley Johnston's offer, as it's easily the highest, but we learn that Eddie and Susie prepared for that, too. Eddie reactivated Henry Collins and uses him to pull Stanley's tax records, sending them to local authorities who arrest Stanley for multiple counts of tax evasion, resulting in all of his assets getting frozen.
Then they tell Mercy that Sticky Pete won the bet and she warns them her South American superiors won't be happy. They tell her where to find Pete and Mercy kills him in a parking garage. Then they have Collins kill Mercy, thus eliminating the competition. Bobby reveals that he never really intended to retired and only wanted to activate Eddie and Susie, give them a purpose and have them invest in this business so they can all work together to expand their empire. He thinks Eddie is meant for this, more than a captain, he's a general who excels at giving orders. Now Eddie and Susie are truly partners along with Bobby.
And as part of their new agreement, Eddie gives Susie a gift—Henry Collins, gagged and bound. Susie asks if he wants to do the honors, as part of his "journey." He shoots Henry dead. The series ends with another look at Bobby Glass in prison, guess who he'll now be spending lots of time with? Stanley Johnston. And that's our season 2 hook!
Also, the little subplot with Charly and Geoff does get some closure with Charly figuring out the truth and Geoff finally admitting he's her bio dad. He says he was afraid she'd be ashamed of him, but Charly thinks he's the best man she's ever known and he practically raised her anyway. Awe.
There we have it and our recaps come to an end. If the show returns it looks like we'll get to see plenty more of Susie and Eddie working together as they plan to build and expand the marijuana enterprise. Their partnership is really the core of the show so I look forward to seeing it.