Legends Recap ‘The War on Drugs’: Power
- May 22
- 6 min read
This is a detailed recap of the fourth episode of Legends and contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t seen it yet, please head over to Netflix and watch this 1990s-era thriller about a group of white collar Customs officers who went undercover to bust the heroin trade.
Mylonas, an elder statesman in the criminal world, told Guy after a lovely dinner with his wife, ‘There is no greater risk in this world than thinking you have power that you do not have.’ Who had power, and who only thought they had power, at the end of this episode? Was it Hakan, who rather thoroughly dealt with Zeki’s betrayal despite earlier pretending that he was willing to let it go? Was it Carter, who not only had the O’Connells killed but also himself shot Wayne Duffy, the very man who was leading the Liverpool community against drug dealers? Away from all this and insulated by a different kind of power, the Prime Minister announced the war on drugs in her speech, going against Blake’s plea to the Home Secretary that nothing could be said publicly for the success of the operation and the safety of his team.
Hakan, in stark contrast to his more British son Aziz, was deeply tied to his roots. Though he was willing to work with Guy, it was only to learn about what he did. He thought Zeki could take over once they learned everything they could learn from Guy.
Zeki, however, was upset and impatient, and he went to Istanbul to betray Hakan. Zeki actually plotted to kill Hakan, thwarted only because Hakan was warned by someone from Istanbul. Hakan tried to get Guy to kill Zeki, but Guy wisely pointed out that Zeki was not his problem, and walked out. For a moment, I wondered if Mylonas would involve himself in this mess, but he was too wily an operator.
Why did Hakan not kill Zeki right then and there? He probably would have been fine had Guy done it – that would have meant pulling Guy further into his business and tainting his hands with a murder charge, a huge sword to have over the head of a man he did not quite trust – but since Guy saw through the ploy, then patience was the next best thing. Zeki was not acting alone. By waiting, Hakan got the conspirators to relax, so that when he sent his men after them, they were not expecting it. Zeki described Aziz as soft, but Aziz was amongst the gunmen his father employed when he decided to wreak vengeance.
On the other end of the rivalry/ partnership was Carter, who suddenly found himself with an existential threat after the O’Connells escaped during a prison transfer. They needed to leave the building that Kate and Bailey had been watching. Carter ordered the drugs distributed amongst their loyal customers for safekeeping; those were all they had until the deal with Hakan pushed through. After Jed was killed, presumably by the O’Connells, Carter got Eddie to join him in hiding out in a hotel suite for a few days.
Carter’s head was very much in the game that he did not even realise how much pain Eddie was carrying. Since the police kept the death out of the press, it was possible Carter never even knew that young Tommy had died. Carter viewed the O’Connell threat as an opportunity to show people how far they had come. Eddie lamented how they did not have to go this far, that there were multiple points along the way when they could have stopped. It was Carter who could not stop.
What Carter wanted was to be part of a more rarefied world. Kate saw this when she broke into his apartment, and she used this to get inside his head. Kate got herself a flat in Carter’s building, and got him to come to her when she stuffed her mail into his mailbox. Her legend was in property development involving private investors. When Carter mentioned being an investor himself, Kate cooly told him they were not looking for additional funding. A shut door, and behind it a tantalising image of an exclusive group of wealthy people; it was a good bait for a man like Carter.
As he wanted to be taken seriously, Carter also bristled at criticism. He was angry at the march against drugs that Wayne Duffy organised. He railed at how dealers were being blamed when parents ought to be as well, all whilst sitting next to Eddie who was both a dealer and a parent who lost his son to addiction. It was whilst their car was stuck in the middle of the march that the O’Connells came up from a vehicle behind them.
Eddie lied to Carter and told him he didn’t have his gun with him, so they needed to split up. Eddie then waited for the O’Connells, who agreed to lower their weapons and tried to convince Eddie to come with them. They spoke of how, since the kid (in the first episode) died, dealers were looked upon as the lowest of the low; they feared for their lives in prison. Eddie told them to make a deal with Carter, but the deal could not be made through him.
Eddie gave the O’Connells a person Carter thought only he knew about – Goodwin, the police officer in his pocket. Goodwin said the O’Connells wanted two hundred thousand pounds and two passports; he could provide the passports whilst Carter would have to take care of the money. Goodwin was clearly in favour of making the deal; he told Carter the city was turning on him. Carter, however, was still insistent that he controlled the city, and darkly mused at making people remember it.
Though he kept his involvement in the deal a secret, Eddie tried to convince Carter to take it. The deal with Hakan was big enough to get them out of the drug game. Carter bristled at the thought of Eddie wanting out, but Eddie confirmed that yes, he wanted out. With pressure from his two closest lieutenants, Carter was also furious about losing two of his heroin stashes.
Eddie did not just want out, he started giving tips to the police. The first was just for two kilos, and it was through that that he saw Bailey, the same man he saw supposedly fixing the electricity outside Carter’s building. The next tip was for 10 kilos. As they spoke over the phone, Bailey insisted on knowing why Eddie was doing what he was doing. Eddie’s mention of what Carter has done to the city and the families was the clue Bailey needed; he got Erin to dig up all the heroin deaths in Liverpool in the past year, and look into their families. The next time that Eddie was home, Bailey was just outside, and a quiet agreement passed between these two men.
For Carter, the way out of his current difficulties was through. He did not bother to hide who he was when he walked into a small meeting and shot Wayne Duffy. He shot to injure, and he did not bother to threaten or even look at the startled witnesses. It was Carter placing a bloody emphasis on what he viewed as his power. Both Eddie and Goodwin tried to caution him; perhaps not even the eloquence of Mylonas could have saved him.
Rating: A-
Strays
🕵️Don gave the group a proper scolding over what happened to Shaun. They were able to get Shaun and his family out of Manchester.
🕵️From my notes, when Guy went to Erin to try to identify the man Zeki claimed was in his pocket at the docks: What is this chemistry???? Guy, you’re married!
🕵️Petty Carter being petty when he put Eddie on the couch at their fancy hotel suite.
🕵️Guy’s daughter was nervous about her recital, so he went to watch. He had a conversation with the teacher, who was being, well, unkind, to put it mildly.
🕵️Something happened to Don whilst he was undercover, and Blake was concerned the same thing would happen to his team.
🕵️Kate was able to follow Carter to his meeting with Goodwin, but she was only able to get a partial plate number. Since Erin mentioned public authority vehicles amongst the possibilities, and since Carter had been able to stay ahead of the police so far, Kate figured out that he had a cop in his pocket.
🕵️The men Carter sent to kill the O’Connells spared Goodwin.
Episode Writer: Neil Forsyth
Episode Director: Brady Hood
Original Release Date: May 7, 2026