The Gentlemen Recap Season 1 Episode 7 ‘Not Without Danger’

Non sine periculo. Not without danger. When the late Archibald Horniman decided to allow a criminal enterprise to set up under his dairy farm, he was perhaps channelling a bit of his ancestors who built their aristocratic family hundreds of years ago. He rolled a dangerous gamble for the sake of his family and his pride, then he willed the problems of tomorrow to his second son. Could he have solved his financial and estate issues slowly, by selling off parcels of land, by taking on investors, by working the way working people have worked since the beginning of time? Sure, but that would have meant being just like everyone else. He accepted the danger as part of the bargain to retain his family status. Perhaps, as his friend Tibsy thought, he might even have enjoyed it. 

Eddie accepted the same bargain, enjoyed the same danger, even as he remained insistent on getting his family out from under the thumb of the Glass family. The winds of time may have slowly chipped in at the wealth and power of the Hornimans, but generations later, from within their bloodline came someone who might just have the same amount of daring as the one who built the family fortune. Eddie’s privileged upbringing was both a social strength and a handicap when dealing with the criminal element, but he was a quick study. He was learning to play the game. Dare I say it, he may even be starting to care. There was a bit of protectiveness in Eddie when he and Susie questioned Jimmy over the leak of Susie’s home address. He did not cease lying to her, but he also did not want anything bad to happen to her. 

The attack on Jack – and it was an attack, he fought an opponent whose moves and record he should not have trusted – ripped apart the thin veil of civility that existed amongst the criminal gangs. Though Eddie offered to help, Susie remained furious at him for making a deal with Henry Collins in the first place, and refused his assistance. Instead, Susie got Blanket to target three people in Henry’s orbit, including the boxer and his money man. Two dead, one injured, and Susie still did not have Henry’s location. She wanted him to know she was coming. She was lashing out. 

Bobby Glass may have been in prison, but he knew what his daughter was up to, and he told her to stop. He had people who would take care of Collins. He told her she was not thinking with her business brain, she was emotional, which I suppose was true enough, but I’m not entirely happy with the cool, collected, hyper competent female character getting the 'emotional' plot. 

Eddie, who showed up uninvited at Susie’s flat, and later admitted that he got the information from Jimmy, was by her side when Jimmy admitted that he mentioned Susie’s address to Gabrielle. Poor Jimmy still had not figured out that of course Gabrielle was involved in stealing the weed-filled van he was driving. Susie and Eddie got him to set up a meeting with Gabrielle; not only did Susie bring a gun, she also brought Blanket and two other men. Gabrielle denied knowing Henry Collins, but she confessed to having been hired by Stanley Johnston. The unidentified man present when the weed van was burned was Stanley’s man Stevens. It was also Stevens to whom Florian de Groot reported when he stopped the flow of the Glass weed into Europe. Stanley has been working behind the scenes to disrupt the Glass family business. Keith was his inside man. He must have used Henry Collins as well, but Gabrielle, who claimed not to know him, somehow knew that putting Jack in a coma was never part of the plan. All Stanley wanted was the Glass family business.

Eddie heard all this whilst undergoing secret negotiations with Stanley via Stevens. When Susie asked him if he was with her, he agreed. Susie got Gabrielle to give Stevens information, likely on which hospital Jack was in, given what happened near the end of the episode.

Eddie had told Stevens that what happened to Jack made him hesitant to negotiate without the Glass family knowledge. Stevens relayed Stanley’s latest offer, for Eddie to obtain the names of the lords of the 13 other manors where the Glass family business operated. In exchange, they would leave Eddie and his estate alone, and he would finally gain his freedom from the Glass family. 

Did Eddie believe this? Perhaps he was desperate enough to believe it; at that time, he did not yet know that Stanley was the one behind all the business disruptions experienced by the Glass family. HIs mother Sabrina did not know the names, but she remembered a dinner the old Duke attended at the Faringbourne estate with 11 other lords. As Freddy knew the lord of the estate, Tibsy, Eddie got him to come with him to the estate.

The castle that had an actual moat was in a dilapidated estate. There was a group of men smoking weed in one of the rooms. Tibsy told Eddie and Freddy that he had a run in with the Glass family. After they did not renew his contract, the men moved in. It was not entirely clear whether these were men who actually worked for the Glass family, or if they were simply allowed to move in and harass Tibsy as punishment. 

Tibsy was writing his memoirs, and so he had his diaries lying about. He allowed Eddie to take the diary that had the entries to the dinner he attended with the other lords eight or nine years past. But, before they could leave, the one who was presumably the leader of the group demanded Eddie’s watch and Freddy’s trousers. Eddie at first refused to give in; he eventually relented and offered his watch, but not Freddy’s trousers. It looked like he was about to get into a fight he could not win for the sake of his brother’s dignity.

Freddy pragmatically decided to hand over his trousers, because as he rather emotionally told Eddie, he was the big brother trying to look out for his little brother. He admitted to having dark thoughts, to wanting Eddie dead, to what he told Susie about him taking over from Eddie. The admission hurt Eddie, though Freddy apologised. A mess of a man, Freddy was both a caricature and so profoundly human. I love Daniel Ings, and I appreciate when he is given space to express the multitudes within Freddy. 

Eddie handed over the names of the lords to Stevens, in exchange for the guarantee of freedom for his home and never hearing from them again. Stevens agreed as a gentleman, as Stanley previously did; it was practically an announcement that things would not go as Eddie wanted. Once Eddie had left, Stevens called Henry and gave him the go ahead to do as he wished.

What he wished was to kill Jack at the hospital, which Susie had anticipated. There was no one in the room that Henry and his man entered. Blanket shot Henry’s man, and Henry himself was wounded. Susie declared that she was going to take her time with Henry. Henry told her that Stanley would get her business, he could corrupt anyone. He already had Eddie on the hook. The news of Eddie’s latest betrayal shook Susie, and so she called The Gospel and told him that Freddy Horniman killed his brother, and he and his brother Eddie lied to cover it up. 

What Susie did not know was that her father Bobby was already aware of Eddie’s move toward Stanley Johnston. Eddie visited him in prison and told him he gave Stanley the names of the lords in the Glass family stable. It looked like Eddie came with a plan, though what it was, or whether it would matter now that Susie had blown up his rather massive secret, we’ll find out in the finale.

Rating: B+

Strays

🏚️Charlotte came home pregnant and refusing to say who the father was. Everyone in the family took the news rather well. Given the danger they were in at the moment, Geoff told Sabrina to tell Charlotte about the weed farm. Charlotte took the news in stride and was supportive of Eddie. 

🏚️The place where Stanley, Stevens, and Eddie frequently met, I assumed was a private club, but it could also be Stanley’s London residence, given how wealthy he was.

🏚️I hope Susie got her 15 million back from Henry.

Episode Title: Not Without Danger

Episode Writer: John Jackson

Episode Director: David Caffrey

Original Release Date: March 7, 2024