The Gentlemen Recap Season 2 Episode 8 ‘Bring Me The Head’
Outside of the church mere minutes before he got married, Susie told Eddie, without rancour and with much concern, that he had potential to become a monster. Yet when Eddie began exacting his bloody vengeance on the death of his wife, it was Susie who offered to be by his side to destroy them, whoever they may be. Only, at that time, Eddie’s primary suspect was Bobby Glass. Eddie had good reason to suspect Bobby. Out of all the criminals he has met and associated with since he decided to continue his father’s criming ways, it was only Bobby who expressed his extreme displeasure by breaking both his legs and leaving him to crawl out of the woods. Eddie was out of Bobby’s empire; at least, he thought he was out. He was spreading his own wings through Bella’s own criminal associations (the Moretti group) and using Bobby’s business model to create similar marijuana plantations across Europe. Bobby had reason to be mad at him. Eddie had reason to think that since Bobby had already come close to killing him, he would not hesitate to have another go, this time, finishing what he chose not to finish in the woods.
But, this was not Bobby’s doing, despite that confession exacted via torture of a surviving member of the hit squad that tried to kidnap baby Tarquin. The man yelled out Bobby’s name because he did not want to suffer anymore, and Eddie was too angry to see it. He called Moretti and arranged for a hit on Bobby inside the prison.
The assassination would have gone uninterrupted had Jimmy not been able to convince Susie to go see Eddie. ‘He’ll always have time for you, Susu’, Jimmy sweetly told her. Jimmy remembered the Eddie that worked alongside Susie for two years, the one who had her back. He did not know that Dark Eddie had slowly been taking the wheel, pushed toward the chaos of control by his ambition, by Bobby’s harsh lesson, by the death of his wife.
It was Dark Eddie who met Susie halfway down the manor drive, at a fork in the road that was an unsubtle allusion to the choices Eddie needed to make. For as much as it was Susie who introduced him to the darker aspects of their criminal enterprise, Susie was a professional. She knew how to weigh the necessity of violence. She saw — has been seeing, even before the Glass/ Horniman business association fell apart — how Eddie was on a slow descent to the kind of darkness he may not have realised he was headed to. She came to see him anyway. It was a last ditch attempt at diplomacy before war. Had Bobby died, there would have been an answer from the Glass side. Had Susie died, well, would Eddie even survive that?
There was that tantalising question, coated with the chemistry-based ship that was Susie and Eddie. When Eddie heard that Susie was on her way to see him, he was angry enough to order Andy to train a sniper rifle at her as they spoke. Would he have killed her, had he not been satisfied with what he heard from her? Would he have killed her, had he been convinced that Bobby ordered the bombing that was meant for him but killed his wife? As difficult as it is to predict what Dark Eddie would do, I’d still go with no. Eddie’s anger went as far as thinking he could order Susie’s death. It did not go so far as to actually kill her.
Susie admitted that even she thought her father gave the order, but she was now convinced he had not. On the day of his wedding, Bobby bought Eddie’s one hundred million pound debt from Stanley Johnston. Had Eddie died, Bobby would have been out one hundred million pounds. That did not make sense for a businessman like Bobby.
Eddie signalled Andy to stand down, but he was not done testing Susie. He brought her to Geoff’s cottage, where the gunman still lived and remained terrified of being tortured again. Susie asked him questions, and his answers made clear that he was only saying what he thought Eddie wanted to hear. As a final test, Eddie called Stanley Johnston, who confirmed that he indeed sold the debt. Finally satisfied, Eddie tried to call off the assassination on Bobby, but Moretti said they could not do that. Susie helped Eddie get into the prison, where he had to physically fight the assassin he sent to kill Bobby Glass.
Bobby was old, and in his mind now lived a Bannik, but this was a man who built his empire from the ground up; when push came to shove, he shived, even with a bullet wound on his shoulder. All Eddie could tell the man who came close to killing him, and whose life he just saved, was that he did not own him. He got past the beating with Susie but not with Bobby.
Alone with her father, Susie tried to talk to him about Eddie and the massive investment he made that ensured that the Duke remained tied to the Glass empire. Susie called him an unstable stock. Bobby insisted that they needed him, and that he needed them. I don’t disagree, but I also feel for Susie in this ongoing theme of her running the business and getting the job done, and Bobby’s eyes falling on Eddie, again, as though Susie had not been competently running things before they even met the Duke. Your heir is right in front of you, Bobby.
Stanley Johnston, who claimed he had not yet heard about Bella’s death when he and Eddie last spoke over the phone, went to the manor to speak to him personally. Eddie was not happy that Stanley sold the debt to Bobby, as though he did not get into business with the Glass family to avoid having to sell the estate to Stanley. Stanley pontificated on his reason for selling the debt, but at least to me, it sounded like a lot of wordplay. My current theory is... You know what, I changed my mind. I am not going to write my theory here. This is a recap, let us allow the writers to reveal the story in their own time.
And now we come to Freddy, who had fewer scenes this season, as the story expanded into Italy and Eddie’s Bella and Moretti connections, and Susie worked on building her own cocaine distribution network. Freddy in his chicken suit fit in well with the dark comedy of the first season; tonally, it was more of a challenge to fit him in The Godfather-esque second season. With sheer skill, the writers did just that, without losing what made Freddy, Freddy – his innate loserdom, his inability to recognise that he had lost, that his father had disinherited him and there was nothing he could do to change that, his impulsiveness in going into yet another harebrained scheme – packaged in a performance brimming with energy and the careful control of a committed actor. Daniel Ings, I have missed you.
Freddy called home, which was unusual for him, and spoke to his mother Sabrina. He claimed that he had a bad dream, and that he was just checking if everyone was all right. Sabrina assured him that they were all right, except for poor Bella, who died.
In the very next scene, Geoff and Eddie made the gunman leave a message presumably for the person who hired them. He said that his whole team had died and that he was the only survivor; he had the child, and he wanted everyone’s money. The man actually believed that Eddie would let him go if he was able to successfully draw whoever hired him out. The person who had the phone texted back, and it was very clear the scheme did not work. Eddie unceremoniously shot him, right there in Geoff’s cottage, because he was an aristocrat who never had to clean anything in his life. Eddie could have been more thoughtful and respectful of Geoff’s living space, is all I’m saying.
With no leads, Eddie went to Susie at her office; it was notable that he now had Andy following him as his bodyguard. Susie knew Eddie’s plan without him having to say it; she also knew it was not going to work. Whoever ordered the hit would be too cautious to come forward. She promised to help him find vengeance.
They did not have to look much further. Whilst having dinner, Sabrina mentioned Freddy's phone call to Eddie. Sabrina said Freddy asked about Tarquin, and it was then that Eddie knew the man behind the attack on him, that led to the death of his wife and almost kidnapping of his nephew, was his own brother. The phone call with the gunman did not work because Freddy already knew Tarquin was okay; Sabrina had told him. Eddie had flashbacks of his visit with Freddy, when he asked him to be best man, when Freddy asked about the honeymoon and Eddie told him Bella had insisted on flying the both of them on her seaplane. Eddie driving the Ferrari had been a last minute change in their plans. Eddie called the one person he knew he could trust in this moment of ultimate betrayal, Susie.
Why didn’t Eddie call Moretti? Of course he knew that Freddy could not have pulled off three attacks (bomb on the seaplane, gunmen in Switzerland, attempted kidnapping of Tarquin at the Halstead estate) on his own. He needed to confirm who helped Freddy. Susie was closer, and she had people all over England to help. Also, I suspect the deeper reason was that Eddie knew he could trust that Susie would back his decision. This would be vengeance according to his will. Bella was Moretti’s goddaughter. Moretti would insist on having a say on what happened to the people who caused her death.*
To help Eddie, Susie reached out to her Peruvian connection, Carlos Vargas. Vargas had his people reach out to Gospel John to arrange a meet. Gospel John was wary, but he could not resist meeting a name as massive in the criminal world as Vargas. He arrived at the meeting place, a bonded warehouse in Heathrow Airport, with a contingent of men, though only he and Errol were allowed to proceed to the office where Vargas waited.
Let me pause here for a moment, because Vargas’s involvement was the one aspect of this episode that rang false for me, unless there is something planned for the third season involving Vargas and Eddie. Why would the leader of a major international cocaine enterprise consent to fly to the UK as a favour to Susie and Eddie? Susie was making a lot of money for him, true enough, but that was business, this was personal, this was a favour. This was Carlos Vargas leaving the safe confines of his headquarters in Peru to fly to another country, potentially placing his safety (from rivals) and his freedom (from law enforcement agencies) at risk. This was a huge favour.
Vargas spoke briefly to Gospel John, and even that mild note of censure in his voice as he spoke of stories he heard, of planes crashing, wives dying, the kidnapping of a baby, did not sound right. From the very beginning of The Gentlemen, we were told, as Bobby has told Susie repeatedly for years, that the cocaine trade was very violent. It was why Bobby did not want to be involved in it in the first place. Surely, what Gospel John facilitated against Eddie and his family were acts that would not shock the leader of a major cocaine enterprise? Having Vargas there just seemed off to me, but I will forgive it, because the staging with the lights was cool, and when done right, I am happy to accept the rule of cool.
As Gospel John and his men arrived at the warehouse, the overhead lights started lighting up. As a chill went through the small office at Vargas’s words, all the lights outside went out. What popped was the green of night vision goggles. Then came the shots, quick ones, done professionally. When the lights came back on, there was Susie and Eddie, vibing and looking cool as they walked through dead bodies on the floor. May I compliment milady Susie’s commitment to carrying fabulous bags when she crimes?
Andy had handed Eddie a handgun before he entered the office, and he shot Errol when Errol did not immediately sit down as he told him to. Left alone with Gospel John, Eddie asked him why he did it. Like Freddy, Gospel John went Jacob and Esau on Eddie. He said that after he lost his brother, God gave him Freddy; he wanted to help Freddy reclaim what was taken from him, not just the house and the title but the drug empire as well. Gospel John claimed they were never going to hurt baby Tarquin; they just needed to make sure the title did not go to him. He planned on giving Tarquin to two members of his community who would have provided him a loving home.
Eddie thought Gospel John wanted everything for himself, through Freddy, but Gospel John merely pointed up, alluding to God. Finally done with the conversation, Eddie went outside and thanked Carlos Vargas for his help. Susie offered to take over from there. ‘A bit of professional distance has its advantages.’ True. Eddie demured and said he made other arrangements.
Before Eddie could enact his arrangements, he went home, which gave Sabrina a chance to plead for the life of her eldest son. She said that whatever Freddy had done, he was still Eddie’s brother. She claimed Eddie had two paths, one that could lead to losing everything, including himself, and the other where he got to keep his family. Did Michael’s soul survive his order to kill his brother Fredo? Would Eddie’s soul survive had he decided to kill Freddy?
Eddie drove up to Freddy’s rehab, and as they walked through the grounds where Freddy claimed he found peace, Eddie told him he knew what he did. Freddy tried to deny it, and Eddie punched and slapped him repeatedly. ‘My wife!’ he screamed at his brother, and though there were quick flashes of Bella, though I believe Eddie eventually chose to love Bella, following his business decision to marry her, his anger here seemed to be about him. Freddy dared touch someone that was his. His wife, the woman he chose. It was Dark Eddie, aristocrat Eddie, grieving, yes, but also furious that his dome of protection was breached.
Eddie dragged Freddy to the van that drove in, where Blanket waited with a tied up Gospel John. He pulled a gun on Freddy’s head and told him someone had to die.
When Tommy Dixon made Freddy act like a chicken, he was taking away Freddy's posh dignity. What Eddie now wanted was Freddy’s soul. He wanted Freddy to have blood on his hands, to brutally murder the man he had leaned on through his recovery. Yes, Gospel John had to die, but Freddy too, what innocence was left in him, the spoiled boy who never had to do the work. Eddie physically deposited Freddy inside the van. The chainsaw buzzed as Eddie waited outside, listening to Gospel John’s screams through his gag. When Blanket opened the van door and Eddie turned back around, there was a bloody Freddy holding Gospel John’s severed head.
Congratulations to The Gentlemen for a phenomenal second season!
Rating: A-
Strays
🏚️The way I once wrote that Andy would make a good rival for Susie’s affections (I don’t have a good reason outside of he’s hot and it looked like Susie thought he was hot and was impressed with his sniper skills), and now here he was with a sniper rifle trained on her. I know how to pick ‘em, lol.
🏚️Eddie himself prepared the gun that would have been used to kill Bobby Glass. Cold.
🏚️‘He’s hot-headed, Dad.’ ‘His wife’s dead.’ ‘Yeah, I can appreciate that.’ Never change, Susie Glass.
🏚️With Jimmy and the others still operating out of the airfield that Eddie owned on paper, even before the purchase of his debt, Eddie was not really out out. He was not running things with Susie as he used to do, but the businesses he set up seemed to have remained part of the Glass empire.
🏚️*The shipper part of me also thinks that Eddie was simply more comfortable working with Susie, and vengeance was very important work to get right.
🏚️Dark Eddie: ‘You wanna look into my heart? Are you sure about that?’
🏚️Nanny wanted to move Charly and Tarquin to a cottage in the Sandringham estate. Charly initially disagreed with him, but she eventually talked to Eddie herself about the move. Whilst Eddie was all, ‘You’ll leave when I say you can leave’ to Nanny, he did not at all try to stop his sister.
🏚️Season 3 has been confirmed! My hope is that we won’t have to wait too long for the third season. If we could get a season of The Gentlemen every year, that would be amazing. Please, powers that be!
Episode Title: Bring Me The Head
Episode Writers: Guy Ritchie and Matthew Read
Episode Director: Eran Creevey
Original Release Date: September 3, 2026