Diksha Sundriyal
The stakes rise, and more and more blood is spilled as Paramount+’s ‘MobLand’ inches towards its finale. The eighth episode of the season dives deeper into the conflict between the Harrigans and the Stevensons, which has been bubbling since the beginning of the season. While the two crime families have been at odds with each other since time immemorial, there is another party that is trying to do something about the conflict.
The cops have been trying to get their hands on the Harrigans, to begin with, and DS Fisk and DCI Mukasa are covertly leading the operation, which includes setting up a spy within the family. In this episode, however, they meet someone who has worked along the same lines. A retired cop by the name of Tattersall is sent in to help them find new avenues to explore in the investigation, but it turns out rather ugly for the duo who had managed to stay alive so far. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Fisk and Mukasa Pay the Price for Stoking Richie’s Ego
Fisk and Mukasa had been playing it safe so far by keeping a distance from the Harrigans and the Stevensons. They were using Alice to get close to Jan, through whom they hoped to get closer to the Harrigans. It was a long shot, but it finally seemed to be bearing fruit as Alice is called in for dinner by Conrad. However, Tattersall tells them that this is not the only way to get what they want. Going back to the tactics that they used back in his day, he says that to get the Harrigans, they will need to get on the good side of Richie Stevenson. He advises them to make a deal with Richie where they will offer him immunity in return for helping bring down the Harrigans.
On paper, this seems like a good plan, but it is an entirely different thing to execute it. Fisk and Mukasa have no idea how to handle Richie, who has become more and more volatile since losing his son and wife because of the Harrigans. While he is completely invested in their destruction, he is still a criminal and cannot exactly be trusted. Still, Fisk and Mukasa take Tattersall’s advice and reach out to him. A meeting is set up at Richie’s joint at the Sinful Monkey, and as soon as the cops put the deal on the table, Richie asks who is in charge of whom. They have offered him immunity, but it doesn’t seem to be enough for him. He is not the kind of person to work under someone, but Fisk and Mukasa don’t understand that. Worse, they fail to read the room, especially considering that they are in Richie’s territory.
There were all kinds of ways that the situation could have gone, but unfortunately for Fisk and Mukasa, it ends with Richie pulling out his gun and shooting both of them dead. This happens because the duo confesses that they would be the ones calling the shots, which means that they would be the ones wearing the pants in this relationship. It does not sit well with Richie, but instead of refusing to take the deal, he simply kills them. This shows how deranged he has become, or rather, how he has always been. The fact that he is not hesitating to kill cops shows that he has no concern for consequences. Or so it seems at first glance.
Luke Mably and Gemma Knight Jones Will Not Return to MobLand
Considering that Fisk and Mufasa are shot point-blank several times and their bodies are disposed of by Richie’s men, it is clear that they are dead for good. There is no way they are coming back from this shocking twist, which means that actors Luke Mably and Gemma Knight Jones have finished their arc in ‘MobLand’ and have moved on to other pursuits. However, Fisk and Mukasa’s deaths don’t mean that the deal with Richie is off the table. One would think that killing two cops would come with consequences, but it seems that Richie has been in this situation before enough times to know the stakes, which means that he knows what he was doing when he killed them.
Interestingly, a few seconds later, he meets with Tattersall, who seems to have been in the other room all along. Previously, he told Fisk that he couldn’t talk to Richie due to their turbulent past. But now, he is right there, talking to Richie, and going forward with the deal, despite knowing that the criminal killed two police officers moments ago. When Richie asks him who is in charge in their dynamic, Tattersall is quick to say that Richie is in charge, as always. If he had shared this tiny detail about telling the mob boss that he would be in charge, perhaps Fisk and Mukasa would still be alive.
Considering that he has dealt with the man several times before, he would have known how to handle Richie. But clearly, he did not relay enough information to the duo, leading to the loss of their lives. It does, however, allow space for Toby Jones to appear in a more prominent role in the upcoming episodes, which means that more exciting things are in store, as Tattersall will now be assuming the command of the operation. And it seems that he is already much smarter than Fisk and Mukasa in handling and manipulating the enemy.
