Warning: Major spoilers ahead for the season finale of MobLand

This article contains discussions of sexual assault.

The season finale of Ronan Bennett’s MobLand saw the war between the Harrigans and the Stevensons come to a sudden, violent end, and in the process the key of the Harrigan crime organization stepped into a bigger, more dangerous world. With Conrad and Maeve behind bars, Harry Da Souza executed his master stroke to end the war with the Stevensons once and for all. En route to the explosive conclusion, several key mysteries surrounding the Harrigans’ inner circle were solved, most notably the identity of the rat who had been feeding Richie intel for months.

Harry used Richie’s trust in the Harrigans’ own lawyer, O’Hara Delaney, to set the South London crime boss and all his soldiers up, enabling Harry, Kevin, Paul, Zosia, and Kiko to take them all out in simultaneous ambushes. Elsewhere, Kevin makes his claim to the throne of the Harrigan criminal empire, refocused by the exorcism of his long-time tormentor, the prison guard Alan Rusby. After confirming that Eddie was in fact Conrad’s son with his wife, Bella, Kevin completely disowned Eddie, designating him Conrad’s problem and not his.

While many of the mysteries of season 1 of MobLand were solved, and the conflict with the Stevensons brought to a close, the finale did plenty to set up an as-yet-unconfirmed second season. The events of season 1 inadvertently pulled the Harrigans into a much larger criminal underworld as opposed to the London-based territories they shared with the Stevensons. There are plenty of stories to explore in the next phase of growth for the of the Harrigan crime organization, along with the next set of enemies whose ire has been provoked.

Is Tom Hardy’s Harry Going To Survive After Being Stabbed By Jan?

Her Frustration Manifested In A Brief Moment Of Violence

The final scene of MobLand season 1 was much more intimate than the big action set pieces that dominated the middle stages of the final episode. It involved Harry returning to Jan in the safe house, where she finally unleashed her rage, fear, and frustration with her and Gina’s predicament of being trapped in their current dangerous lifestyle. In her frustration, Jan executed a bit of a Freudian slip and accidentally stabbed Harry in the chest with a kitchen knife.

Given Tom Hardy’s prevalence in the show along with his calm and measured reaction to the stabbing, he is almost certainly not going to die from his wound (although technically his fate is left uncertain). Frankly, the cliffhanger is likely a precautionary setup in case Tom Hardy doesn’t or can’t return for another season of MobLand. They now have an easy way to write him off the show, and give Joanne Froggatt’s Jan a conflict to work through.

Why The Prisoners Cheer Conrad

Conrad Receives A Hero's Welcome At The Prison

At the very end of the episode, Conrad exits his prison cell, surrounded by the other convicts in the prison. They meet him with cheering and applause, which Conrad absolutely soaks up, because, as has been made clear on several occasions, he cares about his own reputation above all else. As Conrad "100 Guns" Harrigan, he used to be the most feared crime lord in London, and undoubtedly earned the respect and iration of criminals across the city. Now in prison with the rest of them, Conrad is celebrated for his decades of infamous malevolence.

Maeve’s Series-Long Motivation Explained

We're Finally Given A Reason For Her Chaotic Schemes

ittedly, the reason for Maeve's incessant scheming is somewhat flimsy, and almost sounds as if she made it up on the spot. However, when she and Conrad talk on the burners they smuggled into their prison cells, Maeve notes that everything she did, including sicking Eddie on Tommy Stevenson and kicking off a war, anonymously calling the police to put them on Harry's trail, or providing Seraphina's location to Richie Stevenson himself, was all part of her own personal test. Simply put, Maeve wanted to see which of the family were worth building the future around.

The finale also provides some much-needed context behind why Maeve was so attached to Eddie and hated Seraphina. Maeve always knew that Eddie was not actually her grandson, and got her hooks in him when he was not yet a teenager. She has essentially been grooming him as the heir to the Harrigan empire, which she cares about above all else. With Eddie in place, Maeve also has designs to make herself the queen of his kingdom, so that she can continue to rule vicariously; that wouldn't have been possible with an adult Seraphina at the head of the table.

Is Kevin In Charge Of The Harrigan Empire Now?

He's The Only Remaining Legitimate Heir To The Throne

Kevin Harrigan's life has undoubtedly been tragic, as he grew up with Conrad and Maeve for parents in a crime organization. In prison from a young age, he was raped many times, which made him even more vulnerable to his evil father's will. Kevin was lied to about the real identity of his presumed son for years, and lived with a wife who pursued his best friend behind his back. The finale of MobLand saw Kevin begin to take back what's rightfully his, not only in of the Harrigan crime organization, but in control over his own life.

His last name will only take him so far; Kevin has to earn control over the Harrigan crime empire.

With Conrad and Maeve still alive, Kevin's path to the throne won't be an easy one. He has Harry's love and respect, but he'll need to earn it from all soldiers in the Harrigan crime organization if he is to truly rule the empire. Not only that, it will fall to Kevin to make his enemies and rivals respect and fear him. Richie might be gone, but Kevin now has bigger players like Jaime Lopez and Kat McAllister to contend with. His last name will only take him so far; Kevin has to earn control over the Harrigan crime empire.

MobLand's Finale Reveals What Bella's Story Was Really About

Her Scheme Turned Out To Be A Revenge Plot

The frustrating lack of elaboration on Bella's scheme involving her father, the Home Secretary, the Frenchman Antoine, and his client (a sanctioned Syrian arms dealer) finally ended in the season finale. Through a series of background news broadcasts played on Bella's phone and computer, we learned that her father had been arrested for some sort of blackmail or illegal lobbying charges. Bella set the meeting with the arms dealer so that she could entrap her father with video evidence of his back-door dealings, all as vengeance for his rape and torment of her as a child.

Why Harry Rejects Kat & How Will She Take Her Revenge?

He Makes An Enemy Of The Mysterious And Powerful Player

Harry sat down with Kat one-on-one in the season finale of MobLand, and sure enough she called in one of the favors that Harry owed her after saving Seraphina's life in Antwerp and setting the meeting between Conrad and Jaime. Unfortunately, that favor was having Harry help her wipe out the remaining Harrigans so that Kat could take over the drug and gun trade in London. Harry flatly refuses out of sheer loyalty to the Harrigans in general, but specifically to his best friend Kevin, who was on Kat's list of people to kill.

As has been established, Kat McAllister is one of the most powerful people in the world when it comes to the criminal underworld, although the nature of her role or connections remains bafflingly unclear. It was popularly theorized that she was some sort of intelligence operative for the CIA, MI6, etc., but the fact that she wanted to move in on the London drug and gun trade points to her being a significant crime lord herself. It's been established that owing her anything is a big mistake, but Harry has now painted a target on his back, too.

Interestingly enough, Kat ed Seraphina Harrigan during the season finale, which might be her play now that Harry has turned his back on her. Instead of wiping out the Harrigans en masse, Kat could look to place Seraphina at the head of the family as her puppet. Seraphina is an intelligent, unflinching businesswoman with the right last name and reputation in London, so she makes a ton of sense as an ally for Kat. She could be Kat's ultimate tool of revenge against Harry, undermining the Harrigan empire from within.

Will MobLand Season 2 Happen?

Streaming Numbers Indicate A Green Light Could Be Close

MobLand was a streaming hit for Paramount+ from the jump. Its premiere week drew 8.8 million viewers (with 2.2 million viewers on its premiere day), making it the biggest launch ever for a series on the platform, outshining major hits like 1923, Tulsa King, and Landman. The show has continued to pile up streaming numbers every week, and in anticipation of the season finale it cracked the top three shows on the Samba TV streaming chart, per Yahoo. The numbers are certainly there to justify a second season of the gritty crime drama.

Tom Hardy told The Hollywood Reporter that, "The plan is definitely to see more seasons." The way season 1 ends clearly indicates that the overarching narrative is just beginning for the of the Harrigan inner circle, as they gained an even greater enemy than Richie Stevenson in Janet McTeer's dangerous Kat McAllister. While a second season hasn't been greenlit yet, it is common practice to wait until after a season of television's finale has aired to make an announcement like that, and it feels safe to assume that's the case here.

Source: Yahoo, The Hollywood Reporter