Mansion Escape
Episode 6 of Gangs of London Season 2 starts with a look at A blood-soaked mansion. Ropes lie across the floor, there’s a tarp there too, while blood across the wall fades out of focus by a dog, which walks toward an elevator and waits for it to ping.
This bloody opening paves way for a similarly gnarly scene, as Elliot walks away from Miss Kane’s body, after killing her outright. He walks across the fields purposefully, presumably back to his car.
Meanwhile, Sean Wallace and Koba both show up to see Asif in his limo. Koba reveals that the pair have decided to take London for themselves. Asif can be part of this too, and they’ll allow him to bring his product into London and distribute it as he sees fit.
In exchange though, they want access to his network and infrastructure. If he agrees to this, all three will walk away very rich. They give Asif until the night to think it over, but Koba suggests a “sweetener” in private to twist his hand. This happens to be Lale. Koba makes the necessary moves to have her snatched up at a family gathering, and brought to Asif’s mansion. Sean in a state of shock when he finds out.
Marian arrives to see Ed, begging him for help. Given Sean has struck a deal with the devil, she tries to encourage him to join and take back what they’ve built together. Ed refuses outright, until Marian suggests a coo and to instigate themselves at the top instead of either Sean Wallace or Asif. The enticing prospect of power is too much to turn away from.
When Shannon leaves the room, she finds Elliot, who puts on one heck of a performance here. He’s shocked, panicked and distressed after his father has been killed and blames himself for what’s happened. Elliot admits he had information about the Investors and that’s why his father has been killed. When he finds out Sean is involved with Koba, he’s angry and determined to get his revenge.
Sean is conflicted though and unsure whether to allow Lale to be tortured and destroyed by Asif or not. While Sean ponders this, we cut across to a resourceful Lale, who manages to grab an empty whiskey glass and crush it with her hands. She uses the shards to cut her binds, and bids her time with the remnants, winding up Asif, and making him come close.
It works an absolute charm too and Asif walks right into her trap. He lets his guard down and she stabs him in the ear for good measure. As he attempts to walk away, Lale breaks free and holds him down.
The ping from the elevator sends Lale scrambling down the stairs, intent on finding a way out. Lale manages to fight off a whole host of different men on her own, eventually leading to a big showdown with Asif himself. Now, I will give the show credit where it’s due, the scene is brutal and actually does a good job of showing how hard work it is to throw a guy around but the stomp earlier in the bathroom? Pretty poorly shot I must say.
Anyway I digress. Lale does manage to get out, and with the rain lashing down, she stumbles across to safety. A car pulls up, but thankfully it’s not Asif, it’s Sean Wallace. He bundles her in the back of his car and drives her… back to Asif. It’s a shocking ending and one that throws all of her hard work out the window.
The Episode Review
While not quite the barn shootout from last season, that whole sequence at the end featuring Lale was absolutely brutal and works really well to show just how hard Lale worked to get out… and how quickly she was thrown back in after trusting Sean Wallace.
Sean had to make a very difficult choice there for the good of London and he could well come to regret that moving forward.
The whole chapter works to really show off the visceral violence and great fighting sequences that this show has been synonymous with. In many ways it bears a lot of similarities to series like Daredevil and Punisher, and the ending hints that we’re moving into the realm of similarly shocking conclusions. Even so though, everything here is left wide open for the final 2 chapters.