Spoilers forMobLandseason 2 episode 2 ahead
It’s official: the season 2 episode 2 ending is my favorite scene in all of MobLandhistory so far… and that’s not just because Firestarterby The Prodigy is used as its epic soundtrack.
As we get officially acquainted with Kat McAllister’s (Janet McTeer) new henchmen Frankie (Johnny Flynn), he makes his first movie on the Harrigan family. Kat has deduced that the best way to get to Harry (Tom Hardy) is through his friendship with Bella (Lara Pulvey), leaving her hugely at risk.
Well, risk is an understatement. In the episode’s final scene, Frankie arrives at Kevin (Paddy Considine) and Bella’s home and attacks her while Kevin is away. Masked men come tearing into the house, scrapping with the Harrigan’s own security before finding Bella cowering at the back of the house.
Episode 2 is left with Frankie pulling a gun on her, but only making the sound “bang” rather than shooting. Is she dead, or alive and a hostage? Only next week will tell.
It’s all enough to give us a heart attack while watching, but the episode, now streaming on Paramount+, actually left Flynn himself terrified, he tells me… and for good reason.
‘It was my first day on the job’
“That was my first day, so I was terrified,” Flynn tells me about the episode 2 scene.
“It’s really fun. I always wanted more to do with Lara because we’ve crossed over in other places and thought it would be fun for these two quite sharp-tongued characters to have more of a showdown. I worked with Lara’s husband on a film and it was really nice to get to hang out.
“She was so nice to me on my first day… really put me at ease. I was really terrified, because coming into something like MobLandwith these really amazing actors that you admire so much and something with such energy — knowing that you have to provide a lot of energy for that particular character, this kind of agitator. It was intense. Guy’s [Ritchie] sets are like machines.”
Intense is truly the name of the game when it comes to MobLand, and even two seasons in, the action hasn’t let up once. Frankly, Frankie’s rough-and-ready introduction is more exciting because of where he could go in the future. If things are already this bad, what on Earth is to come?
He’s pretty close to being the third Gallagher brother, that’s for sure. “That was that was a thing for me,” Flynn adds about Noel and Liam being a reference point.
“There wasn’t a lot on the page in terms of what Frankie looked like, so with the with the costume designer [Rebecca Hale], I talked about what he could be in terms of his references being that mid-90s feel. The pageboy cut, the sheepskin jacket… it was a fun thing to lean into because it allowed me to have that swagger.”
More “prick on a scooter” vibes in every episode from this point on are needed, if you ask me.
