The best episode of the season just ended! S02E05

The best episode of the season has just wrapped up! True to form, Guy Ritchie saves all the action for the final 3-4 minutes, where absolute carnage ensues! Paul repeats the exact exchange he overheard from Maeve to Harry, who immediately hops into one of the helicopters (Ritchie, having two choppers sitting there when there's usually just one feels like a bit of a plot hole, unless there were always two parked there) and takes off for Ireland, presumably with his daughter on his mind. Eddie completely fluffs his mission, naturally, and just as he's about to face the music... boom, he's saved by Harry, who pulls off an insane five-headshot spree!

The hit on the Harrigans goes down, which might seem a bit sus to the family since Harry took off so abruptly, but they ultimately make their escape in the second chopper! Personally, I think it would've pack more punch if someone had actually bitten the dust—say, Paul, and nothing personal against the guy, haha!—because when a show builds up an attack this lethal, you really need to feel like the main characters are in genuine danger.

And that is precisely where the Harrigans' problem begins: everyone wants to play the boss, but when the person who actually keeps things under control is out of the picture, suddenly nobody knows what to do.

Harry isn't just the fixer. He's the glue holding the entire family together.

"Birdland" is an episode that confirms something we've been seeing in MobLand for a while now. Harry Da Souza is the guy who has to pick up the pieces every time the Harrigans decide to do things their own way. Conrad acts on impulse, Maeve plays her own games, and the rest just try to survive in a family environment where trust has become practically a foreign word.

Harry tries to gather the family at the Cotswolds estate to control the damage and prevent an all-out war with Frankie Cooper and Cat McAllister. Except that, as almost always happens in this show, the plan falls apart before it even gets off the ground.

Maeve has already sent Eddie to Ireland, along with Gina, on a mission that turns out to be way more dangerous than he can handle. When Paul overhears her conversation with Eddie and fills Harry in, Harry doesn't think twice. He takes off to rescue his daughter.

This is where the core of his character lies. Sure, he works for a crime family, and sure, he'll take a life without a second thought, but the moment his kid is in danger, every other obligation goes right out the window. It's a deeply human decision, but it comes with a price: he leaves an entire criminal empire behind without the one guy who actually knows how to keep all the plates spinning.

Then again, there's another moment that really shows how well Harry reads people and situations. When he tells his wife that what happened was a setup, she just writes it off as jealousy and blows him off. But Harry isn't the type to let details like that slip by. Later that night, when she sees the name Serafinaon Donnie's phone, she starts to realize her husband was right all along. It's one of those small moments that works brilliantly in MobLand: Harry doesn't need to shout or prove anything through violence. He just waits for the truth to reveal itself to everyone else. And, as is usually the case, he’s already figured out what’s really going on long before the rest of them put the pieces together.

The Ireland storyline is one of the episode's most compelling elements, mainly because it exposes just how unprepared Eddie is for the world he's trying to break into.

Maeve gives him a hit: he has to kill a man known as Medusa and bring back his head. Eddie is no pro hitman, and his clumsy attempt to learn the basics of handling a firearm from online tutorials highlights just how absurd his mission really is. Gina initially thinks they're in Ireland to spend some quality time together. When she finds out the truth, she reacts fiercely and tries to pull him out of the whole mess.

Medusa, played by Colm Meaney, isn't some mysterious supernatural figure or a reference to be dug up strictly in Greek mythology. He's a dangerous Irish criminal whose operations are tied up in concrete and construction. His nickname is explained by the way he gets rid of anyone who crosses him: he buries them in concrete at spots like bridge supports and sewage works.

The nod to the mythological Medusa, whose gaze could turn people to stone, takes on a macabre irony here. In the show, the "turning to stone" isn't magic—it's a brutal criminal method of making people vanish inside cement.

The interesting part, though, isn't just the nickname. It's the fact that Maeve sends Eddie on a mission he's almost guaranteed to bomb. The show hasn't fully revealed why she wants this particular guy dead or what exactly links them together. So, it would be premature to assume we know her real motive just yet.

What we do know is that Maeve is willing to risk her grandson's life, while Gina's presence complicates the situation even further. It's a choice that makes her behavior seem even more ruthless, while at the same time leaving open the question of whether there's a bigger picture behind the mission.

And of course, just when Eddie ends up in Medusa's hands and things get truly desperate, Harry shows up. His five spot-on shots are the ultimate reminder that following instructions online is one thing, and coming face-to-face with people who have spent their entire lives knee-deep in violence is quite another.

The two helicopters and the attack on the Harrigans

Here I have a slight issue with a bit of lazy writing and directing in this episode.

Harry leaves the estate and takes a chopper to Ireland. Later on, when Frankie's men hit the Harrigans, the family manages to escape using yet another helicopter. This shot naturally raises the question: were there two choppers just sitting on the estate the whole time, or did a second one magically appear because the plot demanded it?

As far as anything published so far goes, there's no confirmed explanation that definitively clears this up. So, we can't say with absolute certainty that it's a continuity error. What we *can* point out, though, is that the appearance of the second helicopter makes the family's getaway way easier than you'd expect during an assault of that scale.

And that brings me right back to what I would've loved to see handled differently: an actual death among the main characters. It doesn't necessarily have to be Paul, but *someone* has to pay the price when a crime family gets ambushed by a rival who's decided to finish things once and for all.

When everyone manages to escape, the tension remains, but the sense of danger dwindles. The script asks us to believe that the Harrigans are one step away from ruin, yet at the same time it shields almost all of the major characters. That's a balancing act the series will need to handle better in upcoming episodes.

What the critics are saying about "Birdland"

The first reviews published after the episode dropped are positive about the tension, the performances, and the escalating story, but not all of them are unreservedly enthusiastic.

We Have Issues hails "Birdland" as one of the season's high points, highlighting the performances of Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, and Helen Mirren, as well as the effective switch between personal anguish and large-scale violence.

On the other hand, Ready Steady Cutconsiders the episode action-packed and notes that it moves the plot forward significantly, but points out that the Harrigans feel overly protected by the script. The critique also centers on the logic behind Eddie’s mission and why Maeve chooses to send him on such a dangerous assignment, taking Gina along with him.

Personally, I land somewhere in between these two viewpoints. The tension works, the final scenes have the exact pacing I expect from MobLand, and Harry remains the kind of character who can turn a chaotic situation into a bloody yet effective solution. Still, I agree with the criticism that the show needs to dare to raise the stakes for its characters' decisions.

"Birdland" is, for me, the best episode of the season so far. It has suspense, bloody moments, family intrigue, and a finale that makes you want to hit play on the next episode immediately. Guy Ritchie knows how to keep viewers on the edge of their seats and ramp up the tension all the way to the very end.

Harry proves once again that he's the guy everyone needs, even when nobody wants to admit it. Maeve keeps pulling the strings in a way that could lead her own family to ruin, while Eddie's mission opens up new questions I'm dying to see answered.

My only real gripe is that I wish the hit on the Harrigans had carried more brutal consequences. When a show raises the stakes this high, it's gotta be ready to sacrifice characters we've grown used to taking for granted.

Because in MobLand, the real question isn't whether Harry can save everyone. It's how much longer he can keep doing it before one of the Harrigans realizes their biggest weakness is their own family.