This is the way The Gentlemen ends: not with a bang, but with a chainsaw. In the final shot of Guy Ritchie and Matthew Read’s sensationally entertaining British gangster thriller’s second season, Lord Edward Horniman (Theo James), the 13th Duke of Halstead, gets bloody satisfaction against the men responsible for the death of his newlywed wife Bella (Benedetta Porcaroli), and an all-out assault on his ancestral home of Halstead Manor.
But if his own older brother Freddy (Daniel Ings) is one of those men, why is he still alive, holding a chainsaw and the severed head of his ultra-religious drug lord mentor, John “The Gospel” Dixon (Pearce Quigley)? Where does Edward’s uneasy partnership with the glamorous Susie Glass (Kaya Scodelario) and her cockney crime lord father Bobby (Ray Winstone) fit into all this? With crime bosses from America, Italy, and Peru, not to mention Liverpool and London, all taking an interest in Duke Eddie’s rise or fall, it can be hard to keep track of who’s gunning for whom.
Who lives? Who dies? Whodunit and why? Pour yourself a brandy, smoke ’em if you got ’em, and settle in as we explain it all. WARNING: Major spoilers ahead.
The Gentlemen Season 2 Ending Explained: Who killed Eddie’s wife Bella? Who attacked Eddie’s family?
First, we’ll tackle who it wasn’t. It wasn’t Marco Moretti (Sergio Castelitto), the boss of all bosses in Italy and Bella’s godfather. His happiness for the couple and belief in Eddie’s potential is apparently sincere.
It wasn’t Stanley Johnston (Giancarlo Esposito), the American billionaire and meth kingpin who has been both a rival and supporter of Eddie. True, Eddie owed him a debt of one hundred million pounds, a debt he sold unannounced to Bobby Glass on the day of Eddie and Bella’s wedding. But Mr. Johnston has spent the season using the history of art and religion to convince Eddie he has nearly messianic potential as the new king of England’s underworld, and he’d never try to stand in the way.
It wasn’t Bobby Glass or his daughter Susie. As mentioned above, Bobby is now the proud owner of a hundred million-pound debt from Eddie. He may have had the Duke beaten within an inch of his life as payback for trying to get weed decriminalized behind his back in Parliament, but he too believes in Eddie’s potential. He’d never kill someone before recouping that cost at any rate.
It also wasn’t the Bannik (Jimmy Vee), the diminutive spirit that lives in Bobby’s prison sauna and gives him advice from time to time. I don’t know, just go with it.
Okay, so who was it, then?
It was the unlikely duo of Freddy Horniman, Eddie’s disgruntled older brother, and John “The Gospel” Dixon, the Liverpudlian drug baron who uses the proceeds of his operation to spread the word of the Lord, or his twisted version of it anyway.
Freddy remains bitter that his father wrote him out of his will, making second son Eddie the heir to everything instead. Gospel John blames Eddie for the murder of his own brother Tommy (Peter Serafinowicz) at the start of the first season. (Freddy actually pulled the trigger, but let’s not split hairs here.) Using a religious rehab center as a front, the Gospel sinks his hooks deep into Freddy, whom he convinces has been robbed of his birthright like Jacob robbed Esau in the Bible. (If you don’t know your Old Testament, let me help: This is an inaccurate comparison.)
Using info Eddie himself revealed about his wedding and honeymoon plans, Freddy and John rigged Bella’s beloved airplane to explode at altitude, believing Eddie would be on board as well but succeeding in killing only her.
The next phase of their plan is to assault Halstead Manor using mercenaries. Their aim is to kidnap the adorable baby son of Freddy and Eddie’s kid sister Charlotte (Jasmine Blackborow) and her husband Nanny (Benjamin Clementine), giving him away to a couple of John’s followers so he can’t be a rival to Freddy’s claim. Meanwhile, other assassins track down and attack Eddie in an attempt to finish the job. If other family members die…shrug! Everyone survives, and baby Tarquin is retrieved, thanks in large part to Geoffrey (Vinnie Jones), Eddie’s gamekeeper and right-hand man.
How does Eddie get his revenge?
Once he learns from Susie that Bobby has a huge investment in his continued survival, Eddie has no idea who to suspect. Torturing a captured mercenary (Peter Ferdinando) yields no useful information. (Torture generally doesn’t!) The vengeful Eddie is out of leads…until his mother Sabrina (Joely Richardson) reveals the strange phone call she received from Freddy that day, asking if everyone was alright. Eddie realizes this was an attempt to see if his plan to kidnap Tarquin had been successful.
Eddie and Susie spring a trap. They set up a bogus meeting between John the Gospel and Carlos Vargas (Cosimo Fusco), a Peruvian narco who owes them a favor for exposing a traitor in his organization earlier in the season. Eddie and his ex-army sniper buddy Andy (Cassidy Little) take out John’s men, leaving the leader alone and defiant.
Eddie then travels to Freddy’s rehab center, where he confronts him about what he’s done and beats the living daylights out of him. But while “someone’s got to die,” as Eddie puts it, it won’t be Freddie. A van pulls up, revealing that Gospel John is now Eddie’s prisoner…and that his and Susie’s men are going to force Freddy to execute the Scouse gangster using a chainsaw. A horrible minute of muffled cries and buzz-sawing later, Freddy steps out of the van, holding the head of his erstwhile “brother” and screaming his head off.
Why does Eddie let Freddy live?
When Eddie learns that Freddy has betrayed the family, their mother Sabrina begs him not to kill his own brother. Eddie honors his mother’s wishes…but there are some fates worse than death. Back in Season 1, Freddy said that Eddie was the right man to run the family’s drug empire, since he possesses a killer instinct honed in the army that Freddy himself lacks. This guy was simply not cut out to dismember a beloved friend with a chainsaw. You can practically see his mind snap in real time.
It all comes back to Mr. Johnston’s repeated references to the orb and the scepter wielded by kings, representing forgiveness and judgement. Eddie has figured out how to balance the two, at least in the very twisted way that both kings and gangsters wield their power — and the whole point of The Gentlemen is that aristocrats and criminals are one and the same. Long live the king.
Will there be a The Gentlemen Season 3?
Yes! Netflix renewed The Gentlemen for a third season two weeks before Season 2 even premiered. So if you’re worried about that two-season Netflix curse, don’t be: Eddie, Freddy, Susie, Bobby, and the rest of the whole mad circus will be back. (Sadly, Meghan Markle doesn’t look like she’ll be joining them.)