Netflix’s The Gentlemen is the latest crime epic from iconic director Guy Ritchie — and all eight episodes are out right now for you to binge. The series stars Theo James (The White Lotus) as Eddie Horniman, the unlikely heir of his father’s title and estate. He has an older brother, y’know. Like, Freddy is right there. There’s just one major problem: unbeknownst to Eddie, the manor sits atop an outpost for an elaborate drug organization. And you thought your neighbors were shady!
Of course you already know all of this because you have come to this place, right here — to an ending explained article. You’re either a few episodes in and want the spoilers or you’re scratching your head while the credits are rolling on the season finale. Don’t be ashamed! The Gentlemen Season 1 goes out with a bang, but it also goes out with the sound of a calculator tallying up a whole bunch of numbers. There are a lot of threads to follow, and we’re here to help you untangle them.
How does The Gentlemen on Netflix end?
To sum up: it all ends happily ever after — for some. For the rest, it ends bloodily ever after.
The Gentlemen’s season finale ends where the season premiere began, with the Dixon brothers (well, brother) front and center and ready to cause trouble. After believing that Eddie (Theo James) sold out the identities of the other lords and manors in the Glass family drug empire, Susie Glass (Kaya Scodelario) went a bit rogue and told John “The Gospel” Dixon (Pearce Quigley) about Freddy (Daniel Ings) putting a bullet between the Gospel’s brother Tommy’s (Peter Serafinowicz) eyes. Did you get all that? Read it again, I guess. That’s as straightforward as this show gets!
So there’s The Gospel out front with his gang of heavily-armed Liverpudlian Christian maniacs. At the same time, Bobby Glass (Ray Winstone) called his daughter to his prison abode for a meeting — and she should bring Eddie with her. Whoops — she kinda sicced a crazy cult leader on Eddie and his family! That’s when Bobby gives The Gospel a ring and manages to call all this mess off with a promise: Bobby Glass now owes the Gospel a favor. Problem solved! On to the next problem!
Because Bobby stuck his neck out for Eddie, Eddie now really owes Bobby. He must repay that debt immediately because Bobby Glass is ready to get out of the business that he started almost 50 years ago. This concerns Eddie a great deal because he knows the most likely buyer is Stanley Johnston (Giancarlo Esposito) and he doesn’t want the weed biz under his stately manor to get even more intensely crime-y (or meth-y). So, that favor: Eddie and Susie have to work together to find the best offer for Bobby’s business — and nothing less than £150 million, okay? Luckily Eddie and Susie have a few prospects in mind because they just lived through seven previous episodes of crime-filled shenanigans.
Prospect #1 is, obviously, Stanley Johnston, the asshole aristocrat who’s been behind all of their troubles all season long. Prospect #2: Mercy Moreno (Martha Millan), who sells her Columbian drug lord bosses on the idea of getting into the weed business. Prospect #3: Ol’ Sticky Pete (Joshua McGuire) and the Russians. If they’re interested, they’re to send their bid to Bobby Glass via carrier pigeon. Pigeons are Bobby’s whole deal, aside from the weed business… which he’s selling, so yeah, I guess pigeons are Bobby’s whole deal.
And then things take a teeny turn when Eddie finds out that his older, train wreck of a brother Freddy wants to scrounge together the money to make a bid. He’s got a pigeon, so you know he’s serious. Freddy thinks he’s ready because he’s been watching Eddie do crime all this time, and Eddie is veddy good at it. Eddie’s a natural at it! Freddy remembers watching his little kid brother slice a deer’s throat when they were kids, and how li’l Eddie did that with no problem. Maybe crime is what Eddie does after all.
So how in the hell is Eddie gonna come up with the money? By pooling his resources, getting a bit from the other 12 lords in the same boat he’s in. He gets £10 million from his mom (Joely Richardson), and the Irish Travellers he ran afoul of can handle distribution. He still needs more money — a lot more money. He needs Susie, and she’s a tough sell. To get her on board, he’ll actually need £15 million from Henry Collins (Max Beesley), the former associate of Stanley Johnston who organized the attack on Susie’s brother Jack (Harry Goodwins). Estranged from Stanley and on the outs with the Glass family, Henry can’t turn that offer down.
After some nudging from Eddie’s mom, Susie decides to take the leap. She’s always wanted the business to grow, but her dad’s been fine with keeping things the way they are. She adds £35 to the pot, which brings the total to — I don’t know. A lot. Enough. When the pigeon bids are counted, our boy Eddie and our girl Susie come out on top — but not because they had the highest bid.
Part of Henry’s buy-in involved running a few errands for Eddie. First, they tipped off the authorities to Stanley Johnston’s fraud, tax evasion, etc., leaving him with frozen accounts and in jail. Then Eddie told Mercy that Stinky Pete actually won, which led Mercy to hack Pete up something fierce with her machete. And just to wrap things up, Henry whacked Mercy.
Everything’s coming up Eddie and Susie! But things were probably always going to go right for them, because none of this was an actual bidding war. Bobby wasn’t selling the business. All of this was an elaborate — and bloody — test to bring Eddie and Susie back together and get them to take over the business.
Still, there’s one dangling plot thread: Henry Collins. Susie is not going to work with him. The asshole and his goons nearly beat her brother to death. Fortunately Eddie never intended on working with Henry either. After getting Henry’s money, Eddie and groundskeeper Geoff (Vinnie Jones) abducted Henry. Eddie presents Henry to Susie, bound to a chair in the forest. A gun is drawn and instead of doing the deed herself, Susie says no, Eddie, you do it. He’s the “fucking general” of crime now, according to Bobby Glass, so this is Eddie’s deed to do. Bang.
Three months later, we see Bobby Glass and Stanley Johnston together, in the swanky rooftop hangout spot at their swanky jail, sharing a meal together.
The end. For now?
Will there be a The Gentlemen Season 2 on Netflix?
That remains to be seen. There’s obviously enough gas in the tank for a whole new season, and the finale sure went to extensive lengths to establish a new status quo for Eddie and friends. The question is, will we see this new arrangement play out? Series creator/EP Guy Ritchie has at least five movies in the works, and he seems to like to stay busy (he’s directed 5 movies in the last 5 years). That could mean that he’d likely be game to take on more of The Gentlemen while juggling multiple film projects, or it could mean that a Season 2 will be on hold until more progress is made on his films.
The real determining factor, though, is if Netflix orders a new season. That will likely depend on how well it does over the first weekend of release. Even then, Netflix has canceled moderately successful shows like The Brothers Sun recently. If you want more of The Gentlemen, well, make sure that it’s an undeniable hit for Netflix, innit?
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