'Gangs of London' Ending Explained: Why did Elliot Finch hide the chip and who is protecting him?
Spoilers for 'Gangs of London' Episode 9 Finale
In the final moment of 'Gangs of London', we see undercover agent Elliot Finch (Sope Disiru) being tortured during his interrogation by the police, who are constantly asking him who he's working for. Who asked him to kill Sean Wallace (Joe Cole)? Elliot doesn't answer at first, but a series of jagged flashbacks with him trying to recollect the events leading up to his torture reveal what went down.
In the end, right when we think he's finally going to tell the authorities who he's working for, Elliot replies saying he's protected under diplomatic immunity by the Republic Of Panama. The police reluctantly lets him go and as he emerges from the literal underground, Elliot pulls out a tiny chip from his teeth, which is presumably the card he had stolen from Sean earlier in the day. What is this chip? Who are the people Elliot was working for? Let's try to address some of the questions the ending left us with.
When Elliot walks out of his interrogation, he gets a call. He's told "Well done Elliot, we'll be in touch." It's the two people who were seen speaking with Jevan Kapadia (Ray Panthaki) earlier in the episode, right before he was thrown out of his window onto the spikes on the main gate. Elliot, too, had been ambushed by these two people - a middle-aged couple - and the shadowy figures had tasked him with shooting Sean, claiming he "must never stand trial." That these people wanted Alex Dumani (Paapa Essiedu) to run the Wallace business tells us they might be the same investors who were threatening to kill Alex should Ed Dumani (Lucian Msamati) not finish the Wallaces. So as of now, Elliot was tasked by the investors to kill Sean and also eventually saved by their last-minute tip through a nurse-in-disguise, who helped Elliot claim his diplomatic immunity while being held captive.
The chip, however, is something a lot of people have been asking about and our best bet is that it's either a memory card or a sim card with data enough to leave London's not so finest underground celebrities exposed and compromised. Before Elliot killed him, Sean had found out about his undercover status, and wanted Elliot to continue working as a double agent in taking down all the people at the top using the incriminating evidence collected and stored in this tiny little chip. When all hell breaks loose, Elliot can be seen grabbing the chip and plugging it between his teeth, only to pull it out after the devastating tide has washed over.
Meaning Elliot now has evidence against all the crimelords and the people hurt by the likes of the Wallace family and more in this tiny little chip. This brings back memories of what Elliot had told Sean about watching people get away with crime all the time, and how he plans on putting the Sean behind bars for his crimes. That conviction in Elliot tells us he is going to use the chip for similar purposes, but will the investors allow that? We know they drove Elliot to kill Sean using Shannon Dumani (Pippa Bennett-Warner) and her son Danny (Taye Matthew) as leverage. Will they do the same again should Elliot go against their cause? But in the off chance that these shadow figures are not the investors after all, the rest of the crimelords pose just as massive a threat to Elliot as did Sean. Only a second season will clear those doubts.
'Gangs of London' premiered on April 23 and airs every Thursday at 9pm only on Sky Atlantic.