‘Gangs of London’ Episode 5: Who sent the army to kill Darren and did he deserve Kinney's unconditional love?
Spoilers for ‘Gangs of London’
“One should die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly...” Friedrich Nietzsche said. ‘Gangs of London’ inches closer to that thought as Episode 5 depicts brutal bloodbath in perhaps one of the most brilliant shooting sequences on TV. Hidden safely away in a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere, Darren Edwards (Aled ap Steffan) wrestles with the chaos he has unleashed. But when a mysterious group of mercenaries sets their sight upon him, will Kinney Edwards (Mark Lewis Jones) be able to get there in time to prevent bloodshed? The first half of the episode leans in on a string of doubts after a powerful flashback scene in the beginning.
“We alluded to the fact that they might be a couple,” creator Gareth Evans says of Darren and Ioan (Darren Evans) — the two ‘pikey kids’ who were ordered to kill Finn Wallace (Colm Meaney). Shedding light on the intimate opener, he adds, “The money that they would get from doing that job would be enough for them to kind of go off and just disappear and be together.”
In the present day, Ioan is dead and Darren is in the safe-house with Mal (Richard Harrington) waiting for a boat. While Mal heads out to get supplies, Kinney escapes and rushes to reunite with his son. Meanwhile, Leif (Mads Koudal) discovers the hideout and kills the pub owner to reach the spot. In a spectacular scene, as Darren looks out the window, Kinney runs toward him. Behind him stand a line of mercenaries with a barrage of bullets ready to be unloaded.
After a shootout where Evie's (Caroline Lee-Johnson) entire family is wiped out, the soldiers attack the property. Hell-bent to protect his son, Kinney shields him as the soldiers blast a hole after climbing up on the roof using ladders. The front is blown apart and the soldiers are engulfed in flames. Kinney takes Darren down to the basement as Evie refuses to go with them.
As Evie sacrifices her life for the two, Kinney takes Darren through a tunnel that leads to the boat. Darren, however, spits all the hatred out and is almost ready to kill his father. Nonetheless, Kinney rushes to the dock when the soldiers fire a set of bullets as he shields his son through his back. Until his last breath, all he wants is for his son to get on that boat. “Come on, boy. Stay strong...,” are his last words to Darren. All his efforts to save his son, however, go in vain as blood spills out and both are shot dead.
A feast for action lovers, the episode was written by Gareth Evans and Matt Flannery and turns out to be one of the biggest highlights of the show — that too, without the main characters. “I have no words. This episode was a f**king classic. The closing act with the kill team was just wonderful to watch. I loved every second of it,” one fan posted in a Reddit thread. Another said, “Christ, what an episode. Such great action. One of those TV episodes that's so good you forget that it's set away from all the main characters and locations.”
A third one chimed in, “I don't think I've ever seen a man get popped like a balloon from toe to head by and explosion in slomo like that before in TV or film. Normally they get consumed by the flames but in this case he was killed by the blast wave before the fire even reached him, very impressive. Probably the most gruesome episode of TV ever!”
Many viewers were taken aback by how Darren's father protects his son. “Amidst all that mayhem I was genuinely touched what that man did for his son,” one said and another posted, “The fatherly love Darren’s father showed to him, even till death, was priceless.”
Did Darren deserve Kinney's fatherly love? Well, it's clear he didn't. In fact, he wasn't even close to being like his strong-willed father. One fan said, “He literally did everything in his power to will his son to safety. If only his son had the same will to live, he would have made it. The father really did try but alas the lad was a half-wit idiot and a wee s***e... The boy had to be pulled to the floor when the bullets were spraying through the windows, he played too much with the pistol in the tunnel, he could have run soon as he saw the boat... Darren was an idiot. I'm pretty sure that's why they chose him to kill Finn. Actually surprised he got that right in the end... could he have been molested as a child? — The only justification he had for committing to the kill was the man was a nonce. Me thinks he was emotionally manipulated.”
After Leif kills them in cold blood, he dials a number and it is revealed that the shootout had been ordered by Jevan Kapadia (Ray Panthaki). Moreover, the waitress who tried to kill Sean Wallace (Joe Cole) in Episode 4 is also in the same troop. It's peculiar that Jevan is the same man who was behind the gunshot aimed at Sean and brutally killing Darren and Kinney. Why is Jevan doing so? What is his motive? Did Finn have a secret deal with him or is he related to Finn's mistress Floriana somehow? Although we don't have the answers right now, time will tell what's really Jevan's gameplan.
‘Gangs of London’ premieres on AMC Plus this October 1, 2020. The first three episodes will air on the premiere date and the rest of the 10-part series will be followed by weekly episodes on Thursdays.