Warning: Major spoilers ahead for episode 9 of MobLand
The most baffling character dynamic in Paramount+’s crime drama MobLand is undoubtedly the relationship between Helen Mirren’s Maeve Harrigan and her grandson Eddie, portrayed by Anson Boon. Both characters have proven to be downright deranged on their own, but Maeve pulling Eddie’s strings as the grand architect in the war between the Harrigans and Stevensons makes them particularly dangerous. While Eddie displays plenty of his own psychopathic tendencies, it’s Maeve who is the true shot-caller for not just Eddie, but usually for Conrad (and, by extension, the entire Harrigan crime empire) too.
Eddie’s narcissism wasn’t enough to scare away Gina Da Souza, Harry’s teenage daughter, who found herself trapped in the Harrigans’ manor when the war between the two families properly kicked off. In her fear and frustration at essentially being forced into captivity, she found solace in Eddie’s arms despite seeing through his comically inept attempts at appearing sensitive to entice her. However, in episode 9 of MobLand, Maeve makes it clear that she wants Gina nowhere near her beloved grandson, and in doing so calls into question the nature of her own relationship with the boy.
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Maeve Warning Gina Away From Eddie Is About Status – And Harry
Maeve Doesn’t Believe Gina Is Worthy Of Her Grandson
Maeve’s misplaced sense of pride is seemingly at the core of her desire to keep Gina away from Eddie. The Harrigan matriarch has the sort of old-school, royalty/nobility mindset that makes her think Eddie deserves someone worthy of his upbringing (which again, Maeve has aggrandized in her head). As the daughter of one of the Harrigans’ employees, she is not a fit consort for Eddie.
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On top of that, Maeve doesn’t trust Harry Da Souza one iota, so there’s no reason why she would allow his daughter to cozy up to her grandson (who knows all of her secrets). Maeve has already planted seeds with Conrad that Harry is a betrayer to throw Conrad off her scent, so it makes sense that she wouldn’t want Gina getting any closer to the Harrigans’ inner circle than Harry already is. Both Harry and Gina are smart and perceptive, on top of everything else, marking them as two people the treacherous Maeve would want at arm’s length.
There’s Probably More To Maeve & Eddie’s Relationship That We Don’t Know
Something Has Seemed Off Since The Beginning Of MobLand
However, there could be a deeper reason why Maeve wants to keep Gina away from Eddie. Ever since Maeve pulled cocaine out of her bra to share with her grandson, the energy between the two has felt strange, particularly given the reveal that Maeve has been behind Eddie’s maneuvering. Then, at dinner at the end of episode 9, there was a particularly awkward moment in which Maeve put her hand on Eddie’s leg while offering advice to Alice about how to handle men.
It feels like the audience is missing key information about the nature of Eddie and Maeve’s relationship. There has been a loose implication that Maeve has an inappropriate infatuation with her grandson, but there hasn’t been any reason given or history to back that up. It could simply be meant as a demonstration of how truly unstable Maeve Harrigan is, but either way, their relationship is far more complex than a grandmother simply caring for her only grandson.
Why Did Eddie Tell Conrad About Maeve?
His Fear Likely Outweighs His Loyalty
Episode 9 opens with Conrad confronting Eddie in his room just as he’s waking up. The conversation that they have occurs off-screen, but at the aforementioned dinner it’s revealed that Eddie confirmed everything that Maeve had been scheming to his grandfather, who had many of his own suspicions to begin with. Maeve has seemingly looked out for Eddie at every turn, so at first glance it seems strange that he would give up his biggest advocate just because Conrad twisted his arm a bit.
However, the brief scene in which Eddie asks the dog who has it worse between the two of them provides some insight. Just as the dog was penned up, Eddie feels completely trapped in his current situation, caught between his grandmother and grandfather. While Maeve seemingly cares about him, his loyalty there was likely superseded by his fear of Conrad. He’s grown up being told the myth of Conrad “The Dread” “100 Guns” Harrigan, London’s most feared crime boss. If Conrad makes a demand, that takes precedence for Eddie because he knows what happens if he refuses.
MobLand Episode 9 Doesn’t Rule Out Eddie Being Conrad’s Son
In Fact, It Might Strengthen The Case For It
When Conrad first appears in Eddie’s bedroom, he addresses the young man as “son”, which could certainly just be a friendly/grandfatherly colloquialism. However, it could actually be a brief clue about Eddie’s true identity, which is that he’s actually Conrad’s son with Bella Harrigan. The audience knows that Conrad was involved with Bella before she married Kevin, when she was just 20 and Conrad was older than 50. Eddie certainly shares more in common with Conrad personality-wise than his presumed father, Kevin, which further strengthens the notion.
On top of that, episode 9 saw Kevin react with rage when his former prison guard Alan Rusby brought up Kevin’s child. That marks the second instance in which Kevin has flown off the handle, the first of which occurred when Maeve mentioned Kevin’s “other brother” in episode 8. The prevailing theory is that Eddie Harrigan is not Kevin’s son but Conrad’s, and therefore would be the “other brother” that Maeve mentions could inherit the Harrigan empire.
However, if Eddie is in fact Conrad’s illegitimate child, it makes little sense that Maeve would be so protective; one would think she’d hate him just as she does Seraphina. However, when thinking through everything that Maeve has pushed Eddie towards, the whole picture starts to make sense. Maeve encouraged him to kill Tommy Stevenson, which accomplished nothing except to put his life in danger as the main target of Richie Stevenson’s wrath. She also made him complicit in her machinations against Conrad, putting him in his grandfather’s crosshairs as well.
It seems more likely that Eddie isn’t actually the beloved grandson that Maeve wants him to seem like. In reality, Maeve may be playing a long con, knowing that Eddie being treated as the legitimate son of Bella and Kevin made him more protected. It’s clear that Eddie is supposed to be the future of the family as a white male, so Maeve may actually be angling towards his downfall in MobLand as opposed to protecting and propping him up.
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
