Eddie Horniman spent Season 1 of The Gentlemen learning he was good at running a criminal empire he never asked to inherit. Season 2 answers the obvious next question: what does he do with that skill once he actually wants more? The answer takes him straight to Lake Maggiore in northern Italy.
A year has passed since Eddie and Susie Glass formally joined Bobby Glass’s organization. Bobby wants the operation to grow beyond the cannabis farm hidden under Halstead Manor, and that means looking past England entirely.
Eddie and Susie are handed the job of building a foothold in the Italian underworld, a market with its own hierarchy and no interest in doing business the English way.
The Business Case for Lake Maggiore
The expansion centers on building out weed farms in a region where the local criminal network runs on kinship rather than contracts, a structure that clashes immediately with the deal-based world Eddie knows. To manage the gap, they lean on fixer Cico Maldini, played by Michele Morrone.
Showrunner Matthew Read described him plainly to Netflix’s Tudum:
“He’s the man they’re entrusting to help them navigate their criminal enterprise in Italy, but he’s not a man to be trusted.”
Above Cico sits Marco Moretti (Sergio Castellitto), the region’s El Capo dei Capi. Doing business with Moretti’s world turns a straightforward expansion into a survival test, especially once Eddie starts falling for Bella (Benedetta Porcaroli), an Italian countess with her own ties to that world.
Read More: Does Eddie Horniman Cut Out Bobby Glass? The Power Shift in ‘The Gentlemen’ Season 2
Bobby Glass Is the Real Reason Eddie Has to Step Up
The trip to Italy is Bobby’s idea, but he’s also the reason it gets so dangerous. His decisions grow increasingly unpredictable, leaving Eddie and Susie constantly weighing whether to intervene and steer the empire themselves or risk watching it collapse under him.
That tension runs alongside Eddie’s other storyline: a campaign for a seat in the House of Lords specifically to block a bill decriminalizing marijuana in the UK, since legalization would gut the margins his illegal operation depends on. Guy Ritchie framed the season’s design directly.
“This chapter sees a deliberate expansion, both geographically and thematically, as we journey from the English countryside to the Italian lakes.”
Italy is where Eddie stops reacting to the criminal world and starts shaping it. Theo James has said his character’s ambition and ego both accelerate now that he’s bought into what both worlds can offer him. With Netflix already confirming a third season, the ground Eddie stakes out in Italy sets up where his empire goes next.
All eight episodes of The Gentlemen Season 2 are streaming now on Netflix.