Eddie Horniman spends much of The Gentlemen Season 2 fighting to pass a law that would legalize his own product, and the twist only works because his boss wants the opposite. It is one of the season’s sharper reversals, recasting Eddie’s political ambitions as more of a hostile takeover than a defensive maneuver.
By the time Season 2 opens, Eddie (Theo James) has stopped resisting the criminal world he inherited and started mastering it. Guy Ritchie and lead writer Matthew Read built the season around Eddie’s ambition to outgrow Bobby Glass, and the marijuana decriminalization fight is where that tension first boils over.
The Vote Bobby Doesn’t Want Cast
Season 2 reveals a bill moving through Parliament that would decriminalize marijuana in the UK, and Bobby Glass (Ray Winstone) wants it stopped cold.
However, Eddie sees it differently. Decriminalization would let him move his operation into the open, and with the Glass family’s existing infrastructure, supply chains, and capital already in place, Eddie believes he can dominate the legal market before anyone else gets organized.
That puts him on a collision course with the man he answers to. Susie Glass (Kaya Scodelario) sees the logic in Eddie’s plan, but Bobby still has final say over the empire, and his refusal to budge is part of what pushes Eddie and Susie to start operating on their own terms.
Read More: Why Does Eddie Go to Italy in ‘The Gentlemen’ Season 2? Explained
Lord Hawthorne Holds the Vote Eddie Needs
Eddie cannot pass a bill through Parliament alone, so the season introduces Lord Hawthorne, played by Hugh Bonneville, a hereditary peer from the same aristocratic circles Eddie has moved in his entire life.
Hawthorne is willing to trade his vote, but not for money. He wants a night out with Susie’s brother, Jack, and the arrangement gives the show one of its funniest and most uncomfortable dynamics.
Getting Hawthorne on side is only part of the job. Eddie also has to court other votes to get the bill across the line, including a meandering subplot where he helps track down a priceless falcon for a bishop’s son, a favor that matters far more to Parliament than it should to a drug empire.
Eddie’s willingness to work Parliament this hard says everything about where his ambition has landed. He is no longer content running an empire in the shadows; he wants to own the market once it steps into the light, even if that means outmaneuvering the man who built it.
The Gentlemen Season 2 is streaming now, all eight episodes, on Netflix.
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