The Most Important Things To Remember Before 'The Gentlemen' Season 2
It's been nearly three years since all eight episodes of The Gentlemen (2024) dropped on Netflix, and now, the second season is set to air on September 3rd. As written on Netflix's Tudum, when the show returns, there will be a one-year time jump from when we last saw the characters, and it also notes that "Eddie (Theo James) is discovering that being a power player in the criminal underworld fits him like an immaculately tailored suit."
For the most part, The Gentleman Season 1 wraps up its primary storyline with James' Eddie and Kaya Scodelario's Susie Glass coming to a place where there's at least a momentary agreement in their business ventures. Jasmine Blackborow's Charly, now pregnant, has put two and two together that Vinnie Jones' Geoff is her father, and Daniel Ings' Freddy is still where we last left him. If there's one thing the season essentially showcased, it's that becoming an heir after your father's death is anything but seamless in an aristocratic family, and there's going to be a solid dose of chaos to unpack, which the characters do.
If you don't have time to rewatch the entire first season before its sophomore season premieres, we've got you covered with the most important things to remember before The Gentleman Season 2.
Bobby Glass Manipulates Eddie, Susie, And The Endgame In 'The Gentlemen' Season 1
Bobby Glass, played by Ray Winstone, is very much running the show while he's physically stuck in the most luxurious prison known to man. For fans who might've forgotten how the season ended, Bobby proposed wanting to sell the weed business to the highest bidder, and he essentially proposed that Eddie and Susie should be the ones to pair up to find its next owner. Naturally, he got Susie and Eddie to do the work while they both essentially came together to flip everything on its head to become co-owners of the business together.
The Gentleman certainly is no romance, but this also isn't Succession (2018), so why is Papa Glass basically playing business matchmaker? (Don't get me wrong, I want the romance, but the show's going to pull a lot more punches before it ever goes down that route.) There's also the issue that, despite the fact that Susie and Eddie work well together, neither of them fully trusts the other, and that's got to be something Bobby is aware of. So what's his endgame here? It's also revealed that he's working with Giancarlo Esposito's Uncle Stanley in the end, who's clearly in this position because Susie and Eddie put him there by exposing his tax evasion. His goals continue to make little sense, and there's a lot to explore there.
Season 2 will presumably bring more of Bobby's motives to the center, so it'll also be interesting to get more insight into why he wants these two in on the business together.
The Show's Big Bad Is More Complex Than A Single Person
The most riveting thing about The Gentlemen is that there's clearly no big bad right now. Sure, we can maybe look at all that Bobby's doing and deem him the quintessential villain, but the show's more complex than that. This could certainly change later down the line, but Season 1 makes a clear point about how the mess that surrounds these aristocrats is a result of their own doing. No single person is completely innocent or free from the darkness that's to follow. Eddie even shows Susie his signet ring, which reads, "Non sine periculo," which translates to "Not without danger."
There are undoubtedly a lot more betrayals coming, and even while it feels like we've gotten to a place where we can trust some of these characters—to a very small extent—The Gentlemen, and ultimately, Guy Ritchie as a writer, is the type who'll push every boundary before the context makes something abundantly clear. This is especially true for a second season where things are generally amplified and doubled.
Freddy Is Still Going Through It
The eldest Halstead son is the only character who doesn't exactly change throughout Season 1's eight episodes. He's certainly not like most of the eldest siblings we meet in shows like this, and there's something really fascinating about that detail alone narratively. We meet him while he's in a rut, and we leave him in a place where it seems like he wants to be more reliable, but still isn't. There's a lot to unpack about his possible addiction and carelessness in the business.
The trust issues between the Halstead brothers got them in a lot of trouble in The Gentleman Season 1. It's also hard to believe that Gospel John would let things go easily now that he knows who killed his brother. Not to mention, with the amount of debt Freddy started the season in, who's to say there won't be more when the show resumes? This is, after all, a series that features a lot of deception, and if anyone's going to cause problems, however unintentionally, Freddy is likely the character to do so. He's also the one I'm most worried about if we're to get a main character's death at any point.
