“The word got around that finally, there was a real gangster in town.”
asserted
word → get → town
It only occurs to me now, after this excellent episode of Paramount+’s MobLand, that the show has never had a really interesting villain.
asserted
show → occur → villain
Discounting the shifting loyalties of the Harrigans themselves, all of whom are basically co-protagonists of the show, there’s really only been the tough-as-nails cockney crimelord Richie Stevenson and the cold-as-ice American macher Kat McAllister.
asserted
all → discount → ice
You’ve seen British gangsters and Yankee black-ops bosses a million times.
asserted
You → see → gangsters
Frankie Cooper, by contrast, stands out in a crowd.
asserted
Cooper → stand → crowd
With his mop of hair and tracksuits, he looks like a man they found on a desert island somewhere, clinging to the belief that a 1994 festival with Oasis headlining was still going on.
asserted
festival → look → headlining
His speech is non-stop patter, non-stop bits, non-stop little jokes that more often than not are so smoothly delivered the target isn’t even given the opportunity to get mad.
asserted
target → deliver → opportunity
He arrives at the big meeting where he’s to negotiate the release of his hostage, Bella, whistling and riding an electric scooter.
asserted
he → arrive → scooter
Other than a goofy white helmet, he’s brought no protection with him at all — no personal weapon, no retinue of guards and lieutenants and underbosses, just him.
asserted
he → bring → guards
Meanwhile, the Harrigans have the whole meeting site, their own dockyard, guarded like the Corleone compound in Godfather I.
asserted
Harrigans → have → I.
“He looks like a fucking clown,” Kevin sneers, but it’s Frankie who’s made the Harrigans look like clowns.
asserted
Harrigans → look → clowns
They need all that firepower, and all he needs is a scooter and a can-do attitude.
asserted
he → need → firepower
Frankie sits down with the Harrigans and makes his pitch.
asserted
Frankie → sit → pitch
The long version is an extremely elaborate and, honestly, sensible restructuring of the business, ensuring fewer leaks and losses, greater security, higher revenue, and most importantly, peace in the streets.
asserted
version → ensure → streets
The details are many, but there’s only one point that matters at the end of it: Frankie, not Conrad and Maeve, is now in charge.
asserted
Frankie → ’ → charge
The younger Harrigans can stay in place in the organization, serving as Frankie’s top people.
asserted
Harrigans → stay → people
The elder Harrigans get a bullet to the head
asserted
Harrigans → get → head
At this point, I personally am thinking Take the goddamn deal.
asserted
I → think → deal
I know that’s impossible — men like Harry and Kevin could never brook this assault on their power without looking unbelievably weak — but Frankie seems like a much better boss than Conrad or Maeve.
uncertain
Frankie → know → Conrad
(It seems clear that Conrad is going to let his dick pick the family’s next lawyer for them, for instance.)
asserted
dick → seem → instance
Frankie talks circles around the Harrigan family braintrust of Harry, Kevin, and Seraphina — more on that later — and his plans are better than anything they’ve come up with.
asserted
they → talk → anything
Perhaps most pointedly, he correctly notes that everything was fine until Conrad literally went berserk and started a war with Richie, costing his own family a fortune in blood and treasure.
asserted
Conrad → note → blood
None of the three potential heirs to the throne can even muster a counterargument.
asserted
None → muster → counterargument
Frankie won’t even go into discussing Maeve, and frankly, who can blame him.
asserted
who → go → him
The family’s great schemer has one of her most repulsive episodes yet, continuing to rely on Conrad’s son/grandson Eddie as her weapon of choice by climbing into the waterbed where he was conceived and resting her leg across his thigh while stroking his lower stomach.
asserted
he → have → stomach
Eddie doesn’t yell or flinch or get up and get out of there.
asserted
Eddie → yell → ?
He just freezes.
asserted
He → freeze → ?
He’s been here before — one of the darkest details in the whole show, and one that complicates our understanding of both Eddie and Maeve, who otherwise come across as borderline comical in their sociopathy.
asserted
who → complicate → sociopathy
Back to our meeting with Frankie: Even though the triumvirate rejects the deal, Harry says they held up their end of the bargain and came to the meeting.
asserted
they → reject → meeting
Now, he argues, Frankie should be a man of his word and return Bella.
asserted
Frankie → argue → Bella
Frankie says they didn’t keep their word, because the deal was for Conrad to be there, and the younger generation successfully convinced him to stay home, fearing his volatile presence.
asserted
generation → say → presence
Frankie plays a nasty game of chicken about it with Kevin, daring him to shoot him as he makes lewd comments about his kidnapped wife.
asserted
he → play → wife
In the end, though, the gangster relents, and Bella is set free.
asserted
Bella → relent → end
But Harry can’t rest easy just yet.
asserted
Harry → rest → ?
For one thing, though he doesn’t know it, his estranged wife Jan is still being courted by Jamie, the American McAllister operative; the two of them end a long evening of eating and drinking and talking with one of those theatrical shags that begins before you’re even through the front door.
asserted
you → know → door
(Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.)
asserted
you → knock → it
For another, his daughter Gina is still together with Eddie, risking Maeve’s jealous rage.
asserted
daughter → risk → rage
And Kavanaugh, the honest cop on the organized crime task force, is aware there’s a Harrigan mole in her group, though she hasn’t caught him yet.
asserted
she → ’ → him
Most importantly, Harry knows Seraphina is a rat.
asserted
Seraphina → know → ?
When she calls to ask to attend the sit-down, which she heard about during Harry’s speakerphone conversation with Conrad earlier that day, she lets slip that their person they plan to meet is Frankie Cooper.
asserted
they → call → Conrad
…and 32 more, not listed.
The Aporia
