‘MobLand’s Final Twist for Kevin Changes Everything for Him and Bella Moving Forward
Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for the MobLand finale and mentions of sexual assault. Kevin ( Paddy Considine ) and Bella Harrigan ( Lara Pulver ) have spent MobLand living separate lives. The second-eldest son of his notorious parents, the criminal titans Conrad ( Pierce Brosnan ) and Maeve ( Helen Mirren ), Kevin stays aware of the family enterprise's daily ins-and-outs, be those pending business negotiations, messes for his childhood friend-turned-fixer Harry Da Souza ( Tom Hardy ) to buff sparkling clean, or the rival mob war his son, Eddie ( Anson Boon ), has no small hand in kicking off. Bella, meanwhile, operates in another sphere entirely, one more traditionally professional than her in-laws' underground antics, even as she pursues a goal MobLand shrouds in secrecy until the season finale. The spouses' sparse interactions hadn't been tinged with cold cruelty, but neither seemingly knew or cared (or wanted to exert the proper effort, vulnerability, and self-reflection) how to cross the obvious chasm yawning between them .
After the season finale , which houses an implosion of thematically related events and one crucial revelation, these two people who tried and failed to make their “unconventional” marriage work might now stand a chance of flourishing into a supportive, thriving partnership . During a rare moment alone, Bella divulges her history as a survivor of childhood sexual assault as well as her knowledge of Kevin's past as a fellow rape survivor. MobLand viewers have been privy to the latter information for some time, but Bella's disclosure finally clarifies her story's purpose, which had felt too disconnected from MobLand 's wider context. Compared to the series' other couples, who are either gleefully toxic or overdue for joint therapy , Kevin and Bella's quiet, cathartic breakthrough is a breath of fresh air. Their second chance, combined with Kevin's newfound desire to re-shape the Harrigan empire and Bella's distressing realization about how far her son has fallen, positions them as a unified force to be reckoned with — a duo capable of changing the entire game .
Kevin and Bella Parallel Each Other on 'MobLand'
MobLand 's first season has never hidden its familiar influences nor tried to reinvent the genre wheel. Beyond its entertaining competency and stellar cast, the season succeeds because it understands why epics like The Godfather endure: the best mobster sagas are about relationships . Like the Corleones or The Sopranos , Episode 10 confirms that nearly every action and reaction traces back to the same contentious source. The Harrigans and the Da Souzas' interconnecting dynamics resemble a web more than a family tree, and, to keep the metaphor going, the psychological effects inflicted upon every character with even a passing connection to the Harrigans spools out in as many directions as a spiderweb. For Kevin and Bella, it's how the abuse inflicted upon them by adults with authority haunts them into adulthood , poisoning them until they become different versions of the same monster.
MobLand has been building up to this duo's reconciliation all along. Bella and Kevin share similar devastating traumas and follow parallel arcs , and the finale places them in similar positions: having punished their rapists only to discover — Bella with resigned bitterness, Kevin with lingering restlessness — that taking revenge doesn't magically alleviate their pain. Bella's quest against her father , Lord Pinnock ( Steven Pacey ), has been strategic from the start of the season, while Kevin gradually reckons with his memories until the need to seize his revenge against former prison guard Alan Rusby ( Nigel Lindsay ) boils over. If either of them had felt safe enough to be emotionally intimate at the beginning of their marriage, they might have shared a successful relationship.
Kevin and Bella's Respective Traumas Held Back Their Marriage in 'MobLand'
But how could they trust, when true vulnerability means exposing your wounds? Bella is scarred by multiple scum-of-the-earth men, her dubiously consensual past with Conrad included . No matter how infatuated Kevin initially was with his father's "favorite girl," and no matter how much he believes that they both tried to salvage their "medieval" arrangement, Bella's husband was still a Harrigan. Kevin would always have chosen his blood relations over his wife; it's likely that marrying into London's most infamous crime family amounted to little more for Bella than exchanging one family prison for another, especially since she stayed under Conrad's thumb. Presumably, Bella has spent years in isolation, deprived of anyone she can connect with — aside from snatching at Harry, which reads more like a trapped woman pushing boundaries than Bella legitimately seeking companionship with either an old or almost-lover.
As for Kevin, he might be surrounded by his so-called family, but Harry is the only person we see him truly confide in. Yet due to the PTSD-coded gaps in Kevin's memory (and how Kevin might have subconsciously avoided filling in those blanks), even Harry doesn't learn of Kevin's abuse until Episode 10. Kevin only expels his deepest feelings to his rapist after he fires a bullet into the latter's head; he talks out his emotional reckoning to a corpse , and the sight is both tragic and depraved. MobLand is a story about villains , both the sympathetically minded and the perverse. Even though someone's good qualities might amount to crumbs when they're weighed against the all-you-can-eat buffet that is their illegal behavior, that minutiae makes or breaks a character.
In Kevin's case, he's neither Conrad, an unpredictable sadist twisting his power to exploit others, nor Eddie, an impressionable young man whose displacement has devolved into violent hatred. He has the decency and maturity to channel his traumatized rage, grief, and refined focus about his parents' legacy into his newfound villain era — joining forces with Harry, outsmarting and executing Richie Stevenson ( Geoff Bell ), and spelling out the new power hierarchy to Conrad — rather than turning on Bella, another survivor with limited options and even less freedom. The moment Bella tells Kevin about her father, he's empathetic, grieving for her and with her , and not wasting oxygen on predictable, banal phrases of comfort. His comfort, instead, is recognizing she needs the same support he's lacked, and silently taking her hand.
By Bringing Them Closer, the 'MobLand' Finale Turns Kevin and Bella Into Future Power Players
Technically, Bella doesn't need to be vulnerable with Kevin. Emotionally, it's a safe outlet she desperately needs, especially after Eddie, her beloved boy, violently assaults her and destroys her last hope of saving him from the path he's both been swayed toward and chosen. The moment doesn't feel like a power play. Bella has understood Kevin for a long time. Now, he understands a key part of her that once eluded him. They are attuned to one another's pain, and their goals are aligned — i.e., defying and deposing Conrad and Maeve.
Ironically enough, the ruling Harrigan couple are also reunited . Yet their volatile toxicity, as well as the inexorable fracturing of Harry and Jan 's ( Joanne Froggatt ) marriage, throw Kevin and Bella's honesty, emotional intimacy, and semi-healthy power couple potential into stronger relief. The pair have gone their entire lives without an anchor. After a lengthy, loveless marriage, the same person who was always just out of reach has become that grounding force because they were mirrors all along. Whether they move forward romantically or platonically, it's thrilling to see them find their way to each other as lonely, hurt people first, up-and-coming mobsters second . That said, make no mistake — Kevin and Bella are moving forward hand-in-hand, shoulder-to-shoulder, and prepared to set things ablaze.
MobLand can be streamed on Paramount+ in the U.S.
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