Warning: Major spoilers ahead

Here’s how the first episode of Gangs of London season three unfolded…

In the opening moments, a small boy can be seen playing on an iPad while seated in a car in the woods. He seems alone, but then his mum approaches, getting spooked when she hears gunshots. Jumping in the car, she speeds off, but quickly notices she’s being followed. A car chase ensues, and it’s revealed one of the men in the chasing car is Jack, Finn Wallace’s old driver who died in season one. The two cars eventually crash, but the woman manages to keep herself steady, driving off calmly despite her injuries.

Just when she thinks she’s in the clear, a massive lorry crashes into the car, flipping it. As the car catches fire, a mysterious hooded figure approaches, taking a file marked with a logo from the burning wreckage. He then departs, leaving her and the child to die as the car explodes.

Elliot, now running his own operation, checks in on a huge new cocaine delivery as his team, led by Saba and Faz, packs it for distribution. At the nightclub, Elliot and Shannon meet with a group of Korean gang members, who are sceptical of the former cop. Arranging a cocaine deal, one samples the drug, but something quickly goes wrong, with the man choking and bleeding from his eyes and nose before dropping dead in front of them. Saba then runs in in a panic, and Elliot discovers people are dropping dead all over the club, clearly all having the same reaction.

At Albanian crime lord Luan’s house, his family are having an elegant celebration to mark his daughter’s Ellie’s 18th birthday, complete with fireworks and high-end gifts. Marian drops by, and they discuss Sean in prison, fearing he could hand over some of them in exchange for a lighter sentence, but their discussion is interrupted when Ellie collapses among her friends, having been given some of the spiked drug as a birthday present. Luan frantically tries to resuscitate her, but it’s too late, she’s gone. Despite wife Mirlinda’s please, he leaves to meet with other gang leaders.

At City Hall, Mayor Simone Thearle is doing cocaine in a toilet out of a mascara tube when her second-in-command bangs on the door to tell her about what happened. At this moment, there are 300 people dead from the contaminated cocaine batch. She’s immediately thrown into a press conference, where she swears to trigger a war on organised criminal gangs within London to get rid of them once and for all.

Ed, Shannon and Elliot meet to figure out who was responsible for the contaminated batch. None of them know who would want to do it, and Elliot demands to speak to the driver who brought in the shipment.

At a collective meeting of all gang leaders, Elliot declares his belief the cocaine was deliberately spiked. Sympathising with Luan over the loss of his child, Elliot allows him to join him as he heads to the driver, who Faz has been found killed. Marian comments to Ed that she doesn’t trust ex-police officers and shoots a telling look to Lale as she heads home.

Video footage of the van being attacked reveals a mysterious hooded man viciously killing the transporters with a knife. Using the driver’s sat-nav, they discover he took a 30-minute detour on his route with the shipment, deducing he switched the real batch with one laced with fentanyl. Faz, Luan and Elliot head off to the detour location and find a fairground.

Simone talks to the chief of police about what to do next and she’s given a file on Elliot. Furious that a former police officer could be responsible, she demands he be found and arrested immediately.

At the fairground, Luan wastes no time in jumping the fence with Elliot behind. The pair silently approach the worker’s caravans, but their presence is revealed by a security alarm. An armed gang emerges, and they are introduced to their leader, who denies everything and demands they leave. Elliot tries to diffuse the situation, but a foul-mouthed comment from one lackey proves too much for Luan, who shoots him in the head and triggers a shootout.

As the bullets start flying, Luan reactivates the fairground’s power and restarts the rides, before hiding out in the Hall of Mirrors. Elliot takes cover as they face off, using fairground equipment including a test-your-strength hammer and a tilt-a-whirl as weapons in the fight. However, one man with a machete gets a slice in, badly injuring his abdomen. He’s still able to save Luan, but the leader manages to make a getaway.

Searching his caravan, they discover the man’s name is Cornelius Quinn, and he has a burner phone hidden under his sofa. Calling the only number on it, Elliot immediately recognises Sean Wallace’s voice on the other end of the phone.

The next morning, Billy Wallace - now with a prosthetic arm, meets up with Cornelius, embracing him like an old friend. The pair gleefully declare they are “going ahead” with something.

Ed meets up with Marian to inform him of Sean’s deception, and that Cornelius - her brother - was the man on the outside helping him. He chillingly warns her that “he’s back”.

On his return home, Luan sits amongst what is left of his daughter’s garden party, declaring to Mirlinda he will make Sean pay.

Elliot visits Sean in prison, who smugly greets him. Elliot asks for the name of the man on the CCTV, believing he helped him spike the drugs and was also the driver that killed his wife and son in a hit and run seven years prior. Sean notes that he didn’t realise that was Elliot’s family and antagonises him before revealing the truth: the supposed hit-and-run was no accident. But rather than tell him any more, Sean walks off, leaving Elliot screaming for answers behind him.

Episode 2 >