What happens in Gangs of London – Season 3, Episode 4?
Warning: Major spoilers ahead
A Day of Mourning
Convinced the Wallaces are planning an attack, Luan arranges an ambush at Sean’s funeral with the intent of wiping out the whole family in one fell swoop. Still filled with rage over the death of his daughter, Luan ignores his wife’s pleas to leave the family in peace on a day of mourning, but he believes it’s his only shot.
Ed visits Marian, who informs him the funeral will be for family only. He informs her of rumours about Billy and Cornelius planning to attend, but she says she’s told them to stay away to avoid trouble.
Elliot meets up with Simone, who informs him his drug-smuggling tip off about beer kegs proved useful to her, but they couldn’t identify the driver. He agrees to follow up on a lead she gives him but refuses to back down when she asks if he “knows the line”.
After moving the product, Lale is distracted, with the mood between her and her second-in-command notably tense. She later receives a call which alarms her, telling the person on the end of the line “you said this wouldn’t be a problem”.
As the funeral procession starts, Marian walks alone behind the hearse, but is stopped at the gate by Zeek, who poses as a grieving friend of Sean’s. She quickly dismisses him and tells him it’s a family-only service. Outside, Luan waits as the coffin is brought into the church. While he is eager to strike, he is held back by a henchman, as Billy and Cornelius don’t seem to be there. However, they are inside and seem ready for anything that may unfold.
Time for Action
Elliot meets up with Shannon at a garage to follow up on Simone’s lead. They meet a mechanic who had changed the plates on the van transporting the clean cocaine shipment. He assumes they are police and denies any knowledge of the van. He changes his tune after Elliot knocks him out with a wrench and tortures him using a vice. While he can’t give them a name, he does provide the new registration number of the van.
Luan realises that Billy and Cornelius are already in the church, as they wouldn’t miss Sean’s funeral, and commands the attack. A dozen of his men with machine guns descend upon the church. However, the Wallaces have thought ahead, and have laid out the entire funeral as a trap – the doors are barred behind them and Wallace gunmen appear from the gallery. Marian shoots Luan, which hits his bullet-proof vest but knocks him out. The whole place turns into a bloodbath as bullets start flying. Multiple lives are lost on both sides, but the Wallaces gain the upper hand. In a last-ditch effort to escape, Luan takes Marian holds her at gunpoint. Marian tells Billy to shoot him, but he hesitates. On Luan’s instructions, the team put their guns down, except Billy – who manages to land a shot on his shoulder, causing him to release Marian. Luan flees back to his home with the Wallaces in hot pursuit.
As Shannon and Elliot leave, Shannon shares her worries about his behaviour, and he reveals his belief Sean was set up by someone. He then sends the new registration number to Simone, who is busy rolling out a fentanyl detection strip to stop the deaths from the drug batch.
As Luan arrives home, he quickly tells his wife and children to pack a bag so they can run. The Wallaces arrive with a small army, easily killing the security guards outside to get through their gates. Luan’s second-in-command sacrifices himself to buy Luan and his family enough time to get to a getaway car hidden in the woods and away.
The Next Steps
With information supplied by Simone, Elliot and Shannon head to a warehouse where the van containing the real drugs was seen entering. Lale is busy moving the drugs from one van to another, but is caught by Shannon and Elliot, who don’t see her face as a shootout commences. As Lale drives off, Elliot clings on to the van but she shakes him off before getting away, with the original van exploding.
Elliot is furious, but Shannon knows something else is going on. He then notices the warehouse bears the same logo on the files his wife had before she died. Elliot tells her everything, believing that it’s all connected. She tells him Sean has messed with his head, intending on him to be “chasing ghosts”.
Lale abandons the van in a car park near Wembley Stadium, and Zeek promptly picks it up. When she returns to her HQ, she calls and asks for her co-conspirator to ‘deliver on their promises’.
Marian, Cornelius and Billy reunite and finally lay Sean to rest at the cemetery. Having heard about the massacre at the church, Ed joins them despite not being invited. He warns her about the “cost of revenge”. She implies her only mistake was following his advice, as it showed her how weak the Wallaces are when divided. Cornelius stays behind to talk to Ed, mocking him and telling him to keep away from Marian. As a final insult, he relieves himself on Finn Wallace’s grave.
At the Home Office, Simone is interrupted while testing her own cocaine stash for fentanyl by Henry, her aide, who asks her if she’s using again. Dodging the question, she tells him she’s working with Elliot Carter. He berates her for such a risky tactic, but she states he’s made more progress in two days than the police since the incident. Henry brings up her former policy of legalising drugs, which would cut the gangs off at the knees. While the policy was abandoned due to public sentiment, after the spiked shipment, public opinion is swinging in their favour. The plan could now work...
As Elliot returns home, he senses something is wrong. He’s shocked to find all the stolen cocaine barrels stacked in his living room. When he tries to call Simone, he turns around to find Zeek, who is holding a gun in his face.
Everything comes to a head with the Wallaces in episode four, and then Luan and his men during the attack at the church. What was it like for you filming a gunfight in a massive real church?
MICHELLE FAIRLEY (Marian): I think it was a two day shoot. We rehearsed it and rehearsed it, and it was very well managed, very well directed. Stuff with guns is not really my thing, if I’m honest, but with respect to the stunt guys and the armourers, it was very well controlled and everybody felt safe doing it. I hope it works well.
ORLI SHUKA (Luan): I remember that was a real church, near Kilburn Lane, I think. Every morning as soon as I went into the church, I thought, ‘please God forgive us for making a mess in this church!’ A lot of shots. (makes gun sounds) Oh my God. It was very fun to shoot because Luan was injured, he ran. Then I remember he killed the guy with a candlestick in his eye, so not very holy! Everything was down to the fantastic stunt team. They improvised that one in the morning, so the stunt team created that.
BRIAN VERNEL (Billy): It took a full week to film I think, with some action rehearsal before that. They actually made a mock up of how it was going to work, which they gave us a look at before we started. I mean, it just looked incredible. I think with those things, you’re always a little bit daunted before you start it, it’s like looking at this huge thing and going, how do we even begin this? But you just chip away at it. I think it’ll be a really memorable scene.