Gangs of London Recap: Where Elliot, Sean, Luan, Marian, Ed and the Gangs Were Left

The UK’s most brutal and expertly choreographed action show is back! With new characters and old rivalries, the Sky Atlantic drama returns with an third series, all eight episodes of which are available to stream now.

Gangs of London series two ended on the uneasy alliances of former enemies forced to band together for survival. Power-hungry matriarch Marian Wallace (Michelle Fairley) took her seat alongside Elliot Carter (Sope Dirisu), who’d just chopped off her son Billy’s arm and sent her other son Sean to prison; Ed Dumani (Lucian Msamati), who not so long ago had shot her and left her to bleed to death on a cemetery bench; and Luan Dushaj (Orli Shuka), with whom she’d recently masterminded the theft of millions of pounds’ worth of heroin, which was subsequently stolen from her by Shannon Dumani (Pippa Bennett-Warner), also seated at the same table.

Meanwhile, in Pakistan, sworn enemies Asif (Asif Raza Mir) and Lale (Narges Rashidi) joined forces in a rival alliance. For a memory jog on who did what to whom and where everybody was left after season two, read on…

Elliot v Sean Wallace

At the beginning of series two, ex- undercover cop Elliot was being forced to work as a hitman for The Investors, who were holding his dad hostage. The Investors are the anonymous, super-rich posse who’d been bankrolling the Wallace operation in exchange for its laundered profits, and who’d ordered the assassination of Finn Wallace (Colm Meaney) in series one because he was planning to run away with his pregnant mistress. They also tried to have Sean Wallace (Joe Cole) killed for being a liability, and in series two, ordered the death of finance whizz Alex Dumani (Paapa Essiedu), who pre-empted them by jumping from a high building, because like Finn, he was also planning his escape.

Before Elliot non-fatally shot Sean in the series one finale, Sean gave him a microchip containing incriminating information about The Investors. Elliot made a deal with Intelligence officer Joseph Singer (Cornell John) to trade the chip for new identities so he and his dad could escape to Jamaica. At the airport waiting to fly away to their new life, Elliot’s dad was murdered on Sean’s orders. Sean retrieved the chip, leaked it, and several of The Investors were killed as a result, significantly weakening their organisation.

“I’m going to make you watch, Sean Wallace. I’m going to take everything you ever built – your power, your people, and I’m going to replace you.”

With nothing to trade with Singer, and no father to keep alive, revenge was Elliot’s only aim. His girlfriend Shannon Dumani betrayed Billy Wallace’s location, and Elliot chopped off Billy’s left arm and sent it to the Wallaces to call Sean out. Marian told Sean to forget about Billy, so he throttled her but stopped short of killing her. Sean went to save his brother and followed Elliot’s orders to murder his new ally Koba (by poisoning his burger and chips). After a bloody fight, Elliot chose not to kill Sean but to lead the police to him and Koba’s body, ensuring that Sean would go to prison so Elliot could take everything that was once Sean’s.

Asif v Lale

Asif and Lale, the respective heads of the Pakistani and Kurdish heroin-dealing gangs, have been at loggerheads since before series one. They’ve stolen each other’s product and massacred each other’s people. Asif burnt Lale’s husband to death (which is where she got her scarred hands), and she later killed Asif’s son and cut out his tongue. As revenge for the attack on his son, Asif held Lale captive and tortured her until she fought her way out to Sean, her business partner and lover. However, Sean betrayed her by delivering her back to Asif to be killed, because he was prioritising his new partnership with Koba and Asif over his personal relationships.

In a surprise twist at the end of series two, we saw that Asif hadn’t killed Lale but had kept her alive and planned to work together with her. She, no doubt, still has revenge against Sean on her mind.

Marian Wallace (& Floriana) v Ed and Shannon Dumani

Former allies Marian and Ed fell out in series one when she learned that that Ed not only knew about Marian’s husband Finn’s pregnant mistress and his plans to leave, but also who was behind Finn’s murder, but he hadn’t told the Wallaces. Sean shot Ed, and in the series one finale, Ed shot Marian and left her to die.

Fortunately for Marian, her husband’s mistress Floriana saved her and the pair teamed up, using the £1.5 billion Finn stole to fund an arms trading operation. When Sean tried to take over that business and use his father’s stolen money himself, Floriana stood up to him and tried to cut him out, so Finn shot her dead. Billy then left her baby daughter – his, Sean and Jackie’s half-sister Roze – at a church with an envelope of money.

Pretending to work with Sean and Koba on a heroin deal, Marian betrayed them by teaming up with Albanian gang lord Luan and Ed and Shannon Dumani to intercept the heroin en route and sell it at half price to flood the market and devalue it for Sean and Koba. She didn’t trust Koba and wanted Sean to get rid of him. Shannon (whom Marian had got out of prison for the murder of Elliot’s police handler Vicky) then re-stole the heroin from Luan (who’d been through hell in series two when his wife was kidnapped and buried alive), and she and her father Ed machine-gunned his men when they came to retrieve it. By the end of the series, Marian, Ed, Shannon and Luan were around a table with Elliot in a new alliance.

Saba and Faz

Also set on revenge against Sean Wallace in series two was French-Algerian gang member Saba, after Sean murdered her uncle Basem at Billingsgate Fish Market (and Sean’s new business partner Koba also murdered her people for importing guns to London without his involvement).

Saba travelled with Koba and Sean to Paris to act as an interpreter for the heroin-import and people trafficking deal they tried but ultimately failed to make with Bibi Agostini. She set them up by telling Elliot their location, but the plan was botched and Elliot failed to kill them. Koba then delivered Saba back to her cousin Hakim and told him to kill her. Hakim was about to shoot her when Saba fought back, burned him, took his gun and shot him with it. She and her brother Faz escaped.

All episodes of Gangs of London series 3 are available to stream on Sky Go and NOW.

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