Why did Eddie make Freddy kill Gospel John? Dark meaning behind The Gentlemen season 2 ending

The Gentlemen season 2 ends with Eddie Horniman finding the man behind Bella’s murder, but he does not kill him himself. Instead, Eddie forces his brother Freddy to take a chainsaw into a van and kill Gospel John. So, why does Eddie make Freddy kill Gospel John in The Gentlemen season 2 ending? 

The series follows Eddie as he becomes increasingly involved in the criminal world, and Bella’s death pushes that transformation much further. By the finale, his idea of justice has become much more ruthless.

So, why doesn’t Eddie kill Gospel John himself?

Eddie eventually discovers that Gospel John was behind the plot against his family and that Freddy knew about it and helped him. When Eddie confronts Freddy, he initially pulls a gun on him. But he does not shoot.

Instead, Eddie takes him to a van where Gospel John is tied up. There is a chainsaw inside.

“Someone’s gotta die, Freddy,” Eddie says.

Freddy is then sent into the van. The doors close and a chainsaw starts. When they open again, Freddy comes out covered in blood, carrying Gospel John’s severed head.

Eddie looks at him and says, “Good boy, Freddy.”

The show does not explain the full thinking behind that decision in the moment. Matthew Read, the season’s lead writer and executive producer, does.

Eddie sees it as a form of punishment for Freddy

Read believes that Eddie is making Freddy take responsibility for what he has done. Freddy has spent much of the series struggling with his identity. Read explained to Tudum that he has taken on different roles over his life, including the “wild child” and the “victim”, before becoming a “born-again Christian”.

Gospel John uses that uncertainty to get close to him. He presents himself as someone who understands Freddy’s resentment towards Eddie and turns that resentment into something much more extreme.

By the time Eddie discovers the truth, Freddy has already admitted that he knew what Gospel John was planning and helped him. So Eddie does not simply want John dead. He wants Freddy to be involved in the punishment.

Read describes Eddie’s decision as a “ruthless form of therapy and justice”. He also calls it a “step towards redemption” for Freddy.

The idea is that Freddy cannot keep hiding behind another version of himself. He has to confront what he has actually done. Read said Freddy’s punishment is “make or break”.

Freddy has spent years taking on different identities, and Gospel John has encouraged him to see himself as somebody who has been wronged. Eddie now forces him to stop hiding behind those identities and accept responsibility.

But there is obviously nothing normal about this form of justice. Freddy is being forced to murder the man he helped bring into their lives. Eddie is effectively saying that if Freddy helped set this in motion, then Freddy has to face the consequences himself.

Theo James sees something even more brutal in the scene

Theo James, who plays Eddie, gave the final scene an even darker interpretation. He said Eddie “almost psychologically castrates his brother whilst enacting a horrific revenge on the perpetrator of his wife’s death.”

That explains why Eddie does not simply shoot Freddy. The punishment is meant to affect Freddy psychologically as well as physically.

Freddy has always resented Eddie for becoming the Duke and taking the position he believed should have been his. Now Eddie has complete control over him.

The final “Good boy, Freddy” makes that power dynamic especially clear.

Bella’s death changes what Eddie is willing to do

Eddie’s decision cannot really be separated from Bella’s death. His relationship with Bella starts partly as a way of bringing two families together, but it becomes something more. As James explained, “In reality, he does fall in love with her.”

Bella gives Eddie the possibility of having a life outside the criminal world. James said she “awakened this possibility of a good life outside of death and destruction”.

Then she is killed almost immediately after their wedding. James said that when Bella is taken away, “his whole sense of self and life is completely deconstructed.”

That helps explain why Eddie’s response is so extreme. And by the finale, the violence that once seemed like something Eddie reluctantly accepted has become something he is capable of organising himself.

So, has Eddie gone mad?

Matthew Read said that the important question is “what Eddie becomes.” He then asked, “Has he gone mad or is he moving towards a place where he could be this ruthless leader who is capable of extraordinary things?”

Read leans towards the latter. So Eddie may not have simply lost control because of Bella’s death. He may actually be becoming the kind of leader who can make these decisions calmly.

Theo James also describes the change in Eddie. He said that Eddie has gone from “a good person just trying to help his family out” to someone who has “the ability to enact deep and savage violence.”

That is the real point of the final scene.

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