![]() And while Brody's performance isn't exactly the most subtle, embracing all the Mafia mannerisms made famous by film and television mobsters of the past, it's an enormous amount of fun. He's come to get the size of the man who murdered his father, the man whose entire life and legacy he intends to upturn. ![]() Gillen, his face fixed in a permanent smirk, is clearly relishing the gem of a role he's been given. It's an infamy well-deserved, as he bursts onto the scene with a bloody vengeance, launching a vicious knife attack in his first appearance. Retreating to his old stomping grounds, Tommy is determined to "go on the offensive" and fight fire with fire, recruiting the services of Aberama Gold (Aiden Gillen), a Romani gypsy with a reputation for savagery. Though it lacks lacks some of the pace of the series opener, episode two of series four is even more rich in both emotion and atmosphere, as the Shelbys return to the smoky grime of Small Heath. But Murphy does a terrific job of showing us the toll it's really taking – the invisible weight, the pain behind the eyes – until his grief explodes in the episode's closing scene, in a touching exchange between Tommy and Arthur. ![]() Tommy, of course, puts up a cold and ruthless front, even using John's funeral to draw out the Mafia hoods targeting the family. Each responds to the loss in their own way: Arthur (Paul Anderson), as always, is an open wound, while a traumatised Polly (Helen McCrory) is whittled down to her very core, and it's pure steel. It may have been done partly out of necessity, but writing out John Shelby lends a pleasing vulnerability to the show's family of anti-heroes.
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