* The Gentlemen episode 4 recap contains spoilers * After the death of the 8th Lord Bassington, we meet his heir, Max, who finds himself in a similar boat to the Hornimans when it comes to his father's hidden assets. Eddie hopes he can use his fellow aristocrat as a makeweight as he tries to escape the Glass family, yet first he must help Max with a spot of blackmail, in an episode that takes a macabre and comical turn...
A tour of Dorset Hall, home of the 8th Lord Bassington, is rudely interrupted when an elderly gentleman wearing nothing but a gas mask and sporting a machine gun opens fire on a host of tourists. “I’ll have no lizards in my house!” he yells, before keeling over...
On Halstead Manor’s lake, in between smoking a joint and killing fish with sticks of dynamite, Freddy tells Jimmy how underused he feels in the family business. Meanwhile, Susie tells Eddie about her plan to build a new weed lab on the estate to generate the extra cash Eddie promised to make for them. She wants to use the stables “for access”, which doesn’t go down well with Eddie’s mother, who claims Ann Boleyn once changed her horses there on the way to meet Henry VIII.
It’s certainly something to think about as they head off to the funeral of Lord Bassington, which is where they meet the 9th Lord Bassington. Apparently he’s one of Freddy’s old chums, which sounds ominous. “He’ll inherit everything,” whispers Eddie’s mother. “You have a lot in common in that respect.”
At the wake, Princess Rosie fills Eddie in on ‘Max’, the 9th Lord of Bassington and he immediately begins feeling him out as a partner in his narcotics sideline. However Max has a bit of an issue as he’s being blackmailed by someone who claims to have documents pertaining to the purchase of a “particularly salacious artefact”, which would cause “considerable scandal if they were to come to light.”
If Eddie can get hold of these "documents" and sort his problem, Max says they can turn his property into the “hanging gardens of the original rude boy ganja man”. A tempting offer indeed.
'Adolf Hitler's nut ball...'
Jimmy is on a date with Gabriel and begins to tell her all about his "plants" as they sit slurping banana milkshakes. He agrees to show her the cannabis lab, telling her he takes his professional responsibilities “very seriously”. He then tells her about the other 11 cannabis locations, which could lead to big problems for Susie and Eddie.
Elsewhere Eddie pitches his idea about Max’s property to Susie, who seems a bit worried about the blackmail, but is prepared to countenance a face-to-face meeting. So the young Duke sets off to meet Max’s blackmailer, Frank, a scruffy chap who takes him to a Chinese restaurant, where a furious man attacks him.
Apparently Frank owed him the cash, which leaves Eddie half a million down and with no controversial documents. Luckily a quick call to Susie, who seems to know the attacker, sets him back on course to Frank’s house. It turns out that Frank is a journalist who digs dirt on people and he gives Eddie the file. He doesn’t look inside it, but he does take Frank along to see Max’s for insurance.
When they get there, Max burns the documents and pays Frank, who reveals that it wasn’t Max’s father he was blackmailing — but the new Lord Bassington himself. This is obviously a big concern for Eddie and Susie, who are about to go into business with him, and they demand more transparency.
Max opens a secret door, where he reveals a collection of paintings by Adolf Hitler. Lord Bassington believes they are fine masterpieces, yet they are nothing compared to the crown jewel... "Adolf Hitler’s nut ball". Max, who’s played by Freddie Fox, then sets off on a rambling rant about Der Fuhrer’s genius that reaches its crescendo when he hints that he’s in possession of “the genesis of Hitler’s creative genius”. Freddie's brother would be proud.
Eddie wants to leave, but Susie realises they now have leverage over Max and an enormous shoot-out soon ensues, in which Max meets his maker and his dog gets a rather unique treat.
'Bent as a barbed wire fence...'
Elsewhere, Geoff has a proposal for Eddie’s mother, Lady Sabrina. He wonders if they could find new premises for the Glass weed lab on a neighbouring sheep farm, which is owned by Mr Rokes, who’s “bent as a barbed wire fence”.
Geoff takes her to a sheep auction, where she approaches this farming fraudster and strikes a deal, making the whole episode involving Max and his fascist testicle rather pointless...
