“A Town Called Malice” on Sky Max is an experience that perfectly evokes the nostalgia of the 1980s and a charming vibrancy. The eighties-themed plot of “A Town Called Malice” is just one of the numerous elements that greatly contribute to the old wine in a new bottle allure. Every episode is titled after one of the most popular songs from that time period, such as “Cruel Summer” or “I Want to Know What Love Is,” which will undoubtedly attract aficionados of eighties music in a big way. In addition to fascinating revelations, as the plot develops, the series has a unique attractiveness thanks to its colorful cinematography and costume designs, which may compete with “Stranger Things”‘ outfit designs. The plot drags a little bit in the first six episodes, but it quickly picks up steam and makes for a fantastic viewing experience.
The Lords, a dysfunctional family of South London gangsters, are the centerpiece of the series. Once their heyday was over, they lost their clout with the underworld and were exiled from the palace to the streets. Yet Gene Lord, the family’s prodigal son, still has the chance to bring good fortune home. Despite being the white sheep, he wanted to avoid being like his father, but fate conspired against him.
Spoilers Ahead
‘A Town Called Malice’ Season 1: Recap
Gene Lord (Jack Rowan), the younger son of the Lords, initially encounters Cindy Carter (Tahirah Sharif), a bartender, in the first episode of the series and immediately falls in love with her. The two of them agreed to get married, but a tragedy struck just as they were about to get engaged. On the day when Cindy was being introduced to Gene’s parents, the Peckhams’ hooligans attacked the Lords over the Lords’ failure to pay their debts. Gene became involved in the scuffle, and the police intervened at that precise moment. Just as the police approached and had him under arrest, Cindy stepped in to save her fiancé by ramming a car into the officer. Cindy’s actions would have resulted in her serving time in prison; but the Lord Patriarch, Albert (Jason Flemyng), sent the couple to his brother’s property on the Costa del Sol in order to keep them out of sight.
Nevertheless, Gene and Cindy learned once they arrived in Costa del Sol that Tony Lord, Albert’s brother, was only a bluffer and did not own his villa. He’d stolen this villa from a Swedish family and became embroiled in the obligations of the neighborhood drug dealers. He owned property there, but Ernesto, a merchant, also had legal control over it. Tony expressed his guilt for his decisions in life to his nephew, who was compelled to sympathize with him, while Cindy couldn’t care much about Tony. She was hunched over, and her face bore the signs of trauma. But Gene was interested in Tony’s plan to build a hotel complex on his property, so he made the decision to negotiate with Ernesto about the site. But things didn’t exactly go as smoothly as planned. After arriving at Ernesto’s mansion, Tony and Ernesto get into a fight. But Cindy entered the room in the midst of the fight and killed Tony, leaving Ernesto incapacitated on the floor from severe injuries. The local police had suspicions about Gene and Cindy, but the officer erred by informing Cindy that Ernesto was still alive. Cindy went to the hospital to kill Ernesto out of fear that he could have witnessed her killing Tony. She kept the entire incident of Tony’s murder a secret from Gene and his family, who had by then traveled to Spain for Tony’s funeral.
Who Was Cindy Carter?
We can tell that “A Town Called Malice” is a gangster drama that also places a strong emphasis on the concept of family. The Lords present themselves as a perfect family, but a closer look reveals that they are actually rather fragile on the inside. Gene was duped by Cindy, much as Mint Ma (Martha Plimpton), the wife of Albert Lord, was duped by her husband. In reality, members of this family are susceptible to being duped by the idea of love. Mint Ma, who wanted to build a strong family, believed Albert to be a thoughtful man who once ruled the underworld. However, Mint Ma was unaware that Albert was actually entirely motivated by his ego, which caused him to be unable to tolerate other people’s advancement. We will go into more detail about this later. For now, let’s explore Cindy Carter’s motivation for being with the family.
We observe that Mint Ma Lord, Albert’s wife, was dubious of Cindy when the entire Lord family traveled to Spain for Tony’s burial. We all got the impression that Cindy had been hiding something. Mint Ma urged her son Kelly, who was in London, to investigate Cindy after discovering a note with the name Eddie Smith written on it in Cindy’s bag. Kelly discovered Eddie Smith was Cindy’s 16-year-old son, and not her boyfriend or spouse. Kelly took Eddie Smith to Spain with Mint Ma’s approval so that his brother Gene might have a reality check in his life. Even though Eddie was being welcomed into this new family with open arms, Cindy didn’t want him there. Finally, she admitted to her son that she had been planning to kill each member of the family.
It was revealed that it was not her love for Gene that led her to associate herself with the Lords, but rather her desire for retaliation. In reality, Cindy Carter was Mercy Wynters, whose husband Clarence had owed money to the Lords. The Lords ended his life because he was unable to pay his obligations. Mercy and Eddie were still alive, but Clarence was lost forever. Cindy devised a complex plan to eliminate every Lord in an effort to get revenge for the loss of her husband, but Eddie forbade his mother from going to such lengths. Eddie had everything since he was accepted into the family, including love and a kind kinship, which he had never had before; therefore, he didn’t want to cut ties with the family. Because Gene Lord was not even there when the Lords killed her husband, Eddie attempted to dissuade her mother from committing such a heinous crime.
Consequently, Cindy realized that it wouldn’t be acceptable to murder Gene in light of his innocence. Especially after witnessing Gene go to tremendous efforts to protect her and her son, she had a change of heart. She was offered the chance to turn herself in, particularly after being apprehended by South London detective inspector Lindsay, who was looking into Cindy and learned everything about her terrible history. In order to provide Eddie with a safe future, Lindsay advised Cindy to confess. Cindy, however, wanted to be truthful with her beloved Gene first. She met him at a restaurant and told him why she was there, why she killed Tony and her intention of taking revenge for her husband’s death. Gene couldn’t bear the agony of discovering the truth, but he also couldn’t murder her. So he instructed her to leave them and take Eddie with her. But when Eddie heard her mother’s suggestion, he said he didn’t want to leave. As he had always craved the love and support of a family, he wouldn’t blow up that opportunity. He didn’t want to lose the family’s beautiful internal chemistry, despite their propensity for illicit activity. Cindy was unable to push him and instead decided to stay.
‘A Town Called Malice’ Ending: Who Killed Albert Lord? What Happens To Cindy?
Gene made the decision to enlist the help of the local group Gitanos and the town’s mayor, Caesar, in order to construct the hotel and restore the lost fortunes of his family. Albert Lord, who saw himself as the smartest person alive and had pride in his ego intact, however, did not want his son to take the reins. On the surface, he always supported every suggestion Gene made, but insidiously, he worked to thwart every one of his schemes. In order to enlist Gitano’s help, Gene connected with a drug trafficking organization in Morocco that was demanding tribute from the Gitanos for their hashish shipments. Gene was given the task in return for Gitano’s help. Yet on the day that the shipment was scheduled to take place, a number of things transpired that altered the tone of the narrative.
The cops were alerted to the activities of the hash shipment by Albert, who had tipped them off due to his rage and egotistical issues. The cargo was bugged when the police uncovered the scheme. Eddie had been hiding in one of those cargo trucks while trying to flee Spain, but police caught him because they thought he was a drug dealer. In the meanwhile, Kelly Lord, who had been assigned to keep an eye on the police jeeps, had been smoking with one of the Gitano sisters, Manuela, in his car. Manuela had a crush on Gene and didn’t appreciate Kelly’s company, so Kelly choked her to death out of envy and wrath. All of these events drastically altered the fortunes of the Lords. When Gene learned from the local police that the anonymous tip they had received the night of their hash shipment came from the villa, his illusion of the ideal family was broken Gene was able to determine that his father had committed treachery.
While all this was going on, Gene’s brothers were ignorant that their own father was the snake in the grass. With the assistance of the local police, the mayor of the town approved the agreement with the Lords to build the hotel, but as time went on, he even came to know that the Lords weren’t just any regular family. He withdrew from the agreement after learning that the Lords were capable of committing heinous crimes and even murder in the city. Leonard, Albert’s oldest son, was given the task of killing Caesar, but he was unable to do it since he felt an unbreakable attraction to the man. All three of the sons developed a distrust for their father, and because of the betrayal, Gene was forced to engage in a confrontation with him. But his father came clean, admitting how narcissistic he really was. He confessed that he had messed up their business with Moroccans because he didn’t want his son to succeed and make a name for himself in the community. He couldn’t stomach it if any of his sons succeeded in life, so he took joy in wrecking their lives and careers. Just as Gene and his brothers got into a fight with Albert, Cindy intervened and fired a bullet into Albert’s head, finishing him off.
It came out that Gene had accepted Cindy’s atonement. Cindy also had dreams of starting a family with Gene because, unlike his father, Gene was kind-hearted. However, Gene had to tie up all the loose ends in order to start over. He immediately shot the police officer who was hiding out in a hotel apartment in Spain, waiting for Cindy’s confession. Gene prevented that from happening since Lindsay was aware of everything and could have prodded Cindy to make a confession. He killed her in order to rebuild his own family and his new aspirations to rule the underworld. Kelly was sent back to London by Mint Ma, who was the genius behind hiding Manuela’s body and framing someone else for her murder so that Kelly could never be linked to the killings.
Final Words
The criminal thriller “A Town Called Malice” is very keen to talk about families and how they function through unwavering love. While Mint Ma Lord was always concerned with the happiness of her family, she constantly put pressure on her husband to provide for them. She even didn’t realize that Albert was a crazy guy full of masculine ego. He never gave a thought to his family; instead, he placed them in danger in order to feed his vanity. Underneath his apparent machismo, Albert Lord was only a coward. His guilt about not doing well enough for his family, his career, or both drove him into a dark place where, as long as he was alive, he would only cause pain to others.
Nonetheless, Cindy’s intervention was the right move, but the other two gang members who were responsible for Clarence’s killing remained alive. Would Cindy be able to exact all of her retribution? Cindy could have grown tired of her propensity for getting even because it would just make her and her kid more miserable. Instead, by putting the past behind them, she and Gene could strengthen the family in a way that Albert could never have done. With the iconic 1980s song “The Sun Always Shines on TV” by A-Ha playing in the background, the series drew to a close by illustrating that the current generation of Lords will never repeat the same mistakes that their old man had made.
