Juliet Rylance, Faye Marsay, Sofya Lebedeva, Mariya Shukshina, Elena Lyadova & Anna Levanova in McMafia [S1E8]

McMafia recap – series one, episode eight

Alex’s trip to the dark side looks to be complete, but will Vadim get the jump on him and does he have the guts to do what is necessary? McMafia concludes

“I don’t think I know who he is any more – I don’t think he even knows himself.” Rebecca.

Coming into this final episode, it wasn’t easy to predict in what manner it would resolve matters. Was Alex hurtling towards personal tragedy? Would there be a violent crescendo, involving multiple, fearsome players including Kleiman and the Mexicans? Would Vadim, with nothing left to lose, unleash hell? In the event, it did not pan out as spectacularly as that. There was a strange inevitability about this last episode, its lessons twofold – that power is temporary and that those who seek it are weakened, rather than strengthened by family ties.

Indeed, family can be a downright liability as Alex finds when he arrives in Moscow. He’s immediately detained, on the orders of Ilya, and it’s not looking good for our boy as he sits in a latrine-like cell, warned by Ilya to tell him who he is Moscow to visit. Alex tries to match menace with menace, warning Ilya that the people he is here to see will notice if he goes missing – but it’s clear that Vadim holds him responsible for his daughter’s death and when he’s taken out of airport custody, bundled into a paddywagon and spirited into the night, it seems his situation is grave indeed.