MobLand: Maeve Is Already Moving Against Conrad, and the Antifreeze Plot Shows How

Maeve is no longer someday going to move behind Conrad's back. After this episode of MobLand, I believe she is already doing it. In my earlier breakdown of Conrad's diagnosis, I said Maeve could start moving behind his back someday. After this episode, I don't think it is someday anymore.

Maeve doesn't need to tell everybody that she is planning a move against someone, including Conrad. Her quiet tactics and decision making are so private that you won't see it coming. When it comes to smartness, Maeve is one of the most intelligent and manipulative characters in MobLand. She has been able to divert blame onto people who didn't contribute to her bad decisions.

Conrad's Constant Forgiveness Is Costing Him Maeve's Respect

Because Conrad has been accepting and forgiving her regardless of what she does, Maeve is slowly losing respect for her husband. She is gradually gaining authority over him, and that has made her feel like she is now the woman who should be in charge of the family business. Conrad didn't realise this ill intention of hers because he is blind with love and trust. Maeve could pick up the phone and make a call that could change the situation of the family, and still not inform her husband. If she clearly has no intention of leading over her husband someday, why didn't she bother even to tell Conrad?

Think about what that does to a marriage. A wife starts making decisions behind her husband's back, and the first thing he does when he hears about it is not to set her straight, but to forgive her and take her back, which only tells her she can do more. At some point the respect goes, because nothing is left to show her that he is the one running the house. He has lost control over Maeve, and it is hard for him to accept it because accepting it would make him feel weak and stupid in front of others.

So instead, he walks around feeling like the type of man who has everything figured out, not knowing Maeve is on the other side planning and making moves that could cost him everything he has built. Sometimes it is hard to notice something strange going on among your friend group during active days, but when you detach, pause and reflect, you can see something off. Conrad has the same problem. If he could take just a minute to analyse Maeve, I am sure he would understand what she is doing. Instead he walks around putting fear in people, claiming he is the man in charge, when in reality Maeve is the one steering the family. He can only figure her out when he takes time alone, reflecting on past mistakes and accepting and forgiving himself.

The Antifreeze Plot Was Wrapped in Conrad's Dogs

I promised in an earlier piece that I would come back to Maeve's dinner plans. The antifreeze plot scene really bothers me, because it clearly shows how ignorant Conrad has been for all these years. My suspicion is that Maeve is planning something she can accuse him of later for the inconveniences caused. I already went through the vet and the antifreeze in my breakdown of Conrad's diagnosis, so this time I am keeping that short and looking at what the scene is wrapped in: the dogs.

Maeve looks at Conrad's two dogs and tells the man she is speaking with that one of them is practically blind and the other one has a flatulence problem at night, much like Conrad after a few stouts. He says they look grand. She wants the vet called right now anyway. Once the vet is in the house, she quietly asks him what could be slipped into food or a drink. The dogs were the cover story. But Seraphina never attends that dinner, and episode 3 still does not confirm that Maeve has poisoned anyone. That part remains my suspicion.

Look at which cover story she picked. Out of everything in that house, she reaches for the two animals Conrad loves, and she does it while he is away. When he suggests they wait until Conrad gets back, she does not even argue. She just says, "Do I have to do everything myself?" and takes the job off him. That sounded like a leader to me. He tried to bring the husband into the decision, and she answered by taking the decision away from both of them. Even as a cover story, putting down her husband's dogs became her call without letting him know. Maeve, instead of being the mother of the house, is now playing the husband role.

From Conrad's Friend to the Dogs, Maeve Is Cutting Every Bond Conrad Has

The dogs fit a pattern, and that pattern started long before season two. Maeve wants to remove anything that bonds with Conrad in the family so that Conrad can only bond with her. Remember how Maeve made Conrad kill his own longtime friend? Their friendship had made them brothers. They shared secrets no other family member knows. That bond was actually making Conrad strong, because sharing positive moments with a friend leads to less worrying and happier moments, which reduces stress and anxiety.

Maeve didn't want Conrad to depend fully on that friend for emotional support, since that could make her insignificant in the family. If she can't offer emotional support to her husband, she loses the one leverage she has always sought from him. For her, trust is more important than love. As long as Conrad trusts her with the care and emotional support she gives him, she is okay, and that has been the key she uses to get everything she wants. She has made Conrad weak, making him do things on her terms. First it was the friend. The dogs are the pets. One bond at a time, she is emptying his life of everyone but her.

Maeve's Dinner With Seraphina Was About Self Interest

Set the poison aside. Maeve can plan a private meeting without anyone else knowing, and she will surely come away with something that serves her own selfish interest, whether that is meaningful information or connections that will benefit her later. She plans secretly and quietly, smiling all over your face, making you think nothing is going on behind the curtains while something else is cooking. Her plan to have dinner with Seraphina was because she needed something for herself.

Maeve does not even consider Seraphina part of the Harrigan family, let alone like her. She sees her as a threat, as someone who could discover her moves and use them against her. Seraphina is one smart girl when it comes to business and emotional intelligence, and Maeve wouldn't want someone of that calibre inside the family business, since it reduces the control she could have. Conrad is aware of Seraphina's smartness too. Maeve is aware as well, but she won't accept that Seraphina is way smarter and much more of a leader than her.

Maeve's London Phone Call Was Surveillance, Not Jealousy

Maeve's call with Conrad after his hospital visit explains something. She calls him while he is being confronted by a warden for wrong parking. She asks where he is, and he tells her London. She doubts that and even thinks Conrad is cheating on her, bluntly asking who he is with this time. Conrad explains that he is in London and nothing of what she is imagining is going on.

That didn't sound like jealousy to me. It sounded like a wife who wants her antenna turned on, chasing her husband everywhere he goes so she can track everything he is doing, gathering information she could use later to clarify things with Conrad or exploit him. She doesn't want Conrad doing anything behind her back, because if he plans something without her, she could lose control over everything. That is why she needed to know exactly what he was doing in London.

Conrad was smart not to tell her, because a wife who is already looking for a reason to take over does not need to hear the words focal atrophy. But what matters here is this: she does not need the diagnosis to smell a secret. One phone call, one answer she does not like, and she is already treating his silence as proof he is hiding something.

Eddie Is Maeve's Backup Plan, but His Partner Stands in the Way

Maeve is developing ways and means to make herself independent and free in the family. While Conrad thinks their marriage serves a purpose, she wants to do things on her own terms, and nobody, including Conrad, could stop her. Eddie is part of that. I covered why Maeve wants Eddie's partner gone in an earlier piece, so I will not argue it again. What matters here is why she needs Eddie so badly. If she gets control over Eddie, she at least has a backup in case all the family members turn against her, and her vision of someday leading the family could come true. She can cut off someone who contributes a lot to the business, which tells you that to Maeve, money is secondary and control is first.

Eddie has long bonded with Maeve in a special way, since she makes him feel like a man rather than someone who just uses the Harrigan name to feel big. Maeve phones Eddie and asks about their plan to cut off his partner. Eddie gets out of bed beside her and sits on the couch so she cannot hear. He tells Maeve he can't do it, since his partner has been a good pillar of support for the business in London and cutting her off would cost him those opportunities. His line is that the two of them are a team, professionally speaking. That is the backup plan saying no. His partner is to Eddie what his old friend and the dogs are to Conrad: an attachment that does not run through Maeve.

Episode 3 takes this further. Maeve gives Eddie access to Conrad's private flat but bans his partner from entering it. Eddie brings her there anyway and defends them as a team. Then Maeve suggests he take her to Ireland with him. Does that mean she has accepted her, or is moving them both another way of keeping control? I would not call that acceptance yet. The flat gives Eddie something he wants, but Maeve still wants to decide who he shares it with. My question now is whether Eddie can keep choosing his partner when Maeve puts conditions on what she gives him.

Maeve Corners Conrad, and a Rival Could Be Her Next Move

In episode 3, Maeve corners Conrad and demands he tell her, right then and there in that room, what it is he knows that she doesn't. A demand like that could make Conrad suspect that Maeve has lost trust in him and has a motive behind his back. But will Conrad ever notice what Maeve is planning, or will he find out seconds before he is about to die? If Maeve gets hold of that information, Conrad could lose one more advantage over her. Still, asking for his secrets does not mean she now holds every tiny detail of the business.

This also makes me wonder whether Maeve will link up with a rival and sell those secrets to gain standing and leverage in the business. I would not put it past Maeve to walk straight to that rival and offer a deal. But the proposal on the table also puts both Conrad and Maeve in the firing line, so I cannot assume that rival would offer Maeve safety or power. The same way she sold out Seraphina to Richie, handing him Seraphina's whereabouts in Antwerp, she could sell her family members. Handing her husband's secrets to a rival would be the same move with a bigger price tag.

My Verdict: Maeve Is Clearing the Room Before Conrad Notices

Maeve is not waiting for Conrad's mind to fail him. She is already taking pieces off the board one by one: Conrad's old friend, the dogs, Seraphina's seat at the table, and now Eddie, as long as his partner stays out of the way. Conrad will notice eventually, but not before she has cleared the room.

Is Maeve building toward a takeover, or just protecting herself before a bullet finds her?