MobLand: Hiding His Diagnosis, Not the Diagnosis Itself, Is What Brings Conrad Down

Conrad has just received the kind of news a man like him can never afford to hear, and he answered it the only way he knows: he silenced the doctor and told him to destroy the evidence. "These tests never happened," he tells him, and before the scene is over he has made it very clear that if this doctor is not careful, he will be gone just like the men Conrad has already seen off.

The evidence here is simple but very important. Later in this piece I will also ask whether Maeve could have something to do with Conrad's condition, and whether she might be hiding a problem of her own.

Conrad's warning to his doctor is a threat on his life, not his job

During the diagnosis, the doctor first explains Conrad's condition in scientific terms, telling him he is afraid "the systems that govern control and judgment are weakening." That leaves Conrad confused and overthinking, so he asks what that means. The doctor breaks it down: the condition is in his brain, and it causes emotions to rise out of control when he faces a small problem. He will be irritated and feel a desire to cause destruction. The way I see it, if he keeps working with this condition, some months from now he will stand in front of the mirror and see nobody but a monster, and that could destroy him.

Conrad does not want to feel vulnerable, not only in front of his doctor but in front of his family too. So he does what he does. He silences the doctor and orders the evidence destroyed, as if nothing is happening to him and he is fully conscious and healthy enough to work as usual. Then he reels off the names of men and couples he has seen off, and tells the doctor he would be the first doctor on that list.

That is not a threat to fire the man. It is a threat on his life if the evidence ever reaches the family, because that would undermine Conrad's authority and functionality in the Harrigan family. For him, he is the boss until death, and as long as he is alive and kicking, no man gets to take his place. The danger is that Conrad could lose it and react in ways that hurt the family. He could tell Maeve, as he always tells her things, since she has control over his mind and knows how to make him feel good.

Look at how far he is willing to go. By his own words, the men on that list were butchers, bakers and candlestick makers, never doctors. This man is ready to cross a line he has never crossed before just to keep one test result away from his family. I have already gone into how Conrad handles feeling vulnerable, so I will keep it short: this diagnosis is that same fear, only now it sits in a medical file. Once people see him as soft and sick, they will treat him with care and love, but not with fear. You could see how scared the doctor was after hearing those names. That is Conrad, always using fear to get the outcome he wants, and if you challenge that outcome, you challenge his credibility.

The MRI points to damage in the parts of Conrad's brain that weigh consequences

Coming back to exactly what the doctor says, his memory testing is within normal limits. "There's no evidence of dementia," the doctor tells him, and the hippocampus and temporal lobes are structurally preserved. However, the MRI shows focal atrophy affecting his orbitofrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate gyrus.

As I read it, that could lead him to react in ways that would make a normal person think he is a madman. Not as mad as walking naked down the street, but reacting in ways that could make him monstrous. Even a little problem becomes a bigger one in his mind because of what the condition is doing to his frontal cortex. Under stress, the effect increases, causing more irritation, triggering his emotions and making him lash out in fury. He could even do something to his own family members that he would regret once he comes back to normal.

That is why destroying this evidence is a big deal for the family. Obedience to Conrad could mean signing your own death warrant, because you do not know when he will go off and do something that costs you your life.

Could Maeve have something to do with Conrad's condition?

I am coming to wonder whether Maeve has something to do with it. The way she has been manipulating him and pushing him to act in ways he never thought he would makes me think she might. And if she does, then I think Maeve may have a problem of her own, maybe even worse than Conrad's.

Maybe she is hiding it from her husband, because admitting a mental problem would cost her his trust whenever she tells him something. Conrad trusts her words, and finding out his wife was hiding something like this could make him stop listening to her. As long as Maeve controls Conrad, she controls the family. Lose that, and her place in the family becomes minimal, which could let others push her out, since most of the family do not side with her decisions.

So it could be that both of them are sick in some way and hiding it from each other and from the family. For Conrad, the MRI confirms it; for Maeve, we are yet to see. My reason for suspecting her is the moment she blew up the car of Richie's wife over a little insult. That proved the irrational decisions Maeve makes, and even after it, Conrad still supported her and accepted her back. As long as Conrad accepts her, no other family member can say anything.

Fear is one way Conrad uses to control his people

The doctor walks out of that room knowing exactly one thing: keep quiet or join the list. Fear makes people obey even when they know something is wrong, and Conrad has played that game so long it has become part of his nature. But what if the Harrigan family breaks out of that shell and stops taking his orders? Of course that would make him feel weak. If you stop obeying, you no longer see him as your boss, and Conrad sees that humiliation as disrespect, an act that undermines his authority.

We saw the same method with the parking warden who photographed Conrad's badly parked vehicle. Conrad told him he knows people who could track him down and that something could happen to him if he was not careful. The warden's face changed from confident to afraid. Then Conrad offered him money, as if doing him a favour. That is how he controls his victims: he threatens you and acts as if the threat is a kindness.

That confrontation shows exactly why this is a problem for him. If he keeps up this attitude, people will realise it and stop fearing him. Once people can predict your threats, the threats stop working and the respect goes with them. I believe that if Conrad carries on controlling people this way, time will catch up with him and he will lose the validation he has always had. His need to look big and respected is the same thing worrying the family.

The dog track killing may have been the condition before it had a name

I have covered the dog track before, so I will only say this. Conrad insulted a man's brother, could not take the same insults thrown back, and killed him. Put that next to what the doctor told him: under stress and provocation, he will be quicker to react and slower to weigh up consequences. The dog track was not just Conrad being Conrad. It may have been the condition long before anyone put a name on it.

After those killings he left room for mistakes, and if Harry had not gone to clean up the mess, the family would be in big trouble now. His impulses have led the family into a lot of trouble, and because he always orders obedience, no one dares challenge him. That system has been running for a very long time.

With Harry wavering, I think it is time for Kevin to take over

I have already made the case for Harry as the man who cleans up after Conrad, and this diagnosis only raises the stakes. Harry is unsure which side to take, and Conrad's condition is getting worse at the worst possible time. If Harry stops working for him, that would be very bad for Conrad, because he cannot step in and do what Harry does unless he swaps his genes for Harry's. He is not emotionally regulated, he reacts under pressure, he listens to one side of the family, he acts impulsively, he gets irritated easily, and he makes unwise decisions.

I think it is time for him to step down as head of the Harrigan family and let Kevin take over. Handing the role to his own children without a war would honour his name and show a father who is not selfish. That would have been a sign of peace. Instead he chose to be stubborn and caused this whole issue. Had he let Kevin take the mantle, he might have been giving counsel, which would have stopped the war now coming and even helped them defeat Kat, who is preparing hard to bring the family down.

Maeve's dinner with Seraphina shows how blind Conrad has become

Consider the dinner Maeve and Conrad hold with Seraphina. I was not sure before what Maeve wanted with that vet; now it looks a lot clearer. She asks what would work in a stew or a glass, antifreeze comes up, and Conrad has no idea what is going on. He thought it was a normal family dinner and never suspected Maeve was planning something behind his back.

That is how things have gone with Conrad: he can sit in a meeting without knowing what is really happening. If Harry had been there, he could have spotted something fishy. Conrad's love and trust for Maeve have made him so blind that even if she said she would kill him, he would take it as a joke. To me, that is more proof he should step down for Kevin, because he is lost in his own arrogance and taking the leadership down with him. He has become so weak that fear is his only way to keep respect. What happened to his aura? Maybe Harry helped make him the man he is, and Conrad is acting in Harry's shadow while he listens to Maeve, picks up his gun, and messes up everywhere he goes.

Staff must stay silent while Maeve could be positioning herself to take control

One worker warns another to be careful how he handles conflicts between Maeve and Conrad, and to act as if he does not really know what is going on. As a worker in the Harrigan household, you need to deal with the two of them carefully. If you do not keep your mouth shut about what you see, someone else will step in and control that for you. It makes me ask: which side will you be on when one of them orders you to take theirs?

It also means Maeve could want more authority over Conrad, doing things behind his back, removing him from events, taking meetings without his knowledge, even secretly planning his death. Trust me, Conrad still would not see it coming, because his trust and love outweigh his logic. If not for Harry carrying out operations for the family, I think Maeve would have taken the lead long ago. The diagnosis gives her another route, since she could easily convince the family that Conrad is not capable of leading and take the position herself.

For now, Seraphina is a threat to Maeve, because she has a big chance to take over the family business. Could that be why Maeve wants to poison her? Maeve has not liked Seraphina since day one, so I would not hesitate to say she might want to end Seraphina's life.

The diagnosis will not bring Conrad down, but hiding it might

Conrad's appointment taught me that he can be exposed to something and, instead of treating it, order people to do nothing. The doctor brings out evidence of his condition and Conrad orders him not to act on it. That is a man being exposed right under our nose, and his way of treating people is out in the open.

His biggest fear will be the moment he orders people to do something and they refuse. He will do anything to maintain his respect and authority, and I am waiting for the day people stop taking his orders. What will he do when he realises the power he once had has been taken without him knowing? As I see it, "the diagnosis is not what brings Conrad down. Hiding it is." Every week he keeps that MRI buried, Maeve gets one more card to play against him, and Kevin gets one more reason to take the chair.

Do you think Conrad hands over the family before it gets taken from him?