Warning: This article contains spoilers for MobLand Season 1, Episode 7 MobLand episode 7, "The Crossroads", manages to pull the series out of the nosedive it's been in since the compelling, if unintelligible, premiere, but there are still so many missteps as we head towards the finale that I don't have any confidence in the MobLand plane landing. It's too little, too late at this point, but at least episode 7 offers up some of the ridiculous, reckless energy that powered the beginning of the series into something worth sticking around for.

"The Crossroads" stumbles forward, unconcerned with any of the events that have come previously. Some plot threads weave their way back into the episode, but they're only briefly waved at. Kevin's (Paddu Considine) memories of his ordeal in youth prison, the rat in the family, Bella (Lara Pulver) and Antoine's (Grégoire Colin) shady business; these are events mentioned on phone calls, as if to remind us, "Hey don't worry, we'll get to these plots soon! Just as soon as we figure out what we're doing in the main story!"

MobLand Refuses To Focus On One Storyline

Each Plot Thread Ends Up Getting Muddied

There is a distinct lack of focus in MobLand; it's been this way since the series began. For a pilot, it was an intriguing way to rope us into the world of the Harrigans and the London underground, but after seven episodes, the show just feels lost. This is nowhere better exemplified than it is with the decision to knit together completely different sequences, extending what should be a four-minute scene into one that takes up over half the episode.

In episode 7, Jan (Joanne Froggat) goes to meet her "friend" Alice (Emily Barber) at a pub near the Cotswolds. Eddie (Anson Boon) and Gina (Teddie Allen) strike up a friendship that turns hot and heavy as they grouse about their respective fathers; Harry (Tom Hardy) goes on a bloody rampage against Brendan (Daniel Betts); while Seraphina's (Mandeep Dhillon) abductors, and Maeve (Helen Mirren) and Conrad (Pierce Brosnan), argue about trust.

It becomes difficult to gauge how a relationship is developing when it's not given time to breathe.

Each one of these storylines wraps around one another in frustratingly short vignettes. Sometimes, only a line or two is uttered in one thread before we jump to the next. It becomes difficult to gauge how a relationship is developing when it's not given time to breathe. Just when you become curious about where Eddie and Gina's connection is leading, we jump to Jan and Alice. When it seems Alice might be having cold feet about her part as a mole, we jump to Harry gunning down Moroccan gangsters.

By the time we circle back around to cleaning these threads up, they've lost all their weight. Why would I be bothered to care about these storylines if MobLand doesn't even think they are worth watching for more than a minute?

Seraphina Is Saved At The Last Minute

The Final Ten Minutes Of "The Crossroads" Are Filled With Mostly New Characters

It's the last 10 minutes of MobLand where we finally slow down and get a proper scene with characters doing more than firing questions back and forth. Seraphina and Brendan are tied up, but Seraphina insists they're safe since they would have been killed in the warehouse. Her wonky logic is immediately tested when a man places a chainsaw and a video camera in front of them. Realizing Richie Stevenson (Geoff Bell) is behind this, the pair wait for the widowed gangster.

Instead, Jamie Lopez (Jordi Mollà) appears. The Lopez family, who you may or may not , is the Mexican cartel the Harrigans want to get into the fentanyl game with. However, Conrad insulted the Lopez patriarch 30 years ago, and the gang has not forgotten. Jamie is the son of the guy that Conrad insulted, both of whom we've never met before. If that's too many degrees of separation, then just wait until you hear how Seraphina is saved. Not Brendan, sadly, who dies as pathetically as he lived.

MobLand episodes release on Paramount+ on Sundays at 12am ET.

Harry calls Donnie (Alex Fine), the guy who keeps showing up at his garage, who calls Kat (Janet McTeer), a woman who is very important, judging by her private plane and the cool shape of her phone. I sincerely thought her plane was going to strafe the warehouse and save the day, but a phone call to Jamie proves adequate. The chainsaw turns off, as does the live feed that Maeve and Conrad are desperately watching.

Kat lets Harry know that he owes her, but she did only save Seraphina, so that feels like half a favor at most. I'm not sure how Richie fits in with the Moroccans fit in with the Mexicans fit in with Kat fits in with Harry fits in with the Harrigans, but I imagine that we won't get much of an explanation. MobLand doesn't seem to care too much, but as long as it's chopping people up with chainsaws and shipping Eddie with Gina, sure, keep watching.