Mary had kept all of this from Hezekiah, who had mourned his best friend Alec believing that his death was the result of a random attack. To drive a wedge between his boxing enemy Hezekiah and the object of his romantic obsession Mary, Sugar told Hezekiah the truth. When Mary came to meet Hezekiah so they could run away together to New York, he confronted her about the lies and Alec’s death, and told her that she was dead to him.
In the series two teaser, we see Hezekiah point a gun at a man’s head and say “My name is Hezekiah Moscow and today you will answer to God.” That man could well be Indigo Jeremy.
Queen of the Forty Elephants
Last we saw her, Mary Carr was poised to sail to New York City to reunite with her mysterious father (we’ve met her mother Jane, but not yet the father she apparently takes after) and get away from the threat of Indigo Jeremy and the Elephant Boys. Whether she goes we don’t know, but she’s certainly back in London in the series two teaser, which sees her done up in her finery and threatening a roomful of well-dressed toffs with a loaded gun. The question remains: is she still the Queen of the Forty Elephants?
In series one, Eliza (Hannah Walters) and the rest of the girls abandoned Mary after she put them in danger by angering Indigo Jeremy. All but one of the women – Alice Diamond (Darci Shaw) – returned to Mary’s mother Jane and the Elephant Boys. In series two, will Mary and Alice still be a team, or could there be a new Queen of the Elephants for Mary to contend with?
Sugar and Mary No More
After Mary refused Sugar’s proposal of marriage, she lost his support and protection. Ever since Sugar met Mary as a child in the workhouse, where he would bring gifts of food to the children, he’d been besotted with her and hoped that they could raise a family of misfit orphans together. Mary turned him down, having already fallen for and slept with Hezekiah, which exacerbated Sugar’s rivalry with the Jamaican boxer.
A New Life for Lao
In the series one finale, Mr Lao faced extradition to China and the death penalty for the murder of Chinese diplomat Lo Feng Luh, whom he’d stabbed in revenge for the deaths of his wife and child in China when the government official viciously put down a rebellion by burning villages and having their inhabitants slaughtered. Mary had worked out from the fake gin that Hezekiah was drinking that Lao was being hidden by distiller Jack Mac, and she’d informed on Lao’s location to save her own skin. To make up for it, she then saved Lao’s life by bribing prison guards to allow Alice Diamond access to Lao’s cell while dressed as a nun. Alice set fire to the cell, freed Lao, and arranged for a stolen corpse to be left in his burning cell in order to fake his death. Mary then sent Lao up to Liverpool, where he was told to make a new life. Will he stay put, or could he return in series two?
