Mercer
was trained by the British Special Forces. Unlike the French, you would go feel
comfortable going to war knowing they had your back. Unfortunately, while
Mercer was away, his little sister was sexually abused by the orphans’
guardians, their now very late aunt and uncle. Clearly, Mercer was disappointed
by their behavior. However, his hotheaded nature makes him an attractive
recruit for Lenny Douglas. Apparently acting with the secret sanction of high
ranking police authorities, Douglas runs a de facto hit squad for organized
crime figures too powerful for traditional law enforcement to handle.
At
least, that is how Douglas presents the gig to Mercer. The longer the suddenly rehabilitated
ex-con works with his new puppet master, the more he comes to distrust him.
Nevertheless, he sticks with it, so he can look after his troubled single-mother
sister. He also is attracted to Rose Chamberlain, a former copper who now
serves as Douglas’s designated seductress. Once again, Mercer finds himself
rooming with his former cellmate, Calum McKenzie, who will provide “logistical”
support, like breaking-and-entering and general scrounging. Their first targets
will fall pretty easily in the first episode. The question will be whether
Mercer can accept such a Faustian bargain.
The
stakes will rise considerably in the second episode when Douglas tries to play
kingmaker during a succession battle for control of London’s leading crime
family. Things will get complicated when McKenzie accidentally kills Douglas’s
preferred choice, a vile entitled little racist gangster brat. Matters are
ostensibly more clear cut in the third episode (perhaps the best of series one)
when Douglas turns the team loose on an Albanian gangster looking to expand
into British territory, but his methods continue to trouble Mercer.
Mercer
really starts to doubt Douglas in episodes four and five, when his targets
reveal sensitive information that rock him back on his heels. It is
particularly awkward learning Patrick Finch was his predecessor, because he is
Mercer’s target and he has become a raging psychotic. Thus, it is rather
inevitable things will come to a head between Mercer and Douglas in the
conclusion of series one.
