'A Thousand Blows' Ending Explained & Finale Recap: What To Expect In Season 2?

The 2025 British period drama series streaming on Hulu, or Disney+ for global audiences, A Thousand Blows, makes for a superbly entertaining watch because of its characters and overall plot. As the last episode in A Thousand Blows season 1 rounds up the fates of all the characters, at least for the time being, it also builds intrigue about their future, which is briefly hinted at through the short teaser for season 2 shown at the very end. This article is going to take a quick look at all the events from the show’s ending and speculate about what we could see going down in season 2.

Spoiler Alert

Who kills Alec Munroe?

One of the saddest moments in A Thousand Blows season 1, along with it being quite a shocker as well, is when Alec Munroe is stabbed on the streets of London, leading to the beloved character’s death. As this incident changes the course of events later on, the exact reason behind it becomes relevant, even though it is technically a mistake that takes the life of Alec. It is all rooted in the fact that Alec and Hezekiah came across Mary Carr and the Forty Elephants fairly early in their lives in London and eventually became friends with the charismatic woman and her criminal group. With time, Mary particularly grew a special fondness for Hezekiah, which was a pretty rare occurrence, as admitted by those who knew her well, and the two even spent a romantic night together. 

Crucially, their interest in each other was not kept a secret from the world, and although there was no official relationship between them, it was quite evident to everyone that Hezekiah meant a bit more to Mary than other usual folks. Therefore, it was also clear to those wanting to send Mary an indirect warning or message that doing something to Hezekiah would get the job done. Being the leader of the all-woman criminal gang, Mary had quite the notoriety in the neighborhood, and most avoided any confrontation or disagreement with her. While this was definitely because of her criminal nature and her skills as a masterful swindler, her connections with other notorious people also played a big part in her being feared and avoided.

However, when these very connections turn against Mary, she finds herself in significant trouble. The plan that she had made, and then executed as well, to steal the precious silverware of the very Queen of England, had been entirely orchestrated by herself and the Forty Elephants. But the hierarchy in the English mob meant that a bigger group, named the Elephants, were in control of Mary’s team, and the Forty Elephants was basically a part of this bigger group. This group, also known as the Male Elephants, is headed by a man named Indigo Jeremy, and Mary’s own mother, Jane, is also a part of the group. It is quite evident from the beginning that Mary Carr is not too interested in being a part of this group directly and instead yearns to lead her own gang. The most likely reason for this might be that she does not want to work under the orders of an insensitive man when there is a chance to lead helpless women towards bigger goals in life, albeit through illegal means.

When she plans and carries out the silverware heist by herself, without involving, or even informing, the Male Elephants, the latter get tremendously angry about it. As matters pan out, the British government directly gets involved in solving the case and catching the murderer, Lao, which means that the Male Elephants are also dragged in. Indigo Jeremy does not want to directly go against the British Empire, at least in this particular fashion and at this particular time, and so he initially directs his gang members to find Lao. Once that matter is solved, he decides to punish Mary and teach her a lesson, and this is when he decides to make use of the new romantic attraction that had developed between her and the boxer, Hezekiah Moscow.

It is solely to hurt Mary Carr that the male elephants send a masked man to Lao’s hotel, with the instruction to find and kill Hezekiah. However, it is apparent that the instructions given to the assassin only mentioned that he needed to find a Black man appropriately dressed as a boxer who has been earning well in recent times, and this is where he makes a grave mistake. Seeing Alec walking down the street, donning the fur coat that perhaps represents new money, the assassin believes him to be Hezekiah, since Black men are incredibly uncommon in London at the time. While he calls out to Alec, asking if he is Hezekiah, Alec responds with an arrogant question, asking who is looking for him, which makes the assassin believe, beyond any doubt, that this is indeed his target. 

Thus, the assassin stabs Alec ferociously numerous times and then leaves him to die on the streets. While Alec, himself a decent boxer, tries to fight back, there is hardly anything he can do against the knife attack. Within just a few minutes, he dies of his injuries, and his newfound lover, Esme, is left grieving, along with all the other members of the Forty Elephants. That very night, the bloodied knife used to kill Alec is sent to Mary, and she is told that her boxer friend has been killed to teach her a lesson. Thus, it is evident to Mary, and also to the other members of her gang, particularly Eliza, that the male elephants have carried out the murder of Alec, and this officially confirms that a feud is on between the criminal gang and Mary Carr. As Jane and Indigo Jeremy both visit the pub from where the Forty Elephants operate, Eliza and the others decide to leave the gang to protect themselves, for they would also be attacked otherwise. Thus, Mary loses not just a good friend in Alec, but also her gang members, because of her feud against her criminal superiors. 

What happens to Mr. Lao?

Mr. Lao, the owner of the local hotel that Mary and her gang sometimes used as a hideout, had been roped into the heist plan because he was a Chinese immigrant and could speak the language well. Lao accepted the job for a different, highly personal reason, as he wanted to kill someone from the delegation, which represented the Chinese authority that had slaughtered Lao’s village when he was a child. Because of his murder, and also because the silverware stolen by the Forty Elephants turned out to be inexpensive, the heist was seen only as a murder by the police, since it directly affected the British Empire’s relations with the Chinese government. Therefore, the authorities were on the lookout for Lao and wanted to arrest him at all costs, and they even threatened others, like Mary Carr and Sugar Goodson, to help them in the search.

As it happened, it was actually Mary who got to know of Lao’s hiding spot from Hezekiah and then led the police to him, for she knew that everyone else, including herself, would face a lot of unfair trouble from the police until the Chinese man was arrested. Therefore, she had helped the authorities in arresting him but had already made a plan to rescue him before he was executed. When Mary realizes that she has to leave London and decides to flee to the USA, she ensures this plan is executed first, and she takes the help of a young associate, Alice Diamond. Mary appoints Alice to get hold of a dead body from the mortuary, using the Forty Elephants’ contacts, and then sneak into the prison by taking the attire of a nun. We see Alice successfully make her way into the prison and down to the holding cells by threatening to curse the police officers otherwise. She then sets fire to Lao’s cell and also throws in the dead body that she had acquired from the mortuary.

Amidst all the chaos, Alice and Mary manage to sneak Mr. Lao out of the prison, leaving behind the corpse in his cell. Since Alice set fire to the cell, and it is expected that the prisoner held captive burned and died, there remains no way to prove, at least in a short time, that the burnt dead body belongs to someone else and not the actual prisoner. Therefore, Lao ultimately survives, despite having been given the death penalty, and Mary gives him a ticket to Liverpool, where he will now go and settle down, away from the persecution of the law.

What happens to Sugar Goodson?

The character of Sugar Goodson turns out to be the main antagonist in A Thousand Blows season 1, or at least one of the central ones. He considers Hezekiah his arch enemy as soon as he sees Mary show some feelings of concern for him, as Sugar is blindly in love with Mary Carr and has proposed to her numerous times. But since Mary knows exactly how violent and ill-tempered Sugar is, and also because she genuinely has no romantic feelings for him, she has turned him down every time. He is not a man to take no for an answer, though, and although he respects Mary to a certain degree, because of his love for him, Sugar does not realize that his love is also extremely toxic and overbearing for everyone. He is simply a brute who cannot express himself in the right way, leading to outbursts that result in serious injuries, if not deaths.

This is exactly what happens when Sugar’s younger brother, Treacle, remarks that his anger and obstinance are what keep Mary away from him. This statement infuriates Sugar, and the boxer literally beats his brother black and blue, leaving him half-dead by the time he is done. Apparently a man driven only by the thought and concern of his family, Sugar Goodson almost kills his younger brother, and then when he has calmed down, goes to see Treacle at the hospital. However, Treacle refuses to let his brother back into his life anymore, and he literally orders Sugar to leave and never show his face to his family members ever again. This interaction leaves the boxer tremendously hurt, and he is seen to have decided to hand over ownership of the pub to Treacle, probably because the younger brother has a family of his own, while Sugar literally has no one in the world to provide for. 

During A Thousand Blows’ ending, though, Sugar Goodson ultimately takes a villainous turn when Jane Carr comes to visit him at the pub. Jane and her gang do not want Mary to leave London, and so they appoint Sugar to come up with a plan to somehow stop her. Sugar does take advantage of the one major point of contention between Mary and Hezekiah, and he suddenly turns friendly towards Hezekiah in the end.

Do Hezekiah and Mary leave London together?

In A Thousand Blows’ ending, Mary Carr plans to leave London for the United States, together with Hezekiah Moscow, and she informs him of the same. Not only does Mary genuinely want to stay with Hezekiah, but his participation in this plan is also important because he would be bringing the money required for the trip. As Hezekiah enters the boxing tournament and is expected to win it by defeating the American boxer in the final round, Mary asks him to bring the prize money and use it to escape. In the end, Hezekiah does manage to win, although his blows result in the death of the opponent in the ring. The prejudiced white decision makers, who simply cannot accept the fact that a Black man has defeated one of their own, that too in such an overwhelming manner, quickly rule the final to be suspended, without any result.

Before the situation gets any more tense, Mary and Hezekiah escape the place with the help of the Black socialite, Victoria Davies, and they come to their usual pub to prepare for their escape. Here, Sugar Goodson pours Hezekiah a drink, acting friendly and remorseful for his previous actions, and then gives him the worst possible news—that Mary knows who had killed his best friend, Alec Munroe. This creates an immense misunderstanding, just as Sugar and Jane had planned, and Hezekiah starts to believe that Mary was the one who had ordered the hit on Alec, possibly to ensure that Alec would not be able to warn him against acting on Mary’s plans. Thus, in season 1’s ending, Hezekiah refuses to go with Mary or even be associated with her in any way. This ending surely suggests that neither of them is able to leave London, as Hezekiah wants to find his friend’s killers first, and Mary is significantly dependent on the boxer’s money in order to carve her escape from the country.

What to expect from Season 2?

A Thousand Blows season 1 does not only end with a typical “To be continued…”, but it also presents a brief teaser for the next season, which appears to have already been shot. The teaser shows Hezekiah’s continued efforts in the boxing ring, meaning that the series will focus on the emerging sport of boxing as much as in the first season, if not more. Having conquered the East End area of London, Hezekiah will now participate in boxing competitions in other parts of the city. He had mentioned that his dream was to become the best boxer in the country and be the first Black man to reach this distinction, and he will continue working towards achieving this goal.

The emergence of a different criminal gang is also teased, although it might be the Male Elephants as well, who create massive disruption in the city while executing heists. Treacle Goodson’s teenage son, who had actually been the closest to Sugar, will probably get involved in violent crimes as well. The teaser briefly shows Alice Diamond in grand attire, possibly because she will become the new leader of the Forty Elephants, which is actually what happened in real history as well. A reunion between Sugar and Treacle is possible, or at least, Sugar will help out his younger brother in some way. Mary Carr will also be present throughout season 2, as she is seen in all her glory in the teaser, while Hezekiah will finally take up arms and possibly join a gang to fight against societal injustice. Whether their love story reaches any resolution will be interesting to see, while A Thousand Blows season 2 promises to be an equally thrilling and entertaining watch.

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