Mobland Season 2 Showcases The Dark Side Of A Star Trek Legend

Spoilers follow.

If there's a TV show filled with more nasty pieces of work than "Mobland" I haven't seen it. Jez Butterworth and Ronan Bennett's crime drama is crammed with some of the most watchable reprobates on TV, and the show seems to relish in revealing just how depraved these individuals, from whom we simply cannot turn away, really are. Now, they've given us a new twisted ghoul of a character in the form of an Irish gangster known only as Medusa who's played by "Star Trek" star Colm Meaney. For those who know him from his time on the Enterprise, this is one heck of a switch up.

The Irish actor most famously played Chief Petty Officer Miles O'Brien on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" before Meaney was convinced to become a main cast member on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." O'Brien was a down-to-earth, blue-collar family man who started out as the head transporter operator for the USS Enterprise-D before being promoted to chief of operations by the start of "Deep Space Nine." Hailing from Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland, O'Brien was a salt of the earth type who, as Meaney put it in a 2009 interview with Bullz-Eye, possessed "a terrific kind of humanity."

If that's the only role in which you've seen Meaney, or indeed if you recently caught him as kindly grocery store owner Ethan Mack in the comedy drama "Remarkably Bright Creatures" (one of the best Netflix movies of 2026) you'll surely be nothing less than appalled at what the "MobLand" writers have done with him. Nobody enters the world of the Harrigan family without being instantly tainted by their depravity, and that's no different with Meaney's Medusa.

Colm Meaney doesn't think he'll play Miles O'Brien again, which considering what his character endured is probably for the best. "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" often revelled in putting O'Brien through some sort of harrowing psychological ordeal. But in "MobLand" Season 2, Episode 5, "Birdland," Meaney's character is the one doling out the misery.

Beyond knowing he's some sort of Irish thug with whom Maeve Harrigan (Helen Mirren) has a gripe, we don't know too much about "Medusa." "Birdland" does, however, reveal why Maeve sent Eddie Harrigan (Anson Boon) to Ireland. It seems she wants him to "bring [her] the head of Medusa." When she first tells Eddie as much over the phone, we don't have enough information to know what she's talking about. But when Eddie and girlfriend Gina Da Souza (Teddie Allen) arrive at a pub in County Kerry, we suddenly realize what Maeve has been planning. Turns out Medusa is an Irish thug of some sort, and Maeve wants to test Eddie by seeing if he'll kill the old boy.

County Kerry is, of course, the birthplace of Miles O'Brien, so in a way it's only right that Colm Meaney play the Irish mark whom Maeve wants dead. This Kerry local, however, possesses none of O'Brien's humanity. Medusa rocks up at the pub and regales his mates with some vulgar stories. Evidently, he once made somebody drink a "pint glass of stone-cold worthless pony spunk" before taking him "out back" and putting a "bullet in his head." Delightful. Already, then, we want to see this repulsive reptile of a man get what he deserves, but "MobLand" isn't finished letting us know just how downright debased Medusa actually is.

After Eddie Harrigan leaves the pub, he tails Medusa and breaks into his home to pull off the hit. But Colm Meaney's gangster catches him and sends him flying down a set of stairs. When we next see Eddie, he's sitting in a chair opposite Medusa, who proceeds to tell the Harrigan scion where he got his nickname. "I'm in concrete," he informs Eddie. "So, you double-cross me, you end up in a bridge support or a drainage chamber." The man just gets more and more captivating as "Birdland" goes on. "I admit, it's not a very accurate alias," he continues. "A better one would be 'depraved, deranged, dangerously unsupervised sadist.'"

Medusa then proceeds to demonstrate why such a description is accurate by ordering Eddie to "take of his slacks" and bend over. Meanwhile, Meaney's mobster is warming a fire poker which he seemingly intends to insert into Eddie's nether regions. Thankfully, Gina Da Souza arrives just at the moment of truth, distracting Medusa before her father, Tom Hardy's Harry Da Souza, shows up to put a bullet in Medusa and his clan of reprobates.

Yes, while Meaney was close to being the "Star Trek" actor with the most appearances, he doesn't stick around for long in "MobLand," which, frankly, is a bit of a letdown. Meaney was clearly having a grand old time playing such a sick villain, and it would have been great to discover what Maeve had against him. Perhaps he could have returned in future episodes to face off against the Harrigans? Alas, he doesn't make it out of "Birdland" alive.