McMafia episode 2 recap: Alex enters the criminal underworld while Semiyon shows his darker side

We discovered Semiyon’s involvement in human trafficking

The episode opened with a young Russian woman named Lyudmilla arriving in Cairo with the intention of working as a beautician, only to find out – too little too late – that she was about to be kidnapped by a human trafficking ring.

Lyudmilla and a few other girls exchanged hands between various smugglers across the Egyptian-Israeli border, and some were raped and killed along the way.

On their arrival in Israel, Semiyon’s assistant Tanya picked out Lyudmilla as the girl she wanted to take to her boss, so he could use her to entertain his business associates.

Semiyon and Alex set their sights on Mumbai

Semiyon met up with an associate in Mumbai, Dilly, to discuss how to challenge Benny Chopra’s control of the main port.

Dilly said he would need a lot of cash to sabotage Benny – i.e. bribe the port workers to seize his cargo, etc – so Semiyon asked Alex to transfer Dilly the money through a complicated and untraceable offshore route, via the Cayman Islands.

Working with the Czechs

On a mission to find an ally who would help he and Alex challenge Vadim’s smuggling antics in the country, Semiyon took a trip to Prague.

There, he met with Reznik, the bullish (but not very bright) head of a counterfeit operation. Reznik, who stole £5 million from Semiyon, proved too difficult and unreliable to do business with.

When Alex went to join Semiyon in Prague to try and bring Reznik around, he realised that his deputy – and former policeman – Benes might make a sharper business partner.

Alex was reluctant to go to Prague after finding it tougher and tougher to hide his business activity from his girlfriend Rebecca and his colleagues. But in spite of his initial reluctance to get involved, he found himself saying to Benes that he wanted to work with him instead of Reznik.

Alex got a double shock

When he got back to London, Alex had two nasty shocks. First of all, he found out that his alcoholic father had attempted suicide, because he couldn't cope with his grief about Boris's death any longer.

Alex then made a second disturbing discovery: that his brief words with Benes had led to the killing of Reznik who was thrown over his own balcony, plunging to his death. With Reznik's blood on his hands, there was no turning back: Alex and Semiyon were going into business with the Czechs...

This article was originally published in December 2017