Does Maeve die in MobLand? There's a body in Conrad's lake and two episodes left

MobLand season 2 has been rolling out weekly on Paramount+ since September 18, and episode 8, "We Don't Talk Anymore," ended on November 6 with a corpse, chained and weighted, at the bottom of the lake on Conrad Harrigan's Cotswolds estate. Two episodes are left: "Nervous Breakdown" arrives November 13, and the finale lands November 20. The show didn't show the face.

Here's what episode 8 actually tells us about Maeve, and about whoever's down there.

Maeve is alive and still scheming

Helen Mirren's Maeve gets some of episode 8's nastiest scenes, which is a good sign for her pulse. She corners Eddie (Anson Boon) in the sauna, forces him to kneel and apologize, and records the whole thing to keep him in line. She keeps pushing Gina (Teddie Allen) to stage a suicide attempt so Harry (Tom Hardy) will walk away from the family. And when Kevin (Paddy Considine) falls apart outside the house, she watches with a knowing smile.

That's a woman running the board, not one about to be dropped into a lake. Maeve also has an unfinished thread. Earlier this season, Conrad (Pierce Brosnan) found antifreeze stashed among her things. Maeve says it was meant for Seraphina, and the show still hasn't confirmed it.

Maeve Harrigan spent episode 8 blackmailing her grandson and coaching a teenager through a fake suicide. Of everyone at the estate, she's the least likely to end up underwater.

Whose body is in the lake?

The strongest candidate is JoJo, one of Frankie Cooper's soldiers. JoJo ended up a prisoner of the Harrigans, and Harry killed him and told Conrad he'd died of his injuries. The show never said what happened to the body.

The reveal comes right after Colin Tattersall (Toby Jones), the corrupt former detective, tells suspended Detective Kavanagh that a confidential source has evidence against the Harrigans tied to something hidden on their Cotswolds estate. Episode 8 doesn't say who the source is. The camera finds the body while Eddie is skipping stones across the water, which is about as close as MobLand gets to subtle.

Don't miss: MobLand: is Bella's death real, or was Frankie's "Bang" a bluff?

Who's actually in danger

The body isn't the only threat. Episode 8 stacks up a lot of people with reasons to kill a Harrigan:

• Mad Dog O'Connor: Kelly O'Connor is out after 20 years for murder, and he's just buried his father, Colm. Security footage shows Eddie and Gina following Colm before he died.
• Frankie Cooper: Harry had Michael Cooper killed inside Newgate prison, and Frankie refuses any settlement.
• Tattersall: He now has a source and a location.

Gina is the obvious one to worry about, given that her face is on that footage. Mirren had already warned in ScreenRant's season 2 preview that Maeve was misreading her.

"I think she severely misunderstands or underestimates Gina's character."

— Helen Mirren, on Maeve and Gina, to ScreenRant

The answer Paramount+ already gave

There's one more reason to bet on Maeve. Paramount+ renewed MobLand for season 3 on September 3, two weeks before season 2 premiered, and the announcement named three stars coming back: Hardy, Brosnan and Mirren, TVLine reported.

That doesn't make Maeve bulletproof for the next two weeks. It does mean Paramount+ told everyone in September that Helen Mirren is coming back for season 3, and Maeve Harrigan isn't the kind of character who needs flashbacks to stay in the story.

Previously we wrote: Why did Sam kill the priest in Black Doves? The show saves that answer for his last walk with Reed