'This City Is Ours' Focuses on Survival & Succession

Morning in Spain comes with a rooster’s call and harsh sunlight as Episode 3 of This City Is Ours begins. There’s a dead man lying on a lounger, and a phone belonging to another dead man in the adjacent swimming pool. Bring on the high drama, violence, and complex characters!

We know the murderer of gang leader Ronnie Phelan is his second-in-command, Michael Kavanagh. Michael’s partner, Diana, is complicit, having caught him choosing his murder weapon in the kitchen the night before. He gets up, and she feigns sleep at first, and then tells him she wants to go home to Liverpool now. Michael tries to comfort her, but he wants her to stay with him. What he did was necessary. Ronnie was showing signs that he no longer trusted Michael and intended to pass on the crown to his son Jamie, despite his inexperience and (let’s be honest) stupidity. 

At first, it’s just a typical vacation day. Jamie goes downstairs to prepare his baby son’s bottle, joined by his girlfriend Rachel (Laura Aikman). Rachel complains that even though she’s a qualified accountant, Ronnie didn’t want her to work for him. Ronnie’s wife, Elaine, joins them, laughing about Ronnie falling asleep on a lounger, and fills a coffeepot with cold water, planning to wake him.

(But we know she watched the murder take place. Did she identify Michael?)

When Elaine approaches Ronnie, she screams, and within seconds, the atmosphere changes. Michael wakes Banksey and Bobby and takes charge. Ronnie’s body is taken inside to the coolest room in the house, and Michael orders a lockdown. Michael tells them it was an execution, but the security system – such as it is, there are no cameras – seems adequate. Banksey collects his gun, and he and Michael check the gates and perimeter. Diana watches the activity, insisting she fly home alone, and Rachel is already booking tickets. Everyone except Cheryl seems to know that her husband, Davy, is dead, and Rachel knows someone will have to tell her.

Leaving Banksey outside to keep guard, Elaine, Jamie, Bobby, and Michael gather in the room where Ronnie lies. No one is blamed or named, but there’s a consensus that the police will not be involved. Jamie thinks it’s their allies, the Amigos (aka the Colombians), who killed his father, and Banksey believes the killers will reveal themselves in due time, when they’re back in Liverpool. 

Alone, Jamie and his mother discuss who could be responsible for Ronnie’s death. They both suspect Michael, but so far, there’s no plan for retribution. He will be needed and kept under observation on his return home. 

Diana has won her argument and will fly home alone. Michael drives her to the airport and announces that he wants to be with her for the procedure where her fertilized eggs are implanted (unless he’s stopped at the border, in which case an entirely different scenario will take place). Michael takes a detour to meet another vehicle, driven by Ricardo Guzman (Daniel Cerqueira), with his wife Stefania (Yolanda Vazquez). Diana stays in the car while he goes to talk to them. He breaks the news of Ronnie’s death and the loss of the container shipment. Michael proposes that Ricardo arrange a second shipment, returning to the earlier method of the exchange taking place on land, with all profits to go to Ricardo. He protests a little, but Michael insists that he is protecting the markets. Ricardo wants to know if Jamie is planning to take control, and doesn’t he suspect Michael? But Jamie believes the Amigos killed Ronnie, so Ricardo suggests Michael “finish it” – that is, kill Jamie.

Michael tells Diana he trusts the Amigos, and she responds that she understands the situation now. Back at the holiday house, the plans are discussed, and everyone, including Michael, is in tears. Once Ronnie’s remains are safely returned to Liverpool, the family will stage a scenario where he died suddenly at home, and throw a grand funeral. There are a few minor problems, the first being that it’s illegal to smuggle a corpse through Customs, the second being that it’s a long journey home, about 40 hours including a ferry ride, in hot weather. The highly illegal removal of Ronny’s remains is planned with great care, using a freezer in a van, which is then stuffed full of pillows and mattresses.

Back home in Liverpool, Diana is going to bed when Cheryl arrives, screaming at her front door, having learned of her husband Davy’s death. Diana doesn’t respond. She takes the hormone shot that’s necessary for implantation, and then searches her family history online*.

*This is entirely for the viewer’s benefit, but we do learn that when Diana was 15, her mum killed Diana’s abusive father.

The next day, she visits her mother, Lesley Williams (Leanne Best), in jail, and they’re warm and affectionate together. Lesley is safe now and happy, because even a long jail sentence is better than marriage to an abuser. Diana doesn’t share the news of her fertility treatment – understandably, because it is so early in the process - but she does tell her mum she is happy with Michael. Lesley asks if her daughter can memorize a phone number so that they can text and keep in touch. 

Jamie has decided to take justice into his own hands and contacts – wait for it – a couple of associates whose names probably don’t appear on their ID as Bonehead (Bobby Schofield) and Blink (Hebron Tedros). He wants them to come to Spain and to inflict “permanent damage” on the ferry ride home. When he tells them the target is Michael Kavanagh, they are very impressed.

Jamie and Elaine ride together in the car, where she tells him that Ronnie was a natural risk-taker and even shared (selectively) information with police informers, so he must have racked up enemies over the years. Jamie tells Elaine he sorta, a little, suspects Michael for his father’s murder. Meanwhile, in the van, Michael tells Banksey the murderer must be Jamie. But Banksey can only think of how happy Ronnie was at the anniversary party the previous night.

After stopping at a cafe, Elaine wants to be with her husband as they board the ferry, so the drivers exchange places. It reminds her that although she longed to go on a cruise, this was the first time she’d gotten Ronnie onto a ship. Elaine gets nervous when she sees officials pulling cars over, and asks Michael who he thinks murdered Ronnie. He tells her it could have been Davy, which isn’t very convincing. (Is that a phone ringing from the freezer?) 

Once aboard and the vehicles stowed, everyone finds their cabin while Bonehead and Blink, already on the ferry, plan their moves. Jamie, who’s arranged to meet Michael for a drink in the bar, gives them a small bottle of a sedative. But Bonehead and Blink, learning about the family’s special cargo, and not the sharpest knives in the drawer, have noticed the ferry is full of security cameras, and back out at the last moment.

Jamie spikes Michael’s beer and begins a conversation with him about what they should do next. Michael suggests they should get everyone together, and Jamie should look after his mum. Michael gets up to go to the bathroom, where he encounters Bonehead, who he’s seen talking to Jamie earlier, attacks him, and takes his passport. The sedative kicks in, and Michael staggers. He’s just reached his cabin when Jamie finds him and pushes him, now unconscious, inside.

This City Is Ours: A Crime Family Saga continues with new episodes on Thursdays through April 23, 2026.