Does Cico Die in The Gentlemen Season 2? His Tiger Scene Explained

Cico Maldini almost certainly dies in The Gentlemen Season 2 after Marco Moretti turns his own tiger against him, although the episode stops just short of showing Cico’s corpse. The attack is not random. Cico has secretly manipulated Eddie and Susie into buying a Botticelli by pretending Moretti wants the painting, inflated its price and then arranged for thieves to steal it back. Once Marco discovers that Cico has been using his name to run the scam, he decides to teach him where he belongs in the criminal “food chain.” The tiger attack is clearly staged as Cico’s execution, even though his final moment remains off camera.

Who Is Cico Maldini in The Gentlemen Season 2?

Cico, played by Michele Morrone, is the Italian fixer helping Eddie and Susie establish their operation in Northern Italy. He has the local connections they need, and his relationship with Bella places him close to the wealthy social world through which Eddie is trying to move. Susie acknowledges that Cico helped them gain their foothold in Italy, but Eddie quickly begins to question whether he is reliable enough to remain part of their expansion.

Related: Who Is Joe Green in The Gentlemen Season 2? What Happened to Him?

That suspicion proves justified almost immediately. Cico presents himself as the man who understands Italian criminal politics better than Eddie and Susie do, which gives him considerable influence over their decisions. The problem is that he uses their unfamiliarity with the territory against them. Netflix’s own Season 2 character guide describes Cico as their man on the ground in Italy while explicitly warning that he is not someone who can be trusted.

What Was Cico’s Botticelli Scam?

Cico manufactures the entire crisis surrounding the Botticelli in an attempt to manipulate Eddie and Susie. He convinces them that Marco Moretti has discovered their operation and wants the valuable painting, effectively turning the artwork into the price of keeping their Italian business safe. Eddie and Susie eventually spend £16 million acquiring it, far more than they originally expect to pay.

The story falls apart when they investigate the attempted theft of the painting. They discover that the artwork actually belongs to Cico through the name Gino de Bambi, that the price was artificially driven upward and that Cico hired thieves to steal it after Eddie and Susie bought it. If the plan had worked, Cico would have benefited from the inflated transaction while preventing them from ever delivering the painting to Marco.

The most damaging revelation is that Marco never demanded the Botticelli in the first place. Cico has been using the reputation of a much more powerful criminal to frighten Eddie and Susie into participating in his scheme. By the time they confront him, what initially looked like a dangerous demand from Marco has been exposed as Cico’s own invention.

Why Does Marco Moretti Kill Cico?

Marco punishes Cico because Cico has exploited his name, his reputation and his relationship with Bella for personal gain. When Marco arrives, it becomes clear that Eddie and Susie were effectively the ones who alerted him to the Botticelli situation. Cico did not bring Marco into the arrangement because Marco was never behind it.

For a criminal leader whose authority depends partly on reputation, Cico’s scam is more than a financial trick. He has made people believe Marco issued demands that Marco never made. He has also taken advantage of Marco’s previous tolerance toward him, something Marco interprets as Cico mistaking kindness for weakness.

Bella makes the betrayal more personal. Marco cares about her and knows that what he is about to do to Cico will hurt her, but that connection is not enough to save him. If anything, Cico’s access to Marco’s circle makes his deception more insulting.

Why Does Marco Use the Tiger?

The tiger makes Marco’s warning about the criminal food chain brutally literal. Before the attack, Marco tells Cico that he has failed to understand his position within that hierarchy. He then decides to demonstrate the lesson rather than merely explain it.

That is why the tiger sequence works as more than one of Guy Ritchie’s extravagant gangster flourishes. Cico has spent the episode behaving as though proximity to powerful people makes him powerful too. Marco’s response establishes that borrowing another man’s reputation is not the same as possessing his authority.

Marco’s reaction afterward also makes his intention fairly clear. As Cico suffers inside the enclosure, Marco remarks that Cico has always been messy and treats what is happening as an appropriate end for him. The language frames the attack as an execution, not intimidation designed to scare Cico into behaving better.

Is Cico Definitely Dead After the Tiger Attack?

The safest answer is that Cico is presumed dead rather than visually confirmed dead. We hear the attack, Cico’s screams and his distressed breathing, but the camera never gives viewers an unambiguous shot of his corpse. The episode therefore leaves a tiny technical gap between “the tiger attacks Cico” and “Cico is confirmed dead.”

Narratively, however, there is little ambiguity about what Marco intends. He has discovered a serious betrayal, explicitly discusses Cico’s place in the food chain and describes the tiger attack as a fitting end. Contemporary recap coverage similarly interprets the scene as Marco feeding Cico to the tiger rather than merely injuring him.

So it would be too cautious to describe Cico’s fate as a complete mystery, but slightly too absolute to claim that viewers actually watch him die. The strongest reading is that Marco orders Cico’s execution and the tiger kills him off camera. Unless the series later reveals otherwise, Cico’s Season 2 story ends with his own attempt to manipulate more powerful criminals proving exactly how badly he misunderstood the hierarchy he was trying to exploit.