The Van (Netflix)

The Elders dress in matching attire, a uniform look broken only by Caliban, who sets himself apart in a red version of the garments the rest wear in white.

They carry themselves with rigid formality, leaning on their standing as the syndicate's senior leadership to keep discipline and order across the organization.

Learning that Vicious has been trafficking Red Eye without their blessing, the council summons him with his wife Julia and confronts him over it. Unmoved by his excuses, they demand proof of loyalty and order him to shoot her; he fires, only for the pistol to click empty, and Caliban warns him never to give them cause to doubt him again. In an earlier arrangement the Van, through their lieutenant Stax, had paired Vicious with Fearless to negotiate a diamond cut from the Neptune Cartel's envoy Ka-Ching, a deal that fell apart when Vicious lost his temper and later gunned the envoy down. Their own attempt to salvage it failed too, and though they asked Fearless to put Vicious down, his debt stayed his hand; he wiped out the cartel instead and fled with Julia, after which Caliban praised his son, then struck him for claiming credit he had not earned.

The reckoning comes at Red Dragon headquarters, where a bound and gagged Vicious is delivered by Santiago and Mao Yenrai and condemned for plotting to slaughter the leadership. Mao carries out the execution, but the corpse is Santiago in disguise, the real Vicious having swapped places as Santiago. He guts Mao, cuts down the guards, and slaughters every elder save Caliban, his father. Their final exchange is intimate and bitter: Caliban pleads with him, Vicious refuses to listen and drives a blade into his heart, and with his last breath the old man dismisses him as nothing more than a frightened child.