Season One, Episode Four (Finale)
Rosie has been released from hospital, but has of course lost her baby. She's leaving Ireland, going to Britain to get away from everything, and Darren offers to go with her, but he's a reminder of her past life and she wants to leave all that behind. She's of course devastated by the loss of her unborn child, and is a shell of the woman Darren knew only a few days before. She leaves Darren in no doubt though that she wants Stumpy to pay for what he has done. "I want him to feel pain" she tells him.
He does. Darren finds him and beats the crap out of him. When he gets back to Mary's though she's furious at him for keeping a gun in her house, where her kids could find it. She's also terrified that she could in fact lose her children if it was seen that she had allowed firearms to be kept on the premises. She tells Darren he has to leave. Nidge has to face the prospect of choosing between having Darren --- who is out of favour with the gang now for his attack on Stumpy --- or John Boy and the others at the wedding. It's no choice really: Darren is Mary's brother and she's one of the bridesmaids, so there's no way he can prevent him from coming. John Boy makes it clear that he's unhappy about it, while at the same time pretending he doesn't care, making Nidge feel that he has just insulted the gang leader, chosen Darren over him.
Nidge of course is quick to capitalise on the situation, telling Trish that he laid down the law, which really impresses her as she never thought he would stand up to the likes of John Boy and Huey. Which, of course, he didn't and wouldn't. John Boy meanwhile pays Elmo to kill Darren, but he makes a mess of it and gets shot himself. Darren now knows the gangland boss is after him. John Boy and Huey get high and as they do become more and more agitated about being excluded from the wedding. John Boy tells Huey that everything Nidge has, including Trish, he has because John Boy gave it to him. He
made him, and the "Nidge Weasel" has the effrontery to ban them from the wedding! Well **** that: they're going!
Their arrival at the wedding is not welcome, which is what the two brothers had expected and the impression that they had intended, but Nidge does the only thing he can, puts a brave face on it. Talking to him, John Boy tells him it's time to choose his side. Not only did Darren go after Stumpy, but he also put Elmo in the hospital and he wants Huey dead. When Darren sees the two of them he has to restrain himself, but it's obvious something is going to happen. Trish of course is terrified trouble is going to break out, but John Boy smirks and tells her not to worry, that he wouldn't ruin her big day. She doesn't look entirely convinced.
As the night winds down and John Boy and Huey take their leave, the psycho has a few parting words, letting Mary know that while she was waiting for Tommie to bring her cigarettes he was screwing a younger girl upstairs, and Trish that her new husband was partaking of the local whores in Prague on his stag night. Trish flies into a rage, telling Nidge not to come near her and claiming her wedding has been ruined. John Boy talks to Darren, warns him he needs to get out of Ireland before he pays for a hundred hits on him, one of which will get him.
As Huey is leaving a massage parlour the next day a car comes racing at him and he legs it, thinking it's Darren come to get him, but it turns out it's just some little punk joyrider. He finally gets his comeuppance though when, messing with his gun pointing it at Elmo, having taken out all the bullets he has forgotten about the one in the chamber. Sticking the gun to his head and laughing, thinking he'll scare Elmo and his driver, he pulls the trigger and the world has one less evil psycho in it. Huey has swung his last cueball-filled sock.
Darren feels a little cheated, but is no doubt glad Huey is dead. Nidge hopes he will now bury the hatchet with John Boy, and the gang can go back to business. For the sake of Mary and the kids, Darren agrees and goes to meet John Boy at the wake. He tells him he's going to London, but receives John Boy's assurance word that Mary and her children will be okay. They part with a handshake, but as Darren walks away a car comes up the road, a shot is fired and he falls to the ground. As the car passes his prone body we see Stumpy looking out of the window. Perhaps John Boy is not as forgiving as it seemed he was. Or perhaps this is all his own doing.
QUOTES
Nidge (giving the cops at the wedding the finger): "Lazy bastards! Should be out arrestin' those wankers in the banks instead of harrassin' ordinary people!"
John Boy: "If it wasn't for me Nidge'd be gettin' married in some gaffe near the Red Cow Roundabout! They'd be havin' chips for their tea! Red Cow Roundabout for Nidge and then a caravan in Cortown for to do the dirty business with his dirtbird missus."
Huey: "Think Nidge would've got Trish if he had no money?"
John Boy: "No money? No he wouldn't! And I
gave him that money! No money, no honey!"
John Boy: "Do you seriously think that you can just go on, moochin' around town after what you done?"
Darren: "Yeah well, next time I'll just stand there like a spare tool for your brother. Maybe put a big fat sign on my head so that he can't miss."
John Boy: "You can do what you want, but my advice to you is to forget about Huey."
Darren: "He killed Robbie."
John Boy: "You don't know that."
Darren: "What do I need: proof?"
John Boy: "Well he's my brother, so you can say whatever you want, but I'll tell you this: I could pay a hundred seventeen year old crackerjacks ten grand each to come and hunt you, day and night, hundred grand to the winner. You wouldn't last twenty-four hours. See, that's the kind of money I have. Now you need to get out, you need to get back to Spain, London, whatever. I hear Stumpy's missus is over there so if that's your thing..."
FAMILY
Worried about the possible trouble her fiance's mates might cause at the wedding, Trish asks Nidge not to invite them, but he says he couldn't do that. What he means, of course, is that he wouldn't dare slight his gang buddies like that. As we've seen, they're all friends but only when it suits them and they would certainly have no problem turning on Nidge if they thought they were being snubbed.
MIRROR, MIRROR
Although Nidge and Trish have a lavish wedding, you can see the signs of gangland all over it. First there's the Guards watching with interest, no doubt noting who attends and what they do. Then there's the unseemly display as the wedding party dance down the aisle in the church. I mean, dance at the reception certainly, but have a little respect for the house of God, even if you don't believe in him. What a class act!
After the "John Boy invasion" Trish sees how her husband's "work" impacts on every aspect of their lives and she hates it, however Nidge points out, in a rather more polite way than John Boy did to Huey earlier, that if it wasn't for his "work" they wouldn't have been able to afford the big lavish wedding. But are some prices too high?
FRAGMENTATION
Following on from the "Honour among thieves" section, this part will detail the breakdown and splitting of the gang, as each begins to grow more suspicious of the other, and the gang splits essentially into two factions, one loyal to John Boy and one taking Darren's side, though some will try to keep a foot in both camps. We see the first signs of that fragmentation here, when Darren goes against John Boy's orders and attacks Stumpy, whereafter he is
persona non grata in the gang, though some of the others still hang with him, and John Boy takes out a contract on his life. Here too we see his growing restlessness and distrust of Nidge, whose choice of Darren over him as a wedding guest --- even though it was not a choice he could avoid --- irks him to the extent that he wonders if Nidge should even remain part of the gang?
In point of fact, the gang is beginning to split along these lines: John Boy and Huey on one side, Nidge, Darren and Tommie on the other, though Nidge will be one of those who tries to placate both sides, as indeed will Tommie.
HONOUR AMONG THIEVES?
Yeah, right, as I've said before. The only loyalty these guys have is to themselves and their pockets. When Elmo is given a chance by John Boy to make some easy money by taking out Darren, he jumps at the chance. The hit goes wrong though and Elmo ends up shot in the stomach by Darren. When he reaches in to the crashed car and takes off the balaclava, sees who's underneath it he swears "Ah, Elmo!" in the sort of tone that says, why you? Rather amazingly, perhaps a little touchingly, he calls an ambulance for Elmo, tells him he'll be all right.
ONE CUEBALL SHORT OF A FRAME (The Final Shot)
Huey's great idea for getting rid of Darren, after the Elmo hit has gone bellyup, is to strike at the wedding. He says "He won't be expectin' that! It'll be pissin' on Nidge's day but, ya know, he'll get over it." He really thinks that a hit in public at a wedding with hundreds of witnesses, not to mention a strong Garda presence, is the way to go.
Another great idea: "We should firebomb the sister's place!" That's Mary of course, and the fact that she has kids makes absolutely no impression on the little lunatic. He probably doesn't know, but if he does, he doesn't care. He's completely without any sort of moral compass or human compassion, the perfect foil for John Boy, who has these things, but ignores and treats them with contempt. He sees them as weaknesses, whereas Huey doesn't even recognise them for what they are.
When he hears that Elmo may have to wear a colostomy bag due to his wound, he cracks up and thinks it's the funniest thing he has ever heard. Unable to pass up the chance to hassle JP he heads to the garage again, demanding to know where Tommie is, but when he gets no satisfaction he pulls a gun on JP, and is both delighted and disgusted when the young guy starts crying. He stalks off, happy to have once again asserted his dominance over a far weaker person.
Fate has the last laugh though, as his belief in his own invincibility lets him down when he plays with his gun but forgets there's a bullet left in the chamber after he thinks he's emptied them all out. John Boy's brother is finally on his way to Hell, and god help the devil, is all I can say! The last words he hears as his lifeblood leaks out over the ground are the driver asking Elmo if he should call an ambulance, and Elmo, staring down at the little scumbag, snarling "No. **** him."
Very fitting too. Apart from his brother, Huey would never have met anyone who would have called him a friend. Most people lived in fear of him, and there will be few even in the gang now who will mourn his passing. Oh, publicly they'll comfort John Boy and say what a waste, what a loss, but few if any will think in their heads anything else than that the little bastard finally got what was coming to him. And when Elmo knows that swift action could maybe --- maybe -- save Huey, he remembers how he laughed at his wound, how he treated him, as he treated everyone, and decides to let him die.