Trollheart

Season Two, Episode Two

In an attempt to put his finances, ill – gotten gains and assets out of the reach of the CAB, John Boy is advised by his lawyer to set up holding companies in separate territories. As the CAB will not be authorised to fly out to investigate who owns these companies, John boy should be able to access any money that he lodges there without interference from the guards. The only problem is that he will need to be able to lodge the money first before he can use any of it, and it has to be in cash, in order that there is no paper trail. He realises he will need a "lilywhite": someone without a criminal record. Considering the sort of people he hangs around with, this would not seem to be as easy a task as it would appear. But he settles on Tommy's girlfriend, Siobhan, who is very apprehensive, never having done such a thing before, but she knows, as does everyone, you don't say no to John Boy!

While packaging up some drugs, prior to distribution, Nidge goes off to see Fran's wife, leaving Tommy in charge of the operation. John boy has the incredible effrontery and gall to go to see Pat, the lawyer whose child was injured when a fire bomb the gangster ordered deployed against him was thrown at the door, to ask him to send over all relevant files to his new lawyer. Although hatred for the man brims in the eyes of the ex-lawyer, there is fear there too, and though he'd probably like to pull out a gun and shoot the man dead, he will of course do no such thing, and stands staring at the card that has been handed to him as John boy walks away, completely confident that Pat will do what he's been told to do. Darren and Luke ram raid a shop, and steal an ATM machine. From what we can see, this does not seem to be anything to do with John Boy or the gang, but simply an independent enterprise masterminded by Darren, a way to gather some money together so that he can pay John Boy back what he owes him.

Without Nidge there to keep an eye on them, the boys all partake of the drugs, getting hammered and stoned, all apart from Stumpy, who leaves without explanation. (Well, when Tommy asked where he is going, he tells him to fuck off.) Awaking from his drug induced stupor, Tommy staggers outside to be sick. The guys are asleep. It's then that he sees the Guards coming up the stairs, and makes his escape. He doesn't get far though, and is taken into custody along with the other gang members.

John boy is less than pleased: a multi-million euro drug shipment and now the Guards have it. Of course, the boys will say nothing as they are held awaiting the arrival of their brief, but that doesn't really help John boy's bottom line. He will want to know when Nidge was, and why he left Tommy in charge. Nidge, of course, will either have to come up with an alibi, or admit he's been shagging Fran's wife, which is very unlikely.

There's also the issue to be sorted out of who ratted on the guys. Stumpy was the only one to leave, and he did not give any reason why. We did see him DJing at some rave or something, but John Boy is still unimpressed. This was definitely an inside job; someone working in the gang, someone who was involved in the breaking up and packaging of the drugs betrayed them to the guards, and John Boy will not be happy until he knows who, and, more importantly, until that person has been dealt with. He naturally suspects Stumpy, who also naturally pleads his innocence.

As he is now out of pocket thanks to Stumpy's negligence, John Boy orders him to pay him what he can of the money he should have got selling the drugs: it will not come anywhere close to what John Boy has lost, but he will make sure that Stumpy gives him every penny he has saved from his ill-gotten gains. John boy meets his Garda mole, Martin, but can learn nothing as to who might have turned him in. Martin says that security at the hotel saw the gang on CCTV acting suspiciously, and alerted the Guards. John Boy is not convinced: he still believes he has a rat in his pack. Debbie plays with fire, getting intimate with Tommy at John Boy's apartment: as if he's not in enough trouble already. John Boy, for his part, is visiting Fran, to reassure him that a) none of his money was tied up in the drug operation that went wrong and B) he is taking steps to make sure that such a thing does not happen again.

The steps he's taking are of course to have Stumpy killed, but he wants Darren to do it. He's annoyed that Darren is trying to pay back some of the money that he owes him, in order to be free of his hold. However, Darren has history as we know with Stumpy: he nearly put him in hospital at one stage, over what he did to Rosie. That was not sanctioned by John Boy: this is. Darren will have a hard time turning this job down, even if it does mean that he could be free of John Boy's influence if he agrees. Of course, if he doesn't agree, then it could be the end of him.

He doesn't agree though; he knows that Rosie wants him to get out of this line of work, he knows she wouldn't want him killing again. But Nidge finds it hard to believe ––– this is, after all, the guy who could have killed Rosie, who certainly was instrumental in her losing her baby ––– Darren should be delighted to kill him. Darren would be delighted if Stumpy was dead, there's no doubt about that: he just doesn't want to be the one to have to do it. He doesn't want to kill anybody. Nidge, However, makes it clear to him that he has no choice. When John Boy tells you to do something, you do it. There's no middle ground, no grey area: he says jump, you ask how high?

Seeing how the land lies, Darren agrees to be the hitman. He also decides to take Luke along with him, as indeed he does when he drops by the house as Mary is having a mass said for their dead brother. This will prove to be a bad idea: something that will come back to haunt both Mary and Darren in the future. John Boy speaks to Ado, telling him that he knows that he is responsible for the bust; he doesn't believe Ado is the rat ––– he doesn't think he's intelligent enough to actually betray John Boy, much less have the guts to do such a thing ––– but he knows he screwed up. Ado is a junkie, so is Pottsy, his brother. Between the two of them, nobody has to draw John Boy a picture. He tells Ado to do what he's told, say what he's told, if he knows what's good for him.

While Mary was not initially happy that Darren brought home his friend Luke, when her brother explains that the young lad lost his brother himself ––– just disappeared overnight and has been missing now for about a year ––– she softens towards him. Again, this is not a good idea. Having had nobody be kind to him, possibly throughout his life, other than, recently, Darren, Luke reads far too much into Mary's single act of kindness when she smiles and offers to give him an old kettle she has, as he has none to brew his tea. In Luke's mind, this simple act of charity is magnified a million times, and he ascribes all kind of motives towards it. In short, he falls in love ––– or lust ––– with Mary, and believes that she has the same feelings for him, even though there is absolutely no indication of this from Darren's sister. It's the beginning of a one-sided, almost pathological, obsessive relationship that will make Darren sorry he ever saved Luke from Fran's dogs. Luke however goes with him when the hit on Stumpy goes down: it's pretty much a clean hit, and as far as John Boy is concerned, whether Stumpy was a rat or not, a message has been sent. You don't sell out John Boy and live.

QUOTES

John Boy: "How do you know all these things?"
Lawyer: "Because I did me Leaving Cert, and you didn't."
(The Leaving Certificate: the final examination upon leaving school here in Ireland. Supposedly, the exam that gets you your job, or that secures you a place in higher education, if you wish to go that way. Basically, A-levels in England, graduation from high school in US I guess. The lawyer is having a dig at John Boy here: never a great idea when you're dealing with a psycho like John Boy. What he's saying in effect is that he's smarter than John Boy ––– or at least, better educated than him. This probably can't be disputed by the gangster, but he certainly doesn't like being made to look small, or less intelligent. But he needs the pen pusher, seeing as what happened to his previous lawyer so for the moment lets the slur pass; however you can be certain he is filing it away for future reference: John Boy does not forget, nor does he forgive, especially insults, especially personal insults against him.)

Luke: "This is bullshit! What's the point in having a hole-in-the-wall if there's fuck-all money in it?"
Darren: "I suppose in case they get robbed?"
(This is an example of the black humour Carolan uses throughout the series. There's another just before this, as the two of them ram raid the shop from which they rob the ATM machine, there's a sign on the wall saying "Buy one get one free!" To gangsters like Darren, John Boy, Nidge and their ilk, everything is free…)

Vicky (as Nidge adnires her new false breasts): “Don’t be messin’ at me nipples: they don’t twist off ya know!”

John Boy (after hitting Stumpy over the head with a bottle): “You’re bleedin’ on me floor.”

John Boy:: "You know what they do to rats down in Mexico? This one rat, last week, they cut off his head, then they cut the face off the head, then they sewed the face ––– all of it, the skin and everything ––– onto a football, and left it in the garden for his kids to play with."
(The disturbing, if not at this point surprising thing about this story ––– which we will assume is made up ––– although it may be true, or based on truth ––– is that while telling it, rather than seeming repulsed by it, John Boy gives the impression that this is a very clever thing to do, that he wishes he had thought of it, and that it is certainly one way to deal with a betrayer or traitor. He even has a little grin on his face, a little smirk when he thinks about the kids finding the face of their father on the football in the garden. Of course, we know the guy's a total psycho, but this shows us the depths John Boy is prepared ––– in theory ––– to sink to. In the last series, he told Darren he was not an animal: if he finds the sort of thing funny, even commendable, that surely is not the case.)

John Boy: "And don't run, like a rat: cos if you do run, whose gonna look after your ma?"
(Again, contrary to what he told Darren last series, it seems John Boy has no problem in going after defenceless family members in pursuit either of the money he's owed or just purely revenge. He makes this clear to Stumpy: if he has to, he will take his fury out on Stumpy's mother. The fact that he probably knows his mother, has probably spoken to her, may have offered her a lift, and that she probably thinks he's a very nice man, will not stop them from hurting her, possibly having her killed, if it serves his purposes.)


Mary: "You're not cut out for this kind of life".
(How Right she is. Darren is something of an anomaly in the gangster world: a man with a heart. Sure, Nidge has a family he would do almost anything to protect, John Boy, in his own way, loved Huey when he was alive. And each of the gangsters has their own connection to various people ––– Stumpy to his mother, Tommy to his girlfriend, ––– but in the final analysis, if it comes down to it, each of them will put their freedom and their own personal wealth before the people they love. Darren is different. As Mary says, he really is not cut out for the life of a gangster, illustrated in his reluctance to shoot Stumpy, even though he has wished the man dead.

For Darren it's more he's there because he has to be but he doesn't want this life. In fact, in the very beginning of the series he only came back from Spain because his brother was getting out of jail, and the heat had died down. He didn't really intend to work for John Boy again, that just happened. Now, because he owes money to John Boy, he is forced to work with him again, another deal with the devil. If he could get out of this life he would. He wants a life with Rosie, life without crime, like a real job and real family. But this is real life (well it's not, it's a series ––– but that reflects real-life) and we all know there will be no happy ending for people like Darren.)


Darren: "I hate that Huey is buried here, in the same ground as him."
Mary: "Well he's dead now, so fuck him."
(It must indeed be galling; the man who killed his brother sharing the same consecrated ground as Robbie. Darren must wonder, at times, why the very ground doesn't split, fire reaching up from Huey's grave, dark hands grasping him and pulling him down into hell. Not that Robbie was any saint: but there is a terrible symmetry about the murder and murdered lying in the same cemetery.)

Nidge: "I'll be straight up with you: I don't give a shit about anyone. I don't give a shit Except for Warren. The rest, I don't care. Not even Trish. I mean, I love her but I don't give a shit. I'll do whatever the fuck it is have to do. I don't care; whatever it is I'll get on with it and do it. There is no way out for you in this, Darren; straight up, there's no way out. I wouldn't bullshit you. You have to do this."
(Darren's situation encapsulated in a nutshell. He might fool himself into thinking that he has a choice, but really he doesn't. When John Boy wants something done, it's expected to be done, no questions asked. The people he asks ––– orders in fact ––– carry out his dirty work are not supposed to question, and they're certainly not supposed to refuse orders. Nidge knows that John Boy is doing this to Darren because he doesn't like him, because he disobeyed him previously, and because he knows that Darren is trying to get out from under his shadow, only being held there at the moment by exigency of the money he owes back. To some degree, there's a parallel here with the Godfather movie: the line "I keep trying to get out, they keep dragging me back in" has special significance for Darren here.

This small callous speech also gives us an insight into what Nidge, the family man on the outside, is really like, and how much he cares about his soon-to-be wife. If someone was shooting at him, and Nidge had Trish with him he would have no qualms about using her as a human shield.)

Tommy: "I don't know what else I could have done."
Siobhan: "You could have said no."
(A course of action that would never have occurred to Tommy, or indeed any of the gang members. John Boy is just a man you do not say no to. He wants something, he gets it. He asks you to do something, you do it. There are no questions asked, there are no excuses, and there is never, ever any backing out. Siobhan may not realise this, but she does know Tommy is in a tight spot, and so she will help him out, as she's been asked to. But something of the regard she has for her boyfriend is gone from her eyes now: had he stood up to John Boy, she would have thought a lot more of him. Of course, that would have resulted in Tommy getting very badly hurt, and possibly worse. Would that have been better than toeing the line as a good little footsoldier?)


The rise and fall of a gang boss

No matter how big you are, no matter how powerful, respected, feared a leader you are, everybody falls eventually. From Hitler to Pol Pot, from bin Laden to Bush, or, to bring it down closer to our level, from Eamon Dunne to the General, tyrants all have one thing in common: eventually, someone takes them down. More often than not, it's someone from within their inner circle, betrayal of the worst kind. Occasionally, though, it's their own hubris which is their undoing. Here, as John Boy's criminal enterprise begins to unravel slowly, I'll be charting his descent into paranoia, borderline madness and eventual defeat.

There seems to be nobody he can trust now. With his brother gone, John Boy feels that everyone is a potential traitor, a rat, a betrayer. Like many despots, like many a gang boss, like many a Mafia godfather, he begins to see conspiracy in the shadows, knives in the dark, people whispering about him, people plotting against him. The first to fall under suspicion is of course Stumpy: no matter what the guy says, John Boy suspects that he is the one who sold them out to the cops. Though he has a plausible alibi --- surely he was seen at the rave --- there's nothing to say he couldn't have made a phone call before he went to the DJ job.

And then there's Darren. John Boy knows that the younger lad is only working for him to pay him off: what better way to erase that debt than to arrange to have the gang boss locked up? Perhaps he was the one? But then, did he know about the operation? He even starts to suspect his right hand: when Nidge reports back to him with all the information he wanted he sneers that the foot soldier is coming up in the world: getting reports, making phone calls, arranging lawyers. It's clear he sees a competitor for his crown, and he will certainly not yield that easily.

The only problem with suspecting everybody around you is that you end up having nobody you can trust, and eventually, in the end, one of your suspicions will be true; perhaps then the one or ones that you falsely suspected could have been the ones to help you if you had trusted them.

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