Trollheart

FAMILY

There are several disparate and divergent meanings of the concept in this episode. We have seen already that the gang all have family of course: mothers, brothers, sisters, etc, and that in some ways, even the criminal gang themselves are a kind of family, albeit probably the most dysfunctional one you could come across. There's no loyalty, there's no support, there's no common ground except when it serves the ends of the gang, or the individual. There is no love lost. (I've always found that be an odd phrase. Surely if there is no love lost, there is plenty of love? In fact, surely in a relationship that is not working love is lost, and if everything is fine there is no love lost, so that the phrase seems to make no real sense to me. But I digress.)

Here however we see the different ways in which each of the criminal gang members regards their family. Darren of course protects Mary, and she tries to protect him. Nidge admits ––– quite happily ––– that he cares for nobody (other than himself of course) apart from his son, Warren. Not even his girlfriend, later to be his wife. He tells Darren that he loves her, but he doesn't care about her. How he manages to separate the two is unclear to me, but there it is. John Boy ––– the one you would perhaps assume to be completely cut off from family ––– keeps an odd connection with his dead brother, Huey, even believing that he is seeing his ghost at night, and also thinks the world of his own living daughter, Kayleigh, who as he waits for her arrival is unaware that he is at that moment receiving a phone call to tell him that Stumpy has been killed on his orders.

Before he dies, we see Stumpy at home with his mother. He is paying an installer for a state-of-the-art security system. It is perhaps odd that, given the fact that John Boy has told him to bring all his money to him, Stumpy seems to have no problem in paying the man what must amount to certainly a few grand. Of course, she is his mother, and we'd all do everything we could to protect and make our mothers safe, wouldn't we? Not to mention that Stumpy takes the money to pay the installer from the box he has been hiding in the attic, the money he is supposed to bring to John Boy. Should the boss discover that he has been skimming from what he now considers to be his money, then Stumpy will have a lot more to answer for. Mind you, in a very short time he will be beyond such worries anyway.

Darren has possibly tried to start his own sort of family unit by hooking up with Luke (a poor substitute for Robbie perhaps?) but what will happen if and when Rosie comes back? She doesn't know Luke, wouldn't want to know him, and Darren is likely to abandon the young lad as he seems to have been abandoned all his life.

HONOUR AMONG THIEVES

Once again we see how false this premise is. Truth to tell, nobody really liked Stumpy in the first place. That said, no matter who is the target the other gang members will fall into line behind the boss. If he thinks someone has betrayed them ––– or more specifically, him ––– then he is right. This is no democracy. There are no votes. there can be no dissenting opinion. When a hit is ordered ––– doesn't matter against who ––– it will be carried out. The person on the end of the contract can expect no help from his erstwhile comrades. Nobody is going to stick out their neck for a man who is ––– figuratively and literally ––– dead to the gang. However, there is a certain amount of mean-spiritedness and almost sadism inherent in how Nidge tells Stumpy everything is okay, that John Boy is annoyed but that is all, when he knows full well that John Boy has ordered the man's assassination.

Of course, it's more than Nidge's life ––– never mind his job ––– is worth to warn Stumpy, or to give him any grounds for suspicion that he might be targeted, but there is a certain sense of satisfaction and cruel delight in how Nidge fools him into thinking that this will just blow over. Everybody wants to please the boss; step out of line, and you could be next, so do as you're told, keep your head down and squeeze the trigger if you're told, even if your best friend is in your sights. Better him than you.

And if you can enjoy yourself while doing so, sure why the hell not?

LETTER OF THE LAW

John Boy's lawyer outlines how easy it is for criminals and criminal gangs to circumvent Irish law, sequestering stolen funds in offshore companies; companies set up in foreign territories over which the Irish government and the Irish police have no jurisdiction. Of course, the police forces of these various countries will render any assistance they can to Ireland, once the appropriate paperwork has been completed. But that's the problem: applications for searches, data information, even permission to visit and investigate these countries all take time and more importantly money, which Ireland is not particularly flush with. And without concrete evidence and proof, all they have are suspicions, hints and possibilities, and these by themselves would not be enough to convince a court to furnish a search warrant, or any other legal documents allowing them to investigate these companies, which may after all turn out to be legitimate.

Once again, the letter of the law defeats the spirit of the law and the odds are stacked in favour of the bad guy.

MIRROR, MIRROR

The double life these criminals lead, often without the knowledge ––– or at least acceptance, and in some cases total denial ––– of their loved ones is again shown when John Boy sits in a restaurant, awaiting the arrival of his daughter for dinner. He takes a phone call before she arrives; seems an innocent enough action, and with most people, it would be. But this call is telling John Boy that, on his orders, Stumpy has been killed by Darren. He smiles, hangs up, and turns to greet his daughter, the perfect, ordinary father on the outside, and she has no idea ––– at the moment ––– what sort of person he really is.

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