IT HAS TO be said, there aren’t too many laughs in this year’s series of Love/Hate.
Things are looking pretty bleak for the Nidge weasel, and it’s hard to imagine how he can keep things going with the cops edging in.
Here’s how things unfolded in last night’s episode, moment by moment.
A dog eat dog world
We start the episode up the mountain where Fran is staging a dog fight. You’d swear Stuart Carolan wanted to have a fight with the animal rights people. First there was the cat, then the horse last week, and now this.
Fran and Nidge smooth things over, Fran says he’s been smoking a lot of drugs and it’s been making him paranoid. He’s not the only one, wha?
Nidge is sneezing away and says he’s coming down with an awful dose.
An awful dose
He is and all, and poor Trish spends the next several days looking after him.
Meanwhile, poor auld Tommy is in a bad way, spending his days smoking and staring into space.
Siobhan is clearly at her wits end, and who could blame her. She can’t be more than 20, and she’s now the sole carer of a baby and a grown man.
Meanwhile, back at the dentist
Fran is checking in with Andrew about the shipment of Lidocaine they have coming in, and also looking for a date with his dental hygienist (not the one Andrew’s rowing with, another one).
Fran forces Andrew to give him her number, and they make the arrangements while he assures Andrew that everything’s going to be fine.
Andrew is a right plonker, isn’t he?
UH OH
Ann Marie, aka Andrew’s spurned dental hygienist, wasn’t in work because she got the sack, and now she’s down at the garda station telling them about the shady characters that have been coming in and out.
Noelie’s in for it
Fran is really in a rage over his teeth, and while he makes the final arranagements for the Lidocaine run he asks Deano if he has any connections in the Joy who could take care of him.
Meanwhile, with the IRA
They’re panicking because Nidge seems to have disappeared, and Danno wants Lizzie to hurry it bleedin’ up.
Lizzie reminds him that this is personal for her too, and they go on their way.
Fran loses it
Fran’s up the mountains, as usual, when Deano pops up. Except Fran doesn’t seem to get that it’s Deano and almost shoots him dead.
He has been smoking a lot of drugs. And drinking poitín (blech).
Poor Tommy
Siobhan finds Tommy lying on the floor crying, and he finally takes the opportunity to talk about how he’s feeling.
It’s long and somewhat existential but at the same time you know what he’s saying.
Essentially, he knows he’s himself, but he knows he’s not who he was and sometimes he feels like he’s a different person because of the brain stuff.
It’s awfully sad.
Swords a blazin’
The man-child collects Lizzie in a car which she insists on driving because he ‘looks like he’s bleedin’ twelve’. She’s not wrong.
They head to Nidge’s to see if he’s there.
He is of course, and he spots them on the way in and grabs his trusty samarai sword.
Of course.
We’re treated to a few tense minutes as Lizzie and the man-child wander around the house, and at one point we think he might be fecked, but as it turns out it’s just Nidge’s trainer collection that grabs their attention.
He likes his trainers, y’see.
They look around the whole house as Nidge cowers under Warren’s bed, sword in hand.
Eventually, they go.
Lizzie loses it
A frustrated Lizzie is on her way back with the man-child when they rear end the car in front of them.
The driver of the car is understandably upset, but Lizzie feels he’s being aggressive and warns him to stop.
He doesn’t, so she smashes him over the head several times with a crow bar. It’s not pleasant.
Rather than running away, she sits and waits for the Gardai.
Why does she wait? Does she want to be caught? Has she had enough? Or is she just losing it?
Anyway, she gets arrested.
Back in the man-child’s
The man-child arrives back at his nan’s (God love that poor woman she is totally oblivious) to deposit the gun, but Elmo and the Russian are waiting outside. Nidge isn’t exactly happy about his home visit.
They go to his door and reef him out while his nan says ‘Jee-eee-sus, what’s da’?’
Poor, oblivious nan. She calls the police.
The man-child meets Nidge
In a derelict flat, the man-child and Nidge come face to face.
Nidge wants to know who’s after him, but the man-child says he isn’t a rat and he’s not going to say.
It’s not long before the Gardai arrive and they have to run for it.
Nidge is fierce fast, so he is.
The turning
The Gardai catch them anyway, but the man-child says there’s nothing wrong, it was just him and his mates messing, y’see?
The Garda is clearing ragin’ but what can he do? This lad is a clever clogs, after all.
Nidge has a chat with him and two things become clear. One, this lad doesn’t care who he works for as long as the money is right, and two, Nidge likes the cut of his jib.
It’s all change ’round these parts. Nidge tells him if he decides he wants to share the information about who’s out to get him then he should call around.
Spy Games
The Gardai have a firm eye on Nidge’s brothel, and they’ve got technology on their side.
They wait for him to arrive and bug his car.
Poor middle class Una
Andrew’s wife Una is in an absolute rage because Andrew was supposed to take the kids for the weekend and now he’s saying he can’t.
Andrew explains that he’s got a very important business deal happening, and it could be his saviour.
Can he actually be stupid enough to think that this is going to work out? Really?
Snared
Little does he know that the cops are listening to Nidge and Fran talk about their plan as he speaks.
The bug in Nidge’s car is working a treat, and now you have to think that Andrew’s screwed.
The plan
Now that the cops are abreast of the plan, they have all eyes on the gang and Andrew’s dental supply warehouse.
Moynihan tells the lads what they’re up against.
Fran the man
Fran has figured out what he’s going to do to get back at Noelie and he’s building his team.
He’s going to dig up Noelie’s ma and leave her body in his gaf so he’ll get a fright when he gets home from prison.
Standard.
The man-child cometh
The man-child has come to visit Nidge, and he’s talking.
Nidge is going to give him a job now.
Back in the dental warehouse
The cops are rigging up some bugs and the like in the dental warehouse, but Nidge is on his way (they’re following him on what looks like Google maps, y’see).
They get it done anyway. Poor Nidge can’t catch a break.
In the graveyard
In the graveyard, Fran and the lads successfully dig up Noelie’s ma. Not before Fran does his small toilet on her though.
It’s not nice.
At the warehouse
Down at the warehouse, the shipment of Lidocaine has arrived… all under the watchful eye of the cops of course.
They’re recording everything with various cameras, so this thumbs up from Andrew may be slightly misplaced.
Nidge thinks everything has gone off without a hitch and drives away saying what sound like the most famous last words that anyone has ever famous last worded.
Tiocfaidh ár Lá
Nidge heads off to meet our old pal Tony, the senior IRA man we know from last series.
They drive away together, with Nidge looking slightly nervous.
Meanwhile, Danno is on his own journey, with another woman from ‘the movement’.
She’s got a lovely voice and a lilt and tells Danno she’s on his side.
Nidge, on the other hand, is sitting in some kind of shed, waiting to see what’s coming for him.
As it turns out, all that’s coming for him is a chat and a demand for a cut of the tiger kidnapping money.
Tony isn’t happy about Danno’s messing, and assures Nidge that the order didn’t come from the top.
Things don’t go so well for Danno though. He get’s shot in the legs and told ‘the movement doesn’t need rif raf like you.
OUCH.
Sinead O’Connor sings us out with This is a Rebel Song, and Nidge is safe in the knowledge that the IRA are not planning to kill him.
However, he still has the Gardai to contend with, and their position is getting stronger and stronger.
What’s going to happen? We’ll find out next week!
All images via RTÉ player.
