Last night Nidge showed us his mean side and Darren paid the price for his double life. Donal O’Donoghue hails the final episode of Love/Hate.
To play the King is one thing, to be the king is something else. So let’s hear it for The Nidge: or rather the man behind the two-faced gangster, actor Tom Vaughan-Lawlor. Last night he delivered what we long suspected – not only was he the sharpest tool on the box but he was the stand-out performer in a strong ensemble.
The Nidge was more than just a funny face. In fact that rubbery mask gave us the lot, from charming (consoling John Boy’s daughter) and conniving (messing with Tommy’s head) to menacing (letting JB’s solicitor know who’s boss) and casually ruthless (whacking a gang member). And when he places that gold paper crown on his head Nidge becomes what we always knew. He’s King Rat, King Leer and most importantly, King of the Hill.
Love/Hate, RTÉ’s drama series of the year, was mostly very good: and last night’s closing episode was amongst the strongest. Teasing out some plotlines – Darren and Rosie’s relationship, Luke’s stalking of Mary, Nidge’s Machiavellian rise to the top – it also nodded towards a few likely future collisions. Will John Boy’s da seek revenge? What happens when Frano is unleashed from the nick? Will Darren find redemption?
But first we had a body to bury with the late John Boy (Aidan Gillen) getting a right royal send-off (and few tears shed). Once again Love/Hate drummed up the action to a potent soundtrack, from the opening of Luke Kelly’s The Night Visiting Song to Jimi Hendrix’s street version of Like a Rolling Stone (for JB's long goodbye) and the closing volley of Guns 'n' Roses' Welcome to the Jungle (Nidge’s music of choice for his funeral).
Darren and Rosie’s story played second – and at times third – fiddle to Nidge’s rise to gang boss and Luke’s creepy stalking of Mary. In the first instance there were a few stand-out Nidge moments like commiserating with John Boy’s da (Finbar Fury with his corrugated features not buying Nidge’s snake oil offerings) and, in a scene orchestrated to squeeze out maximum tension, we had the first ‘official’ meeting of John Boy’s seedy solicitor and Nidge.
This was the new boss laying it on the line and at any moment you also expected he would lay it into the crooked man’s head. It was heady stuff and Nidge was lapping it up, like a vampire at a blood clinic.
Throughout Love/Hate has worn its pop influences on its sleeve, from The Sopranos to Goodfellas to The Wire. Last night we had the Miller’s Crossing moment with Nidge, Darren and Luke going for a walk in the woods (with shovels). But this victim had no time for a ‘look into your heart’ plea before being dispatched with casual efficiency. The little twist was Nidge reloading for a possible second execution.
It was a smart move and neatly done but just as effective if less showy was what the exchange between Mary and Darren that lead to the killing. Nobody said precisely what had to be done – but what needed to be done was left unstated. Still Mary’s reaction to seeing the Missing poster was somewhat curious, after all she effectively ‘ordered the hit'.
Love/Hate left us with its leit motif: a montage especially significant for being the valedictory one. To the sound of, what else, Redemption Song by Bob Marley and the Wailers, we travelled with taxi-bound Darren to the airport (to reunite with Rosie? to lose the mob?) and saw the major winners and losers caught in a web of love and hate - Frano in his prison cell, Tommy with his family, Debbie on the game and John Boy’s da rubbing the grief from his worn face.
It all ended with shot of the outside of Nidge’s red brick palace. Was there going to be some final twist? No. Just the twisted face of Nidge reflected on the screen of a violent video game: cranking out death and destruction to the primal scream of Guns ‘n’ Roses.
There is an old showband motto: 'send 'em home sweating'. To which you could add – ‘and wanting more’. Last night Love/Hate did both. We await season three, and the rise (and fall?) of The Nidge. Welcome to the Jungle indeed.
PS. The RTÉ Press Office has confirmed that a third series of Love/Hate is in development but has yet to be greenlit. I wouldn’t bet against it.
Donal O'Donoghue
