Empty Your Pockets – The finale begins with the McArdle Clan arriving in Bodkin while Gilbert Power (Will Forte) works on his podcast from behind bars. It’s not long before Dove Maloney (Siobhan Cullen) is practically begging him to stop. This not only leads to an argument and her claiming that he isn’t a real journalist but also her admitting that she discovered Krtek’s (Fergus Mulligan) laptop and left his corpse dangling pitifully. Gilbert doesn’t get much time to reflect on the discovery because Garda Eoin (Sean Og Cairns) shows up to release him.
Emmy Sizergh (Robyn Cara) is in the process of finding an extradition solicitor when a heated Seamus Gallagher (David Wilmot) shows up looking for Sean O’Shea (Chris Walley). Mrs. Edna O’Shea (Pom Boyd) wastes little letting him know that Sean isn’t a thief. On Seamus’s departure, he slams the door which causes a nearby glass figurine cabinet to crash to the ground. Emmy tells Edna what she learned on the Island while helping her with the mess.
As Dove is prepared for transport, she receives a visit from Charles and Annika, who end up offering leniency for Seamus. While she’s fitted with an ankle monitor, Gilbert returns to the O’Shea Guest House to discover Seamus’ wreckage along with Emmy and Edna embroiled in an intense conversation. After Gilbert is caught up, Edna pleads with Emmy to convince Sean to return Seamus’ eels. Emmy reluctantly agrees only after learning that Fiona’s dying wish was for Sean to never learn the truth about Seamus being his father.
Seamus is finishing up with some last-minute business at home when Dove shows up with the offer of ‘mutual backscratching.’ Although he claims he would rather climb into bed with a viper, the sudden arrival of the McArdle Clan changes things. He and Dove watch helplessly from the crawlspace as Bronagh McArdle (Pauline McLynn) hands out search orders and Jon-Joe McArdle (Lalor Roddy) kills Seamus’ dog. With the McArdles gone, Seamus wastes little time turning down Dove’s offers and claims the best they can all do is get out of town.
Dove returns to the O’Shea Guest House to enlist Gilbert’s help in bringing Seamus to justice while Emmy tries to save Sean’s life. Gilbert lures Seamus to a meeting in town by sending a text, claiming to know Fiona’s location. Emmy doesn’t have the same success with Sean as he outright refuses to believe that Charles and Annika are Interpol agents and departs for their prearranged meeting. Emmy follows as Dove and Gilbert split up before he meets with Seamus. It takes some convincing but Seamus eventually believes him and makes him go with him to save Sean. Dove makes the call to Interpol, confirming that the meeting is set.
Sean and Emmy are the first to arrive at the meeting but Edna isn’t far behind. After failing to convince him to return home, Gilbert and Seamus show up with the news of Sean being Seamus’ son. This only leads to more confusion and arguing. Seamus’ temper eventually gets the best of him, leading him to blame everything on Edna and pull his revolver. Although he gets a shot off, Sean is quick enough to knock the gun out of the way, losing a thumb in the process. There is a bit of a lull before Interpol shows up as well and proceeds to arrest Seamus, leading to him taking Gilbert hostage.
Although Seamus gets away with Gilbert as leverage, the Samhain parade eventually forces them to continue on foot. When Seamus gets out of the vehicle, Gilbert manages to text Emmy but the later chiming response sends Seamus into a fury. As Interpol arranges for medical attention for Sean, Emmy lays into Dove, calling her selfish and telling her that she isn’t the noble high-minded investigative journalist she pretends to be. Much to Emmy’s surprise, Dove’s response is docile and when Annika and Charles show up and blame her for Seamus’ escape, she only becomes more withdrawn and feels sorry for herself. Emmy surprises Dove again when she practically accuses the agents of entrapment and reveals that she’s been recording their conversation.
Once Charles and Annika walk away in defeat, Emmy and Dove make plans to save Gilbert. By the time Dove and Emmy make it to the festival, Seamus has Gilbert trapped in what appears to be one of his underground smuggling tunnels. Gilberts pleads and promises to drop the investigation but it becomes clear Seamus isn’t in the negotiating mood. As Seamus works to rig the area with semtex, he tells Gilbert how the ancient used to think of the mouth as the gateway to the soul. So, when someone died, they would fill their mouths with rocks to prevent the invasion of evil spirits. Seamus then shoves Gilbert’s recorder in his mouth, arms the bomb, and leaves.
In the process of trying to escape, Gilbert activates the recorder, which happens to save his life because Emmy and Dove hear it from above, despite the noise of the festival. After Gilbert is released, Dove goes after Seamus and leaves Emmy to get everyone safely from the blast radius. After failing to convince Fintan (Charlie Kelly) about the bomb, Emmy destroys the festival’s sound system by dousing it in liquid. This only makes the crowd more unruly as they begin chanting, ‘One more tune!’ Emmy eventually appeases them by getting Teddy to sing.
Much to Seamus’ surprise, she tells him she doesn’t care who or what he blows up. She claims that she’ll even blow the island herself because they are practically the same, always playing the victim when they both choose to be the victim. She doesn’t get much time to debate further thanks to the arrival of the McArdles clan as well as Charles and Annika with backup. Dove tells him that life is all about decisions. Seamus ultimately decides to go with the McArdles but before doing so he takes the blame for what happened to Malachy, Teddy, and Fiona. Shockingly enough, he claims he doesn’t feel any pity and blows the bomb, which also blows the truck full of eels, sending them raining down all over the festival attendees.
The explosion sends Dove and Emmy into a hopeless search for Gilbert who is eventually revealed to be perfectly fine. When they reunite, he and Dove spend several minutes about why she’s so upset and she casually blames it on her missing sunglasses. Seemingly sometime in the future, Gilbert reflects on life and stories and just how far he was willing to go to get his story because he thought it would fix everything. He apparently now realizes just how wrong he was and throws his recorder into the ocean. He then joins Sean, Emmy, and Dove for a ride to the airport.
Even further into the future, Emmy is shown visiting Dove’s editor, Damien (Charlie Kemp) at the Guardian and practically telling him that he is going to hire her. Edna attempts to speak to Sean about his real mother but he claims he knows his real mother is. Dove also attempts to learn more about her mother by visiting with an older nun (Stella McCusker). It turns out that her mother not only followed her career but she kept records. The episode ends with Dove revealing that she’s planning on staying at the nunnery to work on a story.
Bodkin Review
I was pleasantly surprised by the finale. I didn’t think it would be able to follow the previous episode, but they did a fantastic job. The episode had everything you’d expect from a finale – happy endings, story wrap-ups, and possible continued story plots. I’d have to give the episode a 6 out of 10.
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