Aine Casey (Elva Trill) has just made it to the pub and ordered a pint of Guinness as Episode 3 begins. She’s nearly finished when she receives a text from her mother that leads to her discovering Sean’s (Jay Duffy) ‘F*ck It List’ in her coat pocket. This segues to her remembering the day he told her about the list. She appeared shocked to learn that seeing the Northern Lights was at the top.
Before Lloyd (Stephen Jones) joins Aine at the pub there is a very brief scene with Denise (Jennifer Heylen) spraining her ankle and getting trapped in a woodshed after narrowly escaping a vicious dog. Aine is still swept up in Sean’s list which causes her to remember the day that she created her own list in an attempt to answer who Sean is or what he was becoming. When her mother later discovers the list and earnestly tries to discuss it with her, it only leads to a huge argument.
Aine doesn’t get too much time to dwell on this thanks to Lloyd’s sudden arrival with fresh beers. This conversation is nearly just as quickly interrupted by Denise’s frantic call regarding her current situation. After Lloyd walks her through assessing the damage, she detects the noise from the bar and asks him about it. Although he lies about where he’s at, they don’t get long to hash it out due to the arrival of the dog’s owner.
By the time a bachelorette party comes by and annoys Aine back inside, Sean has ended the call with Denise and is in the process of refreshing their beers. This conversation eventually leads to the story and memory of how Lloyd met Denise while performing a Tom Jones ballad during a karaoke competition. This brief memory shows that Lloyd and Denise were already friends at this time, and although he clearly liked her, he had no idea that she had feelings for him as well. It takes Baz (John Doran) and Tony (Kevin McGahern) bringing it to his attention. Aine has a hard time believing this and teases him about whisking her away from her mate. After admitting that he did have feelings for her but just couldn’t tell her, it causes her to remember when the Priest (Kwasie Boyce) asked for people to speak at Sean’s funeral and she completely froze.
After Aine’s brief memory, the story goes back to the karaoke competition where Denise has just messed up her song and the Karaoke Judge (James Patrice) wouldn’t let her restart due to it being a competition. Denise ends up outside embarrassed and Lloyd consoles her with a story about Tom Jones. Although nothing further happens that night, he tries to build on the momentum the following morning by convincing the Judge to let him and Denise make a late entry as partners. It turns out that she had already spoken to the judge. They ended up getting third in the competition.
This story leads to Aine having another memory from Sean’s funeral. This one is so emotional it causes her to step away to the bathroom. It is Lloyd this time who is accosted by the bachelorette party. Much to his surprise, Aine drags out into the middle of the celebration when she returns. Aine and Lloyd spend what appears to be several more hours dancing and drinking until they retire to Brendan’s (Jimmy Smallhorne) restaurant. When Lloyd notices the third-place trophy, it causes him to remember the night after they won the trophy where he and Denise shared an embarrassing story. His actual story which he didn’t share was that he had his heart set on moving to Australia until he met her.
Lloyd’s memory of him and Denise first getting together eventually skips forward where she tells him that she needs space. The memory makes it seem like a random, out-of-the-blue thing. He doesn’t share this with Aine but instead asks about how she and Sean got together. Her short memory reconfirms her earlier assessment about her and Sean practically growing up together. There is also another memory in there from the funeral where she finds Gavin (Patrick Martins) in the bathroom doing coke and not only joins him but tries to come onto him. She doesn’t appreciate him turning down her advances. Matters certainly aren’t improved when Pauline later blames Sean’s suicide on her.
In the present time, Lloyd tries to convince her that she’s a lovely person and couldn’t possibly be responsible for Sean’s death. For some reason, this causes him to remember Denise telling him a cheesy Tom Jones joke. After this brief memory, the story reverts back to present-day Denise, who has just rejoined Bill and Karen. Much to her surprise, Julia is there as well.
The episode ends with a brief scene of Lloyd and Denise singing, ‘It Takes Two, Baby’ for the karaoke competition. After this brief memory, he invites Aine back to his place. She accepts his invitation.
Northern Lights Review
This series wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the constant flashing back and memories. From a viewer’s standpoint, this probably isn’t such a bad thing and I must admit, it is an effective way to tell a story, but it is incredibly annoying to recap. I feel that the series can be heartfelt at times while at others, it is just dismally cheesy. Take Denise getting trapped in the woodshed. That was understandable but the way the actor portrayed the ensuing call to Lloyd was horrendous. I personally felt embarrassed for her. There seem to be lots of those moments and not just with Denise. Despite the negativity, I enjoyed the episode and would give it a 5.4 out of 10.
That said, I certainly hope Denise’s trauma isn’t tied to Sean’s death because that would be childish. Even if she knew him much longer than she claims, it would be hard to imagine that his death would have such an impact on her.
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