Link to the n*de photos
Prologue: Night, with a view of the city. Three people with flashlights find their way to isolated cabin, where a teenage girl is sitting in a pit.
Scene 1: 20 Years later: In Belfast, the highly butch Dara explains why she hates her mother in a very tight closeup, so tight that it is painful to watch. The camera pulls away, and she is telling all this to the server at a coffee shop!
Meanwhile, Soccer Mom Robyn is driving while her two bratty preteens squabble in the back seat. She finds them so annoying that she bangs her head repeatedly against the steering wheel until it's bloody -- no, just a fantasy.
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In London, Saoirse (pronounced Sheer-Shah), a writer for a hit tv show about a woman solving murders, is at lunch with two women and a man, who tell her that she should write stories with no murders. "But the name of the show is Murder Code!" She finds the suggestion ridiculous, and storms off, bringing the man with her. She wanted to be a playwright, but now she's writing crap. If the man is actually her boyfriend, heterosexual identity established at Minute 7.
All three get emails from the sister-in-law of their friend Greta: she has died. They decide to go to her village in Donegal County, Ireland, for the wake.
Scene 2: Butch Dara and gives her sister instructions on how to take care of their super-cranky mother. She is picked up by Soccer Mom Robyn. They get all weepy when Greta's favorite song plays on the radio: "Hot in Herre" (2002) by Nelly, whose name is a homophobic slur but is not actually homophobic.
While writer Saoirse flies in from London, she looks at photos of the Dead Friend Greta and her boyfriend on her phone. Heterosexual identity established at minute 10. The flight attendant morphs into the girl in the pit, probably Greta, and asks "Can I tell you a secret?" They must have killed the guy who kidnapped Greta and put her in the pit.
Scene 3: The two friends pick up Writer Saoirse at the Belfast Airport, and criticize her outfit. They discuss why they want to go to the wake: to assuage their guilt over not contacting their friend for 20 years, and to get a break from their current crises (hating their Mom, kids, and job, respectively). Then on through the scenic countryside to Donegal (100 miles from Belfast, but in another country).
Back story: Writer Saiorse is getting married, but not to the guy she had lunch with. Her fiance is Seb (Tom Basden). The other two are pushing their way into being bridesmaids.
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Scene 4: Uh-oh, at a gas station, they put petrol instead of diesel in the tank, so they stall a few miles from their destination, Knockdara (fictional). The Recovery Service guy, Liam (Darragh Hand), makes a joke about Belfast people being violent and dangerous, which doesn't sit well with two of them. He flirts with Writer Saoirse.
The car needs its whole fuel system replaced, so Liam tows them into town, and the flirting continues.
Turns out that he knew their dead friend, Greta! Her husband, Owen, is his boss! Well, it's a small town.
Scene 5: The flamboyant desk clerk at the hotel (maybe Owen Mallon) also knew Greta, and explains how she died: fell down a flight of stairs and broke her neck.
Instead of trying to walk the 2-3 miles to her house, he suggests they spend the night and set out the morning. They could go to the 1990s-themed disco, "The Naughty Nineties." It's so popular that teenagers bus in from Letterkenny (I didn't know that was a real place).
Scene 6: In the hotel room, Writer Saiorse checks Dead Friend Greta's Facebook page. It's been taken down. This disturbs here.
And Soccer Mom Robyn gets a phone call that consists of eerie static.
They all take showers (no lady parts). We see a mysterious tattoo on their back, neck, and wrist.
Scene 7: At dinner, they discuss how "you can't go home again." Time changes you. The woman who died was not the girl they knew in high school; she was a stranger.
Writer Saoirse goes outside to smoke and be depressed, and runs into Liam, now a member of the Garda. He explains that he works for his uncle at the auto shop, and for their friend Greta's husband as a cop. So, are you also the mayor and town veterinarian? And the car is ready.
They gaze at each other for a long time. I don't get it. There were three women in the car. How did he decide that he was only interested in Saoirse? Is it recognizing your soul mate?
He walks away, then returns to give her a slip of paper. She thinks it's his phone number, but it's the bill for the car service, har har.
More after the break
Scene 8: A busload of teens in costume arrive for the Naughty Nineties disco. The ladies discuss the party they went to on the night It Happened in 2003: a 1970s disco! And in the 1970s, the 1950s was all the rage. In the 1950s, did they go wild about the Great Depression?
On RG Beefcake and Boyfriends: Emmett J. Scanlon plays Greta's husband, Owen.
Writer Saiorse tells a story about accidentally setting her leg on fire at that party, but she gets it all wrong. This leads to a discussion of the malleability of memory: they have three different versions of The Thing That Happened in their heads, modified to match their image of who they think they were. But they know that It Happened: that's the real reason that they returned: to make sure the Dead Friend didn't tell anyone about it.
They get hammered, smoke, dance, and the Dead Friend Greta joins them in spirit.
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Scene 9: In the morning, heavily hung over, they arrive at Greta's house, which looks like a loaf of grey bread.
Inside, the family stands silent on a staircase, like the Addams Family, watching them and going "shush" in unison. Then they sneak up: Greta's younger brother Seamus (top photo and below); her scary Mum, who recognizes them from their teen years; her husband Owen (Emmett J. Scanlon); and a little girl, probably her daughter.
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"So, were you close to my wife? I don't remember her ever mentioning you," Owen says with an evil grin. "So who told you that she died?"
"Your sister emailed us."
He is shocked by this.
Scene 10: Younger Brother Seamus leads them into the room with the casket (closed, for some reason). .
The Little Girl comes in and says her Dad was wrong: "Mummy did talk about you. She said that your friendship was the best time in her life."
Butch Dara goes to the kitchen to make tea. Little Girl follows: "Can I tell you a secret? My father doesn't have a sister." So who sent the email?
Meanwhile, Soccer Mom Robyn opens the coffin to put in a picture that she brought. But the person inside doesn't have the tattoo that they do. It's not her! She yells "F*ck!", knocks off the coffin lid, and everyone comes running.
They want to leave. Owen and Young Brother Seamus creepily try to force them to stick around, but they run out, jump into their car, and zoom away, with Owen in pursuit.
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As Seamus heads back up the stairs, we zoom into a photo on the staircase depicting the family lined up with their hands on each other's shoulders. Previously Greta was in front, but now there's a man hiding his face. How did it change? There must be some paranormal going on.
Owen continues to chase them down the narrow country roads, until they spin out and crash.
Cut to the Dead Friend Greta in a white robe, running through the woods to a rustic beach. The end.
Beefcake: Some cute guys. Liam takes his shirt off.
Gay Characters: Butch Dara runs into her ex-girlfriend in Episode 2. Maybe the flamboyant desk clerk.
On RG Beefcake and Boyfriends: Nathan Hughes, who plays a waiter. Or maybe it's a guy he posted on his Instagram.
Heterosexism: The Liam-Writer Saiorse romance.
Update: When I checked the IMDB cast list, I identified Ardal O'Hanlon as Greta's younger brother, but apparently it's a 30 year-old photo. Ardal is actually 60, too old to be playing the guy. The other possibilities are Chris Robinson and Ryan McPartland. Younger Brother looks nothing like either of them.
My Grade: I've seen three episodes. Innumerable plot twists. No one is who they say they are, and everything the ladies remember is wrong. Hint: they end up in Portugal. I would prefer some gay guys, but at least there's a lesbian. B.
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