Derry Girls

2022 - 10 - 8

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Image courtesy of "Vulture"

Derry Girls Recap: Train in Vain (Vulture)

The wains are heading to a seaside amusement park, but the train ride there ends up being long and eventful. A recap of season three, episode three of ...

The bigger reveal turns out to be that the backpack belongs to Aideen — the tough-looking guy is actually quite friendly and was just looking after the bag for her. The slight awkwardness of waiting together is ratcheted up to an 11 of second-hand mortification thanks to the woman staffing the ticket window, who is having a lengthy and detailed conversation with her soon-to-be-ex-husband about the many particulars of her dissatisfaction with their sex life. And they thought being stuck on the train was bad! He retaliates in kind by brandishing a banana at the girls, and I am now fully in mirth-tears over the silliness of this pickle. While Sarah and Mary are regrouping and strategizing one car over, the mystery woman’s identity comes out during a round of Guess Who played with Gerry: She’s their girlhood neighbor Aideen, unrecognizable to the Quinns because she lost so much weight in prison. This season seems to be exploring those similarities in more depth, and that’s all to the good. Falling victim to the sunk-cost fallacy, they continue to feign knowing and proceed to paint themselves into a conversational corner until they both claim to be having flare-ups of irritable-bowel syndrome to escape being found out. The Quinn family entourage just barely makes it out of town thanks to waiting for the train on the wrong platform and having to race to the right one at the last moment. Up in the other train car, the mystery woman plunks herself down for a more in-depth chat. They don’t have a clue who she is, but she’s about to hop off at the next stop, so no harm, no foul. [Democratic Unionist Party](https://www.bbc.com/news/election-2019-50315891) (a loyalist political party led by Reverend Ian Paisley) won’t negotiate with [Sinn Féin](https://www.bbc.com/news/election-2019-50315250) (the political wing of the IRA, led by [Gerry Adams](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-27238602)) unless the IRA decommission its weapons. Gerry’s gentle reminder that the train journey is all of an hour backfires by leading her to decide to make another ten or 12 sandwiches.

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Derry Girls Recap: A Tale of Two Ghost Stories (Vulture)

When Sister Michael's aunt dies, the wains go to clean up the deceased's house as a favor and instantly become convinced it's haunted.

All is chaos, culminating in the wains wrestling the ghost to the floor and screaming at the sudden arrival of Sister Michael. She manages to sort out this comedy of errors and to convince the supposed ghost not to press charges against the wains for breaking and entering. Family would win out, and that would be the end of her friendship with Erin, and she can’t bear the thought. Turns out, the irate hammer-wielding man on the floor is the house’s new owner, Declan, and not the ghost of Robert. It’s too cold to go without it and she’s on the brink of being late to the bingo hall! Mary prevails, and they head out to request a session with local psychic Carlos Santini, who’s very happy to attempt to contact the late Mrs. As they potter around, assessing the state of the house, they find a 1941 wedding photo, noting that the happy couple are Annie and Robert. Mammy McCool has been dead a decade now, and they’re starting to get a little sore about the fact that she hasn’t gotten in touch. Once they get to Donegal, they need to stop to ask for directions, and the woman they approach speaks only Gaelic. They consider walking back to the village to get help or at least directions to the closest hospital for James, but a huge crack of thunder, followed by driving rain, puts paid to that idea. Off the girls go to Donegal, James behind the wheel of the school van, to take care of the cleaning that very same day. Jamie-Lee O’Donnell (Michelle) and Siobhán McSweeney (formally, Sister George Michael) are two of the strongest comic actors on the show (I rate Ian McElhinney as Granda Joe in the same echelon), and when their performances are front and center, every scene crackles with extra comedic energy, providing a little kick that makes everything else better.

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