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***Spoiler Alert***

Episode 4: The World Will Break Your Heart

“To be Irish is to know that in the end the world will break your heart”. Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Definitely my favorite quote slide of the show.

AKA the episode in which Kevin Donnelly and Joey Ice Cream steal kosher wine for an Irish wake, while Jimmy’s making a birdhouse.

We kick off episode 4 with Jimmy in a bar, saying that his brothers killed for him. This how we get the lead into the condensed Joey Ice Cream voice over about what happened in the highly important, yet unaired, Episode 3. Has my hatred for NBC come through yet? I’m not sure.

Cut to Kate Farrell, Huey’s widow and a fantasy for all the neighborhood boys, showing up at the Donnelly door, nearly killing Tommy by asking to hold Huey’s wake at the Firecracker. The flashback scene of the brothers and Joey looking at pictures supposedly of Kate reminds me SO much of the Sleepers scene with the four boys (Jonathan Tucker included) looking at the Rockettes through a hole in a window. Ah, young boys, they were so … industrious. And now, there is the internet.

So Tommy feels guilty about Huey, which turns into Tommy making Kevin help and Joey help him set up for the wake, which is a supremely bad idea that will get far worse than anyone expected. And oh yea, Jimmy’s making birdhouses now? This feels very therapeutic craft assignment, and it kills me.

Tommy: “Nobody’s gonna be suspicious if we act suspicious.”

Jimmy: “You go to school to get that stupid?”

Kevin: “I’m gonna think the wake’s a really bad idea, Tommy.”

I’m with you Kevin, I’m with you. And off Kevin goes to get the booze for the wake for the guy Tommy killed, which will be held in the bar that Jimmy owns and where he killed Louie Downtown, who’s kidnapping started the whole thing. That’s a sick circle.

Jimmy and Joanie are a thing, by the way, which is both delightful and horrifying to watch, each of them pushing the other down the drain.

Cue the heartbreak with Tommy and Matthew talking before the funeral. Ugh. You’ll learn the true irony later on.

Let’s get back to Kevin getting the wake booze, which begins with stealing a taxi and heading down to Tribeca, with a nice shot of the Staple Street skybridge in the background, to break into a restaurant that Kevin never worked at, but applied to, which you know, of course means its a good place to steal because they have alcohol but you don’t know where. The genius of Kevin Donnelly, everyone.

And you know Tommy fixes that situation real quick with a bribe involving a local store owner’s daughter who has a thing for Kevin. So Kevin still saves the day?

Holy crap, the anxiety watching this the first time with Dokey doing fact finding during the wake was so intense. Kevin’s about to pass out, Jenny’s pouring more salt in the wound with Tommy, and Tommy just keeps going back, trying to balance Jenny and what he did. Not easy.

Especially when Dokey traps Jenny, Tommy, and Jimmy in the basement for a fun round of lets chop off some toes.  Poor Kevin gets the call on the bar phone from downstairs and literally runs in fear. “Had to run off”.  Perfect explanation Tommy, absolutely perfect.

I give it to Jimmy though, crazy nerves to match the crazy of Dokey, who knows Jenny is the bait for both Tommy and Jimmy. Who are brilliant when they can actually work together, which is rare. 

And then Jenny just digs the knife in even deeper, leaving the wake with Samson.

Samson Dawlish, oh how I dislike you and the free pastries you bring to Reilly’s to get on Jenny’s good side. James Badge Dale shot “The Departed” around the same time, I swear his character in that movie and in this show are basically versions of the same creep-o.

Favorite Scene: Tommy asking Jenny for help with the food for Huey’s wake. Her face when she says he’s throwing the wake is absolute PERFECTION.

Soundtrack: The placement of The Fray’s “Heaven Forbid” is so mid-2000s and I love it. TV soundtracks that use contemporary songs are a really good time capsule of the era that they aired, and this is a great example.

“The Black Donnellys” is available for purchase on iTunes, Amazon, and DVD.  Also available to stream, with extremely annoying and poorly placed commercial breaks, on the NBC app or NBC.com

At the time of posting, the episodes are still out of order on the NBC app and website, so Episode 4 = Episode 2, Episode 2 = Episode 3, Episode 3 = Episode 4. The title of each episode should reference the quote slide within the first 5 minutes of the episode.

Episodes Notes: “The Black Donnellys” Episode 5

Episodes Notes: “The Black Donnellys” Episode 3 (Unaired)

Sleepers: “The Black Donnellys”