The Resurrection of King Nidge

Bit of a weird one here, let’s be honest. I’ve decided to post about a show I never watched too much of that is only on a very specific set of channels, which we’re actually not too sure is on anymore and that no has been talking about in a while except for all that Jamaican reboot chatter, whatever’s going on there.

There’s a point I’d like to make though, because I haven’t seen it elsewhere, and however many hours you spent with the fictionalised Dublin mobsters, it is certainly a show that deserves at least a bit of analysis outside of how mad their accents are in real life and whether or not your dad knows which pub they’re in. Love/Hate was a show that went where few Irish tv shows (and indeed, pool cues) had gone before. There is, I believe, at least one clear arc here, and it is spelled out clearly in the latest episode. My point is, of course, that as of the season 5 finale, and should fans ever get a season 6, Nidge is alive.

At the very least, it is written that way. Maybe Tom Vaughan-Lawlor will decline to return, hard to say just yet (maybe him and Aidan Gillen could do a buddy cop thing, they’re friends right?), but the episode itself sets up a return, and once you’ve seen it it’s hard to dismiss.

Littered throughout the episode, and hidden in plain sight, there are little nods to what will happen, and what that means for the story. And it all comes back to a certain carpenter that lived roughly two thousand years ago (because after all, doesn’t everything?)

“coola boola nidgey, happy days”

Because lads, the episode is just riddled with Jesus imagery.

The first we see any sign of a crucifix is when Nidge is lying in bed, his arms spread wide to the side, and the messiah resting on his chest.

Not much to go on there, just a piece of jewellery, but it begins to add up. In fact shortly after that shot, Trish gifts him another item of clothing, which calls to mind a certain King of Kings:

Again, King Nidge emblazoned on trainers is a tenuous link, thugh coupled with his immediate exclamation of, “Jesus Christ, Trish…” it starts to look a bit (A BIT, OKAY?) more like a clue.

Next up, it’s another link to the crucifixion, as Nidge, enraged, sits on the step outside his house and presses the embers of his burning cigarette into the palm of his hand.

A hole in one just hand, now. But wait, you say! didn’t Jesus have a hole through each hand? Does stigmata count if it’s only one? Well, we’ll have to wait and see, but for the time being we definitely have at least one.

So we start there, a few different nods to Jesus and linking him to Nidge through his shoes. Throw in the half-stigmata and Trish with a big ol’ cross on her bag and it starts to seem gradually more intentional.

Meanwhile, Fran is off denying him and gets locked away, while Siobhán is the Judas of our story and leads the Romans to Nidge’s door. She even had her own church scene wherein she sold him out!

As the Gardaí race to Nidge though, the travellers with their Nidge vendetta, arrive unanticipated, and break up Siobhán and Nidge’s confrontation with a gun, whose first bullet kills Siobhán, but not before travelling through guess what? That’s right, Nidge’s other hand!

So we have our stigmata completed, a hole through both hands. Nidge has achieved apotheosis. Shortly after this, he is shot repeatedly again, but the police are approaching and his attackers flee. Then, we are treated to an ambiguous ending and are left wondering what happens next. Is he alive or is he dead?

But I think it’s meant to be right there, clear as the thorns on his head. Because other than turning water into wine and wrecking churches and making the best rocking chairs this side of Nazareth (Probably!? Carpenter and all…) one thing Jesus could at least allegedly do was return, three days later, from the dead. Whether Tom Vaughan-Lawlor or indeed Love/Hate will be back is still unknown, but I contest that Stuart Carolan wrote intentional clues into the episode, hinting that this was not to be the end of Nidge. It might seem minor but there seems to me like there’s just a bit too much there for it to be coincidence.

The amount of Easter eggs that will be shared due to Nidge’s return remains to be seen, but we are optimistic.

The Marvel Easter Egg We All Missed (But Not The One You’re Thinking Of)

So today James Gunn, director of Guardians of the Galaxy, came out and said that there was a HUGE easter egg hidden in his space opera that is yet to be found.

Naturally, people on the internet are flocking to their dvds, blu rays, VHS probably, old comics definitely and even other corners of the internet to try and crack the mystery egg. As of the time of my writing this, it has not been found, and while there is a chance that this might be a wild goose chase, fans will scour all the same.

(I’m just going to take a second now to pause from all the egg-related puns I just skimmed over there. Something something, Howard the Duck)

The true believers out there, young and old, are off freeze-framing a world with Cosmo, Adam Warlock’s cocoon and possibly Beta Ray Bill to track down something bigger but somehow more elusive than any of those listed above.

I unfortunately have nothing to offer on the Guardians front other than the advice that you should read Annihilation and Annihilation: Conquest if you haven’t already. I do, however, have an Easter Egg that I believe has gone unnoticed until now, from a more recent Marvel property that is really, really teeny-tiny.

No, not the movie, The Easter Egg.

That’s right, it’s from the Avengers: Age of Ultron, where right in the middle of James Spader, flying cities and the second best onscreen Quicksilver, Joss Whedon managed to hide a reference to the first ever gathering of Earth’s mightiest heroes.

I’ll say it again now, it’s itty-bitty. This is a nicotine patch for the cigarette that is the GotG secret. Don’t get your hopes up.

Having been ambushed by the mind-altering powers of the Scarlet Witch (that’s how chaos magic works right?) the Avengers are in the midst of their dream states that ultimately prompt Thor to go for a swim and Black Widow to piss off feminists. Its effect on the Hulk though, is decidedly more destructive.

The Hulk goes on a rampage, but thankfully Bruce Banner and Tony Stark have devised a failsafe that can stop him in just such an event. They fight, it’s funny and exciting and there’s even a tiny Easter Egg hidden in the middle of it. Two, in fact if you count the ‘Betty and Veronica’ reference.

But before the actual fighting, Veronica’s tactic is to trap the Hulk. One by one, great big bits of steel land around The Hulk and he is trapped in an impenetrable circus tent of sorts.

He can’t go through it. So he doesn’t.

Instead of staying trapped, however, The Hulk escapes, not by futile smashing, but by tunnelling. The cage sinks into the ground and we see that The Hulk got out by using his brain.

How is this an Easter Egg? Well, because something very similar happened in the first ever issue of The Avengers in 1963.

Having been tricked by Loki into chasing The Hulk in a trap that was meant for Thor, Iron Man corners his foe in a factory and the following exchange ensues when he tries to trap him with a steel girder.

It’s the same thing! Sort of. Take it or leave it really, I said it was small.

But in defense of this tiny Easter Egg, both situations features a Hulk V. Iron Man fight, wherein the former traps the latter who then escapes via the surface to which he is pinned.

And it wouldn’t be the first time Whedon referenced issue one, either. In fact, the original Avengers movie shared a loose frame with the issue, in that it featured the team uniting over a plot by Loki whereby the focal point of his machinations is The Hulk.

And that’s it. Small, but (hopefully) interesting and I haven’t seen it pointed out anywhere else at the very least! Hopefully it distracted you from the GotG race for a few seconds. Or not at all, and you’re annoyed because I wasted your time (which is cool with me. As far as I’m concerned, any Marvel conversation not focused completely on Ant Man and how they de-aged Michael Douglas is time wasted completely, so I’m with you there.)

Nuff said, I guess. By all mean, tell me what you think, positive or otherwise. Am I crazy, stupid or somewhere in between? Until next time Easter Egg-celsior!!!

(Also how cool is this one?)