Derry Girls New Series

[Taytocrisps]

Counting down the days here.

I don’t think the Irish speakers were meant to have no English as Sr Michael responded to them in English but they just prefer to speak their native tongue. We used to go to that part of Donegal for hols in an old cottage with no electricity or toilet in the 80s and there was a very old neighbour not unlike those characters. And it is gentle comedy for goodness sake!

And it is gentle comedy for goodness sake!

Alright - people are just discussing various views, no-one is protesting with placards.

I get very defensive when it comes to Derry Girls criticism!!!

😅

I was a huge fan till this series - I found the first 3 so poor, this episode has redeemed it a bit tho.

James is so cute. Although I love that they're all late 20s / early 30s.

?

You beat me to it @TeaStory

Down with that sort of thing!

Has it been explained why sister Michael has crutches?

I've only just caught up with this episode, apart from the ridiculous and unbelievable premise that got them to the spooky house it was a really good episode.

Loved the kiss, I was hoping those two would get together.

I teared up a bit at the end when the good razor turned up 🥲

I think when she first appeared in episode 1 the girls were gearing up to comment on the crutches and she cut them off with a look or a brisk 'Don't ask'. Best way! I gather the actor broke her leg in two places not long before they started filming, so they had to work round that. The De Lorean was a brilliant touch.

I think Sister Michael may be my favourite character. I've been doing a big re-watch and there's a point where the loathsome Jenny dobs the others in and Sister Michael looks at Jenny and says something like 'You'll go a long way in life, Jenny, but you won't be well liked.' So true!

DH and I still quote that line at each other randomly. "You will go far in life, Jenny. But you will not be well liked."

My other favourite line of Sr. Michael's: "Should we pray?" "No: sure, what good would that do?"

Yes.😄and she has a lovely expressive use of language. 'Sweet merciful Jesus!'

I also loved the bit at the end of s2 when all the girls bunk school to see the president after sister Michael forbids it and only Jenny shows up, how sister Michael looks at her and is really frustrated and tells her to go. I think bits like that show she really loves the girls.

Yes! She says “You need to learn when to push back.” (Something like that, anyway.)

It’s just such an epic thing to voice in terms of both national and sexual politics. (How many times has the subject of woman’s subservience and people pleasing and putting themselves last been discussed here? “No is a complete sentence.” …)

So it’s not just that she loves the girls - she wants to help them develop into the sort of resilient women who would be able to lead whatever the remade Norther Ireland would become.

I don't think she loves them necessarily, but she definitely has no time for the goody two shoes types. I also loved that scene when Jenny and Aisling turn up and nobody else does. Even Aisling realised on that occasion that she and Jenny had misread the runes.

Yes I loved the scene. I think she does secretly have a lot of love for her students though. I’m thinking as well of the scene where all the girls and James come up to do step aerobics with Orla because everyone is laughing at her and sister Michael smiles to herself in the back. I think she pretends to be indifferent but deep down has a lot of affection/concern for the students.

I'm not sure the show will ever top the scene with the kids dancing and laughing on stage as Grandpa Joe puts a hand on Gerry's shoulder. Still gets me in the feels every time. Damn you Cranberries.

Yes, a brilliantly effective ending there.

I'm assuming this final series will end with the Good Friday Agreement. I remember sitting watching a film on TV on the afternoon of Good Friday 1998 and the BBC were scrolling something like 'Breaking News: Peace agreement signed in Northern Ireland' across the bottom of the screen all the way through. It's hard now to think back to those times. I was a child in Scotland when the Troubles started and all through my teens, 20s and most of my 30s the news was dominated by bombings and other horrors in NI or occasionally in England.

I love the dynamics between Joe & Jerry and how Joe always lays into him. But you know if anyone tried to hurt Jerry they'd be in a lot of trouble.

I did love the scene this series where everybody was laying into Mary at the same time wanting something, until she cracked and went on strike, because my God have I felt that. Tommy Tiernan did some sterling work in that episode too. I hope we get to hear more about Mary studying.

It's a very matriarchal show, now I think about it. Mary spends as much time mothering Sarah and Orla as she does Erin and her baby sister (does she even have a name?). Claire has a dad but neither James nor Orla presumably even knows who their bio dad is, and I have the impression Michelle's mum (Pauline?) is a lone parent because some useless fecker fecked off or died or something.

The baby is credited as ‘Anna’ but I don’t think anyone actually calls her Anna or speaks to or about her at all!

Yes funny thing that there’s very few mentions of dads. I think Michelle does have one because her mum mentions them both working shift and not wanting to leave them alone. And Orla has her grandpa’s name so presumably they don’t know the dad/he isn’t involved? He’s never even mentioned either. Not sure about James but Michelle says his mum ‘went to England to get an abortion’ and the family didn’t know she hadn’t. I thought it was a bit rubbish that his stepdad who had presumably raised him was happy for his mum to pack him off to Ireland to live with relatives who were basically strangers.

It was like a mumsnet thread. ‘Aibu to not want my stepson who I have raised for 14 years and went to Dr Who conventions with to be sent away to live in the middle of an unfamiliar country with unknown relatives in the middle of civil unrest because his mum cheered on me?’

But yes I’ve often felt like Mary 😂 it’s when she snaps in a rage and says she’s off for a long bath and Gerry waits a beat and then says ‘there’s no hot water.’ Icing on the cake moment.

I'm pretty sure that both James and Orla were teenage pregnancies fathered by wasters who didn't stick around. Not so uncommon.

I've had a couple of thoughts after listening to the Talking Derry Girls podcast recommended by PP.
Lisa McGee said she didn't want Erin's sibling to have any lines, hence baby Anna. My thoughts on why Mary and Gerry have a baby is to show they all have a sex life. And despite what granda Joe tries to imply they actually have a happy marriage.

Re Orla's dad, is he dead? That's who I thought Aunt Sarah was telling the Clairvoyant she didn't want to hear from. I'll need to watch again, I thought it was an American man???

Yes I wondered if the American soldier? Was Orla's dad