Smother review: Second-last episode sees a change in attitudes to new hero Finn
Dervla Kirwan as Val and some of the other cast members in a scene from Smother, on RTÉ.
Co Clare’s biggest whodunnit reaches its penultimate episode with Finn suddenly transformed from villain to hero. Picking up immediately following a violent break-in at her remote home where she was rescued by Finn, Val is now convinced she’s been wrong all along about the newcomer, whose arrival to Ireland coincided with a chaotic time for the Ahern family.
With Jenny smitten, her siblings grateful and family matriarch Val now willing to have Finn stay in her house for her protection, the Aherns are buying their new-found saviour - but are TV audiences?
Lahinch’s top garda certainly isn’t, and is very keen to know why the Mancunian visitor was hanging around Val’s home in the dead of night in the first place. There are more reveals playing out in a series that has a distinctly soapy feel as it approaches its conclusion.
Elaine suspects her younger son knows just who spiked the drink that resulted in the recovering alcoholic causing a serious car accident. Jenny’s back working in the local GP practice whether its boss likes it or not, while Ingrid is still suspicious of Finn’s motives in taking Callum under his wing.
Alanna (Cork actress Hilary Rose), already on the radar of viewers for her sneaky ways, becomes firmly implicated in the Aherns’ downfalls when she makes her feelings for Val clear: “That f***ing woman. She’s as tough as nails. She deserves everything she’s got coming to her.”
Suspicions are raised further when the guards tell Val of a car driven towards and away from her house late every night resembling that driven by Frank and Alanna.
Deeply disturbed by this development, Frank confronts Alanna and tells her he’s pressing pause on their relationship, which sends the already temperamental woman into full-on panto queen mode. Charging into Val’s home as she’s hosting a family dinner, she reveals the matriarch knew of Finn’s existence all along, to the collective shock and fury of all of his newfound siblings.
It remains to be seen whether we’ve been thrown a few red herrings or whether Finn remains the destructive force he’s widely expected to be. A flashback prison scene and a late-episode confrontation with a local hoodlum certainly suggests he’s manipulating at least some of the misery that is raining down on the Aherns.
The knives are out, the stakes are high and Smother’s cast and crew have a lot of reveals to get through for next week’s much-anticipated finale.
