Derry Girls special review: It's time to move on – for the girls, and for Derry
Louisa Clare Harland and Saoirse Monica Jackson in the special episode of Derry Girls.
Knowing when to say goodbye is never easy, especially for a show as successful as Derry Girls.
The list of TV shows that have outstayed their heydey is as varied as it is long, and it must have been tempting for creator and writer Lisa McGee to try hang on.
To her credit, she hasn’t let the show's astounding success thwart her three-series plan – and thank god for that, because we couldn’t have envisioned a more fitting ending.
Tonight’s hour-long special opens with Orla (Louisa Harland), who is just about to turn 18, registering to vote.
“Read this before the vote,” she is instructed, as a copy of the Good Friday Agreement is pushed across the desk.
“Is it any good?” she asks, “Because I’ve just read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and..” she mimics having her mind blown.
“It’s not as good as that,” the man behind the counter smiles, handing over her electoral ID card. “Use it wisely."
As the familiar notes of Sunchyme by Daio G begin to play, we see what the rest of the gang are up to. Erin (Saoirse Monica-Jackson) is reading Shakespeare, James (Dylan Llewellyn) is editing videos of the gang (with a special smile reserved for Erin's close-up's), Michelle (Jamie-Lee O’Donnell) is working in Dennis' Wee Shop, and Clare (Nicola Coughlan) is heading off to a new school having moved to nearby Strabane following her dad’s shocking death at the end of Season 3.
Meanwhile, the rest of the McCool/Quinn clan is at home, marvelling at the wonders of modern invention (the microwave) and trying to understand The Agreement.
“I’ve read through the introduction 30 bloody times, I am still none the wiser,” Granda Joe (Ian McElhinney) complains.
Unsurprisingly, the Agreement is the focus of tonight’s episode, as the Derry Girls are faced with the question of a generation – and find that they don’t all see eye to eye.
About a third of the way into tonight’s episode, a fiery comeback from Dennis (Paul Mallon) offers some insight as to why Michelle, in particular, seems so on-edge about the upcoming vote.
“If I was your Niall, I’d be begging them to let me finish my stretch, nothing could be worse than sharing a house with you,” he quips.
It turns out Michelle’s brother is doing time for killing someone during the conflict – and his little sister is hoping he’ll be freed if the agreement passes.
Erin, however, is not so sure that’s fair. “He killed someone,” she says, in an argument that seems set to sever ties between best friends.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen the way it did,” Michelle protests.
“I am sure the man’s poor family takes great comfort in that,” Erin fires back.
“These things, they’re not black and white Erin.”
“I think the fact that you shouldn’t kill people is pretty black and white.”
There are plenty of laughs courtesy of our favourites. For instance, Dennis with his impeccable comebacks (when a child asks for some dark chocolate for his mam he responds ‘tell your mam to eat it in the dark’); Uncle Colm’s (Kevin McAleer) tale about the man who swallowed his ballot whole (“People thought he was trying to make some political statement but that wasn’t the case at all – Tommy was just an awful man for the paper"; and the moment when Sister Michael (Siobhán McSweeney) reminds the girls of the importance of exercising their right to vote. This is quickly followed up by a reminder: “On the other hand, and I can’t stress this enough, I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in any of your other so-called rights.... Our Lady Immaculate is not a democracy, it is a dictatorship.”
Ardal O’Hanlon stars as cousin Eammon, Bronagh Gallagher stars as singer The Commitment and Liam Neeson returns as Chief Constable Byers, but the most bizarre one is Chelsea Clinton. Yep, the episode ends with Chelsea Clinton receiving a long-lost letter in the post from the Derry Girls – offering James up for experimentation when she’s in Derry...
They squeezed a lot into this final episode. I Know Where It’s At by All Saints, Feels Like Heaven by Urban Cookie Collective, Virtual Insanity by Jamiroquai, Don’t Speak by No Doubt, Would You...? By Touch & Go, Dance The Night Away by The Mavericks, Firestarter by The Prodigy, So Young by The Corrs, Linger and Dreams by The Cranberries all make it in.
Derry Girls ends as it should – with the gang leaving their adolescence behind, as Derry leaves behind some of its darkest days.
The final moments of the show feature a montage of the main characters in the polling booth – all of whom mark an X in the ‘yes’ box, as old archival footage from the period plays.
Iconic quotes from John Hume and Margaret Thatcher are interspersed with voiceover from Erin.
“There's a part of me that wishes everything could just stay the same,” she says.
“A part of me that doesn’t want to grow up. I am not sure I am ready for it.
“But things can’t stay the same – and they shouldn’t.
“We have to move on, and we have to grow up, because things, well they might just change for the better.”
As The Cranberries' Dreams plays in the background, we hear the announcement that changed the course of Irish history forever.
“Yes, 71.12%… an overwhelming majority... the people of Northern Ireland have spoken... the country has taken its first step into the future.”
