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?)

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.