Episode 3

Amanda Kinsella sits alone with her son's body and cannot bring herself to leave him by himself. A call from Father Scriven about the eulogy sends her to wake Jimmy, and in his room the argument that opens the episode is about who should speak at the funeral: Amanda wants Michael to do it, and Jimmy is not comfortable. Around that private grief the episode runs a second preparation. Amanda meets Noel Lawlor, who hands her the key of a parked car and tells her to move it every few days so that it attracts no attention; she promises to return the favour one day. Jimmy briefs Michael on the layout of Frank Ryan's bar in Smithfield and shows him a photograph of Glen Wright, naming him as the actual triggerman in case he is there. Their informant, Keith Boylan, is the man Jimmy burned in the first episode.

At the funeral, Birdy chides Amanda for arriving late and tells Michael that Amanda is in no state to be making decisions, citing her refusal to let Fudge Flynn and Kem Kemela pay their respects. Eamon Cunningham attends; Amanda is uneasy at his presence, but Birdy persuades her that he has come only to offer condolences. Jimmy delivers the eulogy, dwelling on Jamie's laughter. Outside the church Michael meets Anna, who reminds him that he is not legally allowed near her and tells him she is not interested in anything he has to say, leaving him in tears. Eamon offers Birdy his help and walks away when she suggests he deliver Caolán Moore; outside he makes Michael the same offer.

Eamon is given a private life the series had not shown before. At dinner with his ex-wife, Angela Cunningham, she tells him she has found a lump, that a biopsy showed cancer, and that it is not good. He offers to send her to a specialist; she tells him this is not a problem he can fix.

The resolution is the season's first full set-piece killing, and it is placed on the day of the burial. Keith Boylan reports that Caolán is celebrating at Frank Ryan's bar; Amanda drives Michael and Jimmy there, then goes home to scrub the oven. Michael kills Caolán without resistance, but the back door is padlocked and he cannot get out; he suffers a panic attack that blurs his vision, gets outside, and is seen by Glen Wright, who escapes. Jimmy and Michael burn the car and Michael's clothes in a clearing. Frank learns of the killing in a heated call with Eamon, who accuses him and declares war. The police arrest Michael and Jimmy, and Michael is told by Dr Sam Rooney that he probably has epilepsy and that it can be managed. News reaches Amanda that Caolán leaves two young children. The episode ends with her taking a call from Noel Lawlor's wife, blaming her for Noel's death; the sources consulted do not show the killing or name who carried it out.

The funeral-and-hit structure is the episode's strongest idea: putting the revenge on the same day as the burial and letting the family argue about whether that is right is the series' method in miniature. The padlocked door is the weakest thing in it. It exists to wound Michael's confidence and to let Glen Wright live, and it is the least earned piece of plotting in the hour.

This is where the family argument becomes a war, and where the reviews turn. The Irish Times, under the headline 'The slow-burner finally roars to life', called it what the audience had wanted from the show. It is also the episode in which Michael's epilepsy is diagnosed, a thread that runs to the finale.