Derry Girls – Halloween Review

It is the end of an era: Derry Girls is coming to an end with “Halloween” acting as the last typical episode before the hour-long special.

Fatboy Slim is set to perform a gig at Derry’s Halloween Festival. It’s the hottest event in town and the gang is desperate for tickets. There’s an extra incentive for Clare because Laurie (Vanessa Ifediora), a potential romantic partner is also attending. The adults also have their issues because Sarah has accidentally gotten herself engaged to Ciaran and Gerry is forced to clean up the mess.

“Halloween” wanted to show how close the gang was. They were supportive when one of them was hit with a tragedy. The ending of the episode was the saddest moment the show has produced. The final few minutes of ramped-up emotion with the gang comforting one of their members, Gerry in tears when he met the gang, and a sombre cover of “Praise You” was performed.

A small moment at the funeral that showed some great characterisation involved Jenny Joyce. Jenny has been shown to be antagonistic towards the gang, but she showed compassion towards one of the girls and it was appreciated by the Derry Girl.

Before this tonal shift “Halloween” was a typical episode of Derry Girls. There were a lot of jokes throughout and there was a fair amount of ‘90s nostalgia. It started with the Quinns being shocked by the news of Sarah’s engagement and Erin and Orla whipping out a Talkboy with a doctored audio tape. The Talkboy brought back memories because I had one. The faked tape was similar to The Simpsons episode “The Otto Show” where Bart made a fake tape so Otto could stay with the family.

Michelle was the rabble-rouser in the episode. She caused a lot of the actions in the episode because she antagonised a big and scary Fat Boy Slim fan and tried to make James fight him, and she went on TV where she humiliated her cousin. Michelle’s appearance on TV felt like a call back to the Season One finale where she pretended to be ‘the wee lesbian’ so she could get the attention. I found it particularly amusing that the TV host showed more sympathy to Michelle when she said James was English.

Orla had a fun call back to the episode “The Ukrainian.” In that episode she got to enjoy a chocolate fountain at a house party, whilst in “Halloween” Orla got excited at seeing sweets and crisps in a VIP area. Other humorous moments were people’s reactions to the gang’s costumes, the parents trying to figure out a way to fit the gang into a mini, and when Sarah, Mary, and Joe pressured Gerry into breaking off the engagement with Ciaran. Sister Michael’s appearance in the episode felt shoehorned in because she had run into the gang at a café. Yet she had some of the funniest lines in the episode with her brief appearance.

Emmett J. Scanlan was one of the guest stars in the episode. Scanlan usually plays a big scary hardman like in Hollyoaks, Peaky Blinders, and Lapwing. He plays another scary hardman but in Derry Girls it was played for laughs. Scanlan showed he had good comic timing and an impressive rage face.

As a standalone episode “Halloween” was a decent offering of Derry Girls. It was funny and highlighted the bond between the gang.