If you’re trying not to antagonise a ruthless drugs lord, stealing his drugs with a value of €50 million is probably not the way to go about it.
But in many respects, the stage has already been set by two warring crime families as we reach episode five of Kin – and in this instance, a massive haul of drugs proves impossible to resist.
Dublin’s family of avengers – crime clan the Kinsellas – are assembling for the series endgame, and gunning in their turf war for top criminal rival Eamon Cunningham (Ciaran Hinds). He reflects all of us in his response to the audacious €50 million theft on hearing the news: “You’re f**kin’ joking me”.
Michael (Charlie Cox) is also taking the tough approach in an ominous threat to harm the son of a leading associate of Cunningham’s. “Unlike Jamie, your son can wake up tomorrow with his whole life ahead of him. That’s up to you,” he says.
As the stress levels increase for Aidan Gillen’s patriarch and his family, so does the cocaine and alcohol intake, which leads to increasingly risky judgement calls.
Meanwhile, all this underworld activity has put the family firmly on the radar of the authorities. And episode five gives us the strongest indication yet that Amanda (Claire Dunne) will become a central player in the Kinsella crime family.
She’s also feeling the heat from the police, who have indicated their intention to take down the entire family business.
Amanda feels that Frank’s son, Eric, who has already been implicated by police in a shooting, should hand himself in.
Frustrated at the approach her own husband is taking to the ongoing drama, Amanda has started taking matters into her own hands in her dealings with leading players on both sides of the feud. It’s a gamble that’s likely to have dramatic consequences as the finale approaches.
Cunningham is determined to bring the Kinsellas to task. “Forget about going after their friends and their lackies. Michael Kinsella, Jimmy Kinsella, Eric Kinsella, Frank Kinsella. They’re the ones that I want,” he says, going full kingpin and effectively ordering a hit on the entire family. “There’s €500,000 for whoever clips any of them.”
Broody and dark in tone throughout, Kin has sometimes felt that it’s relying too heavily on setting itself up for the big finale, and episode five leans into this approach more than ever.
That may entrench people who already have their doubts about the show, but Kin has marched to its own beat in a way that has shaken off many of the usual tropes of the TV crime drama. Audiences will ultimately decide for themselves if the payoffs are there as the series reaches its conclusion over three more episodes.
