Redeeming 6

Joey broke her heart to save her from himself

Joey has dumped Aoife on Christmas Day to protect her from his spiraling drug use.

Joey broke her heart to save her from himself

Joey has dumped Aoife on Christmas Day to protect her from his spiraling drug use. Two weeks into sobriety, he phones her from work at Tony Molloy's garage, unable to resist hearing her voice. She answers with acid sarcasm, demands he either take the breakup back or stop calling, then hangs up. His phone had been confiscated by little brother Tadhg to keep him from contacting his dealer Shane Holland. Meanwhile, Aoife serves drinks at The Dinniman pub, where Joey's father Teddy makes revolting sexual advances from his barstool — propositions she deflects with steel-spined defiance. Their breakup hangs over them like a held breath: Joey too ashamed to return, Aoife too proud to beg. But neither can stop reaching for the other.

A party reunion conceals a life-altering accident

A group of Tommen College rugby boys — Gibsie, Hughie, and Patrick — track Joey down at the GAA pitch wanting to buy weed for their injured captain. Joey sells his personal stash for two hundred euro, money his starving siblings desperately need. That same evening, Casey drags a heartbroken Aoife to a party at Hughie's house, where Joey has also turned up. Casey slaps Joey across the face, accusing him of flirting with Shannon's friend Lizzie. When Aoife gives him an ultimatum — choose her or let her go — Joey folds without a fight. They reconcile passionately, have sex in the Biggs' bathroom, and steal a bottle of champagne. Aoife vomits all night from the champagne. Neither realizes her birth control has been compromised.

A newspaper photo triggers another beating in the Lynch kitchen

Shannon starts at Tommen College and, for the first time, builds a social life — spending days with Claire Biggs and Lizzie Young, coming home late with a spark in her eyes Joey has never seen. But the Lynch home remains a pressure cooker. When a newspaper photo surfaces of Shannon alongside rising rugby star Johnny Kavanagh, Teddy beats her face purple. Joey intervenes, and a vicious fist fight erupts in the kitchen. That night, Joey climbs through Aoife's bedroom window, rigid and mute with pain. She holds his scarred hands in the dark and asks what he sees when she looks at him. Through the silence, he whispers that he sees her. She tells him what he really sees is love.