In a little Irish town called Bodkin, there’s this fisherman named Seamus Gallagher, played by David Wilmot, who’s been living there for twenty years. But should we call him Seamus, or by his real identity Jack McFadden, or even the Badger? And why the sudden need for name changes and hiding his true self all this time? What’s he trying to hide? That’s what our trio of podcasters in the new Netflix crime thriller series Bodkin are out to learn. They’re on the hunt to solve the mystery of three people who vanished during the Samhain festival in town which is unsolved for twenty-five years. Could there be a connection between these disappearances and Seamus? Are they all connected? Did he murder them? But hold up, what if Seamus isn’t the culprit? What if he’s just caught up in all this? How would he react when he finds out who’s really behind it all? Let’s solve the mystery together by diving deep into Seamus’s character to learn more about him in the series.
Spoilers Ahead
Who is Seamus?
Seamus was a guy who lived the life of a fisherman in Bodkin. When you first saw him, he looked a bit sneaky, like he was about to do something mischievous. But on the outside, he lived a simple life—nothing to make you not trust the guy. So when Gilbert, Emmy, and Dove came into town to crack the mystery, Seamus welcomed them with open arms. He even got Gilbert to let loose and have some fun by getting him to drink a few drinks and hit the dance floor. Gilbert trusted him, thinking Seamus meant well. But Dove had a hunch. She felt like she knew Seamus from somewhere. And when they found out the three people who disappeared that night were Teddy, Malachy, and Fiona—three people connected to Seamus. When Dove sneaked into Seamus’s house to dig deeper, she hit the jackpot. There was a pile of cash stashed away, photos of Seamus and Fiona together, and an engagement ring in Fiona’s name. It turns out that Malachy was Seamus’s brother, and he had feelings for Fiona too. Maybe Seamus did something terrible to get back at them. And there was a possibility that he might do that, as he had a dark past, you see. He was an eel smuggler, and Interpol was after him for his illegal business with the Spanish. Not only that, his real name was Jack McFadden, but he was popularly known as the Badger. He used to be deep in the smuggling game—drugs, weapons, oil, you name it. The cops were closing in on him, but he ran away and changed his identity to Seamus Gallagher. He didn’t just do it to get away from the cops, though. He was also running from his archenemy, the McArdles gang. See, he’d stolen a bunch of stuff from them and exposed their dirty deeds. So he came to this town, keeping his real name hidden. It turns out he wasn’t the saint he pretended to be.
Why did Seamus help Gilbert?
As Seamus saw that Gilbert and the other podcasters already knew about his connections with Malachy and Fiona, he realized that revealing his name to the outside world would be dangerous for him. It could expose him not only to the police but also to the McArdles gang. So, he wanted Gilbert to keep the truth hidden and not mention or expose his name in the podcast. Seamus knew how to use Gilbert’s innocence and vulnerability to his advantage. He told Gilbert that he knew Gilbert owed money to a guy named Frank, so he offered to pay for him. But instead, he asked Gilbert to hide his identity in the recording. Gilbert saw how Seamus had hidden his money in a tomb in the middle of a forest. Actually, Seamus’s father was a drunkard, and he had spent all their life savings on drinks instead of taking care of his sons. So, after his father’s death, Seamus promised himself he would never die poor and would take care of his family. That’s why, even though he lived a simple life in people’s eyes, deep down, through smuggling and shady business, he had made enough money to get by. When Seamus and Gilbert go to pay back Frank the money, Frank makes a stupid joke that Gilbert should also pay him interest. This joke made Seamus crazy, and you could really see the anger issues the guy had. He slammed his fist in anger and stapled his face so hard that he could never make any stupid jokes again.
Why Did Seamus Want To Kill Gilbert?
Throughout this whole journey, Seamus and Gilbert grew close. Seamus trusted Gilbert, thinking he was a good guy who would help him. He saw how Gilbert exposed the truth about the dead bodies found in Sergeant Power’s car trunk and how Interpol was after Seamus to arrest him for his eel smuggling. But when he saw that one of the dead bodies was Malachy, his brother, but the other one wasn’t Fiona, he thought Fiona might still be alive. Seamus was actually a true lover who wanted to find the truth about Fiona. So he risked his life and went back to the McArdle gang to see if they knew something about her. But it didn’t go well. Instead, he found out he had a son named Sean, with whom he had been running his illegal eel business all this time. Sean was his and Fiona’s son.
Seamus was happy about this, but Sean wasn’t. He was ashamed to call Seamus his father, which hurt Seamus deeply. What broke his heart even more was the fact that Fiona never wanted him to know about Sean being his son because she never wanted Sean to turn out like Seamus. You see, Fiona never really loved Seamus; she was terrified of him. That’s why she ran away the night of the festival to get away from him. The man who lived all alone all this time felt even more lonely, thinking nobody had ever really loved him. He was at least happy with the lie, thinking Fiona was dead. But this truth didn’t sit well with him. And as the police and the McArdles gang were after him, he didn’t fear anything. He held Gilbert at gunpoint, threatening his life because he was angry and tired. Because of his podcast, his life had turned out this way: So, he took Gilbert to the tomb on the night of the festival and shoved the podcast microphone down his throat, knowing that Gilbert had betrayed his trust and had been recording everything he had been saying all this time. He detonated a bomb to end his life. He thought it would be quite ironic—the guy who came to solve the mystery about the disappearance had disappeared himself!
But at the end of the series, after he detonated the bomb, there was no sign of Seamus or the McArdles gang. The only thing exposed in the air were the eels he was smuggling. I mean, Seamus was either about to give away the business to Sean or wanted to disappear, so this wouldn’t be a big deal to him. But the police were still there, shocked by the incident. So, is there a chance that the explosion was all a show just to distract people so that Seamus could disappear once again? After all, he has previous experience in this matter. So, what identity will he take this time? There is also another possibility that, even though he might have fooled the police, he couldn’t fool the McArdles gang and become their captive. What will happen to Seamus? We will find out in the next season of Bodkin.
