What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?

Jake was ostracized because he played a role in his daughter Grace's suicide. The family holds him responsible for her death, making his presence at Nig's funeral uncomfortable and causing the family to reject him despite his grief over losing Nig.

Sonny learned that Grunt, the Black Hawks' leader, had deliberately set Nig up during the raid on the Black Snakes. This betrayal, that Nig was killed because his own leader orchestrated the situation, fueled Sonny's vow to kill Grunt.

Sonny and Tania robbed a bank to fund their revenge against the Black Hawks. They used the stolen money to pay Apeman, the Black Snakes' leader, to attack the Black Hawks, essentially hiring rival gang members to strike at Grunt's crew.

After receiving payment from Sonny and Tania, Apeman refused to honor the bargain. He sexually abused Tania as a brutal display of power, betraying the deal and violating her, which ultimately pushed Tania and Sonny to take direct action against Grunt themselves.

Tania was killed in retaliation for the killing of Grunt. After Sonny and Tania murdered Grunt, the Black Hawks retaliated, Tania was murdered and Sonny was brutally beaten, leaving him near death before Jake rescued him.

After being barred from the pub and losing his girlfriend due to his constant fighting, Jake befriended two construction workers who taught him healthier ways to relate to people, showing him the rewards of honest work and camaraderie without dominance. This new support network helped Jake evolve enough to fight through the gang war and rescue Sonny.

Earlier scenes show Jake's loneliness and drinking set the stage for his eventual openness to change.

After Tania was killed and Sonny was beaten nearly to death, Apeman planned to decapitate Sonny and present his severed head as a peace offering to the Black Hawks, attempting to end the gang war by sacrificing Sonny to their rival gang.

Nig was killed during a Black Hawks raid against their rivals, the Black Snakes. However, it was later revealed that Grunt had set Nig up, deliberately placing him in a dangerous position that led to his death, making it a calculated betrayal rather than a random act of violence.

Jake's girlfriend left him because his constant brawling and violence made him unreliable and dangerous to be around. His pattern of getting into fights at McClutchy's Bar eventually led to him being barred, and this instability drove her away.

The boar hunting trips with his new construction worker friends represented Jake's first experience of healthy camaraderie without violence or dominance. These outings helped him learn to form genuine friendships and find purpose outside of fighting, contributing to his redemption arc.

The summary indicates Jake was involved in his daughter Grace's suicide, though the specific details of how he contributed are not fully explained in the provided text. This involvement is the reason his family ostracized him and why attending Nig's tangi was so painful for him.

The gang war escalated through a chain of retaliations: Nig's death triggered Sonny's revenge, which led to the bank robbery payoff, which led to Apeman's betrayal and assault, which led to Grunt's killing, which led to Tania's death and Sonny's beating, and finally to Jake's rescue. Each act of violence fueled the next, creating an unstoppable cycle.