Loxfest is over. Locket-gate is upon us. Discuss Mowgli, Rob's new secret and of course the new road here with other Archers fans.

[PseudoBadger]

New thread for hopefully an exciting Sunday episode. Poor Hayley.

I think if Jess has been in an abusive relationship since she and Rob were teenagers she may well have strange or self-destructive reactions to things. You see threads on here where women are trying to extricate themselves from EA relationships and it's hard for them to disentangle their own needs from the mess of years of trying to please someone who is unpleasable.

I can see enormous EA red flags in the H&R relationship

Good plot development but I found Jess' lines and the actor's delivery of them over-dramatic and unrealistic. No real person would talk like that. "Oh,"(sniffs air) " is that a CHICKEN roasting in the oven?" was laughable.

JMcJ, I thought that too! The idea of entrapment is plausible- not for money or gain. I mean more those destructive couples that get others entangled in their drama only to waltz off into the sunset together.

Blimey you can get a prenatal test for 120 quid on the 'ternet!! Just happenedt to stumble across that info you know

Keri D (the formerly blessed Mr Keri) posted on a FB group to say that the unblessed Vanessa Whitburn never ever used the notorious phrase about SATTC

Keri probably thinks he DOES remember Vanessa saying this but Rob set him right.

I wonder if Rob has been trying to rush the divorce and Jess wanted to make him face up to her pregnancy. I can imagine people on relationships wanting to force their ex to acknowledge their forthcoming child.

It is the second time Jess has tried to warn Helen about Rob. Maybe she really cares about people and wants yo protect Helen, despite everything. Actually she should come on here, I'd have suggested Helen's parents might listen more than Helen would.

Lol deckswabber

Mummytime my memory is hopeless but I think I remember an initial phone call from Rob to Jess where he said "no hurry on the divorce". And then more recent phone calls have been hurrying her and trying to get her to press on. So I don't know what changed in the meantime - she refused to shag him again maybe, or was in some way disobedient?

I thought he might only be pretending to talk to Jess so Helen would think things were progressing but they weren't really

Is that a chicken in the oven Rob, or are you just pleased to see me?

Oh good point. But he usually calls on his own I think? (I may have made this up)

A candidate for the next thread title pseudo?

Oh yes - Jess will go and see pat and tony thus isolating Helen more when she falls out with her parents about it

Re Jess being nuts - it's jealousy - she desperately wants to be with him as seeing him with ow must be unbearable. I've read enough relationship threads on here to know you don't act rationally when your husband walks out on you! Combined with the fact she pregnant she must be all over the place

She must be in the new job - could she afford not to take it up after quitting the old one?

But why did Jess wait til she was seven months gone before telling Knob?

Tactical on her part, or just more inconsistencies from the sws?

Is she 7 months though? She just said "I've got a while to go yet", which could be two months, four months etc (unless I'm misremembering which wouldn't surprise me). Or did she definitely refer to valentines day yesterday? I might need to listen again...

She said Valentine's.

Ah ok - I definitely need to listen again then! Will listen to the film

I thought she said he hadn't been answering her calls. She might have been trying to tell him for a while.
I think she doesn't want him back but resents him playing happy families with someone else.

And I never thought for a moment that he asked her for a divorce. Hence the long engagement.

Following a perusal of the CAB guidance on the law on this area (obsessed? moi?) - as Jess was still married to Rob when the baby was conceived, she can put his name down on the birth certificate as the father and he would have to get a court order to get the name taken off. I assume this would mean DNA testing in the first instance. The legal presumption in the UK is that a married woman's child was fathered by her husband. This applies even if the divorce is through before the birth.

I can see it now. 'Darling, I know the DNA test says I'm the father of little Robina. But you do see, don't you, that what this means is that during that last meeting we had, she must have taken advantage of me somehow. I've been racking my brains and the only thing I can think of is that it was all so stressful that at one point I went to lie down. She must have ... well, taken advantage of me ... oh, this is all so humiliating. You know how heavily I sleep. I can honestly say I have no memory of it, but she took the sperm by stealth, Helen, I swear on my life. You do believe me, don't you, darling?'

'Of course I do, Rob. I know you would never have done anything to hurt Henry or me. Jess is clearly a very disturbed woman who would stop at nothing.'

Haha mimsy Actually, bonkers as tgat sounds, I can totally see Rob coming up with that line. And that's a very good point re assumed paternity in marriage. Gah, I'm almost starting to feel sorry for Helen!

I'm not surprised Jess waited to tell him - he would probably have pressurised her into terminating the pregnancy

PetulaG said: I can see enormous EA red flags in the H&R relationship

yeah I can easily believe they are there, I am grateful that I don't have the experience to recognise them.

That recent call from Jess just before the music......
She said something like 'You'll really want to hear this.'

What we don't know is whether he hung up or had a conversation.
In last night's she said he hadn't answered her calls and he seemed surprised she was up-duffed so it looks like he hung up. A man who had asked for a divorce would probably want to listen to see if she was compliant so I don't think he has sought a divorce.

Possible scenario is that she really did arrive on Valentine's for a romantic surprise having slept with him recently and thought there was a chance of reconciliation. Then saw he'd moved someone else in so she's had 7 months to plan the next step (possibly aided by his mother). That's time to POAS, panic, then find a local job which will give maternity leave and find a place to live within striking distance of him. The timescale fits with his mother's phone call and discovery that Helen is living with him so she might be encouraging Jess.

What the sw's are doing now is teasing us about what she really wants - and what Rob will do faced with the possibility of a child of his own.

\link{http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/legacy/thearchers/2011/01/the_archers_editor_on_the_60th.html\SATTC - VW confirming Mr Keri's version of events}

Who would have thought that SATTC - Shaking Ambridge to the Core - a line coined as part of an obscure BBC policy document in May - would capture the imagination of so many

Mind you she doesn't give authorship of the 'obscure' document...

I think the Rob/Helen storyline has been really well done, in that I don't know whether Rob is really a cheating, lying git, an emotional abuser, or just a bit personally inadequate and someone who likes things done "his way". Enjoying it much more than the Roy/Lizzie storyline which seems to have come out of nowhere and also seems out of character for Roy. Lizzie has always taken what she wanted wherever she found it, so nothing new there.