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[PseudoBadger]

Chocolate Chip cookie anyone?

I think it was ambiguous as to what happened ...as first I thought he was just going to rip her dress.

But if he did force her to have unprotected sex, having plied her with enough booze to sink a skinny woman , one who had already said she'd have a baby with him "one day" then absolutely it was rape.

I too would really like this to be a decent Women's aid, Freedom Programme storyline. I think both actors, the best in TA right now, have the ability to make a good job of it providing the script is decent. Are you listening SOC?

I think they've been building up to this for years, and are going to carry on the escalation over a realistic timescale, too, with Rob starting to hit Helen when she is pregnant and start financial abuse once she has stopped working. If the scriptwriters are kind, she will disclose the abuse to her midwife, otherwise the storyline might go on for a long time. TA tends not to go for quick resolutions.

I didn't think Thursday's episode was ambiguous and last night certainly wasn't.
The only chink of light I can see is that Pat was one of the few people in the village to know about Kathy's rape. Is it possible that Helen might have put two and two together about that and be able to use that as a way in to raise this with her mum?
I agree Rob wanted to know if she'd been out because of the morning after pill.

Sorry forgot one thing - Helen had pre-eclampsia with Henry. That may or may not occur again but even if it doesn't she's likely to find pregnancy very anxiety provoking, just making her all the more vulnerable. And what would Rob do if she miscarried.......

"he treats the listeners as stupid"

This. Absolutely this.

I think it was left a little bit ambiguous to allow Helen room to have doubt in her mind as people in her situation often do but her reaction was very strong even after he was trying to act all fine about it later which suggests several things
Including her being quite clear that what he did was not right. So hopefully this points to her being more aware of his behaviour from now on. How she reacts is another matter.

The whole evening was masterfully set up by Rob - buttering up Helen's parents, the getting her to talk about her insecurities, her difficult past, showering her with love and attention.

Although the whole thing felt false and contrived, the shivers went down my spine when he said that he had seen her in the playground and that he had wanted to kill the man who gave Helen her child. AND SHE SAID NOTHING.

From the content of last night's episode we can now assume that something happened to make her withdraw that consent but it's hysterical to call people 'rape apologists' because it was unclear what Helen might have meant when she said 'Rob?'

This. I was unsure (on Thursday night) whether he had forced himself on her or had died in the saddle.

Pat doesn't know about the time Rob was all set to bring in a different breed of beef cattle, does she? Or about his general sneers at organic farming. Let's hope Tom remembers it all when he makes his inevitable bid for a stake in the farm.

I've been pondering over the vacant position at the mega dairy.

So far suggested:

Pip (unrealistic but possible).

Helen (no).

How about Adam? Who surely does have the necessary theoretical and practical experience. Charlie could make a neat argument that the place could hardly not be run on environmentally and ethically sound principles if Adam was in charge ...

And then ... There's Debbie. I don't watch or follow much TV / celeb gossip so have no real idea "where" TG is now, professionally speaking - but I have the impression she's not unreachably elsewhere right now. And SOC loves bringing people home. I wonder if Damara Capital / the BBC could afford her.

Tamsin Greig is a very good actress (sorry actor) with a good comic touch and a distinctive voice so I do wish she would return to her Aldridge persona - if only to have less of the annoying Pip (who after 3 days decided she did not want this new superjob she was raving on about) who should be grateful she has 'running' Brookfield herd as her stop gap (while Ruth looks after HP )

She's lived with him for well over a year & married him. She probably figured the romantic setting was a prelude for sex which she might not have felt like but she was willing to go upstairs for their normal sex.
He started to do something which she regarded as aberrant and, from her tears next morning, must have been very upsetting for her and probably painful and humiliating.
Obviously he forced her to comply and that's the point at which it turned to rape. I suspect he can only 'perform' enough to get her pregnant by being brutal.

enoch I've not wanted to actually say it, as it seems too horrible, but I wondered if Rob had picked up something to use on her (hence the questioning, disbelief) and that's why she was so upset.

I think it's a matter of time before rob brings up suicide to manipulate her into 'behaving'. She was so open with him, and now he knows exactly how to play her.

I don't think she will have got pregnant though and that will annoy him even more.

I did make the point that, despite it being highly likely, based on what we heard, especially the 'rob?' you couldn't definitely call it rape. It was just too ambiguous. And let's face it, they have form for dropping massive hints and signposts about things that you never hear of again. I haven't listened to last night's yet so I'm glad to hear they didn't just abandon the SL. But awful that any ambiguity has now disappeared. Hateful though Helen is, no-one deserves that . I hope this doesn't carry on too long. Realistic though that would be its horrible to listen to.

enoch 'I suspect he can only 'perform' enough to get her pregnant by being brutal.'

You're forgetting Jess saying how irresistible he is and Helen hinting about the fantastic sex to Pat. I don't think he needs to be brutal to get it up, but I suspect he enjoys it more. Oh god, it's all just too horrible.

I don't think Helen will tell anyone for a long time. She will be worried at looking a fool after gushing about her wonderful relationship.

I think Rob will get found out by others starting to put the pieces together - Shula/Jim/David/Jennifer/PC Burns etc and then it will come out about what has been happening to Helen.

Those were two such horrid episodes. I am finding it very hard to listen to at the moment.

So, current mysteries:

What happened to the sinkhole?

Who blocked the culvert?

Where's Scruff?

What's become of Stefan?

What happened in Brighton?

Has Rob fiddled the Berrow Farm books?

Rob?...

He wants her pregnant asap so that he can bind her and her family to him, get more influence at Bridge Farm, and ideally get more of Peggy's chequebook favours.

I think Kirsty might be the key to this. She knows Helen and she has never trusted Rob. She is also close to Pat.

gruach as far as I can remember the sinkhole only existed in our minds. There was a lot of talk of water being where it shouldn't and not being where it should and we suspected sinkhole.

What's happened to Route B?

Ah. Fair point. I suppose.

Isn't the Route B business progressing with Jenny, Lynda and whoever else intermittently uncovering road disabling skulduggery?

Actually - no.

It's not the name of the phenomenon that constitutes a mystery but its evolution and resolution.

David and Jill found a hole. Others remarked on unusual water activity. Why? It's hardly my area of expertise but if the anomalies were intended to warn us of the coming flood then surely that should have been made obvious?

my tiny tuppence:

It's totally opaque what happened Thursday night. Maybe H was or wasn't assaulted, she certainly is very unhappy about something, though. I'd love a plot twist like she turns into scariest bunny boiler ever & we all end up feeling sorry for the Knob. Maybe the plot line will go a bit like The Girl on the Train.

But he never got Jess pregnant. She wasn't as vulnerable as Helen and might not have been as malleable.
He's irresistible, good looking, suave, says all the right things to get a woman interested and no doubt a good enough lover but not, so far, potent.

BTW, he told Pat a long time ago that he knew about Helen's fragility, implying that he knew about her past with Greg and her eating disorder.

He has often made much of her fragility. I thought but may have imagined it that Pat may have said something about it a long time ago.

I also think it isn't clear what happened. The only thing that is clear is that they were downstairs, something unexpected happened. (I think the actress might have been aiming for a different effect than the one we picked up)
He says he got carried away. He says he ripped her dress off. And she was upset about what ever hapened to the point of tears and also being wobbly and a bit distant all night at the opera (shame Ian wasn't there) so it must have been vad as she was unable to go into her usual denial)

He also gaslighted her about telling her she had had too much to drink when in fact he was telling her to drink more.

He's not irresistible, we all spotted him as a Number one creep no problem (so did Kirsty & Ian...). Did he rip the dress? But she wore it to the opera, right?