The Archers. No need to share the thread with anyone else darling, we can have a lovely time just us together. It must be Henry's bedtime.

[PseudoBadger]

New thread for the Omnibus.

Boudin blanc and boudin noir sounds so much nicer than 'black and white pudding' doesn't it?

I wouldn't eat either if I was starving actually. I understand Hell's reaction.

Iam and never have been anorexic BTW in case anyone's wondering!!

Huge BOOP for that episode - I thought it explained a lot. Pat is highly attuned to warning signs from Helen, but is pussyfooting around because she knows what happened last time. She is terrified that the eating disorder has come back, but knows Helen won't listen to her. She genuinely hopes she might listen to Knob - she hasn't realised what a Knob he is because Helen keeps telling her he's great and she's been the subject of general smarm from him (such as the reassuring phone call which she took to be just that!) Knob, as usual, hasn't got a clue what he's talking about. He knows nothing about eating disorders - that all predates him. All he cares about is edging Tom out of the shop - he doesn't want Helen to like the black pudding because he doesn't want it to be a success and he wants her on side. It suits his purposes that she won't touch it - she's doing as she's told as far as he is concerned. He doesn't want her to be anorexic, but he has no idea what the signs are (just as Helen's family didn't spot them straightaway the first time round - now they know what to look for!). Pat needs to talk to Kirsty and possibly Ian (though that's a less likely meeting). Tom needs to have a blow up with Knob so that Pat can see his true colours. Pat's antennae are twitching though which is a good start.

Pat's antennae are twitching though which is a good start

Yes to this, cross fingers.

Far too much snogging going on at the moment for my liking, that needs to stop, it never sounds good on radio.

ALL snogging needs to stop.

Helen will also have ++ketones in her urine, no mention of that yet, and that should be covered at next midwife appointment.

All he cares about is edging Tom out of the shop - he doesn't want Helen to like the black pudding because he doesn't want it to be a success and he wants her on side.

Abso-boudin-lutely!

He has no clue and, to my ears, actually sounded scared for a second last night when Pat was talking to him. As if he'd stepped confidently to the edge of the cliff and then seen the ground falling away beneath his feet ...

He was 'thrown' for a moment by Pat's concern but is now intent on turning her away from her 'interfering' family which suits his purpose of taking power in the business.
He does understand about eating disorder though, I think, and his comments about her size are designed to drive her further. God knows why.
Kirsty commented that she was thin. Only Rob says she's big.

I agree Lillian
.he is as always overconfident and I think he will have a monumenral freakout when the birth of baby knob inevitably does not go as planned.

I think the digs about Helen's weight are deliberate - he knows her weak spots - but he doesn't realise how dangerous the game he is playing is. He just thinks she is insecure about her weight (which he can use) and maybe now and again she goes on a bit of a mad diet nit that she might actually starve herself to death.

Agree that he doesn't actually know what he's doing wrt the eating disorder and the shop.

I can't see why he thinks he can get any control of the family business though. Even with Helen dead he is outnumbered and doesn't have the sympathy of 'he's just looking after helen'.

He's either going to get found out big time when Helen gets blue lighted to hospital or the sw have cocked up and don't actually know where this is going

His comments about her size are because he is nasty and because she does have a baby bump and because he knows saying that will upset her. He is too stupid to realise that she has a baby bump because she is pregnant and that he needs to look at the other bits of her to determine whether she is losing weight. I think he is completely clueless, has no idea what he is dealing with and because he is so over-bearing and bossy he is too arrogant to bother to find out. He thinks if he can remove every other influence from her life then he can be in control, what he doesn't understand is that her eating is the only area of life where Helen can exert control and that is why she has stopped eating - every time he tries to control she renews her resolve not to eat. Pat understands and this is why she has backed off - she thinks if she pushes Helen she will exacerbate the situation. She hopes Helen will listen the Knob - Pat thinks Knob has Helen's best interests at heart. She has no idea what is happening at home because Helen is doing everything she can to cover it up. It is terrifying.

I'm listening to The Forsytes on R4 at the moment. Chilling parallels.

(Particularly as I'm old enough to have caught glimpses of the long ago TV series - as well as having read the whole thing in my twenties.)

Do hope Helen isn't listening. It would kill her.

Lillian - spot on, I think. As I said upthread a bit, he's really not that bright. He has't a clue what he's got into. He controlled and manipulated Jess until her dad fell ill and she managed to get away (after their brief attempt at a reconciliation). Jess doesn't have an ED as far as we known, and she was never pregnant with Rob. He's in unknown waters now and has no clue about how dangerous his behaviour is for both Helen and the baby.

for Jessie too - what lovely news! First one?

I did notice that Kirsty (?) is still trying to text Helen. It's odd that Helen hasn't set her mobile to silent - or does Rob check in on her throughout the day?

Pat & Tony have more or less retired, though this is hazy, and have handed control to Helen and Tom. Rob sees this as meaning he has half of Helen's half and all of that if he can get it. This may be looking too far into the future but Helen's share will presumably pass to Henry and Knobspawn so Knob covered that possibility by getting the PR thing so he can 'look after Henry's interests'.
I don't think Rob really cares whether Helen lives or dies. From his point of view he's already well positioned if she dies but she's still useful if he can align her against Tom and get more money out of Peggy.

Already in his head it will come down to whether he can dominate or, better still, eliminate Tom. He's dominated him before when Tom got into debt and will use this as a sign of his superiority. Now he's trying to undermine Tom's enterprise and will be trying to turn Helen against Tom. He's already acting as though he and Helen have a vote each and is trying to treat Tom as an underling.

I have no idea where Johnny figures in all this and I doubt if Tom allow himself to be dominated all that easily. The key is Pat and how much she and Tony have actually handed over. Bridge Farm set up is always irritatingly vague.

I don't think he wants Helen to die - I think that's far from his mind. He probably thinks anorexia is just a silly women's slimming disease - nothing too serious. He wants to be in charge in whatever he does - in charge at home, dominating Helen and in charge at work so that means elbowing Tom and Helen out of the way and bossing and belittling Fallon and Emmur too. I doubt he's even properly considered Johnny yet, but obviously he will be another family member to be ridden roughshod over when the times comes (what has happened to Johnny by the way - he doesn't even get mentioned any more?) I think there may be parallels with Helen and Jess - once Jess had left Ambridge there seemed to be an attempt by the SWs to rewrite history with her mad sounding phone calls, false pregnancy accusations and Knob trying to say she was unhinged. I think its fair to say she probably was and that he unhinged her - hence the "You have no idea what you are getting into" comment from Jess to Helen, but there was never any sign of that when she was in Ambridge - I think it was something the SW's decided in hindsight once they saw where they were going with the Hel Knob storyline.

FGS Hell stop being so proud and ashamed about her 'choice' of man. Because I think that's what this stupidity is about , she's old enough to realise that her family will help her not blame her for lying to them.

I've said before that he has no idea what he has got in to with Helen and her history. It could be a good thing (her inner stubbornness and singleminded-ness will defeat him) or a bad thing (he pushes the wrong buttons without even knowing it and it ends in tragedy)

I don't think he 'wants' her to die but I don't think he would be grief stricken if she did so long as his son survived.
He's brilliant at projecting a caring image to the world and his standing in the community would be enhanced if he were a widower.

But Jess also said she slept with him because he has a certain attraction to her. We don't see that with Helen at all - I would have thought we would see some times where she feels she has some freedom from him (and is grateful to him) or has a really good time with him and then questions if he's really that bad. All we see at the moment is bad

There is a definite difference between how he chooses to behave and how he wants people to see him.
So he wants to be seen to be treating his pg wife well but in reality actually caring is way too much effort.
Also he will be scared that she will leave him (everyone does) so control comes before everything else.

I'm sure the SWs haven't gone into it to this depth but he was less desperate when he was with Jess. He had a job. An appropriate job with a decent salary. So he had some freedom to arrange his life without too much ducking and diving. Now - he's entirely dependent on whatever he can cadge or embezzle from a locally influential family. And most of it comes through a wife he's having to grind down to nothing so he can take what rightly belongs to her. He must expend a lot of energy trying to maintain the illusion of "world's greatest husband".

I think the problem with the sl is that they haven't planned it outside it shows

Without his wife he wouldn't find it so easy to manipulate Tom, Pat etc. Helen acts as a buffer - they are prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt for her sake, he can pass off his worst ideas as being hers (or at least as being shared by her) if Helen weren't there he would be much more exposed. He needs to have Helen there and on side - he wouldn't last long without her.

Perhaps Knob does realise that the baby will take what it needs and it's actually Hellin that will suffer from the ED. If he can make it so that her urine is either not tested or explained away (in terms of ketones ++) this could easily carry on without anyone spotting it.