SOC reveals he's a quitter whilst Keri sews up plot holes on Twitter about the wicked wife-sitter! Discuss the Archers here.

[PseudoBadger]

Not long until our thread's 3 year birthday!

Me too!

Sorry but I think the Kathy rape story line was just a harrowing, at least as far as I can remember in the lead up to it.
I think this one although painful, has been far more "realistic" that a lot of similar stories on soaps etc. which are often either a quick "he hits her, and within days she has chucked him out etc." Or a melodramatic murder type. And rarely are those involved respectable middle class types.

Don't get me wrong, Real Pat really annoys me but at least she is consistently annoying in line with her character for the last 30+ yrs You put your finger on it exactly! I might just believe Pat's lack of intervention if she lived in another part of the country (like HP to Ruth for instance), but she could walk to Blossom Hill - she has gone from living and working with Helen every day to never seeing her at all. And never mind consistency over 30 years - consistency over the last 12 months would be good. Ursula's manipulation is chilling - if she had just arrived on the scene I might think her a work of genius - but the entire storyline is undermined for me by what went before and the fact that this has never been mentioned since.

I'm going for an Easter weekend birth or other conclusion, since Rob was so passionate about the Easter arrangements for the shop and the family way of life.
Listening tonight I worried that Helen might kill herself to escape. She is clearly at rock bottom. Would that be dramatic enough for SOC...

I ask caught up with Sunday's episode - loved Lillian and Toby. I think Toby should look like Tom Hiddleston

Psuedo I don't think she is at rock bottom. I said this (2 threads ago) that I don't think she understands what is going on. She knows something isn't right, but she can't quite figure it out. She has been so awful to everyone - forcing Rob on them, or she would not let Pat see Henwee. She has been very manipulative, and she has been horrid to her friends. She has also been so smug, about her wonderful marriage. Its hardly surprising that some of her friends can't be bothered.
Pat on the other hand - I really don't buy any of this - that she now thinks the sun shines out of Robs arse.
Ursula - presumably everyone forgot that Rob said he has an awful childhood, and on her previous visit things were very strained. Now Hellin and Pat think she is great.
I know what we can give SOC as a leaving present

Nobody who spent more than one minute with Ursula bitching and dripping poison would think she is great. She is a joy sucking dementor and being in her presence would make me want to throw myself off a cliff. Helen must be paralysed with fear and confusion as she hasn't managed to walk out of the house and go for a chat with her mother about the dreadful imposition of her MIL insisting on being present at the birth. Where is Hully? KILL HER!!

But only Hellin is spending time with her.

Whether or not Helen realises what has happened to her, she now sounds more depressed than the usual arrogant 'I'm in control' attitude she has

I expect that's what people are noticing, one by one. Helen is annoying in her self-confident, self-assured way, even when wrong. Now she sounds defeated, spiritless

Ok - if you said to Pat - 'why won't Rob let Helen out of the house, drive, see her friends' then Pat would have charged to the rescue before you'd even finished the sentence. But that isn't what has been said. What Pat has heard is ' Helen is pregnant, how lovely but of course last time this happened she nearly died, oh dear she is tired, I'd better do everything for her, oops she's so tired whilst being pregnant (and remember she nearly DIED last time) that she's crashed the car so better stop that now and no need for her to come to work every day when she can stay at home and rest and thus reduce the chance of what happened last time (when she NEARLY DIED)...'
Remember Pat is only just over a year away from the awful time when she thought she was losing Tony. She is the mother of a dead child (and this time of year will always be hard for her because of the anniversary) This is the thing with domestic abuse. From the outside, when you have a clear view, nothing is more obvious and more awful but for those on the inside it's much, much harder.

I don't agree btw that the Archers has always forsworn 'soap' stories. The early days of the fifties had all sorts of exotic goings on including an on off relationship for Phil and Grace that rivals anything EastEnders can come up with. Not to mention some saboteur action and the completely thrilling time Uncle Tom blew the head off a poacher who turned out to be Clarrie's uncle.
Jennifer's illegitimate baby was ground breaking stuff and then once he'd arrived he got kidnapped. All time depressing storylines of the past have to include Grace Archer (killed by burning barn), Janet Tregorran (The 1st Mrs T) (killed in car accident), Polly Perks (killed by car accident involving milk tanker) and Mark Hebden (killed in car accident with tree, secondary to Caroline falling off horse and lying in the road)

Don't forget Joe and the ferrets either...........

I think Helen is finally starting to see things aren't the perfect happy family she thought she'd found. She has no idea what to do about it though and I don't blame her. Friends all cut off, mother convinced Rob is Mr Perfect, almost housebound, pregnant, scared, depressed. She's basically hiding and hoping the storm will blow over.

Loved the Toby and Lillian scene. Wonder if Tobes will become her little project. If anyone can bring him down a peg or two it's her!

I hear what you are saying NL but no-one, apart from Kirsty, seems to be thinking straight. Rob says that he's looking after her but the more he 'looks after' her the frailer, flakier and more tired she gets. Kirsty did the compare & contrast to Helen's last pregnancy (most pregnancies, actually) ... and realises that something doesn't stack up.

Kirsty has two huge perspective advantages over pat. Firstly she has no investment in rob at all. She never liked him, it's not her son or grandson who is calling him daddy. Secondly rob has no interest in her at all, he's not going to try and convince her of anything as he sees no need. She isn't important to him because why would a young woman, unrelated to him, without apparent influence or power have any impact on his life with Helen. So for Kirsty what she sees is very stark and clear and still she struggles to deal with it.

I don't think H is scared of Ursula, she has no idea what U has been up to.

I don't think she is fully aware of how horrid Rob is to her, hence getting so upset with Kirsty. I think she thinks she is an awful person for being miserable about being pg. She probably blames the pg for her loss of freedom etc and not Rob.

And the more he 'looks after' her the frailer, flakier and more tired she gets.

Did the same not happen when Pat tried to look after her with annorexia? It probably isn't that different from what they'd expect.

As for the will it was leave everything to T and H because everyone else was provided for. Lill and JD were fine. Tony was gutted.
Peggy realised she was being hideous and split it evenly between all 3 children including Tony.

Excellent posts northern. I don't think Rob has any real.agenda other than always being right and always being better.

As for what might be the normal arc. She would leave. Then miss him. He'd convince her a) he had changed b) it was all partly her fault anyway. She goes back. He's nice for a bit. Then it all starts again. She leaves and repeat.

She already thinks it's her fault, and she's also feeling that she is somehow letting henry down as well. And because she's being fed the line that she's helpless and incompetent she has lost self confidence

I too agree that Helen isn't a rock bottom. I would says she still thinks Ursula is great;she thinks Ursula is on her her side.
A woman at rock bottom doesn't completely deny that there is a problem. She might not feel able to escape it but she admits that it exists. Helen isn't anywhere near that stage.

I'm not listening to the programme and now I find I can't RTFT either. Someone tell me if normality is ever restored.

Hmm maybe rock bottom was wrong. In the depths of despair? I wrote that last night after hearing Helen quietly and reluctantly 'agree' with Ursula about her being present at the birth. For such a control freak, surely she must feel utterly despondent and with no way out?

Kirsty has a third distance in perspective too Northern - the fact that she has recently come back after a long absence. She has missed out on the gradual wearing down and isolation of Helen over along period and sees the stark difference between the Helen who was running Ambridge Organics very cheerfully and competently and a woman who is now a shadow of her former self married to a man who Kirsty and Pat couldn't stand at the time she left - unable to leave the house, drive, work or even answer her own phone.

OK, things have got out of control on the over-infested front. I just woke up from a terrifying nightmare about TA. Needless to say, all about trying to rescue Helen from Knob. Helen had slipped a note in my bag with a plea for help which he then spotted. Ended up with me trying to run - legs not going fast enough etc. This story line needs to stop!!!

Agree Lilian - and Kirsty has seen Rob's menacing side.

Remember when they were in one of Lynda's productions and had to be 'in love' with each other?

I agree about Kirstie.

I had a boyfriend a bit like Rob when I was a teenager. My family thought he was amazing and adored me.

However I was miserable and gradually my confidence was just eroded away.

I ended up having an affair with a friend. I don't know what would have happened to me if I hadn't. It was him and a couple of other friends who knew something wasn't right. I remember being really cross with a friend who asked what had happened as she hadn't seen me for about 6 months and said I had really changed. That my cocky confident self had gone and I was now just really quiet.

My family, who were loving and supportive, would have bee quite happy for me to marry him. My Mum wanted me to be 'looked after'

The more vulnerable I began to appear the more looked after everybody wanted me to be.

Also Kirsty missed the sickening post IOW period where H kept going on about how lucky she was.

And this is why coercive relationships are so dangerous.

What would Helen actually say to Pat?

She doesn't know what's happening to her and if she did, people would just assume that the old Helen would tell him to fuck off.

It's the gradual, imperceptible wearing away that is the danger and the assumption that Helen would never put up with being controlled, given her past behaviour.

I think a really likely outcome is that actually Tom, Shula and Adam will somehow have a conversation where they all twig.