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!

Thank god you both got free in the end.

Have to ask: what's boaky tongue?

The most chilling bit last night was when Henry reportedly smirked at Ursula. Presumably he's going to go into school this morning and tell Xanthe that she imagined him hitting her, and that she really ought not to be coming into school when she's so emotional.

silvery its mink nc but still with the Bernard style typos.

There's 2 bits of this storyline I can't get my head round:

1. the whole ursula thing.
2. most farmers are v v v v v v protective of there business. I can't believe that Tom, Pat & Tony would happily pay Rob half Helens salary without a quibble.

Good point silvery. Helen made no remark.about her wages going to Rob although now he has her job I suppose she canmot complain and as she cannot shop even online why would she notice.

At least she is not going to be in the horrific situation seen so often on MN where someone moves in with controlling arsehole bf at19. He takes over all household money and then they are scared to leave because they have never dealt with their own finances and don't realise that it isn't nearly as complicated as their arsehole has been making it out to be.

And who is looking after the CHEESE?

Won't anybody think of the cheese!

I'm another one who is out. Can someone tell me when it's all over?

"They have an unshakeable world view. If they say something is so, then it is so."
"They also take huge risks, supremely confident in their abilities to survive anything."

Donald Trump, yeah?

:(

Are all dv perpetrators psychopaths though? Is this another overdramatisation?

I just feel it's being over egged. I know there are people like him in rl but for education purposes I think a less extreme example would have been better. He is so blatantly a bad un that he will get his comeuppance but maybe a more subtle portrayal would have been better.

I don't know. I'm just really not liking this sl at all anymore

No, Ursula has really done it for me. Too much.

I was thinking along the same lines, BYOS. Psychopaths are rare (outside of US Presidential candidates ). So it feels like they have "overshot" taking Rob from being a self-regarding chauvinist (who naturally wants to dominate in a relationship because his way is the right way) to a psychopath (who literally cannot empathise with the feelings of others, so acts without any guilt about how he affects other people - I'm trying to remember what I learn reading The Psychopath Test but don't real psychopaths actually have a fascination with causing pain to animals and people? As nasty as he is, Rob hasn't been portrayed that way up to now).

I'm leaning towards narcissist as opposed to psychopath, I'm sure Jon Ronson had something to say on them too

No, DDD, that's sadists. Psychopaths don't necessarily get a kick out of causing pain to others, but they are a lot more likely to hurt other people than the rest of us, because they have no empathy. I have no professional expertise in this area but I used to work with people who do, and it does seem increasingly clear that it isn't just people choosing to be nasty, they are genuinely different in their brain architecture*. As with so many other traits, the way they are brought up can have a very powerful protective effect, but clearly Rob was brought up by another master manipulator.

*Experiments have been done using MRI scanners to look at what happens in the brain when psychopaths and non-psychopaths are shown faces with very obvious fearful expressions. The scans show the emotional processing part of the brains of the non-psychopaths immediately reacting to that. It's like a red danger flag - seeing another person in fear overrides everything else, and most of us would immediately spring into action to try to help the fearful person.

However, the psychopaths' brains showed no reaction to fear in another person. This goes a long way to explain why in real life they don't stop doing something that makes another person afraid. They don't understand why they should.

Haven't writers said from start it wasn't really a story about EA or DV? Too many extrapolations that it was. Psychopath will do nicely for me.

(but not in Republican party nominees :( ).

Ugh that sounds like SOC and the SWs are suggesting it's not his fault

? Is being a psychopath a disability ?

A psychopath sl is of zero interest to me and deserves to be on EE

A well written Dv/ea sl would have been better

BYOS couldn't agree more.

I didn't say that psychopaths necessarily derive pleasure from causing pain and my understanding was that sadists are specifically sexually aroused by causing pain.

It's more that, exactly as you describe, because responses such as fear in others don't provide any emotional feedback to a psychopath, they don't feel inhibited about watching others in pain or even applying pain themselves to see the effect. (I'm sure Ronson's book picked up on many psychopaths having spent time tormenting animals in their childhoods).

We don't know for sure that the teacher actually did say anything to Ursula, do we?

Maybe, she told Henry they were going to play a little trick on Mummy and if he played his part properly he'd get some chocolate. Hence the smirking.

Great thread title- I haven't posted for a while as Rob/Helen SL has put me off TA of late. But I am still listening - just! I know this is very old news here but just have to say how happy I am SOC is going!! The announcement coincided with my birthday too 😀👍.

The introduction of Ursula really takes the SL way too far though. I've been listening for 30 years now, and never has there been such a disturbing SL or one given so much air time.

I read that SOC will be around for another 6 weeks or so, does anyone know who's taking over? Also how much longer until Helen's due date? I've lost track

H. was saying other day she's now 7 months pg, so presumably early May at latest for baby to arrive.

Not sure about East Enders... EE seems unrelentingly heavy, dull, taking self seriously. TA still has plenty of daft moments.

I'd like to listen again to the early episodes with Rob on them & see how he sounds, in light of subsequent events. He seemed needy, lonely, moody back then, maybe slightly immoral but only in the weak ways of many.

When are we going to meet the elusive Myles?

As for the rest of it, more comfortable with his "grandmother", cutting Helen off from seeing her mum, unpredicable, volatile, staying to Easter, trouble at school, can't control your moods, good girl, and thank my mum and be subservient!! Ugh.

Please, please, please can we put and end to this.

GADD is 19th May isn't it? Have they moved it forward to fit in with their latest idea?

lljkk - we've discussed dates before and have Helen's GADD (generally agreed due date) as 19 May. However, we've also noticed that in Borsetshire, human gestation seems to follow it's own laws, so who knows when the birth will be?

In any case, Henry was premature, and Helen is at 29 weeks, so birth could happen now....