Out, damned SOC! Out I say! When will Ambridge be free? Discuss The Archers here

[PseudoBadger]

A once-great soap is going down the Beverley drain.

What's going on with the leak / rising damp at Grange Farm? Is Stefan's corpse blocking some sort of underground stream??

I suspect that was meant to be some sort of threat, maybe along the lines of letting Ian know that if he gives evidence for Helen, Rob will make sure all the horrid truth about Adam comes out.

I heard the last 3 mins of tonight's episode. Rob's behaviour towards Adam was nothing short of senseless bullying. Perhaps Ian and Adam will discuss the conversation and realise that they have both been victims of his behaviour.

Rob is trying and failing to ingratiate himself in the social life of the village - nobody wants to drink with him apart from Harrison who had to pull out when it was just them. He tried to persuade Adam and Ian to go for one but Adam told him Ian was acting as character witness then rob said something homophobic and made some veiled threat (about what?)
Fallon has no time for him.

As I understand the present position:

1. Adam and Ian have been a couple for a long time and clearly both expected the relationship to be exclusive and monogamous long before they became civil partners (and then got married).

1. Ian has to the best of our knowledge kept to that agreement.

1. Adam hasn't. He had a ONS with a picker, Pawel, a few years back, and then got emotionally involved with Charlie, ending up snogging him at the New Year's Ball at Lower Loxley.

1. Adam has never told Ian any of this. As far as we know, Ian knows nothing about Pawel and although he had some concerns about Adam and Charlie he didn't know about the snog till Rob told him.

1. Rob was able to tell him because Helen had (extremely stupidly) confided in him that she had seen A and C entangled in the shrubbery (as it were). Rob told her not to talk to Adam or Ian about this, so she didn't.

1. Rob hates Ian. It's partly homophobia and partly a grudge because Ian punched him a while back. He also hates Adam and Charlie. Charlie was his boss and in Rob's skewed world view failed to show sufficient respect and awe for Rob's superb managerial ability (with good reason, IIRC). So he was delighted to be able to hurt all three of them. He took an opportunity to drop into conversation with Ian the fact that Helen had seen the snogging incident. Ian pretended he had known about but Rob I think knew this was not true. He did this at Adam and Ian's stag night in the hope that the wedding might be called off - it wasn't but it caused Ian a lot of heartache.

1. Ian withdrew from his friendship with Helen (which of course Rob had also been hoping for) and eventually told Helen why. He has never told Adam.

Adam is surely not so afraid of having his philandering made public that he would let his cousin go without a character witness? Brian weathered his huge storm and now it's Adam's turn. That's what I hope, anyway.

It could be that because Rob himself is so homophobic, he totally overestimates the degree of scandal his "revelations" about Adam could cause.

I keep checking this thread to see if this storyline is over yet but it's obviously not. I also couldn't stand the new Pip so the future doesn't sound good. Twenty five years of listening and it's never been this ludicrous. It's as OTT as The Bill became before its demise.

He just makes your blood boil, doesn't he? How Adam didn't burst his nose for that last crack I don't know!

Unbelievably, it was Jenny who told Rob about the Pavel fling, wasn't it?

I'm back to not listening.

You're right, Pusscat, I'd forgotten that bit. (How I miss Matt. )

Adam doesn't know why Ian and Helen fell out though. Ian never told him that Rob told him that Helen told him that she'd seen Adam & Charlie's New Year snog - Rob also said to Ian something along the lines of it was splendid that they had an open relationship, and implied that Adam & Charlie wasn't just a one-off snog, but an on-going affair that Ian was cool with, while knowing that Ian knew nothing about it, and that it wasn't an open relationship.

But Adam doesn't know about any of that - well, he knew he had a snog with Charlie at that NYE party, because he wasn't that drunk, and he knew that he and Charlie could very easily have done a lot, lot more, at several points, even to the point of him running away with Charlie, but in the end, he chose to stick with Ian. But he doesn't know that Rob knew anything nor that he told anyone anything, so that's not going to affect his decision-making.

oh, and Rob told Adam that he wasn't a real man when he objected to Rob sledging at the cricket last season.

that was when rob deleted the video Henry took of the catch that he claimed was not a catch. Adam called him out on that as well I think.

Oooh I came over all warm and fuzzy when you called me Pusscat, Gasp0.

I wonder if the SWs have kept track of the complex he said/she said/he knows/she knows.

Ever the optimist , I am currently choosing to expect that the SWs have indeed kept track of the he said/she said/he knows/she knows and will credit the audience with having done so too.

Ebearhug, from that vile crack of Rob's, Adam must now be wondering what he meant. He doesn't know that Helen knew anything about the snog, but what else could Rob have been insinuating? Adam knows that there have indeed been incidents that Ian might have chosen to overlook (or not) if he'd known about them. He knows (I think) that Ian was not comfortable about how close Adam and Charlie had become. I think in the usual Ambridge fashion he will shillyshally for days and days before telling Ian about Rob's remark but when he eventually does I am hoping for a bit of long overdue honesty between them.

He doesn't know that Helen knew anything about the snog,

But wait - going back to point number 5 of your excellent summary above - I thought I remembered Helen exclaiming at what she saw in the bushes () and Adam realising that it was Helen who had seen them. So he knows that she knows ...

Entirely possible that I've invented this, but I was kind of relying on it being correct.

Title?

Psst! - Come over to the Archers thread and I'll take you up Lakey Hill ...

You're absolutely right, Gruach, I'd forgotten all about that. The plot thickens!

Helen and Adam spoke about it and he convinced her it meant nothing etc etc

We should add Charlie to the list of characters who would be piping up about what they know about Knob along with JD, David, Shula, Jess, etc etc as well as Hellin her bloody self

Has anyone come up with a satisfactory explanation for why Helen is behaving the way she is? Is it how traumatized women behave? Have any of the domestic violence organizations that were so on board earlier commented?

I don't think its trauma Bert, I think its just Helen being a twat

But why??

Satisfactory explanation?

There's only one: an editor casting aside truthful storytelling in favour of a melodramatic plot.

Helen has NEVER listened to advice in all her life. She always has shut down anyone, other than Rob, who has ever expressed doubts what she wants to do.
She's behaving entirely in character now IMO!

True, Enoch, and her family have got into the pattern of enabling her. But I don't see why Anna is putting up with it, especially after her outburst a few weeks ago. Anna threatened to drop the case and Helen asked her not to - Anna has every moral right to say "I'm only here because you asked me. Cooperate or I'm out of here." I don't know what ethical imperative Anna has to stay (tell us, legal experts) but it won't do her professional reputation (remember, she's a SHL) much good to lose another case.