#102: Fatted calf is off the menu - will the Easter Bunny save Lower Loxley's bacon, or will there be egg on Russ's face? Will Tom's sausage business get the chop? Join us here to discuss The Archers!

[GabrielleNelson]

Thanks due to @PseudoBadger for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads and to @DadDadDad for being our resident statistician and keeping the ball rolling when Pseudo stepped back a bit. Thanks also to all those who contributed to the thread title, principally Dumdedumdedum and MikeUniformMike on this occasion.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed. We don't all agree on all points and most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd like to be Susan's best friend or other odd unusual views.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please. We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from this thread, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

So, to business: will Helen's new cheese be a success? Will Kate succeed in keeping her visiting Brummies under control? Will Pip, Toby, Tom and Natasha fall into the slurry pit, leaving Rosie to be brought up by Anthony Head Robin Fairbrother? Will we ever hear Lee again, and will he casually drop in a mention of his fine collection of framed Bruce Lee posters?

no reason why his drug dealing conviction should stop him selling kitchens I suppose he could claim he had experience in selling ...

Freddie was horrible to Johnny. I hope Johnny tells him what’s what.

I can't see Lily trying to recruit Freddie to flog kitchens. It would tarnish her blue-eyed girl image to admit to having a jailbird brother. His maths is so bad he'd probably cock up the costings and cause major problems.

BOOP to Eddie for letting Will know he was out of order for sacking Pete. Will is deeply unpleasant.

Oooh! Joined up broadcasting - Who Gets The Farm? will be on R4 just before TA this afternoon.

I do love the whining, self pitying and feckless Freddie. But my god, I want to shake him.

If he's not sitting on a trauma, and has some kind of melt down and ends up sharing with lily or Jonny that he was raped at prison, then he's just as bad coming out as he was going in.

And it annoys me that Lizzie doesn't see that he needs to be working on the estate. Minimum wage, reporting to Glen, no whinging to mum, and starting at 06.45 every day chopping up mice for the hawks.

Oh I've come over all "bring back national service"

Listening to the film, they sort-of explained why Freddie wouldn't be working at LL. With Lizzie out of it and Lily in Borchester selling kitchens, it would be just him and CMR - and that's not happening!

Freddie said that he was desperate to not mess up his release because he didn't want to be back inside with the undesirables. Nobody has dared say "but Freddie you are one of Them. Has it not sunk in yet?"
This can go two ways: either society turns its back on Freddie and he has to resort to Terrible Deeds to get by or Harrison will knock heads together and ask the community how Freddie is ever going to rehabilitate if nobody will give him a chance (seeing as the terms of his release say he has to be at LL so they can't do a NIMBY-esque palming off of the problem onto somewhere else).

By there is no evidence that Freddie doesn't want to mess up again, it was only due to Johnny s intervention the other night that Freddie didn't drink drive.

there is no evidence that Freddie doesn't want to mess up again
I said that Freddie said that ... Not the same thing!
He hasn't taken it all on board yet.

Yes but almost impossible for the community to rally around freddie i.e give him a job whilst he is behaving like this.

Lily is repeating the pattern. When she was busy in Manchester she didn't see how bad Lizzie was. Now she's busy in Borchester she can't see how bad Freddie is.

Not that it's Lily's job to sort out the family's well-being (wimmin's work an all that).

Surely LL is big enough for Freddie to be gainfully employed at one end of it while Russ does his sketching or whatever at the other end?

I'm behind with my listening (also a frequent name changer), but Freddie really hasn't reflected on the reason why he was sent to prison for his drug dealing at all, has he? There's no remorse, only poor little me rich entitled brat kid. I think he's going too get into trouble again soon. And there's a shadow lurking somewhere that is Ellis, he's not going to take it lying down that Freddie told the police about him, this is the kid that broke a window and nearly brained Johnny in the process because he was angry Freddie wanted to give up dealing. I presume he is biding his time or off at uni?

Freddie would do well to muck out for Shula for 6 months and integrate back in slowly. He won't, though, will he, I think he fancies himself as a big horse trainer. Where is mystic bore? In her absence I declare my predictions that he will indeed get a job selling kitchens, because Elizabeth will pressure Lily into helping him, then he's going to fuck up the job there for Lily and for him (drugs again?). And at some point he's going to have a break down about the prison experience.

I agree Freddie's attitude since coming out seems odd. I know the prison system is as skint as everywhere else, but don't they normally aim to do quite a lot of work with first time offenders which, in Freddie's case, should have meant confronting him with how serious and dangerous is offence was?

They implied that he was really suffering and traumatised whilst in custody. Is this all a big front and is the reality going to come out in a massive blow-up with someone? If so, let's hope the recipient is CMR.

his offence, not is offence.

Lizzie will do anything for Freddie except get rid of CMR. His presence muddies the waters for Freddie - e.g. it must be annoying for him that he needs to get a job while the considerably older man floats about making tea for Lizzie and sketching.

Ugh. CMR. I wish he'd go away.

Loved that line about thinking of ways to make Russ disappear. Made me chuckle, that did....

But, I am fast losing patience with Willyum, I truly am.

Don't know if it's some sort of delayed shock/PTSD reaction, but he's becoming unbearable, and my empathy is wearing thin - AIBU?

I wonder how Nic would feel knowing that William had spoken to Mia and Ruarie like that?

Freddie seems very reluctant to talk about his time inside - I would have thought that despite not wanting to answer questions, he wouldn't be able to stop himself sharing the odd insight eg about some of the "characters" he met or even something fairly innocuous about the disgusting food or the size of the cockroaches...

Perhaps the SW are trying to suggest that there was something worse than just a generally horrible experience, ie there was some specific traumatic event?

It does feel quite deliberate that Freddie isn’t saying much.

No one has asked Freddie what it was like, what his days were like, who he met, what jobs he had or what training was offered - there has been absolutely no interest in getting to know what he has experienced but just a veil drawn over. He won't tell unless he's asked and right now no one seems to care. Ben tried at Rosie's christening but was shut down before Freddie got a chance. The Archer family would just like to pretend it never happened but until someone takes an interest it will all fester inside his head.

I don't think Nic would like the way he's been acting towards everybody lately.

I also think it's strange that Freddie's not said anything at all about his time inside. I'm hoping it's a plot device, rather than the SW just not wanting to write about it.

Ben tried again I think, and Freddie shut him down. Could have been Johnny, but think it was Ben

Ben asked him again the other day, when they were in the graveyard, but Freddie told him not to ask again, as he didn't want to talk about it.

If I was his mother, I'd want to know, and would broach the subject carefully, as well as suggest he gets some counselling to process his feelings, but I'm not as self absorbed as Elizabeth.