BBC CASUALTY - WHO WILL GO NEXT AND WILL CONNIE BE BACK

[Blondeshavemorefun]

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E16

Think next Saturdays still be emotional

Jades confidence is crushed when a night out turns to disaster

Finish’s discovers the painful truth about Ethan diagnosis

@NewModelArmyMayhem18

It seemed to me that's gone for the 'art house' effect but it hasn't worked? Very confusing. I hadn't actually clocked it was set at Christmas 2020. Wondering whether it's going to be a dream (nightmare more apt?) for Charlie (a sort of medical take on A Christmas Carol?).

I was trying to remember what happened with Tess? Wasn't there some storyline where she nearly ran off into the sunset with a doctor/nurse?

Tess was seeing Fletch for a while when he was still married, I think his marriage ended because of it but their relationship ended and she left to help her son Samuel with his new baby iirc.

Bizarre to me how many people found this episode so confusing. It is strange to have hopped back a year but it has to be leading to Charlie's exit storyline and his conspicuous absence this last year has been due to his brain tumour or whatever.

Watching Classic Casualty I really enjoyed how Zoe's involvement with Nick Jordan's brain tumour and subsequent operation all went on in the background (her acting oddly on a computer, her having to suddenly leave in the middle of resus because of a phonecall, her in the background of a scene in deep discussion with someone). And that must have gone on over the course of six weeks or so! I wonder if everyone then immediately went "I'm confused, surely this will never be explained!"

Casualty doesn't do stuff like that and Saturday's episode nearly often enough any more.

Another one who was deeply disappointed and confused by this ep.

We know Ian is okay.

We know that Charlie has been standing around, doing virtually nothing and looking so old, frail and generally out of it that you would be excused for thinking he was a patient, not a member of staff for ages. He looked like he needed to retire long before Duffy’s dementia and death.

So no suspense there.

Resurrecting an ancient storyline that has lain dormant for 15 years with never a mention is kind of daft. It is a great way to confuse viewers, especially when you combine this with suddenly going back 12 months in time. To a catastrophe that was never mentioned again
Yeah, right.
Defies logic, really.

Derek Thomson hit a new low in his consistent record of bad and wooden acting in this ep. Really, really bad. Can only hope next week will be his last appearance.

As for Charlie getting all huffy with Tess - wtf? She doesn’t owe him anything and should have told him to get knotted.

@unvillage thanks. I recalled there was some scandal to her love affair but had totally forgotten it was with Fletch!

Oops I've realised I'm the least confused of you all because I thought the scene with Charlie outside was 2020 and the rest was now 😂😂😂

Tess had an abortion and Fletch found out by accessing her medical records (whether for a reason or through nosiness, I can’t remember),

We watch Classic Casualty too.
We’ve noticed that it’s only from series 23 that people start saying out loud how wonderful Charlie is. Usually for no reason at all.
Recently, they had Nick Jordan behaving as if Charlie was his best friend, and the fountain of all knowledge, when previously they had barely spoken.
It seems very jarring when Tess is also there, and is 100 times more compassionate and professional.

I would have thought that Charlie very much represents the man getting promoted above his competency in a very female-dominated profession.

@NewModelArmyMayhem18

I would have thought that Charlie very much represents the man getting promoted above his competency in a very female-dominated profession.

Totally agree.

And now he looks more like a patient than a member of staff

What a boring episode

Only exciting thing was the critical care van falling down the cliff

I would have thought that Charlie very much represents the man getting promoted above his competency in a very female-dominated profession.

Absolutely.

The nurse managers (or whatever they are called) in Casualty have been Charlie, Jacob and now it seems David will be taking over the role.

And in Holby it’s Fletch.

Four males in the senior roles within a female dominated profession.

I’m glad Dylan got clinical lead but at least if the other candidate had got it (can’t remember her name) at least it would have put a female in a very senior profession.

And thinking about other roles in Casualty, how many female doctors are there? I can think of Dylan, Ethan, Matthew, but aside from them (apart from the crazy female consultant) I can’t think of any female senior doctors or Consultants?

The only female who has a more senior position is Faith but she hardy features at all, especially at promoting the kind of role an ANP does.

At least in Holby they seem to have more female characters in Senior roles - it seems a bit more evenly proportioned.

Tess was far and away the best nurse manager. Which she combined with bringing up 2 kids as a single mum (her eldest went away travelling abroad). She was highly capable and lovely too.

you are right, there is a dearth of senior female staff. Crazy consultant just seems a nasty piece of work, Faith is just there in the background and Jan was preoccupied with her criminal son/marriage breakup.

OK, I've had wine and am also on painkillers but does anyone else think this episode is weird af?!

Definitely weird. Very predictable too,

I think the thing that gets me is that we're supposed to believe this happened when there has been literally no mention of any of these events since they allegedly occurred!

True, but were there not gaps between the covid episodes. It is odd because you know the main characters reappear.

What an awful episode.

Nothing was explained - why was Charlie being all huffy with Tess at the start?
why was he having all these weird turns when he didn’t have a brain tumour ?-
and most importantly, why would you give a starring role to an actor who can’t act and spent 90% of the time looking he desperately needed to sit down and have a breather.

We knew Charlie would be fine and we knew Ian would be fine. Because this was a flashback. So there was no suspense. And no investment in the story by the audience. Basically, they made us not care what happened.

Why was it a flashback? I’ve no idea.
Why did nobody talk about poor Rosie and her baby in the last 12 months of episodes? Or Charlie surviving a big explosion with only a couple of scratches, when most of the time he looks like a puff of wind would blow him over. Had the scriptwriters sen an old episode of Captain Scarlet and decided to make him indestructible too?

God only knows.

It was a pathetic episode.

Unless of course, Charlie actually does have a brain tumour and this episode and every other episode in the last 12 months was just a dream. A bit like Bobby in the shower. Except Patrick Duffy was handsome and had a great body. And could act.

Charlie had an aneurysm which was giving the symptoms- apparently that was sorted w a ‘small procedure’

Tess hadn’t kept in touch which is why Charlie was pissed odd w her but she explained that while talking to the mum before she walked into the fire

Agree it was an awful episode and made no sense as we knew Ian/Charlie were still alive.

Even Dylan’s acting was bad when they were treating Ian

I don't know what they were thinking!

It was suggested that Rosie and her baby were OK, but what about the woman with the two little boys?

i think she died that's why the boys came in in PPE to say bye to her

Stupid waste of time episodes and fuck all to do with Christmas or feeling Christmassy. Weird.
It’s annoying how shit casualty has become when Holby js the one getting axed and is actually quite good (some weird storylines admittedly- but you feel you get invested at least!)

Hmm another rubbish episode. Nothing added up. I thought it would all have come together after the second episode. Still so many unanswered questions. Still lots of things that didn't make sense.

As I said before on the first episode, Charlie hasn't mentioned about his brain and he would have had the procedure during 2021 to fix it but we saw nothing. Ian and his girlfriend, she wasn't on the scene 2021?

Also are we meant to believe that Ffion was standing outside the room with the oxygen tanks while Charlie and Tess were inside going through all that. Are we meant to believe that they didn't recognise the woman who stabbed Josh, their friend and Co worker. She didn't change that much, she didn't have face surgery. I know she wore a mask but not all the time, there were plenty of scenes where she was in their company with no mask.

It just seemed pointless doing what they did, they didn't answer any questions people may have had, it didn't tie up any loose ends. All it did was made viewers have to go re watch an episode from 2006 or go online and Google it. We didn't know who Rosie was, I've never seen her work in the ED department ever before, they should have used a character we had got to know or were invested in.

The music which I don't normally mind was way over the top. The slow motion and standing still didn't work, just came across as actors missing their Q. and creepy looking through the plastic screens. The darkness was dreary which was probably the aim, but made it very soulless.

That was by far the worst and least Christmassy Christmas special I have ever seen! Even the actors seemed not to be invested in it - Dylan was just mumbling and half the time they seemed as if they didn't quite know their lines. Flashback Charlie and last-year Charlie looked so much the same that it was impossible to tell when things were happening, and it was the same with Munchausen's mum. Rosie needed to be a more established character, and if this was meant to be last year, where were Jade, Connie, Robyn etc.? It honestly felt as if a work experience kid had written it.

Re Charlie and his aneurism - the moment he got his diagnosis, all his symptoms magically disappeared. As others have said, no SL last year about him having an operation.

There was no reason him to be so bloody rude to Tess. So he was going through a bad time - they were work colleagues, several years ago.never any suggestion that there was anything more outside of a work friendship.

What was strange was that there was no mention at all of the fact Fenisha was either just about to give birth, or had just given birth. Given that was a major SL, it seemed weird not to mention that, especially as Rosie was heavily pregnant. Wouldn’t her situation really affect Ethan?

Holby is 100 times better!

Can we hope that Charlie will finally shuffle off to collect his OAP? He seems so disconnected with the show, just standing around making vague comments.

Or could it be that he also has dementia, which would explain him being angry one minute and then vague and distracted the next?

There was little joy in that episode, except for the birth of the baby. Really rubbish. Not even any snow?

The episodes where quite disappointing, there wasn’t any reason for it to be set in the past at all, it took away all the tension knowing that Iain and Charlie were both fine before the episode even started. I’d slightly understand more if these episodes tied in with current storylines but they don't at all. I know Charlie has been in it from day one, but i personally feel like it’s time for the character to leave, he’s barely in it anyway and I can’t remember the last time i seen a half-decent performance.

Lovely to see Tess back, good actress, but felt her character was wasted and it’s a pity she isn’t back for good, the show miss having a strong older female character. The masks make things much harder to hear especially when the background noise is so loud and constant. I had subtitles on and apparently Tess, Marty and Charlie had lines during the c-section but I didn’t catch what they were saying at all. There was a lot of speaking over each-other as well, it added to the feel that it was chaotic in resus, but not particularly helpful when your trying to listen to dialogue.

Dylan, I’ve always thought he is Autistic and this episode for some reason I seemed to pick up on it even more, probably because there were so many people in resus. His body language, his reactions and speech patterns. It was chaotic and he had everything under control but he seemed to be repeating certain words alot more especially ‘wow’ like it was a self-stimulating behaviour to keep him calm - I’m autistic myself, and see SO many traits in him so I’m maybe just reading to much into it. The actor is good though.

Hopefully 2022 brings much better storylines, i’ve read spoilers and one or two storylines seem promising. I really hope they put a stop to the unnecessary flashback episodes..