Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Telly addicts

Related: Film discussion forum.

Original poster

Chloe *Watch ahead with spoilers!!*

127 replies

TheChosenTwo · 07/02/2022 21:19

Just before I start there is a thread for watching at tv pace, this one may contain spolers.

So I’m on episode 4, wtf is actually going on?
She’s moved in with the dead (is she dead? Surely her nhs health records would have shown she was and so Sasha/Becky wouldn’t have been able to get her contraceptive injection?) husband, please can someone just pm me with how this all ends?!
I feel it’s going to be very uncomfortable viewing when it all inevitably unravels for her.

OP posts:
Hellosunshiner · 17/02/2022 14:42

I thought it was clever at the end that there were parallels of Chloe escaping Elliot, and Becky escaping Elliot.

At the crunch end point for both of them - both were attending Elliot's important work based event, as his partner. Both very dressed up. Becky was carrying the same 5K as Chloe did. Both tried to speak with Livia but Livia dismissed each of them at the same point. Both tried to leave the event but were blocked/intimidated by Elliot's pals. Both had a violent confrontation with Elliot.
Both ended up at Chloe's parent's house. However, Becky got some form of redemption for herself in the form of Chloe's loving letter to her, and then Becky got redemption for Chloe in the form of posting Elliot's abusive behaviour on Chloe's SM. It was a good ending.

MsLumley · 17/02/2022 20:10

She went back to his house to get her car keys - that’s all I think. Don’t think she was planning a confrontation but took the opportunity to record him when he turned nasty.

Only plot hole for me (once I’d waded through the dream sequences) was the scene where Becky’s mum was telling her that Chloe’s mum had told her to tell Becky not to come round any more and that was why their friendship ended. Yet when Becky turned up at the parents house at the end they were totally welcoming?

Hellosunshiner · 17/02/2022 21:45

@MsLumley

She went back to his house to get her car keys - that’s all I think. Don’t think she was planning a confrontation but took the opportunity to record him when he turned nasty.

Only plot hole for me (once I’d waded through the dream sequences) was the scene where Becky’s mum was telling her that Chloe’s mum had told her to tell Becky not to come round any more and that was why their friendship ended. Yet when Becky turned up at the parents house at the end they were totally welcoming?

I think Becky's mum was a bit mean as well as loving at times. I took it that she'd made it up to spite Becky.
Andacherryonthetop · 17/02/2022 23:26

I enjoyed it but didn’t really get why Chloe’s mum who was a bit in denial about Elliott being abusive but had admitted he may have pushed chloe was then like ‘oh hi Elliott Becky green is here’ on the phone

theAntsareMyFriends · 17/02/2022 23:58

I loved this and watched it twice. I loved how she went from really unlikeable in the first episode to the hero.

I thought Elliot seemed lovely and didn't suspect him until the house locking incident. On the second watch it seemed so obvious how controlling he was right from early on. I can't work out how 'real' Becky and Elliot's relationship was. Did she care about him or was she faking it all to find out about Chloe? On the first watch I thought she'd fallen in love with the life style and security but on the second watch I thought she was using him from the start.

I think giving the money to the care home was her last act for her mum before walking away from her as no longer her problem.

I also liked the ending where she gave her number to Liv (who I thought was brilliant acted despite being written as quite a caricature). It was ambiguous. Were they going to be friends or was Becky going to get back into her life for personal gain. Liv seemed lonely and unhappy to easy to manipulate.

The plot hole for me was that teenagers who were really into the Smiths would surely be in their late 40s now. The fashion and phones suggest its present day but the characters appear to be mid 30s.

MollyButton · 18/02/2022 08:06

I thought the acting was fabulous. I do think Becky was a very flawed character and don't think she was emotional connected to either Josh or Elliot. The only one she really cared for was Chloe.
But with her manipulation skills and lack of scruples she should be highly successful. I do like to think she genuinely like the little boy Noah.
She is also clearly intelligent and keen on self improvement

LizzieSiddal · 18/02/2022 09:51
  • At the crunch end point for both of them - both were attending Elliot's important work based event, as his partner. Both very dressed up. Becky was carrying the same 5K as Chloe did. Both tried to speak with Livia but Livia dismissed each of them at the same point. Both tried to leave the event but were blocked/intimidated by Elliot's pals. Both had a violent confrontation with Elliot. Both ended up at Chloe's parent's house. However, Becky got some form of redemption for herself in the form of Chloe's loving letter to her, and then Becky got redemption for Chloe in the form of posting Elliot's abusive behaviour on Chloe's SM. It was a good ending.*

I hadn’t realised all that when watching, but you’re so right. How fantastic. I’m going to watch again.

Needdoughnuts · 18/02/2022 10:08

I think I'm going to watch it again. I loved the way Becky kept getting away with the pretence but I was always scared she was going to give herself away! I can watch it again without the nerves and enjoy the acting.

Gardeningcreature · 18/02/2022 12:49

Think I’ll watch again. Absolutely loved it. Thought it was clever how I went from seeing Becky as the Gillian to seeing her as the hero by the end.
How we all succumb to stereotypes such as Elliott being a good guy because he was all floppy haired and posh.

Gardeningcreature · 18/02/2022 12:50

Gillian=villian

Gardeningcreature · 18/02/2022 12:51

I think listening to the smiths was fine.
Dh loves the Beatles doesn’t mean he was a teenager when their music first came out.

friendlyflicka · 18/02/2022 15:12

One of the reasons she was a flawed character and clinging onto her friend is because she had been convinced that she had killed her little sister. Because of this, when Chloe loved her it was a lifeline. And then Chloe dumped her. And messed her up.

And that is why at the end Josh is saying that Becky and Sasha are the same person. She is interesting and attractive without having to pretend. She is obsessed with digging through the Chloe story because Chloe was her salvation initially and she is trying to find some way to right the past.

She needs to stick up for Chloe in death because she feels like the killer of her sister.

friendlyflicka · 18/02/2022 15:13

And then at the end, after finding out the truth about Chloe and that she didn't want to reject her, she has the self esteem to tell her mother she didn't kill her sister.

BreakfastOfWaffles · 19/02/2022 16:26

Just finished it. I agree with PP about the scene with Livia at the caravan - why? I would have liked to have seen a scene showing Elliot being stood down from politics, because I feel like he would be able to somehow gloss over Chloe's video post and persuade people to forget about it
He was, after all, extremely controlling and had many people dancing to his tune and protecting him. Loved Josh, I hope he and Chloe got together.

Newgirls · 19/02/2022 20:58

There were lots of clues with Eliot - his mum was truly awful wasn’t she which implied that he was messed up somehow by that? Sorry if that doesn’t seem very mumsnet but she was always a bad character. Also chloes dad was controlling wasn’t he - and Chloe went into a controlling relationship perhaps mirroring what she’d seen at home?

Great acting and yes also team josh when Becky has had time to stare at the waves

theAntsareMyFriends · 19/02/2022 21:46

I think Eliot will end up being dropped like a stone. Livia will be saying he's 'toxic for her brand' and Nish will suddenly be very busy before moving onto the next thing in politics. Ultimately they were all very superficial and selfish. I felt that Becky imploding this group of fakes was her triumph not just revealing Elliot for an abuser.

I did feel a bit sorry for Richard. He was also being controlled by Elliot. That scene where he is crying and Elliot asks if the money he spent on him was worth it was quite uncomfortable. I felt he started to break free when he told Becky where the find the keys, a small act of rebellion that could be the start of him breaking free but also he seemed very broken.

CandleRose · 19/02/2022 23:06

I think you're right re Richard being controlled by Elliot, but I found it hard to feel sorry for him at all as he still managed to be aggressively condescending.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 22/02/2022 21:04

Late to the party here, but I thought it was great. Erin Doherty was extremely good. She is 30 this year so I took it that the whole group was meant to be that age. As far as I could make out, Chloe had been attending either a state school in a middle-class area, or a private school, but for financial reasons she had to leave that school and go to the bog standard comp that Becky attended. Then her family's fortunes recovered and she moved to another posh school for the sixth form and made a new group of friends. She loved Becky but she was weaker and more easily manipulated than Becky, so when her new friends laughed at the idea of Chloe having a friend from the old crap school she went along with it and told her mum to ring Becky's mum and say she didn't want Becky to come round any more.

I've been fortunate not to experience a controlling relationship but I am an obsessive listener to The Archers, and quite a few of the same or similar devices were used here as in TA a few years ago when they had a storyline over years showing coercive control building up over a long period.

Putting the little woman down in front of friends - he did that when she dropped his phone and the screen cracked and he told them all that she didn't seem to have great spatial skills.

Sniffing her hair for chlorine when she said she'd been swimming. Constantly ringing to find out where she was and then checking whether she was telling the truth. (The fact that she wasn't is besides the point!)

Insisting on driving Becky's car for all sorts of spurious reasons and leaving her dependent on him for transport. Clearly he had chosen a house in a rural area and then manipulated Chloe into not driving by telling her that she couldn't safely drive because of her antidepressants, which she actually wasn't taking, but Elliott didn't know that.

Gaslighting her by pocketing her keys and then putting them back in a place she said she'd already looked.

He was manipulating all the friends too, into believing that Chloe had said things which she hadn't, and to get her to believe that they'd said things they hadn't, all of which isolated her more and more. He'd probably convinced her that she wasn't up to holding down a job. Very odd otherwise for such a young woman with no children not to be working.

Phoebe Nicholls was thoroughly unlikeable as Elliott's mum, reprising her turn as Rose's loathsome mother in Downton Abbey. She's come a long way from the sweet little sister in Brideshead Revisited! I wonder what had happened to Elliott's husband.

Howshouldibehave · 23/02/2022 22:20

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Late to the party here, but I thought it was great. Erin Doherty was extremely good. She is 30 this year so I took it that the whole group was meant to be that age. As far as I could make out, Chloe had been attending either a state school in a middle-class area, or a private school, but for financial reasons she had to leave that school and go to the bog standard comp that Becky attended. Then her family's fortunes recovered and she moved to another posh school for the sixth form and made a new group of friends. She loved Becky but she was weaker and more easily manipulated than Becky, so when her new friends laughed at the idea of Chloe having a friend from the old crap school she went along with it and told her mum to ring Becky's mum and say she didn't want Becky to come round any more.

I've been fortunate not to experience a controlling relationship but I am an obsessive listener to The Archers, and quite a few of the same or similar devices were used here as in TA a few years ago when they had a storyline over years showing coercive control building up over a long period.

Putting the little woman down in front of friends - he did that when she dropped his phone and the screen cracked and he told them all that she didn't seem to have great spatial skills.

Sniffing her hair for chlorine when she said she'd been swimming. Constantly ringing to find out where she was and then checking whether she was telling the truth. (The fact that she wasn't is besides the point!)

Insisting on driving Becky's car for all sorts of spurious reasons and leaving her dependent on him for transport. Clearly he had chosen a house in a rural area and then manipulated Chloe into not driving by telling her that she couldn't safely drive because of her antidepressants, which she actually wasn't taking, but Elliott didn't know that.

Gaslighting her by pocketing her keys and then putting them back in a place she said she'd already looked.

He was manipulating all the friends too, into believing that Chloe had said things which she hadn't, and to get her to believe that they'd said things they hadn't, all of which isolated her more and more. He'd probably convinced her that she wasn't up to holding down a job. Very odd otherwise for such a young woman with no children not to be working.

Phoebe Nicholls was thoroughly unlikeable as Elliott's mum, reprising her turn as Rose's loathsome mother in Downton Abbey. She's come a long way from the sweet little sister in Brideshead Revisited! I wonder what had happened to Elliott's husband.

Elliott’s husband?

Only just watched the last episode and am a bit confused!

How did Becky and then Liv find the caravan? Liv said she sound it ‘the same as you’ but I don’t know what that was?

The care home fees would be huge as well.

What would the recording of Elliott prove-that he had a temper? A bad characteristic that might affect his career as a Tory MP?

I thought the two phone calls from Chloe were both missed calls, so there was no actual conversation, everything was just imagined scenarios while Becky was trying to figure out what had happened

I didn’t get that either-was none of that real?!

dottydodah · 24/02/2022 07:01

I liked this ,but the last episode had a lot of holes .In the previous episodes Elliott had paid her Mums care home bills .Surely she would have to move to a cheaper residence.Also Chloe may have been pushed by Elliott 50.50 . whose was the Caravan? and what will happen now to Becky with no job or home?Ah well enjoyable if a little improbable !

biddyboo · 24/02/2022 12:04

I don't see her mum having to move to a cheaper residence as a plot hole. Chloe has paid enough for her to stay for probably another couple of weeks. It's the equivalent of giving her a couple weeks in a fancy hotel before she is no longer Chloe's responsibility. I thought her mum was pretty awful. She should never have left the two siblings alone in the bath, and she shifted her guilt for this onto Chloe, letting her grow up thinking she was responsible for her sister's death. She was always putting Chloe down as well, which, granted, could be a symptom of her dementia but I suspect she was always like this. I think Chloe has done all she can for her mum, given the circumstances. I thought the series was great at showing how complex relationships can be.

Newgirls · 24/02/2022 15:29

Why is the mum her responsibility? If she doesn’t have money to keep her in a posh home then she can’t?

I thought it was part of her realising she needed to break free from her mum

chickentikkawhatswrong · 24/02/2022 19:09

I liked this but felt quite down and depressed after watching it! Poor Becky had such a crappy heartbreakingly sad life Sad

She is 30 this year so I took it that the whole group was meant to be that age.

I actually paused the bit with chloes driving license to see how old they were all supposed to be and the timeframe of the flashbacks ect. She was 33 I think.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 24/02/2022 21:18

Elliott's Dad! Phoebe N's husband. Doh.

SartresSoul · 28/02/2022 10:29

DH and I said the same thing about the car but suspect she could be viewed as a collector or an arty hipster type. Perhaps came from old money too, lots do drive bangers (check Bojo’s car for example!).

She annoyed me at the end tbh. I was rooting for her to escape the whole messy saga with Josh but she just couldn’t be sensible and had to keep fucking her life up.