I’m clearly the only one who was delighted with the substitution of Archie for Christie! (Christie strongly resembles an ex of mine to an extent I find unsettling. I found him a bit meh, like the ex…)
I had actually never watched The Split, caught part of episode 1 of this two-parter on tv, and when I was ill a couple of weeks ago, watched the whole three seasons and the Spanish two-parter. The two-parter was deeply silly, sure, but it worked for me despite the plot holes about solicitors working in another jurisdiction, Spanish divorce law, Gael having apparently changed nationality, Nina suddenly being bi, and Rose continually appearing to marry nerds she doesn’t seem to like very much.
For me, it’s pretty obvious why they didn’t write the younger siblings attending the wedding. Same reason as they didn’t have Kate and her two children with Nathan there. Nobody wanted to see them, because the plot focus is still on the Defoes, and Hannah’s relationship with Nathan and her current romantic interest. Kate was a deliberately boring character, and having everyone’s small children about would have limited Nathan’s capacity for flirting wistfully with Hannah and running around after Gael, Nina’s ability to sneer at Julian and cop off with the nice Spaniard and Rose’s ability to be rude to Glen and puke.
The ludicrous storyline of Alvaro’s mistress rocking up as an uninvited wedding guest and posing as Archie’s fiancée was only there to give Hannah a jealous jolt, and the entire beach wedding was just there to audition Archie for whether he will fit, unlike Christie, into the Defoes.
Though I’d have loved it if Rose, rather than marrying the vicar, had actually found her calling in something entirely different to law, and was eschewing relationships for an all-consuming passion for something.
Do we conclude it’s definitely all done forever now? That there won’t be another series where Hannah is happy with Archie, but Nathan is still lurking around possessively during some family crisis related to one of their younger children, and Christie moves back to London and starts shaking his clog keyring suggestively at Hannah?