Hotty Jill has achieved the unthinkable

Someone needs to ask her what it is all about so she can vent a bit. Is it really jealously of Grace? Is she really so threatened by the dead first wife of her head husband?

I do think Jill is quite hooty, not so much a hotty, although we don’t know since it is radio.

Jill’s stance reminds me of my mother. I’ve had more than one relationship where my mother has told me outright she doesn’t like my boyfriend, she thought he wasn’t good enough for me and I should stop seeing him. She wouldn’t countenance any mention of his name and wouldn’t have him in the house. It went beyond awkward. When those relationships ran their course, she couldn’t have been happier. And she never hid her joy or failed to say, “I told you so.” Once she even clapped with delight and said, “Hallelujah! God has answered my prayer!”

Jill’s right about Toby but as so many have said, she’s not behaving in the right way. She’s made her feelings plain and she should leave it at that.

It’s a dilemma and it makes for good drama especially when you’ve got Toby squaring up to Jill. This is a proper battle.

If Pip continually goes “against” her family and chooses Toby despite her family’s misgivings, she’ll only hurt herself in the end. Ruth is the lynchpin trying to hold everyone together and preventing Pip cutting herself off from her family. For Pip, it’s better not to treat it as a binary choice. The reasonable approach is just to say, “I know you want what’s best for me but I have to make my own decisions. If I’m wrong about Toby, then I’m wrong. I know how you feel but it’s up to me.” Your parents can’t live your life and protect you from everything. She’s planning a future with Toby but that’s not a given. Her family are likely to be more constant in her life and loyal to her in the long run. She needs to keep them “on board”.

However, Jill isn’t going to back off or back down so this is a recurring conflict. She’s not in the wrong but she’s coming across as totally unreasonable. Eventually, she’ll be seen as the problem rather than Toby. Gradually, everyone else will tolerate or accept Toby for Pip’s sake and see Jill as increasingly irrational.

But it’s important that Jill stays true to herself. To that extent, I fully respect her even though I can’t quite get my head around the depth of her enmity towards the Fairbrother family in general and now Toby in particular.