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Although I’m an inveterate omnibus listener, spurred on by the Twitter reaction to this evening’s episode, combined with Lucy’s announcement that this week’s DtD will – unusually – address tonight’s (Sunday) episode, I downloaded & listened to the episode of 3rd April within an hour of it being broadcast.
This was undoubtedly a tense & dramatic episode (oh, for the 60th anniversary story line of changing milking regimes, eh!).
For those who are committed to the Omnibus, there should be a very large & serious SPOILER WARNING right about now!! – If you have avoided the up to date Archers news on social media and wish next Sunday’s listening not to be spoiled for you, please do not read any further.
For those who want to discuss and offload about what was an emotionally fraught & raw 15 minutes of radio, perhaps you might like to share your thoughts below.
My initial reactions were twofold:
1] I understand how Helen has got to this point – the drip, drip of Rob undermining her, the confirmation of his past behaviour from Jess, the vile language he used against her on the evening in question, Rob opening up the subject of violence and his threat of physical punishment to Henry. I also understand how – from a writer’s perspective – this all makes for great drama.
However, I’m saddened that – in the heat of the moment – Helen was moved to a desperate act of aggression. She has been the victim in all of this, and – perhaps Rob’s final act of undermining Helen – is to turn her into the crazed perpetrator. Yes, it’s riveting drama – but not a great message to abused women in Real Life. Help & support is available. Speak to the police, let them deal with your abuser in the correct way & through the proper channels. Do not let your abuser get the upper hand by turning you into a murderer.2] Poor Henry. It sounded like he was a witness to Helen’s attack. Just hearing parents arguing is traumatic enough for a small child. Imagine the counselling he will need (although the final scene sounded as though he’d failed to understand the full impact of what Helen has done).
No doubt we will have months of prison scenes, legal wrangling, and Ursula being glacially awful. I have a strange feeling that tonight was just the end of Phase I of this tale.
Seriously I am actually shaking, bloody hell…now the aftermath as you have so calmly analysed Chris.
Yes bit dramatic going for the murder angle to get rid of Lord Voldermort but it extends the story in a ludicrously, but safe for Helen, and totally delicious way!
This story has shone the light on domestic abuse now for some salacious soapy court room bitchyness! What will Peggy say?I don’t think it was murder. For murder to apply, Helen would have to have intended to kill Rob and I don’t think she did, even in the moment she stabbed him the second time, the killing stab. I have listened several times and it appears she was holding the knife, Rob was trying to take it from her and she was trying to stop him. If he was moving toward her and the knife was held out, pointing at him, it wouldn’t take much movement from Helen to stab him in the chest. All of this is presumed from the sound and I could be completely wrong.
It was an apple and cinnamon pie and I am not sure that Helen has taken it out of the oven even now.
First, kudos to you for listening more than once! Rob made her take the knife to “end it like Greg did” (I’m still not sure how that would work, but anyway …). Then he somehow threatened Henry / was perceived by Helen as threatening Henry and she lunged at him with the knife. If Rob hadn’t made her take the knife she would probably have pummelled him with her fists (and been pummelled back).
I didn’t catch exactly how Henry got in the middle of it, and I’m probably not going to listen again to find out. Still on edge six hours later.
Fantastic episode! Superb acting and writing! I shall certainly be listening again, but then I love strong drama (‘Happy Valley’ ‘Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ etc.) and watch it all the time; I like the frisson of terror. Of course, we don’t know if Rob is really dead, but if he is, I hope Helen will get off all charges, ably supported by Jess and Kirsty. It was self-defence, and Rob started the violence.
I think there was a message there for abused women though; the message is, DON’T cook your abusive partner a nice supper and try to explain why you’re leaving before you go (and Helen was only leaving temporarily!). Just go. Go while the b*stard is out and have a careful back-up plan. Inform all HelpLines, and if necessary, the police first!Due to the end of NZ summertime and the start of the UK’s, I was able to download the episode as soon as it was available to listen on the bus on the way to work.
As I came to, I realised that I’d stayed riveted past my normal stop, and that it really was raining and it wasn’t a sound effect. I’ve never felt so engrossed in an radio of television production before, so bravo to the writers and actors.
I was expecting Kirsty to come crashing in at any moment, having never left the back door, but that wasn’t to be.
Poor Henry, poor Helen, poor everyone …
Well, if anyone hasn’t watched last nights (or tonights) Walking Dead, it wasn’t quite as good as the Archers.
I wonder what will happen to Helen, the fact she’s already seeing “a shrink” will hopefully assist in getting an insanity plea. That is if he’s actually dead. Was it 100% confirmed.
I hope Helen gets the help she needs to rebuild her life to some sort of normality, and if she is imprisoned that Henry can live with his grandparents.
The words Rob used last night were awful. I couldn’t believe that he (or anyone for that matter) could utter such hurtfulness.We all think he deserved it. But I wish it didn’t happen this way. I wish that Helen had alerted her family before this had happened. No one knows what she’s been putting up with (except Kirsty). So when she next shows her face, who will believe her? She’s been seeing a shrink, will they honestly think she’s mad? Will Henry be seized from her by social?
These are developing thoughts, so I may have contradicted myself.
Anyway, first post over!Great script and great acting but …
What this already long storyline didn’t need was the addition of a potentially long and oppressive legal procedural outcome.
I’ve already written posts and spoken about how sceptical I am about the story arcs being properly planned. When Rob and Jess Tichener were introduced and then their backstory was gradually revealed to the audience, I’m pretty sure this was not the intended destination. And it hasn’t been handled very well. For example, to my mind, the preceding episode with Helen and Jess was not good. Too much exposition and justification crammed into an improbable meeting.
On a positive note, although I’m not convinced about the portrayal of Rob (charming sociopath one minute, protector the next; and all the vile things he said to Helen) there’s something about the way he was goading Helen to kill herself that rang true from my experience of dealing with these sorts of things.
Having said that, I don’t think Kirsty would have left Helen to confront Rob alone. That’s a sour note that troubles me. I’d have thought she’d have stayed once she heard Rob bellowing aggressively at Helen when he found her suitcase. The way he was shouting Helen was particularly horrible and disturbing. Kirsty must have heard it. My instincts would have told me something bad was going to happen. If I’d heard him shouting at my friend like that, knowing that she was already frightened and planning to leave him, I’d have stayed. But knowing what I know, I’d probably also have called the police at that point – or someone – just anyone to help her get herself and Henry out of that house safely.
Just to respond to Chris Lowis’s opening post, Helen is the victim in this she hasn’t stopped being a victim because she’s tried to take action – she’s still a victim. She hasn’t gone from being the victim to being the aggressor.
I don’t know if she could be assessed as suffering from “battered wife syndrome” or something like it. The problem as I see it is how we rationalise Helen’s options and expect her to have found a better way to deal with her situation (we know help and support is available) as though it was not necessary for her to use the knife on Rob (attack or defence, dunno?). To me, what she did was justified in the circumstances. Those circumstances being the perceived threat to her son – and to herself. In that immediate point in time, I don’t think she’d be able to think about waiting for an opportunity to get the the phone and call the police or other agencies to prevent Rob getting hold of Henry to punish him for disobedience or to prevent Rob from punishing her for defiance. I think we need to avoid falling into the trap of blaming the victim.
And right now, we don’t know if Rob has died as a result of his injury.
Much as I’ll miss Timothy Watson’s brilliant acting, I do hope Rob is dead. It’s the only way Helen can ever be free of him. If he pops up again, like Michael Myers in Hallowe’en, it will be too much to bear, not to mention an anti-climax.
I think it will pan out like this. The police will find the PAYG mobile Krusty gave to Hell’n. Plod will see the calls made, and will summise that the murder or attempted murder of Throb was collusion on behalf of H and K.
Although K was not at the seen, it she will be charged. Hell’n will be convicted of manslaughter and sent indefinitely to a secure psychiatric hospital. Krusty will be convicted of murder.
Oh, ain’t I a little ray of sunshine?
Man. I wanted so bad for Rob to get publicly shamed for his egregious actions, and for Helen to catch a break for ten minutes – for her and Henwee to get enveloped in the warm Bridge Farm embrace.
The way this has turned, we may get neither!!! So bummed.
However, I’m waiting with great anticipation for both DumTeeDum and today’s Archers (usually drops around 3 pm here – perfect afternoon break time) to add some interest to a raw, blizzardy day in New England.
Alison – “What sort of pie was it” made me lol 🙂
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