One of my favourite writers, the late David Foster Wallace, has a short story called “The Suffering Channel” wherein an American cable TV station broadcasts 24 hours a day of the physical and emotional agony of unfortunate souls dealing with loss, injury, illness and strife.
Sometimes it really feels like the Helen Archer story thread is “The Suffering Channel” without the images. It’s audio-pornography for people who fetishize the incessant emotional torture of one doomed character.
Just when it looked like maybe a turnaround might be in sight, Rob’s behaviour upon awakening has killed all hope I had of this resolving any time in the coming weeks and months.
The Helen Archer character (and her immediate family) will go on suffering, for whose enjoyment I’m not sure… and this is not what I personally seek in fictional entertainment.