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PICKS AND PANS
Photo Credit: ABC/Ryan Green
Can somebody just give Connor Jessup the Emmy now? Because if that young man doesn’t win some awards for his performance as Taylor, there is no justice. He’s so good.
And there won’t be any justice for poor Taylor it seems. What happened to him that night with Eric really won’t matter anymore now that he’s killed Wes, even if the shooting was accidental. At least I think it was.
Taylor did go there to kill someone and Wes was one of the people Taylor saw during his drug influenced flashback so maybe the shooting was about opportunity. Taylor saw his chance and he took it.
That scene, frankly much of the episode, had me holding my breath. And that final moment with Taylor and Anne with him refusing to leave him and holding him desperately just made me cry. That happens a lot with this show.
The other scene, with Eric being attacked by a older guy he picked up online was pretty intense too. And I wonder how that is going to play into the ongoing drama down the line.
But I’m mostly wondering where the show goes on from here given that we’ve gone in a totally different direction with the shooting and we still don’t know all about the rape.
We’ve only got 3 episodes left and I have the feeling there are still plot twists to come and secrets yet to be revealed (like Becca being a drug dealer). I just know I’m going to be watching, holding my breath.
Poor Abi. I kinda feel sorry for her. Ben really is the only person who gives a damn about her and she knows she’ll lose him if he learns the truth about her ‘pregnancy’. And I do think Ben really does care about Abi, even if she only started out as his beard.
To their credit, the show did a decent job of explaining why Ben wants to be a dad to this new baby when he didn’t give a damn about his daughter with Lexi, mostly in Ben’s desire not to be like Phil. Of course, Ben could still be a full time father to his child and not be with Abi, but soaps never allow for thoughts li
ke that.
With Abi telling Ben that she’s due in October, I have a feeling this storyline isn’t going to be ending soon.
So Abi is either going to get herself pregnant or fake a pregnancy. With Babe involved, who knows what kind of delusional lunacy they’ll get up to.
As for Ben and Paul, I guess it’s over between them, at least for now. But with Johnny Carter returning to town soon, Ben will probably have some competition for Paul. That’s good. Paul’s been on the outside looking in long enough. It’s Ben’s turn. And Paul deserves some happiness.
What was with Ben looking at that STD pamphlet and hiding it from Abi? We know he had a one night stand recently. But has he slept with either Paul or Abi since then? This could get ugly.
ADDITIONAL SCENES
(191) Ben & Paul 16.2.2016 – 18.2.2016
Not much happened last week. The show is clearly in a holding pattern until they move on to the next beat of the story.
I’m guessing these Chas and Robert scenes will be the start of the thaw between them as part of the Redemption of Robert tour. Who recalls all the murders and attempted murders Robert committed last year? Well, I do, but some viewers seem to have oddly short memories.
I did like Chas telling Cain to get over being uncomfortable with what happened to Aaron and help her find proof of what Gordon had done.
Cleo is the smartest member of the McQueen family? LOL! To be fair, there is a low bar to be reached.
This Pete/Cleo storyline has been dragging on forever. Then again, so has the serial killer storyline and the stupid triangle with the Roscoe twins and Holly. Maybe it’s time for some new stories?
I’m still thinking that Ms. St. Claire is JP’s biological father from before she was transitioned from male to female, otherwise she wouldn’t have overlooked Cleo’s cheating and JP helping her.
And well, given that she and JP had another discussion about families and fathers, that pretty much nails it. I know the show wants us to think her interest in JP is romantic, but that’s a red herring.
Well, you can’t say that Hollyoaks doesn’t keep adding gays to the canvas. Not only did they bring Scott back, they’ve introduced James. But I wonder who they’re going
to pair James with since James isn’t interested in Scott and is only using him. I’m guessing JP?
Probably not Ste or Harry since James is way too old for either of them and the show already made a huge deal out of the age difference between Harry and Ste. We’ll probably get a Scott/JP/James triangle.
Personally, I’d prefer that the show not have brought back Scott. I’ve never cared for him as a character and I haven’t forgotten that Scott was poisoning Diane not so long ago.
Clearly Diane has given that she and Scott are ‘close’ now. Hollyoaks does this all the time, like Esther nearly committing suicide because of Sinead’s bullying only for her and Sinead to become good pals like it never happened. Dumb.
Also dumb? James openly walking around with Tony’s laptop after he and his mom stole it. Then I guess Scott wouldn’t have seen him with it, would he? I’m not getting though why Scott threw it out after he got it back from James. Weird.
But I am enjoying Marnie. She’s a fun schemer without being psycho. I’m sure the show will ruin that though.
ADDITIONAL SCENES
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Being redeemed by love is a soap trope, Cain was redeemed by his love for Moira and in a lot of ways he was worse than Robert. That storyline is in a way more problematic as they killed off her husband to facilitate it. In fact I’m finding nothing different about this storyline than numerous straight couples have had so how it is catering specifically to m/m shippers beyond it being two men is beyond me.
The rape story line has been in the works for over a year so was not introduced to cater to fan girls or specifically to redeem Robert. It was introduced to explain Aaron’s problems and probably to give Danny Miller something juicy to do and yes to win him awards.
I would also appreciate not being spoken to in such a condescending manner. Your opinion is not fact and acting as if the truth has now been spoken and anyone who disagrees is a blind shipper doesn’t make it so.
Robert could have been redeemed in many different ways without turning Robert & Aaron into a love story.
The show is using this Aaron rape storyline to redeem Robert because its desperate to win soap awards – and by giving the m/m shipping fandom what they want, i.e a love-story between then, they’re banking on it being a soap award winner.
Aaron & Robert have become little more than gay fanfiction brought to primetime tv for a show that now reeks of desperation to win awards.
Robert didn’t murder anyone on Emmerdale last year. There was the accidental death of Katie, yes he pushed or more accurately flung her to the floor but who in their right minds thinks the floor will collapse underneath them like that. Apart from that no one else died, so I don’t know who all these people he murdered are. Even the attempted murders were left ambiguous (apart from the Chas one but It was so stupid I think even the show is pretending that didn’t happen)
As for remembering what he did, I also remember that Aaron not 2 months ago beat a man so hard he put him in hospital, but we’re suppose to forget that happened because poor Aaron (he also bottled and could have killed James)
The Robert redemption is on course but what I think a lot of people forget is that Robert is a more important character in the shows history than Aaron. Aaron might be very popular but Robert is a Sugden born on screen. He isn’t being redeemed so he can be with Aaron, he’s being redeemed so he can stay on the show long term.
Stop thinking of him as Aaron’s love interest and instead as as legacy as a character can get and everything will make more sense
For American Crime, I can see the murder charge as an opportunity, even though there are only a few eps left, for Taylor, his defense people to get into court or on record, under oath all of the people from Leyland who have been trying to avoid just that. Felicity H.’s character isn’t going to be able to spin herself or the school out of a murder investigation.
A group of boys beat Taylor up. Wes was one of them so even though it wasn’t self defense per se, he was being aggressively, verbally attacked by someone who had physically attacked him. The shooting had context. Maybe it will fall under a PTSD response that his therapist can testify to. Diminished capacity and all that The rape is still at the root of all this evil.
Since Becca is a dealer, I guess she can tell the truth about how Taylor was drugged. And maybe at the very least the attack on Eric in the car will make him understand that he is indeed a rapist, since part of his excuse was once Taylor said yes at the beginning he couldn’t change his mind.
The scene with Taylor and his mom was heartbreaking.
Its weird reading your commentary on Shadowhunters and you speculating on what will or won’t happen because I’ve read all the books and can’t help smirking or thinking ‘good luck with that’ at certain points.
I don’t think I understand your last point though about their fascination with each other. I think the show did a good job of showing Magnus instant infatuation with Alec based solely on his looks. It didn’t really explain Alec’s infatuation since he’s suppose to be in love with Jace. But I guess it’s natural that a young gay boy would be fascinated by any good looking guy who showed some interest in them and just expects the audience to intuit that.