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THIS WEEK IN SPOILERS
Coronation Street: Todd comes up with a crazy scheme to prove Phelan is a killer. But will his plan work? And if it does, will Todd wind up one of Phelan’s next victims?
EastEnders: It’s Ben’s 21rst birthday, but he isn’t all that interested in celebrating. Jay throws Ben a surprise party with all his friends there, including Johnny. Abi picks up on the obvious attraction between Johnny and Ben and tells the two they are into each other. Both Johnny and Ben deny what Abi is saying.
Emmerdale: Robert and Chas visit Aaron in jail to give him the news about the status of his appeal — and for Robert to tell Aaron about cheating on him with Rebecca. Chas and Robert are horrified to see the state of Aaron, but Aaron denies still taking drugs. But Aaron might start using again, once he hears what Robert has to say.
Hollyoaks: Scott remains unaware of the secret that Diane is keeping from him about his family. But when Prince finds out, he threatens to tells Scott everything unless Diane lets him continue to date her niece Lily. The ante is upped when Scott’s mother Lynette visits. Diane is very uneasy about her sister being in town and wants her to leave. But Scott insists he needs his mom to stay to help him get over John Paul. There’s a lot of tension between Scott, Lynette and Diane as the sisters fear the secret they are hiding could come out.
Elsewhere, Ryan is back and Ste doesn’t like it. He wants Amy to give him another chance, and asks her to marry him, but she’s mad he left without saying anything. Ryan insists he left her a voicemail, unaware Ste deleted it. Will Ryan and Amy find out what Ste has done?
Neighbours: Leo and David find out their mother is coming to visit. The guys realize they can finally learn the truth about their birth father. Later, Aaron and David team up to get the evidence of who Leo and David’s dad could be. David is shocked to learn his dad could be Scott Robinson, Paul’s son. That means, of course that Leo could never be romantically involved with Amy, Paul’s daughter.
Shortland Street: Jack tries to avoid causing trouble.
TEASERS FOR NEXT WEEK
Holby City: Isaac’s abuse of Dom gets worse.
Neighbours: Everyone is shocked when the real identity of David and Leo’s father is revealed.
Shortland Street: Jack won’t be deterred from his beliefs.
That’s it for this edition of Gays of Our Lives. Please share your comments on the thoughts and opinions expressed in this week’s column below. See you next week!
Yeah, I mean Robert’s first major storyline back in the day was getting his brother’s wife to have an affair with him, and then he cheated on her with a cougar (the awesome Sadie King). This is not something new to the character.
I’m definitely one of those not thrilled with the Robron storyline. And it has nothing to do with bi-erasure (though, honestly, it seems like bisexual is really just a cool way of having Robert cheat with and on Aaron, because we really never see him interested in other men).
I agree that a pregnancy storyline is classic soap. But if we are praising classic soap, then a bad boy who can commit and love only one special person is also very classic soap. And something they really did set up with Robron. Not to mention the showrunner constantly confirming they are going to stay together, they are soul mates etc etc. I get that you think Robert is a more interesting character as a cheater constantly pursuing new relationships, but it is clear that is not what they are trying to write here. They are just trying to throw bumps into the never-ending road of Robron. And doing so poorly.
If their goal is for Robert and Aaron to remain this big love story (and we know it is, they have confirmed it), then they should have written Robert as HORRIFIED the next day. Guilt ridden and disgusted. Instead, he was just really sorry for hurting Rebecca’s feelings. (And let’s note – this is clearly not the return of bad boy Robert, because bad boy Robert is not playing nice with his conquest the next day.)
I sometimes wonder if the problem is the writing or Ryan Hawley. Like, we always KNOW how Aaron feels. But we never know with Robert. Which sure, is part of his character to not be as heart on the sleeve as Aaron. But what were the writers showing with Robert at the end of the last episode? Was he jealous about Rebecca/Ross, or just wanted to get away from her? Was it the writing not telling us, which is shitty, given that they aren’t setting up a Aaron/Robert/Rebecca love triangle, so there is no reason to make us wonder if Robert is jealous. Or is it Ryan failing to show what Robert is feeling properly. Like is the writing so all over the place that I am now blaming the actor, or is it somewhat the actor? I have no idea. And that is a problem.
Anyway, I hate it, I think a cheating storyline could have been done much better, and I think that Robert sure as hell better finally get some comeuppance for this one.
This one the heels of the end of the JP/James totally wasted potential is just too damn much soap disappointment!
Scott needs help getting over JP? JP hasn’t been with him for months, and when they were together, JP treated him with the same respect he would a hot water bottle warming his bed. Scott needs some self-respect.
It will be nice ifb Johnny starts doing something more than studying and picking up shifts at the pub.
Robert had less character development than people think. It was only a few months ago that he was sabotaging the ropes course in a way that could have killed Chrissie for no better reason than the spiteful desire to humiliate her. This was after the abuse revelation that is his supposed turning point. Rather than Robert changing, it was his circumstances. Things were going relatively well, and he was with someone he liked rather than someone he was using for their money. However, he has a long history of cheating, and they did nothing to figure out why he did it before and make the changes to avoid repeating his history. Without an underlying change, it was inevitable that he would cheat when he was sexually frustrated, angry at Aaron, and generally stressed out.
I was really suspicious of the bisexual representation arguments. Robert has a long history of cheating, so it’s far too late to avoid the cheating bisexual trope. That makes me suspect they only are mad that it threatened their ship.
Scott is Paul’s younger brother in neighbours.
Honestly, I feel like the main problem was just the pacing of it all. Putting all the “Bisexual representation” blah blah aside, any character development Robert had over the past year or so was just thrown out. And over what: Cause Aaron said something SLIGHTLY mean to him, once, while he was high off his head. If you wanna write a cheating storyline, great: fucking milk it though. Don’t, all of a sudden be like “He was sad, soooo he slept with this girl” after you just spent the entire year talking about how Robert’s “changed” and how he’s ALREADY turned down Rebecca’s advances multiple times. I think it’s less of an issue of THAT it happened, and more of how it was written.
The outrage over the Aaron/Robert story last week was so OTT. I mean, in one sense I get it, ship fans are passionate and the cheating coming so quickly after the wedding would be hard to swallow (I’m sure I would have ranted up a storm had this been Kyle/Fish back in the day), but…it’s soaps, this is what happens on soaps, this is the genre, there aren’t lasting happy endings where they buy a house and adopt a dog and smile and hold hands all day, and it shouldn’t not happen with Aaron and Robert because they’re gay/bisexual. And funny how there was no worry about the show’s portrayals of bisexuals as cheaters when Robert was cheating on Chrissie left and right. To be honest, the entitlement of this fan base – and the catering to it both by the show and web sites like Digital Spy do – has put me off them.