Loveday Writing

Later, when Liz, Joe, Heather and Ben have lunch together, Ben turns down a job that Joe has set up for him as he wants to take time and think about what to do next.

Later that evening, when Heather observes Ben bringing in a beer bottle into their bedroom, they get into an argument about his drinking, which leads to Ben telling Heather she’s not his mother. She leaves, sleeping in Ainsley’s bed, and Ben ends up spending the night in Simmo’s tent in the backyard.

When Heather goes to the meeting with Yvonne and Pat, she claims that she is being accused of bullying for being politically incorrect, and that she spent the best years of her life at the facility, losing her temper and quitting. Colin calls Ainsley, and he comes to the house, informing her, Harry and Ben about what happened at the meeting. They discuss how to tell Heather that even though she has a good heart, she can come across as a bully. Heather loses her temper at them and goes to her room.

Later Liz comes into Heather’s bedroom and tells her that she can resolve the situation and get her job back if she makes a public apology to the staff and patients, but Heather refuses. When Liz comes back out and talks to Harry, Ainsley and Xavier, Xavier tells them that Heather needs to get drunk and have some fun, suggesting they all go to a nightclub. Xavier manages to convince Heather to go out by informing her that the gang have planned to conduct multiple interventions with her.

When they go out to the nightclub, Heather refuses to dance unless certain songs are played, which is pretty much impossible in the club. When Heather is finally convinced to dance to another song, as she is dancing, she sees Timmy at the bar dressed differently than usual and wearing make-up. When they lay eyes on each other, he runs off but Heather catches up to him. Timmy tells her that he is genderfluid, and that not only does Colin already know but he’s the one that brought the subject up with him. Timmy also informs Heather that he felt he couldn’t tell her about his gender fluidity as he and Col are emotional people and she isn’t, and had a tendency to make them feel bad for being emotional.

The next morning, Heather walks to Colin’s and apologises for making him feel small during their marriage and tells him that he is a magnificent father, and a kind and attentive man. Heather then goes into work and makes a genuine and heartfelt apology to the staff and patients, but also chooses not to return to work, and says goodbye to everyone.

Heather then returns home and gets into bed to go to sleep, with Ben walking into their bedroom moments later. Ben apologises for his comments and reassures Heather that she is an amazing mother. Heather tells Ben she loves him for the first time, and in turn Ben says that he loves her too.

Overall I felt that this was a solid episode, providing an insight into Heather’s character, especially the effects that her brutally honest nature has on other people – colleagues, the housemates and her family. Timmy’s gender fluidity was a nice twist and I certainly didn’t see it coming, but it provided incredible character development with Heather, Timmy and Colin. The twist actually provided an interesting insight into Colin as a father, especially the fact that he knew that Timmy was genderfluid before Timmy knew for himself.

I did see Heather’s choice to not return to work, despite apologising, coming and I’m looking forward to seeing where both her and Ben go professionally and personally, now that they are both unemployed and have declared their love for each other.

Harry and Xavier – There wasn’t too much of a focus on them and their relationship, other than the fact that they meet a DJ at the club who is interested in hooking up with both of them, which they agree to.

Xavier also seems to blending into the group more, which can be seen when he is eating pizza with all of them (sans Heather and Ben), when he manages to convince Heather to go out clubbing, and when Liz confides in him about her dating difficulties.

Ainsley – Ainsley wasn’t really focused on much in this episode. The only focus on her was her efforts to delicately tell Heather that she can come across as a bully at times, her demanding that Heather get up and dance at the club, and when she adorably asks Harry and Liz if they are going to dance again when she has fallen asleep at the club. I also enjoyed her phone call to Simmo to convince him to talk to Ben about apologising to Heather.

Liz – Liz was only briefly focused on, when she found out from Pat that Heather’s meeting with HR was about the bullying accusations the staff made against Heather, and her efforts to try and calm Heather down before the meeting.

Overall I felt that this was a solid episode with plenty of incredible character development that I hope is further explored in future episodes. I also enjoyed seeing most of the characters let their hair down at the club. I’m honestly not a fan on how Harry and Xavier’s relationship is progressing – not because I’m anti-open relationships, rather I feel that Harry is behaving completely out of character, and I feel that Xavier isn’t the right match for him.

Stray Observations:

-Heather’s last name is Doyle.

-Ben’s mother’s name is Sandy.

-According to Simmo, his feelings for Ben’s mother were limited to the tail end of Year 8, a few weeks into the summer of 2013, and at Ben’s 30^th birthday party.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “There’s an attraction here…well there is on my part, maybe it’s a one-way street.” “There might have been some light traffic on the other side.” (Joe-Liz on their attraction)
• “I didn’t even take my bra off,” “I don’t know what that means.” “Then I don’t know why I said it.” (Liz-Joe-Liz on Liz’s past one-time tryst with Ben)
• “What happened in that room that they both had to leave it?” (Liz to Ainsley and Harry about Ben and Heather not sleeping in their bedroom the previous night)
• “Is it because I called Karl a dipshit? Because if you saw the way he puts an IVC in, you’d see that it’s actually a term of endearment.” (Heather to Yvonne and Pat)
• “Heart of gold, no question, but she’s definitely guilty.” (Colin on the bullying accusations against Heather)
• “What? No that’s terrible.” “If it was my mum, sure, but Benny’s mum, that’s pretty much a compliment.” (Ainsley-Simmo on Ben’s comment to Heather)
• “It would be the equivalent of someone describing you as a man who never returns a shout.” “Shit! Really?” (Ainsley-Simmo on how hurtful Ben’s comment was to Heather)
• “We both know how I felt about your mum when I was younger. We both know how hot she was, still is. Anyone who met her would be proud to be compared to her.” (Simmo to Ben on Ben’s mother)