Loveday Writing

Now that we’re at the halfway point of the season, it’s time for a turning point with both the show and its characters.

The episode kicks off on 26 May 1989, with Helen in another therapy session with her therapist, Marcia, who encourages her to be mindful of her emotions and to try to stop herself from immediately reacting to a situation that upsets her. Later, Helen meets up with Dale, who gives her their shared goldfish to keep in her house, and informs her that he’s throwing himself a lavish birthday party and Lindsay is not invited.

On 1 June 1989, Tim, News at Six’s former cameraman and Tim’s love interest from the first season, calls Noelene at home as he wants News at Six to cover the escalating tensions and protests in China. Tim, reporter and Tim’s boyfriend, Lee, and Noelene take a meeting with Lindsay and Dennis to pitch covering the tensions and protests, with Dale joining them. Lindsay and Dennis turn them down in a condescending manner, however Dale says they should cover it as the fall of communism is the biggest story in the world right now. After Lindsay and Dennis reject their pitch; Noelene, Tim and Lee go to Helen and Public Eye. Bill also tries to shoot the story down, but Helen calls him out and they accept it.

On 2 June 1989, Helen goes to a library to look for psychological journals on behavioural therapy, she later goes to see Marcia, and tells her that she discovered that behavioural therapy is heavily linked with Borderline Personality Disorder, and Helen asks her if that’s what she thinks she has. Marcia tells her that a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder is worth considering, Helen then lashes out at her and leaves. This sends Helen into a tailspin, where she relapses by taking Valium and mixing it with alcohol. Dale hears about her relapse from Cheryl, and he goes to see her after work, where she confides in him about the diagnosis and her fear that Marcia is right. During their conversation, Bill calls Helen and tells her that Vincent is going to axe Public Eye, upsetting her even more.

On 4 June 1989, Dale’s birthday party, complete with a band of violinists, is held. Kay goes, all dressed up despite Evelyn warning her about the rumours of his sexuality. Meanwhile, Bill calls Helen about the escalating protests in Beijing, and Dale asks Noelene and Dennis to find out more when he hears reports on them. When Noelene eventually get a hold of Tim, he tells them that he and Lee got separated but the call disconnects. Meanwhile, Lindsay calls Noelene’s home and finds out from her mother that Noelene is at Dale’s birthday party.

Meanwhile, Helen gets to work on the escalating protests and tells Bill that they should focus on it and air Public Eye early under the guise of special coverage. When she goes to air, she manages to get a hold of Lee, who tells her he made it back to Tim and the hotel. Meanwhile, Lindsay shows up at Dale’s party and makes a scene, yelling at Noelene for losing the escalating protests story, she then rightfully yells back and calls him out for not accepting the story, and it was his mistake. When Lindsay notices that Richard is at the party and Richard signals at him to calm down, he does so and leaves. Noelene then decides to work for Helen. When Dale goes into work, and everyone at News at Six watches Helen’s show go to air, Lindsay storms off and Dale’s anger towards him escalates.

Later, Dale comes home depressed and starts drinking, finding Kay waiting for him. They kiss and end up spending the night together. The next morning, Dale practices apologising to Richard for Lindsay’s behaviour in front of his bathroom mirror, and then we cut to him actually apologising in Richard’s office. The episode ends with Dale telling Richard that he won’t work with Lindsay anymore and threatens to walk away from News at Six if he doesn’t fire him.

Overall, this was another solid episode with further exploration of Helen’s possible mental health diagnosis, Helen getting back on track with Public Eye, and Dale escalating his resentment towards Lindsay by excluding him from his birthday party and trying to get him fired. I personally felt a lot of satisfaction at Lindsay making a fool out of himself at the party and Noelene standing up to him.

I’m personally not a fan of the Dale and Kay storyline, in part, because I feel that the breakdown of the relationship is inevitable – Dale seems unsure of his own sexuality, his mental state is clearly declining under the pressure of fame, and Kay has problems of her own that clearly haven’t been fully resolved.

Stray Observations:

-Kay refers to Dale as “Dad, the sequel” when talking about him to Evelyn.

-Michael Lucas, one of the show’s writers stated on Twitter that ‘Dr Marcia’ is a nod to Marsha Linehan, the psychologist who developed Dialectical Behaviour Therapy in the 1980s. Her personal story of being institutionalized in the 1960s is what originally inspired Helen’s backstory.