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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spells &amp; Karma" data-source="post: 436080" data-attributes="member: 23">Episodes 762 - 806 14 February - 13 July 1990 continuedPaul’s departure took place in a milestone week for the series, marking the last time it would transmit just two episodes per week before increasing its output to three per week from the first week of July.Given the slump in which the series found itself earlier in this run of episodes and the way the series is haemorrhaging long-running characters, it seems counterintuitive to spread the series even thinner by increasing output by fifty percent. Still I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find that, while there are already symptoms of approaches that will ultimately wreck the series, there is a genuine sense of event around this shift. More importantly, it feels some effort is being made to build on what’s right about the series. Sheila’s speech about Damon coming, as it did, in the middle of the first longer week.It’s also around this time that there’s been a tonne of previously-unheard exposition about Frank’s father - who was a prisoner of war - and Frank and Chrissie’s dating days which seems an attempt to go a bit deeper with this family.The Unbearable Chrissy Rogers continues to be an irritant. She’s constantly written as such a harridan. First trying to shriek Sammy into sobriety then going to the GP about Sammy and shrieking “but what about meeeeeeeeee?” and whining to him about Frank which initiates a series of illicit meetings that are emotional infidelity at the very least (it’s a little vague whether or not the good doctor gave any kind of physical). And all the while poor Frank gets it in the ear for every choice he makes without asking her permission. I’m certain there’s more than a grain of matriarchal truth to the writing, but as a viewer it gets wearing to be subjected to this in almost all of her scenes.But this is nothing - nothing at all - compared with bloody ghastly Sue who has been at the centre of one of the series’ key storylines in this run. She’s elbowed her way into Jonathan’s practice, proving herself an unreliable secretary (when she finally did show up she had the baby with her) and disloyal, doing the “woman to woman” bit with Viv*, making herself look better by making Jon look bad and helping Viv root through the office behind Jonathan’s back (given recent tensions between Jonathan and Sue over Daniel’s parentage, him employing her at all is a bit of a stretch, but I’ve decided that Jonathan did it for pragmatic reasons, knowing that it will take some pressure off Terry, help keep a roof over Daniel’s head and allow Jonathan’s tenants to continue paying him rent). Then comes the railroading Terry into trying for another baby so she can increase her hold on him. Followed by an “all about Sue” nervous breakdown when there was no baby.Then we get all soapy tropey, with Terry taking the inevitable ‘sperm test which reveals he can’t have children’.It’s been a long time coming, but the fallout - timed to coincided with the move to three times weekly - has been quite spectacular, with Terry evidently getting drunk on milk and confronting Sue with angry words and a bit of a pushing round. Brian Regan has given it his all with this attempt to go beyond Terry’s loveable loser image, with his home improvements in particular being a standout.The best thing to come out of it has been the Terry/Barry pairing firing on all cylinders.Barry has been all over the series’ biggest storylines of late, and it’s all to the good. They’ve had a series of terrific scenes, from the strain between them as Barry wants to talk over his feelings over Tracy’s abortion only to find Barry is unavailable to him, to Barry whispering in Terry’s ear about Jonathan being the father which led to the two of them angrily going for Jonathan.These two go back a long way in both the series history and its pre-history, and that connection comes across, with a memorable shared scene taking place in the back garden of Number Nine as Terry burnt Sue’s belongings. In a way it’s a scene of big soapy revelations: Terry tells Barry he’s not Daniel’s father. Barry talks about Tracy’s abortion. Here, though, it comes completely from character and provides a grounding for the high octane plots as two old friends reach one another in a way nobody else could. <img src="https://i.vgy.me/1as49P.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 663px" /> <img src="https://i.vgy.me/Wf6umv.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 532px" />    <img src="https://i.vgy.me/3tyY64.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 531px" /> Incredibly, this knockout scene immediately preceded the one next door with Sheila talking about Damon to Billy, so #502 was one hell of an episode.As things have closed out we’ve been reminded of Sheila’s own history with Terry as she tries to help him make peace with what’s happened, telling him he’s been “like another son” in many ways. For most of the episode, Sheila has found several different ways to suggest she has a Big Secret. The episode held off big reveal, so it will wait until the next batch. From memory, it’s one of my least favourite retcons, and I’m curious to see if it can win me over this time round.* Viv Slater burst upon the scene, kicking arses and solving puzzles before leaving just as suddenly. I really like her. Her brief stint smacks very much of “the actress who plays Sarah is inconveniently unavailable so we’ve introduced a stand-in and changed a few lines in the script to facilitate the story”, but it’s no worse for it.</blockquote>

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