Last time Apple Tree Yard grabbed me by the personals and didn’t let go until time was up. I want to see what happens next! Rolling episode two after the break
And er, sorry Ben Chaplin, we all age differently and you’re an artist and nobody should probably make note of extreme changes in your instrument.
ANYWAY, something much more important happened last time; Dr. Yvonne Carmichael (Emily Watson) was being beaten and raped by colleague George (Steven Elder); somehow George’s discovery of her scorching hot affair with X (Ben Chaplin) emboldened him to cross the line to serious assault. We know that Yvonne (a respected married geneticist) is currently on trial for SOMETHING, join me in a non-denominational prayer circle that it’s for killing George before he was able to hurt her too badly.
And damnit, our prayers have not been answered. Yvonne awakens on the floor next to George, but he’s alive and they’re both disheveled.
Oh it hurts to see her like this
They share a cab home, as planned; him smiling a superior smile and she hiding in the corner of the seat. She showers, oh no, don’t shower, go to the police, but she doesn’t and she throws away all her clothes and I get it, Yvonne. I understand completely. Because then it didn’t happen. It’s just that it did.
She stands at a neighbour’s garbage can; undecided. To report or not to report? She drives to the police station with the bag, then away again.
Part of her decision has to be complicated by the fact that she had sex with X earlier that night, on (possibly dummy) camera in the alley, without protection and leaving evidence behind. To reveal one is to reveal the other and while you and I and she know the difference: will a jury? Let’s ask the Preppie Murderer or his victim, Jennifer Levin. Oh, but we can’t.
She dumps the evidence somewhere anonymous and comes back to the house to not sleep. X has been texting; how does she share that with him? Men and people in general don’t always react the way you expect them to and it also makes it more real. He’s also not actually a partner, they’re supposed to just be a bit of fun, aren’t they. Nothing fun about what happened.
Then the crying.
X can’t take her silence any more and calls her; is she playing it cool? No.
They meet in the park and she is the picture of devastated restraint. He asks a lot of specific questions about evidence instead of holding her. Don’t do that. She loses it when she lists her injuries; finally he holds her because that has to be agreed to as well.
He offers to get a team together to help her form a prosecution against George; she mentions that his semen will also be there and I knew that was the deciding factor for her. X asks about her husband, she’ll just tell Gary (Mark Bonnar) she’s not well.
Gary buys it when she moves to the spare room for a few days; he’s just back from a trip to Sunderland where he probably was messing with one of his students anyway.
She cries on her son’s bed, remembering George’s angry face and the hitting when loud noises send her scrambling to lock the door in terror. She’s just got her cell and dialing when she hears a voice: it’s her son Adam (Jack Hamilton).
She makes him a cuppa; he wants to stay for a bit to sort some stuff out. It’s another source of pain; she loves and misses him so much and he keeps himself very separate from her.
She does some work minutiae; changing her voicemail and setting up her email when she sees one from George. She rushes upstairs to see that he expects her to travel to a lecture in Swansea with him on Thursday? And stay at a hotel? Will he threaten to tell Gary if she doesn’t agree?
She writes a terse note back telling him not to contact her again and blocks him. That does not always work.
She tells X, who tells her to keep track of any attempts to contact her. She tells X that George knows about them; but not who he is. Awesome, X, be mostly concerned that George knows who you are. Do THAT. She cries; if only she hadn’t been pissed, but he’s not having that. “None of this is your fault. None of it.”
She apologizes (argh), he didn’t sign up for this. But he signed up for her, so.
The bruises on the inside of her thigh aren’t any better, and she isn’t eating, OR getting any time with Adam, who’s dealing with “girl trouble” but not Ellie from the halfway house.
X texts later; is she okay? When she replies in the negative, he calls. He knows someone who might be able to help her, not police.
Oh I do not feel good about this meeting. X is there for one, and the person she’s talking to is male. Kevin Proctor (Darren Morfitt) is fine, I’m sure, but again: male. Kevin Proctor offers her a brochure for counseling services and then settles in to explain to all of us why rape cases aren’t reported:
- being drunk will be used against her
- her willingly being in Geroge’s presence (at a work party) will be used against her
- anything shady / sketchy in her past or present (cut to X) will be used against her, every single skeleton
- they will go after her family
- they will go after her marriage, including her spouse
- her family’s mental illness background will be exploited, like her mum’s suicide post post-natal depression and her bi-polar son
- once the victim has made the complaint, it is out of their hands as to what is brought up in court
She doesn’t want her career and life achievements to be erased and replaced with “George Selway’s Victim” if she goes forward.
He moves to comfort her, she shuts him down quickly, very quickly. She can’t see herself ever having sex again, and that was the point of this, right? *challenging stare* Then a goodbye and writing in her attic to herself.
Yvonne meets with Susannah (Susan Lynch) to talk some more about Suz’s sex life with Chris, or lack thereof. Susannah even notes that they never talk about what Yvonne’s been up to, just her life, but then she’s back into it, moment passed. I sat bolt upright when Yvonne said she thought she had a virus; I hope that’s a reference to shamming Gary and not talking about how she feels because I’d forgotten about the chance of STIs.
She gets home, Gary has definitely noticed that something is up but he cant tell why.
Adam’s “girl trouble” is “so lovely, mum” kind, funny, can even sing, like an angel! And not interested in Adam, it seems. She tells him that it’s very easy to tell ourselves stories about people, that’s they’re perfect, but nobody is. No.body
Walking into work, she talks to X in her head, wondering why he never told he anything about his job but wanted to know so much about hers. Work has always been her refuge but then she thinks she spies George and turns to run. It’s someone else, though, how is she going to do this? She’s terrified.
She runs home instead.
Gary watches Yvonne as Marcia (Susannah Doyle) holds forth on a recently publicized rape, good for you for speaking up, Yvonne! People are FAR too quick to judge a situation like that; THEY’D never do that, THEY’D take care of themselves, but really, nobody who has ever been assaulted would ever make incredibly stupid, ill-informed judgements like that. It makes Yvonne and I feral.
Yvonne’s speech: You see, lovely woman hosting the party, you have no imagination as to what to do when bad things happen for absolutely no reason; no idea what to do when things go south on no discernible path so you make up reasons, assign blame, anything but accept that there are monstrous things that you have no control over.
In the car later, Gary thinks this has to do with him and Rosa (the grad student he definitely was banging); but no, it’s…she’s thinking of quitting her job. Go into consultancy.
She receives flowers at home, they’re from George. She cannot escape him.
She visits her daughter at work; Carrie (Olivia Vinall) is worried that she’s depressed, which reminds us of Yvonne’s mother committing suicide while in the grip of depression.
She writes a beautiful letter to X about how she loved how he saw her. He really did and she’s right, that is a rare and beautiful thing in this life.
The bruises on her thigh have healed; she goes out and has her hair done, to return home and receive a text from George complimenting her hair and asking if it was for him? She locks all the doors and windows, but there are so.many windows! She’s moved back into the master bedroom with Gary, but he’s heading off on a trip, how will she stay safe???
She’s going to have to do something about George.
And now Adam is gone now, too; he left in the middle of the night and only told his dad he was going. HOW WILL SHE STAY SAFE???
She’s drank (drunk?) all the wine in the house, so she’s off to the liquor store to stock up, seeing George there, who is definitely following her. Go somewhere else!!!! Don’t go home! He knows where that is!
She barricades herself up in her attic and calls X. He gives her an address to come to the next day, I remembered it for her! 12 Merthyr Court, Chamberlain Road. I’m just worried she’s not going to make it!!!
She does and X is there; is it an apartment he doesn’t use? It’s a safe house, SafeHouse even, does she want to take her coat off? She does, but she’s really worried about him touching her, too.
Their chemistry is palpable; an arm stroke here, a tongue touch there and then they are all the way in to each other. She needed to know it could be all right again.
So what are they going to do about George? She wants X to scare him away, put the wind up him badly so he goes away, and forever.
It’s a lovely fantasy, but if X does that, George will take it out on Yvonne, guaranteed.
We’re back at the house now, Gary’s back from his conference in Estonia and oh: by the way, Rosa came with him to the conference. He’s quick to defend: he wasn’t sleeping with her the last two years when she insisted he was, just now at this conference in Estonia.
It’s because her and Gary never have sex, see.
She’s got somewhere to be, though, sorry, talk later. Gary thinks she doesn’t need him and DUH. This marriage. Everyone with someone else, why? Why hang onto this shell of a partnership? Because I guess even a bad marriage still has structure.
She’s off to meet X, who’s dressed casual for his intimidation of George plan. He rings and rings and rings the bell, then finally is admitted. He’s been in there awhile, hasn’t he? And X isn’t all that big. People are starting to note her presence on the street and a loud slap on the glass takes us back to Yvonne in court, where she’s being screamed at by a young woman for “ruining our lives” and what can that mean?? And we’re out. Ahhh! Until next time.
