#literally just including rebecca in the plot with her womb would have made her so much better in my mind

[saras-almanac]

I am procrastinating actually working on my portfolio so I figured why not write about my frustrations. 

This will surprise no one, but I’m still thinking about the Emmerdale garbage and boring storyline that is Rebecca’s pregnancy. The reason I can’t let this go is just the absolutely lazy writing with it. What exactly was their goal here?

That’s actually a serious question. What were they trying to accomplish? What was the end result? Because how it stands right now, there isn’t one. (Under cut because this is a long slightly rambling thing.)

I have seen a few theories popping up, trying to explain it but that shouldn’t be entirely on the viewer! (I actually wrote about them all in here but it turned into a monster document so I’ll post that later as a random side post.) It’s fun to have theories that we share and try and piece things together, but there still needs to be a base of something. There’s nothing with this storyline.

It literally feels like they wanted us to completely forget the last year or so because if you think about it, it makes absolutely zero sense. I talked a little bit about Robert and the context surrounding the ONS that sort of strains the believability for me. But what I want to talk about is Rebecca.

First of all, if you’re going to impregnate someone, probably best to actually give them a storyline or at least a central voice regarding that pregnancy. Call me a crazed feminist, but if you’re having a woman get pregnant just to fuel a man’s storyline, not a great storyline to have. Even though I hate this storyline, they could have at least pretended to care about Rebecca. I mean, if you’re going down this route, making sure Rebecca actually gets a point of view is slightly crucial. Especially with how desperate IM is for us to love Rebecca. How can we love someone who barely feels like a person more days? Giving us more of her point of view or Robert’s on the actual baby would have helped the disconnect between Rebecca’s storyline and the plot that her womb has created. They have literally separated Rebecca from her own pregnancy storyline.

On that note, why did you have to completely alter her personality and character? Writers, you do remember that this is the same woman who slept with her sister’s boyfriend for an undisclosed amount of time up to and including Chrissie and Robert’s engagement party? Robert is by no means off the hook for this, but they both were present and knowingly doing that. Even when Rebecca came to Emmerdale she came to try and betray her family for Robert.

She’s not this innocent victim—something I thought the show had made pretty clear especially in regards to Rebecca’s relationship to Chrissie. However, that’s the route the show decided to go down post the ONS. It’s ridiculous and honestly a little insulting that they felt the only way to get people on board with this idea is have her be this completely innocent bystander that this pregnancy just happened to. It’s like they introduced Rebecca almost like a female Robert but then tried to transform her into a female Aaron because people love Aaron but it doesn’t work.

The thing is, as frustrating as it was to see Rebecca constantly trying to start things up with Robert again and constantly throwing herself at him, at least she was a fleshed out character then. They could have played with that. They could have used that dynamic that when she found out she was pregnant she decided to keep it just because it might make Robert choose her. Or maybe try to play the longer con of knowing that him and Aaron would probably break up again in the future since that’s sort of their MO and she’s just lying in wait again.

Or maybe she decides this is a chance to start over with someone who will love her unconditionally. Or it’s her way of trying to fill Chrissie’s shoes; she has a baby and lives at home with their dad while trying to learn their business. Or maybe it’s just because she has actually wanted a child for a while but never had a steady enough boyfriend for it to happen.

To be quite honest, the only thing I remember her saying is that she wants to be a mother. That’s great, but then they completely dropped everything that has to do with Rebecca. Vic’s the one putting together the nursery on apparently Robert’s dime. Actually Vic’s the one doing everything. If you’re going this route, then actually go down it and don’t hesitate to show both sides of this argument. It’s especially frustrating because they haven’t really given Robert a chance to figure out how he feels about this potential baby either.

They literally threw this plot together as a way to tie Robert to the Whites forever and be instrumental in booting them from Home Farm. But if you don’t know what your characters want, what their motivations are, then what’s guiding them?

Another point I wanted to come back to regarding Rebecca’s personality is the idea that Rebecca has apparently no more business sense. No sense at all. Wasn’t this the same woman who flew in on a helicopter and had the street smarts to figure our her own way for years? I could understand her struggling a little bit, but not to the extent that they have made her. I’d see her more like Charity when Charity was trying to help Debbie with that business deal—a bit out of her depth and just used to doing things differently. If she’s that bad at it, then why is she running Home Farm? You can’t honestly expect me to believe that Lawrence would have even allowed her to help if she was that awful at it—before his breakdown and break up Ronnie. But that might just be me.

They completely destroyed any potential for her character with this storyline and seem to be confused as to why people are not on board with her. First of all, you used her to break up one of the most supported pairings on the show; that was always going to be a hard thing to come back from. Just on principle alone there’s numerous fans who hate her just for that. Two, you took all her personality away and replaced it with a blinking humainoid whose only purpose seems to be interrupting Robert whenever he’s in a conversation with someone other than her and crying over her dad. We literally had the same scene with her about 15 times. How do they expect us to root for a character that doesn’t seem to actually be a character anymore? As much as I hate this storyline because it’s insulting to so many people on a rather personal level to assume that having a biological child seems to trump any other relationship you might have, there were still ways to have this come about with people still on board with Rebecca. Definitely not everyone, but I’m willing to be there would have been people who at least dealt with her a little bit.

That’s why I’m holding out hope for some sort of twist or scheme that Rebecca’s been planning this whole time. Don’t get me wrong, it would completely suck because they still need to give us something to hold onto regarding this scheme so it doesn’t come completely out of nowhere—unless of course it blindsides her as well. I just don’t want to believe that they would have thrown away all of Rebecca’s character for this.