#the longer i went typing this the more i realised how interwined soaps are

[noramachwitz]

In the new IS interview with Thomas Atkinson there are quite a few interesting bits but what caught my attention more than anything was the fact that he said they were originally supposed to film the Whites car crash back in August 2017 which would have put the Whites exit in October 2017.

The Whites exit had implications for a few other characters (mainly on robron but on Joe/Graham/Debbie/Dingles in a secondary sense as well) and when you think about it then A Lot of things about how this story was told start to make sense. Obviously this is based on 50% speculation and 50% on quotes from actors and IM so it might not be completely right but it made a lot of sense to me so I thought I’d share it.

There’s a lot to this so this is under a read more if you wanna:

First off, here are some things that we basically know for sure (I’m establishing facts because for some reason this turned into an honest to god essay wtf). I’m going to try and do this chronologically but don’t hold me to it:

According to the IS interview, Thomas knew back in 2016 that he would exit as a killer which means that must have been one of the first things IM decided to do when he came in which also means he came in and knew he’d ax the Whites. All this has been a long time coming.

The show generally storylines about 5 months ahead which is why in April 2017 John Bowe went on his famous tirade on twitter and basically announced he’d been fired. Five months of storylining would have once again put the Whites exit in September/October which fits.

What also says this was the original plan is the simple fact that literally every one of the actors’ contracts would have been up in October since that’s when they all came to the show (the OG Whites in October 2014 and EH in October 2016). And btw that would explain why they treated Rebecca’s character the way they did because she was never supposed to stay around longer than a year originally.

Now what was affected by them pushing the exits back?? A List:

Joe & Graham: Obviously the Whites leaving later meant that Joe and Graham had to move into Home Farm later. That would explain that kinda strange way they were introduced. Joe and Graham had a handful of appearances in September, were introduced and relationships with Debbie/Charity introduced for the most part and then suddenly went off screen for more than 5 weeks. That definitely not the most ideal way to introduce your new characters to a soap format is it? Pretty sure they had to stall and put that sl on hold because of the Whites exit.

Lachlan: Obviously the Whites leaving earlier would have meant that that Lachlan’s descent into Our Favourite Serial Killer would have started earlier and ended earlier. I’d say Gerry dying would have probably happened in January since that would have been a year after his first appearance (since we know IM loved his anniversaries) and the conclusion that is happening now would maybe have happened back in May/June.

Robert & Aaron: Now ... I would almost bet actual money (only like 5 quid tho I’m not mad) that the original timeline for Robron was to break up in July just like they did, then the crash in October and the robron reunion on Christmas (Since Christmas plans must have already been in motion when they decided to change stuff). Remember how IM kept saying we were going to get a summer robron wedding?? I’m willing to bet that originally, their anniversary in February would have sparked the second engagement which would have naturally lead to a summer wedding. (I mean IM is still terrible at timing/pacing but you know this would explain why to a degree).

Steven Flynn (who played Alex #rip) actually said in his last interview that he was originally only planned for 10 episodes on September but his stint got extended to 29 which would fit with them pushing the reunion further back then first intended, so that’s further proof.

Now the most interesting question is of course WHY their exit got pushed back this far. I don’t think we’ll ever know for sure but I think there are some obvious candidates:

Short answer: Mike Parr (and also some Lucy Pargeter)

I think Lucy going on maternity leave was the first thing that threw the timing and the scheduling of the robron sl and in consequence the Whites SL and exit off (it actually must have influenced Debbie/Sarah even more but that’s a whole other post).

Mike Parr said at the BSAs that he always wanted to do 4 years and his contract would have run out in April 2017 (since his first appearance was in July) but they convinced him to stay one more year by giving him the accid attack sl. April 2017 aka the same month where they originally must have told JB and co that they were fired. And then the BSAs 2017 happened where everything hinted that something massive must have been shifting because 1) John Bowe said that the production team keeps changing their minds about the Whites exit 2) Danny said that infamous line that he doesn’t think they know what they’re doing. Now if they had long term plans for Ross that included him playing a role in both the Whites exit and the robron sl then wouldn’t that have been the time where they had to scramble everything around? Makes u think. If suddenly they found out Mike was leaving in a year and a bit and they had to setup and come up with a whole “brand new” exit sl for him it would explain a lot (since they love involving Ross in everything)

Lucy’s maternity leave in early 2017 must have thrown the schedule off a lot since at this point it seems kinda obvious that Sarah is going to get Grace’s heart. Remember how Chas slept with Paddy right before the robron wedding and IM said that Debbie has a 18 month long SL coming up when she came back?? Now those stories are running parallel to each other and I think they were always meant to. That’s why when Lucy came back they immediately sarted with Chas/Paddy. I’d also say the Joe/Debbie stuff was supposed to happen once Sarah was better again and had had the heart transplant but you know Ned and Andrew were already casted and they couldn’t wait a year for them to arrive. That’s why they had to drop villain Joe as quickly as they did and how Joe/Debbie getting back together was rushed because they couldn’t have Debbie involved in both Joe drama and Sarah drama. I’m lowkey hoping that they’re going to continue with their original plans for how they wanted Joe/Debbie to go after Sarah is okay again ngl I miss villain!Joe.

Now if you combine both of those aspects then is it any wonder that 2017 Emmerdale was as messy pacing wise as it was? So many Big Stories were affected by this that must have had a ripple effect on the whole show, right? That’s the feeling I have anyway.

Now even more speculation that’s honestly just Speculation™ because we’ll never know but speculation is fun so here we go:

The crash being in October means it would have happened about a month before Rebecca was due to give birth so that leads me to believe that either Seb wasn’t supposed to be born originally OR it finally explains why they casted a premature baby without it ever being mentioned in on screen. The crash being later meant that Rebecca could carry the kid to term after all but they’d possibly already casted a premie so that never went anywhere.

I have some more speculation tbh but since we have no idea how either Ross or Rebecca or Lachlan are going to exit that’s kinda futile so I’m going to leave it at this since this post is already long enough lmao. If u made it this far than honestly kudos, I had a lot of fun typing it.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk while I remembered how to write essays (it’s been a while lmao).