Love Hurts

It’s the story of Kirsty and Tyrone I guess, more than any one scene this week. Although every scene where Kirsty gets or might get annoyed or has an implement of any kind in or near her hand is scary. After her return, that meant pretty much every scene she was in. And Tyrone, desperate for love and a baby, willing to sacrifice himself, his friendships – everything to keep a madwoman happy. Love hurts, in this case.

On Friday, two scenes illustrate both points. They happened after Kirsty found out Tina and Tommy knew about the way she vents her stress.

First scene: Tyrone walked in the house and Kirsty was there ironing clothes. He looked at the hot steam iron more often than he looked at her. So did I. He made a move once toward her, as if to hug her, but stopped short at the sight of the hot iron between them. I’m sure he was more relieved than I was when she unplugged it and put it away.

Second scene: over a meal, Kirsty once again says she’s willing to get help. But she can’t bear the fact that anyone else knows about what she does. That she loves him but it won’t work, blahblahblah. Not with Tina and Tommy knowing and watching her every move. And Tyrone once again falls into her trap. He says that he will totally cut off contact with Tina and Tyrone, anything to make her happy and let him have his little family. And you can see the self-satisfied glint come into her perhaps truly remorseful eyes. If he does it, she’ll have total control over him. And she seems to need that.

This is an excellent storyline remarkably well done by Alan Halsall and Natalie Gumede. They beautifully portray the complexities of two people who want to love and be loved but have some self- (and other-) destructive issues that neither want to actually deal with. The thought of a baby being added to this mix is horrifying.

Kirsty blames her dad

I missed the episodes when Kirsty’s parents were there and she explained that her dad beat her and her mother. Maybe I’d feel more sympathy for her if I had seen those. As it is, I see only the pride that is keeping her from getting help that she knows she needs. I am relieved that she is no longer a cop. Interestingly, Tommy is the only one who has explicitly connected the dots about that and her being abusive. She is a bully and that’s not what any police force needs on the streets.

And it’s not what Tyrone needs. In the final scene of the week, Tyrone cut his friends dead. He told Tommy he only wanted to see him with the loan repayment and for them both to stay away from him. I wonder what it’s going to take for him to think, if not of his safety and sanity, but of the protection of the baby that is soon to arrive. If Kirsty wants to blame her father for what she is doing, Tyrone ought to remember that her dad beat both his wife and his child.