Workin’ 9 to 5

My ‘aha’ moment this week was Wednesday, when Rita wondered why David was so exhausted. “But he’s a young lad, he should be able to manage a blow-dry and an hour or two waiting tables.” Yes, Rita, thank you! I’d been thinking the same thing. He’s not even managing a 9 to 5.

We never actually saw David finish a double shift. Maybe he did so in days we missed on the street. What we saw was him starting his evening shift at the Bistro, doing something klutzy or looking tired and Nick sending him home – with pay – to get some rest.

Then Audrey sent him home – with pay – from his day job at the salon after he nicked Dennis’ ear repeatedly during a hair trim.  She then popped in to check on him less than an hour later. And woke him up from the sleep she had recommended he get! Probably David would be a lot less exhausted if his grandmother, mother and wife just let him alone to work and stopped fretting at him.

Anyway, I was at the screaming point before Rita gave voice to my objections. He wasn’t actually finishing any of his double shifts. What is the problem here? Or, as Rita put it, “Does a day’s work, half kills him!” So what is going on?

Then it was as if the writer of the next episode read what Rita had said. Hmm, that person may have realized, yes, David is a strong young man and he hasn’t appeared to be actually working even one job, let alone two. And, even if he had, why would this be so difficult for him so quickly? We need a reason for his extreme exhaustion (apart from the relentless nagging from Gail and Kylie).

Epilepsy vis à vis the baby

So David’s epilepsy is revisited. That is good. He was diagnosed with the disease after he appeared to have deliberately tried to run down his best friend Graeme Proctor. That got Evil David off the hook for attempted murder, but then his epilepsy was never again mentioned. Until now. David, reasonably enough, is wondering if there are tests so that they can know if the baby also has epilepsy. Kylie, Nick and Gail don’t want the baby tested at all for anything at any time.

We all, viewers and writers alike, have known that somehow the baby had to have tests that would show paternity. David was diagnosed with epilepsy and has been living with it since late 2010, so why not use that from the start of the current storyline? It would be a realistic continuation of character history.

It is awkward, if not sloppy, writing to dwell on his overwhelming exhaustion with no adequate explanation. Just a line from Gail to David or even Audrey or Kylie about the worry of stress compounded with epilepsy would have sufficed.

Daily Mail gives more on the taping of these scenes and background on the 2010 story with Graeme.