Clearing for Cathy

Cathy makes me uneasy. It’s the hoarding mainly, plus the weird way she looks at people. She’s like a deer on the side of the road and you don’t know if she’s going to jump away or right in front of your car.

Due to go to Roy’s for dinner, she pulls a book she wants to give him out of a teetering stack. Everything on top of it falls and traps her underneath. Roy eventually rescues her, but the accident gives him the hook he needs to try and clear out some of the mess. Health and safety hazard, he tells her.

Ches, Tyrone and Fiz are deputized to clear a small space while Roy gets Cathy away from the house. Pleased with their efforts, they go further and clear out the whole living room. When she returns, Cathy is horrified. I am anxious, which way will she jump? Both, it turns out. She first turns on them in a fury for touching her stuff. Then she apologizes and tries to appear grateful for their help.

Fiz wants to help

It is when she is thanking them that I begin to feel sorry for Cathy. Not for her hoarding or her excuses about why she does, but for the fact that she now has Fiz wanting to help. Few things are more horrifying to think about than Fiz setting her sights on you, wanting to help.

Fiz has been at loose ends in her helping since her return. Roy is managing without her. He got his driver’s licence. He’s coping with being without Hayley. He and Carla are handling their friendship without Fiz to run interference. He’s found a new friend, who is keeping him busy enough with worrying about her. So, like manna from Heaven, Cathy can be Fiz’s new project!

Crossroads of hoarding

Cathy might be at a crossroads. Roy’s rather careful handling of her stuff and her psyche might get her to relax her grip on the accumulated junk. She might be wily enough to outmanoeuvre Roy. It’s too early in his efforts to tell. But having Fiz barge into a very unstable physical and mental environment might truly send her over the edge.

Cathy blames her hoarding on her husband’s death – wants to keep everything around her, nothing changing. I don’t think it is more than a couple years since he died. If she can accumulate that much in that short a time, Roy is taking a big chance having her stay in his small and orderly flat. She could fill that to bursting in a week! Especially if Fiz comes anywhere near to rock the boat of instability.

To be fair, Fiz did caution Tyrone that maybe they should do as Roy said and clear only a small space. But for perhaps the first time in their relationship, she gave in to Tyrone. You never listen to Tyrone, Fiz, why now?