Alice is getting ready for rehab and the last person she probably needs to pop round is Kate, which is exactly what happens. Alice has found out that Peggy has been speaking to Chris about Alice’s alcoholism since New Year’s and she’s not happy. Kate can hardly believe it and asks what right Peggy has interfering in Alice’s life - that’s rich coming from her! She’s all for going round and sorting her out but Alice says that she’ll go and see her on her own.
Peggy is sorry for interfering but she’s proud of her granddaughter now that she’s accepting help, and Alice accepts that Peggy may have been right after all in putting Martha’s interests first. Kate is still there when Alice gets back and after a few cross words she persuades Kate not to go round and tell her Gran what’s what and, to paraphrase Amy Winehouse, tells her sister “They tried to make me go to Rehab, but I said yes, yes, yes”
Meanwhile Lynda, Shula and Joy are meeting to plan the fete, or rather Lynda and Shula are as Lynda has suggested that’s Joy’s role should be as an observer for the first few meetings. Lynda’s big idea for a theme is the Pandemic, specifically lockdown, but Shula suggests that people would have had enough by then. ‘Observer’ Joy suggests making scarecrows but Lynda pooh-poohs the idea as it’s been done before - 10 years ago! Shula loves the idea though and suggests putting it to the full committee, and Lynda reluctantly agrees. It looks like the committee loves it too as later at the tearoom Fallon praises Lynda for the scarecrow idea and she’s forced to admit that it was Joy’s idea and not hers, and confesses that her pride is somewhat hurt. Fallon tells her not to worry - she’s still ‘the boss” as far as Ambridge events are concerned.
Fallon confides in Lynda that Alice is going to rehab for a month and that she’s worried about her. Lynda sees similarities with the position she was in after the fire at Grey Gables, and it was only through the kindness of her friends that she was able to rebuild her life. Alice will need her friends too - friends like Fallon.
Back to Kate who’s avoiding Peggy but in true Kate style seems to be taking it to extremes. She turns up at Jakob’s surgery to suggest she moves out of Peggy’s house and moves in with him. Jakob’s fresh from operating on a horse and is covered in blood. Desperate as he is for a shower he wants to know what Kate’s doing there. His reaction when she tells him is characteristically direct in pointing out that they tried it before and it didn’t work (I remember him describing how she left his flat looking like a disaster zone), but he can detect an ulterior motive and his persistence wrenches the real reason from her. Jakob’s horrified that Kate would just move out and leave Peggy on her own. It seems that something that moved out a long time ago is Kate’s compassion as she says she won’t be made to feel guilty for leaving her ‘horrible old gran’ on her own.
We catch up with Alice when she’s being driven to her rehab clinic by Brian. I must say, she sounds very calm considering the struggles that have taken place to get her there. So calm in fact that I wonder whether her frequent stops at service stations are less about needing a pee than needing to get pissed. Brian calls the clinic to explain that they’re running late and they seem suspicious too. Brian goes looking for Alice and shouts into the Ladies where he thinks she is but there’s no reply - probably because she’s found a pub and is calmly having a drink in the garden. It takes Brian an hour to find her and when he does she says she’s not going to rehab - no, no, no.
Brian has a plan though. He gets Alice to think she’s convinced him that she doesn’t need to go after all, then gets himself a gin and tonic and his daughter a vodka and orange. It doesn’t take long for Alice to realise that she’ll be easier to take to rehab if she’s drunk. They argue, he manhandles her into the car (worryingly no-one seems to question this) and they eventually get there. After checking her in and leaving her in the care of the clinic’s manager Sandra, he leaves with Alice’s words ringing in his ears - “I hate you Dad”. That’s not what Brian’s telling everyone in Ambridge though, apparently she went in “quiet as a lamb”.
He can’t keep it bottled up though and he confesses to Eddie that the trip to rehab was a nightmare and puts him in the picture about what really happened. He can’t understand how things got so bad without him realising, but Eddie sympathises telling Brian he felt exactly the same way when Will was in a bad way. Brian is the only person outside the family who knows how bad things really were with Will, and Eddie is eternally grateful for his confidence.
Finally, we get back to an agricultural storyline. Well, when I say agricultural I mean Shula’s garden, which is as close as we’re going to get this week. Neil’s anxious to pay off his debt to Shula by finishing her garden and I can’t tell you how relieved I am that they’re not having the affair Alistair thought they were having. He is spending an awful long time there though, and who can blame him. At Shula’s he can take his time in the garden being fed a constant supply of tea and chocolate digestives, while back at Ambridge View he and Susan are at each others throats as the strain of holding down two jobs while looking after Martha is starting to take it’s toll on the couple.
It doesn’t get any better when Shula turns up to return Neil’s secateurs that he left behind, and Susan learns of the extent of the work he’s been doing for her. Miffed, to say the least, Susan leaves telling Neil to stay and chat with “your friend Shula!”
Still, it could have been worse - she could have been returning the clothes he changed out of two weeks ago.
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