I honestly thought my ship had sunk in Episode 6 but then Audrey had a change of heart probably from seeing how much her leaving affected Siegfried. I think Gerald knew in his heart that he and Audrey weren’t meant to be. Skeldale House was her home and its inhabitants her found family.
Audrey and Siegfried though, goodness, I wish they would just be a little less stiff upper lip and more open about their feelings but it’s not how they were raised, is it? We forget that people from past generations did not talk about their problems like we do now, nor did they express their feelings.
If tragedy befell them such as the loss of a child, they just buried their emotions and got on with things. There was no crying in baseball as it were. The problem with that is those feelings don’t go away. The trauma just festers until one day something triggers the trauma and they explode like Mr. Alderton did at Helen. Of course, he later apologised but at the time, she really didn’t understand why her dad got so upset with her for not taking it easy. It was only after he told her she once had a brother who died as a baby, that she understood.
Emotions are meant to be felt and acknowledged. That’s the only way to heal from traumatic events is to admit you’re hurt, you’re scared, you’re grieving, you’re upset.
I would love for Audrey and Siegfried to be more transparent with their feelings but it’s not easy to do when you’ve spent all of your life keeping things in especially after the war. They’ve both have had to build thick walls around their hearts so they could function. Add to that Audrey being abused by her husband and Siegfried losing his wife to cancer, and you’ve got two people who have had to just keep calm and carry on else they break down.
