ok well emmerdale stole a lotta my thunder today but i’ve been ruminating on ross’s backstory, since i’ve seen nearly all of his storyline (good god this got long i love this criminal so much wow)
First of all, his mother tried to kill him. This isn’t the only reason Emma and James split, but it was the clear final straw. This means the boys grew up without a mother and with a single father who had to care for three (young) boys and a farm. It also means that James probably placed a lot of responsibility on (and therefore trust in) Pete (and most likely felt bad for placing so much on a 12yo and often wanted to reward him). BUT it may also mean that James, no matter how hard he tried to avoid it, blamed Ross, at least in part, for Emma leaving. (Blaming Ross may have been easier than blaming Emma for leaving or himself for cheating/loving Moira.)
Ross has severe middle child syndrome, which was severely exacerbated by the above reasons (single father, trusting Pete w/ more responsibility & wanting to reward Pete for such) as well as Finn being so young when Emma left (most likely fussed over). Ross acted out to get attention, as many middle children do, and his behavior was never entirely addressed, so he continued until it built into a full lifestyle.
Then, I’m not sure if this is actually implied in the episode I pulled it from or if I’ve created a headcanon snowball, but I’m pretty convinced that the reason Ross left the farm (like, originally) is because James hit him during an argument. I picture it like this: James and Ross are having a typical argument about Ross’s behavior and by now James is really fed up, believing Ross should’ve grown out of this by now, but Ross won’t back down and James snaps hits him. The room falls quiet (the boys had been trying to keep peace as they do). Ross leaves the room and no one else moves or speaks, even after he returns with a bag and leaves without a word.
Thus, feeling guilty (and still caring about Ross), James sacrifices everything to find Ross and assure himself that his son is okay, which, done correctly, could have set the family back on track, instead places more blame on Ross; Finn and Pete both blame Ross (and to a lesser extent James) for losing the farm, and James may as well, at least at a subconscious level. (This could go deeper – James blames Ross for “making” James hit him, “making” James search for him, etc, although he outwardly acknowledges that it’s his own fault.)
Ross meets his mother, moves in with her, then learns that she tried to kill him, and that his father and older brother knew and didn’t tell him, even when Emma returned. (read: Trust Issues.)
Ross doesn’t give or receive love or affection often (see: family), so when he falls in love(/lust/like/w.e), he falls hard. And yeah, one of those times he may fall for his brother’s fiancee (***not unreciprocated, that’s important). So when he sees her possibly fatally injured he has to know that she’s okay, but when he asks, Pete won’t answer and instead beats the shit out of him, misconstrues him dead, and dumps him in a ditch, despite being literally right next to a hospital.
When he wakes up in the hospital, Pete is basically told that his brother tried to kill him, yet when he returns to the village, he finds everything nearly as it was. On top of this, he learns his whole family (as well as the woman he loves) now know what Pete did and are protecting him from [legal] consequences, and that the only reason Pete told them was because he was afraid he’d been caught – Pete wasn’t suffering from the guilt of what he’d thought he’d done (id est, KILL HIS BROTHER), but rather the guilt of covering it up.
Personally, I can see how attempted murder would be a snapping point.
which leads into a whole other meta but no one’s reading this so who cares
First off, I do believe that Ross couldn’t kill Pete (the first time, in the caravan w the note) because they’re brothers (which is deadly ironic bc Pete didn’t seem to care all that much lmao), although I do believe he could’ve talked himself into it
I also believe that the reason he made the deal with Andy was bc he a) struggled to kill Pete and b) hates Robert as well (mostly re: fake robbery & blackmail).
I do think that Ross felt that shooting Robert was far less personal or direct than killing Pete. The way I perceive guns in the UK is very different than in the US – guns (as in, handguns) are weirdly and grossly common in the US and we as a community have witnessed the horrors they cause (even if just through television), and therefore, we as an audience and as a general populous consider shooting people wholly and entirely personal (”guns don’t kill people, people kill people”) while I feel like the UK often shares blame with the weapon (as in “well of course someone was gonna get hurt if there’s a gun in the mix”). Ross was able to shoot Robert from a distance which makes the act of what he thought was murder less personal. (Not altogether, of course, which leads to his reaction.)
When I first saw Ross’s goodbye to Debbie, I believed it to be remorse for his attempt on Pete’s life. Then I was thrown by the rewind which revealed it more as a reaction to shooting Robert, which I’d initially considered about 75% acting, but when he returned and mentioned spending his entire holiday “thinking he was a murderer,” then I believed his reaction more genuine, if his words were in apposition.
And in every scene where Ross confronted Pete, it always seemed to me that Pete could at least start to fix things with a direct, sincere “I’m sorry,” but he never did. And then I started wondering if Pete (or any of his family, for that matter) would ever directly say “I love you,” to Ross (because, yeah, I get implications and showing vs telling and they’re a hypermasculine farm family and whatever, but sometimes – especially in a case like Ross’s, with past familial abuse, severe trust issues, and prominent middle child syndrome which can lead to “low self-esteem, jealousy, feelings of inadequacy and emptiness, unfriendliness and introversion” – a kid, no matter how old, really needs to hear it).
And when Pete finally does – when he finally says both “I’m sorry” and “I love you” directly to Ross under no immediate duress or threat (as in, there is no indication that saying these things will save Pete, like Ross isn’t saying “Tell me you love me or I’ll kill you”) – Ross visibly falters.
And again when he reads Pete’s text and Pete indirectly reminds Ross that his family does love him, at least through Pete’s eyes, he breaks completely. (Which could, arguably, be the beginning of a healing process, hinted at by not only his sparing Pete but also his dismissal of Andy’s debt.)
[[Did you cry at “Ross the Boss” because I did.]]
And then this brings me practically full-circle with Ross’s main motive being his desperation for love (affection, attention, etc.).
