#acgasretcon

ACGAS - retcon

Audrey thought, "Plus Dorothy is nice and doesn't throw footwear at strangers."

Audrey is executing her plan to shed herself of this troublesome employer by tending to his wounds. "The ladies I would like for him won't want him if he has a nasty scar," thought Audrey, "I better clean his wounds."

When the writers had the two characters sitting so close together and making eyes at each other, I thought that meant that maybe after six series and a three-year gap in the storyline that this pair was heading to sweet romance. Boy, did I miss those obvious clues in the scene. Audrey just wanted Siegfried to look good for the other ladies in town. And the dart date was just to teach him a new hobby to take up with his new friends.

What was I thinking? This is totally normal behavior between and employer and employee. There really should be a separation between those two. Remember, Audrey is just the lowly maid. Siegfried, however, despite his flaws is a catch for some lucky lady who isn't a lowly housekeeper.

Do I have this right? How could I have misread the entire series?

ACGAS - CS -- SPOILERS

I watched the CS to see what I thought of it myself. The S-A ship has sunk. There is no way it sails off in S07. Even at the end, Aud doesn't have a look of jealousy when she sees Siegfried cuddling with Dorothy. She immediately turns around, continues to smile with the rest of Skeldale pals, and moments later she taps Siegfried on the arm like she's congratulating him, and she kisses Dorothy on the cheek. It looked like Audrey accepted and approved of the new couple to me.

The writers have decided on a new route for S07 and S08 which will likely be exclusively S+D building a permanent relationship. I don't know what, if anything, the writers have in store for Audrey.

Overall, the writing the CS was inconsistent with prior shows and even with the CS show itself. That Siegfried missed Dorothy is one huge leap out of the history of the prior show. Dorothy has never been mentioned again since she left for Malta and asked Siegfried to look after Audrey for her. The Siegfried-Dorothy relationship in the past is almost completely invented for the CS, "Remember how she and I left it," Siegfried asks Audrey. And then Audrey responds that she remembers how well Siegfried and Dorothy got on. I watched those earlier shows too and I don't remember that. It's certainly exaggerated. The writers are gaslighting us on this score.

Inconsistencies inside the one episode: Siegfried says he loves Christmas and he's happy everyone is home for Christmas, yet he yells at James about the children making noise while rehearsing for the Nativity Play. And he complains about putting drops in the rabbit's eye because he's trying to concentrate. Siegfried did this in front of the children who he used to dress as St. Nick to impress. Plus, I don't think Siegfried cared anything about being on the dart team other than to impress the woman he was wooing (i.e., Dorothy) because he spent the tournament looking for Dorothy to arrive, and when Audrey started her big push for the final win for the family Christmas dinner, Siegfried excused himself, didn't watch the win, and went off to act the fool with a woman he barely knows yet somehow mysteriously missed all those years she was away. And the kiss was too much for virtual strangers in public. The writers mean for this to be more serious and for the future of ACGAS. By the way, Dorothy acting like she knows Siegfried so well and knowing that he doesn't know when to stop talking reveals another sort of forced intimacy that the viewers have never seen before.

If we were to move forward knowing what we saw in the CS, next season will probably be another jump in time with Siegfried married to Dorothy, Audrey gone or doing something besides the housekeeping, Jimmy and Rosie in their teen years, James writing his novel, and Tris off with his wealthy wife working elsewhere or traveling. It won't be what we've been used to. It'll be a completely different show if the CS is a sign of the future.

I'm not sure if this new road is because actors want to leave or because the writers want to change the storylines and introduce new actors. Perhaps the actors and writers are bored with the current storylines. I could think of a million things the show could do going forward with the current cast, but no one asked me. One idea is to bring in new characters with their animals and have them be the main stories with the vets tending to them as the main focus of the show. The writers used to do that, and it was interesting viewing. Perhaps that's too expensive and the budget has been cut. Who could tell us?

I don't think there is a love triangle in the making for Audrey, Siegfried, and Dorothy for the reasons stated above, and because as Mrs. Stokes noted, Siegfried is getting old and is out of time on the romance front. It's pushing disbelief at this point that any woman would be interested in Siegfried. He'll just take the woman who the writers have decided is suitable for the time because way back then apparently housekeepers didn't marry their employers. That's stupid after this buildup of Audrey as a core member of the family. Guess what also wouldn't have happened if Audrey were just an ordinary housekeeper and the supposed "class system" were at play: she wouldn't be Jimmy's godmother; she wouldn't eat her meals with the family or household members; she wouldn't sit in the evenings with the family before the fire enjoying a drink or playing games with them; she'd not be leading the house team in darts or socializing with them at the pub; and she wouldn't kick her employer under the table when he said boorish things to others because she simply wouldn't be at that table. It is laughable that the writers for ACGAS are willing to make us suspend our disbelief to make Audrey a core member of the Skeldale family, but somehow making Audrey a love interest for Siegfried is out of the question because "that didn't happen in the 1940s." Well, none of the other happened either, so why are the writers so strict only on the possible Audrey-Siegfried love story? Seriously, a housekeeper wouldn't be having heart-to-heart conversations with her boss or setting him up on dates either. Just saying that it's ridiculous for the writers to draw a line in the sand only on the SxA love story but not on anything else.

Welcome to my rant. I'm sure I have other rants in me working their way to the top as I process why I bothered with ACGAS for so long. For me the series will end at the S06 before the CS. That wraps up the story I wanted to see. I suspect the future ACGAS will be a completely different from the six that preceded it. That's fine. It's not what I expected, but that's fine. It isn't my show to create. I think the writers expected to lose part of the audience with the CS, and the new audience and/or those not hoping for the S+A romance will be perfectly happy.

James asked, "Why did Tris and I go to Sunderland to fetch Mrs. H home then?"

ACGAS - retcon

"It's not too late. If you hurry, you can get her back in time to cook our dinner."

ACGAS - retcon

I thought Siegfried ran to stop Audrey leaving because she was irreplaceable. "Because they aren't you," Siegfried said to Audrey as he tried to coax her back into his life to make his tea, mend his clothes, fix his relationships and business, and entertain him when he wasn't out on a date.

I misread the entire S06. I hope S is happy with D who he has missed all this time. Even during the three years of being alone and Malta was liberated, he thought only of D and never did anything about it.

That's what's happening here. Siegfried is saying that Mrs. Hall is the answer to all his dating questions. Her contact list of old WWI era friends would suit him nicely. And Audrey is thinking, "For goodness sake, you were friendly with one of my friends ages ago. Dorothy, remember her? No, let's go there first."

Kidding, when I first saw this scene, silly me thought that Siegfried was expressing love for Audrey and gratitude for Audrey's willingness to always help in good times and bad. I totally misread it, but looking back, it makes much more sense that this was meaningless and just filler.

In fairness to Audrey, what was she going to do? Tell him to go on his own? She did that inside the church -- sort of. Perhaps she really only really cares for Tris. Who knows? I've been misreading the entire series.