#rr020515

Rob and Katie then argued over her phone (that had a picture she had taken of him kissing Aaron on it) and over her planning on going to tell Chrissie. He grabbed her and threw her back into a room to stop her from leaving and when he did the floor (which was wood and all rotted) broke apart and she fell down through some glass windows to the basement and died.

Yes Robert's actions played a part in why she died but there's no way he could have known that part of the floor was rotten. Plus this was him right after it happened:

He was in shock. He wasn't gloating and happy she was dead.

Rob did some fcked up stuff to Katie but I think a part of him always loved her, not in the same way he loves Aaron (because that's his soulmate) just in that Katie was his first real love. I don't think he ever wanted anything like this to happen to her. You can also tell in how anytime the subject of Katie has come up Rob definitely still seems haunted by what happened.

Rob also talked about how he didn't mean for Katie to die when he tells Andy about what happened. And sure you could argue he was lying to cover his own ass but I don't think he was in this convo. He admits to pushing her and that the floor giving way surprised him. Rob has definitely told his share of lies but this convo between him and Andy felt more like Rob was finally able to open up and be honest about this thing he'd carried around with him all year.

I know in the real world Rob would and should face consequences for his role in Katie's death but then so should ever other character in the village for every messed up thing they've done. And some have definitely been worse than Rob accidently killing Katie. Which I will die on the hill that it was an accident and should be talked about that way. I think Rob covering it up and lying about it for like a year was way worse than his part in how Katie died.

And before anyone says well Rob also said "I killed the bitch" to Andy. That was literally in the middle of him and Andy fighting and almost killing each other. Also that wasn't even the whole quote.

Rob and Andy are talking about Andy trying to have Rob killed (the whole Who shot Rob thing) and Rob says: You really hate me that much? Andy: You killed Katie. Rob: I didn't kill Ka.. You know what I'm fed up with telling you that it was an accident. You want to believe I killed her fine I killed the bitch. So you tried to kill me. No actually you got someone else to do it and you let Aaron take the blame. You coward.

He only said "I killed the bitch" because he knew it would hurt Andy and he was angry and hurt at Andy being the one who tried to kill him. And for the fact that Andy still didn't believe him about Katie.

Also another time Rob talked about Katie was when he told Aaron the truth about him and Katie getting into a fight before she died (that was when Aaron had punched him).

Aaron: Was my mom right about you? Did you murder her? Rob: No. Aaron: You admitted it you said you killed her. Rob: She fell. It was like I said it was an accident. But it's still my fault. I wound her up. I threatened her. I made her life miserable. I never wanted it to end like that I swear I didn't. All I wanted was for her to keep her mouth shut.

I just hate that whenever Rob is talked about some people still to this day act like he's the most evil villain the Dales have ever seen or they lump him in with the likes of Lachlan, Meena, Carl, Emma, etc when all of them did things that were way worse than anything Rob ever did.

Almost all of the the characters have done messed up stuff. Like I love Aaron but I could practically write a novel of the messed up things he's done. Which I'm not saying that in judgment (he's one of my fav characters of all time) just that there's always been a double standard between Robert and Aaron both on the show and in fandom. I mean even with Katie's death Aaron played a part in that too and that's almost never talked about. Katie wouldn't have even been there if not for Aaron and Aaron helped to cover up her death too.

He couldn't even admit to himself that he was bisexual and was clearly terrified of being outed and of losing Chrissie his straight safety net. Katie was threatening to out him on his wedding day of all days so of course Rob was not thinking rationally. He was also losing Aaron and didn't know how to deal with that either despite how he tried to play it off like it didn't matter. He literally waited around in their barn the night before his wedding in the dark for Aaron to show up and you could see it all over his face that he was gutted when Aaron never did.

Going back to what happened to Katie and how he handled the aftermath of her falling through that floor I feel like people don't consider enough what Rob learned from Jack. He learned that it was better to hide from the truth or cover it up than face things or to go to anyone else for help. When bad things happened he watched his dad and brother lie and cover it up and worse he was sent away for something that wasn't even totally his fault (Max King's death).

So while of course the right thing to do would have been for Rob to immediately call the police and Andy ask yourself is that what Jack or Andy would have done? And for that matter looking at the Dingles (since Aaron was involved to some degree too) what exactly do you think the Dingles would have done in this kind of situation? Because more often than not the first thing they'd usually do is protect their own. Chas even thought Aaron had shot Rob back in 2015 and wasn't in some mad rush to tell the police.

As it is I think it showed how much trust Rob had in Aaron already at that point that he even called him when this all happened. He knew that despite everything going on Aaron would come back when he called and that he wouldn't call the police on him.