Purpose : To entertain
Form : Drama, Gossip
Genre : Soap Opera
Tone : Serious, Personal, Dramatic, Tense
Style : Conventional
Other Categories : Homosexuality, Underage Parents, Business, Relationships (family and romantic).
Plot
The scene begins with a married couple outside the house of the person they believe to be the woman's father. She gets too nervous to go inside and decides to go home. She then returns to the house and goes in alone. It is revealed that her husband has paid this man to pretend to be his wife's father, however she finds out and decides to pay him double to play along, plotting to "teach her husband a lesson".
Meanwhile, she is also involved in some business deals with another man over a pub, and they try to discuss their business plans only to have the wife of this man feel left out and jealous because she isn't included and is asked to look after the baby. This is resolved by the wife deciding to leave as she didn't want to interrupt time between the baby and her father, so they decide to discuss their business at another time.
Furthermore, a guy comes home to visit his grandparents after not having seen them for a long time, however displays very negative emotions towards his grandfather. This is later revealed to be because the grandfather has had some sort of affair that only the grandson knows about.
However, this character is gay and this is revealed due to the fact that he is seen texting and giving looks to another male character, whilst he is at a lunch with his girlfriend and her colleagues. She is then made to feel very insecure about her relationship and tries but fails to go through his phone.
Finally, an underage girl is fighting with her parents over the custody of her child. She wants to give the child up for adoption however her parents want to keep it in the family.
Verisimilitude:
The appearance of being true or right.
Furthermore you have the inclusion of business deals occurring primarily between two characters. This is also very common for people in the business world seeing as they would frequently have meetings with their potential investors, or in this case potential partners, to discuss the logistics of their next move. However there is also an element so unrealistic actions seeing as these meetings, although common, don't usually happen in a home and don't usually happen without a lawyer present. This is a conflict of interest that the director has chosen to include in order to heighten the drama within the scene and conform to the aspects that make up a soap opera programme.
Moreover, you are shown the different forms of relationships that occur no how they have an effect on the actions people do. For example, you have the relationship between one character and his grandparents. This is an interesting relationship as he is very close to his grandmother and wouldn't want anything to hurt her. However, he is lying to her about the secret that he knows about his grandfather in order to protect her from getting hurt, which is unrevealed as to whether this is a good or a bad thing to do. The dynamic in this relationship is one that explore the idea of what a person would do in order to keep someone happy, against the idea of what a person would do in order to not get found out.
Finally you have the exploration of homosexuality. This is a powerful theme sighing the episode as it depicts very real issues that gay people face. The two gay characters cannot be together for the moment due to the fact that one of them has a girlfriend. This is a reflection of how straight people are often sexually confused and it only takes one person for that confusion to occur. There is the obvious pain that is felt by the other character seeing as he is apparently in love with this man however he cannot be with him, but still shows his love for him by coming up to the table to greet him as well as texting him and making him smile, despite having issues with the people that currently surround him. There is a lot of homoerotic tension between the boys that is beginning to be noticed by the girlfriend, leaving the boyfriend in a state of denial due to his confusion about what he feels. He continues to convince himself and his girlfriend that he is in love with her, lying to her saying that that guy "was interested in buying a car" despite the fact that he gets nervous with he sees him, defensive if they are seen together in public especially with it is in front of his girlfriend, smiles every time he gets a text from him, and is always keeping an eye on him even when he is with his girlfriend and the guy doesn't even know he is looking. This is a perfect example of verisimilitude as gay men and women everyday are victims of emotions that are out of their control and in some cases are trapped between a rock and a hard place when it comes to doing what is right. Likewise, there are many people who discover that they are gay or bisexual and go into a state of denial, hurting the people that loved them in the process. There is also the level of secrecy not just from his girlfriend but from his family which is very accurate. Some people that aren't straight have very strict families who wouldn't approve of anything less than the typical nuclear family, which is the case that is shown in this episode. The fact that the boyfriend hides his phone in t he midst of reading a text from the guy upon arrival into the room of his dad and girlfriend indicates to the audience that he doesn't want his family to know about his sexuality or the fact that he is apparently in love or at least interested in another guy. This is unfortunately accurate even in this day and age seeing as many people around the world aren't fortunate enough to have open-minded, loving and accepting parents and feel afraid to come out to their parents due to verified fear of being hated, abandoned and in some cases, driven to life threatening circumstances. This is the case that has been explored here which is why this theme is the most poignant within this episode.
