Nice to see Brookside produce an episode that rivals itself at its height in brilliance. An episode where only what was necessary to the action happened and where only tried and true established characters were used. Any peripheral characters were those of a promising nature as well. No Emily preening, pouting and screeching and no Murray whinges. It’s just a shame that this episode was pitted against that other soap marvel on BBC 1 ... Sven’s Boys. One question, however ... Where the hell were Rachel and Beth? There was nary a mention of the former and only a passing one of the latter.
Having discovered Harry to be missing from the back garden, Max and Jax are, understandably, frantic. Jacqui dashes next door and bangs incessantly on the Dixon front door. Meanwhile, a visibly shaking Max phones the police to report Harry missing.
Ron answers the door. Wasting no time, a tearful Jacqui asks if Harry happens to be there. Ron is confused. Harry? At the Dixons’? No. What’s happened to Harry? Ron wants to know.
Jacqui exclaims that Harry’s gone missing from the back garden, and she thinks Gobby’s snatched him.
Reaching the police, Max is so fraught that he forgets to give them his name and address until asked. He tells them his three year-old son’s been taken from the back garden, and he’s pretty sure he knows who’s responsible.
The Dixons, meanwhile, have taken Jacqui inside and are trying to comfort her. Mike, walking miraculously without the aid of crutches now, demands the car keys from Ron. Anthea, ever wanting to believe the best of white trash, is asking Jacqui if she’s sure Gobby is behind this.
Mike, who’s finding it hard to mask his distaste for Anthea after recent events, asks her rhetorically why Jacqui shouldn’t be sure it was Gobby. This is just the sort of thing Gobby would do. Ron hands him the keys to the rattletrap. Anthea asks where he’s bound. Mike shouldn’t even be driving yet, she warns.
Mike answers her shortly, ‘To find me nephew.’ And he stops briefly to tell Jacqui not to worry. Ron is doing his best to calm the girl down, but Jacqui is quick to note Ron’s change of attitude. She remarks that Ron is the very picture of concern now, whereas he wasn’t before. Ron reminds Jacqui that she is his daughter and Harry is his grandson. And Max is Harry’s father, she reminds Ron.
As Mike gets into the rattletrap Capri, the police pull up outside the Farnham house. Nikki, Ray and Do-A-Little emerge from the bungalow, as Tim approaches Mike, asking what all the commotion is about. Mike explains hurredly to them all that Gobby Moffatt has snatched Harry, and Mike was on his way to pay Ma Moffatt a little visit. Tim remembers that Mike shouldn’t be driving yet and volunteers to come with him in order to drive.
No, thanks, says Mike. The last time he got into a car driven by Tim, he ended up in hozzy for months. Tim reminds him that he was off his head that night, Anyway, Mike should at least let Tim accompany him - strength in numbers and all that. Mike agrees, and Tim dashes off, telling Mike that there was something that he needed to pick up from Jimmy’s before they left.
Ray asks Mike if there’s anything any of them can do to help, and Do-A-Little offers to check the woods. Kids that age are mighty mobile, he says with authority. It could be that he may have wandered off into the nearby woods. Nikki volunteers to accompany him.
Tim is just about to leave Hotel Corkhill, carrying a baseball bat (used as a weapon here, but as a sports item in the States. I wonder, is the weapon version steel-enforced, as in the games version?). He’s stopped by Lindsey who queries where he’s bound and with that bat. Jimmy enters the room at that moment, commenting on the bizzie car parked outside Max Farnham’s house.
Tim explains that Gobby Moffatt’s snatched Harry and he and Mike were on their way round the Moffatts to get the baby back, hence the need for the baseball bat. Lindsey immediately volunteers to go with the pair of them. Tim is slightly taken aback at her offer, but Lindsey explains that more than one person might have been involved with Gobby in taking Harry. They might need help.
But, Tim stutters, Lindsey’s a ...
Girl? Finishes Lindsey. Well, she just wants Tim to know that the baseball bat he’s carrying happens to belong to her.
Tim is even more amazed. What need did she have for something like that? Lindsey looks at Jimmy, but decides to defer telling Tim about her past escapades (well, I thought Tim would have known anyway, since he was living at Mick’s and working for Jacqui and Lindsey at that time), simply informing Tim that there was a lot about Lindsey that he didn’t know. He agrees that she can come, and as they start to leave, Lindsey asks if Jimmy’s coming too.
The police enter the Farnham house to begin their investigation, assuming correctly that Jacqui is Harry’s mother and, incorrectly, that she’s Mrs Farnham. Max corrects that assumption, informing them that she’s Harry’s mother, but she’s actually ‘Miss Dixon’.
(Gee, just think ... If Leo had stayed, he could have been investigating this! Mind-boggling!)
WPC Wilson begins by asking how Jacqui and Max are sure that Gobby Moffatt is behind this mess. Max explained that Gobby had shown up earlier, making bother. Did he actually threaten to kidnap the child, the WPC asks.
No, answers Jacqui. But he made threats in general. He said she would curse the day she ever knew him.
Well, the policewoman calmly begins, the first thing they have to do is complete what the police call a ‘Missing from Home’ report.
Missing from home! Exclaims Jacqui. Harry’s been kidnapped!
WPC Wilson explains that this is the procedure they must follow. Now, when exactly did Harry go missing? Jacqui answers that it would have been slightly before noon. She went into the back garden to get him and his sister, and Harry wasn’t there.
And what was he wearing?
Together, Jacqui and Max try to think. A blue hooded jacket and denims. Shoes? His new white ‘trainees’, streaked with black.
And did he have any distinguishing marks?
Jacqui and Max gaze at each other frantically, Jacqui wondering why that last question mattered, but realising its implications.
Outside, Tim, Jimmy and Lindsey pile into the Dixon car with Mike. Mike is surprised at Jim’s and Lindsey’s presence. What the hell were they doing? This was a serious operation, not a day trip to Blackpool. Tim explains that he brought the other two as back-up, while Lindsey tries to reach Jackie on her mobile. She explains that, in case they are late, Jackie will have to pick Kylie up from her first day back at school. Mike starts to whinge about the time Lindsey’s taking, but Lindsey reminds him that she’s taking care of her child, like any mother. But that’s Mike for you, she says. He’s never changed. In the entire year they went out together, whenever she tried to do something for him, all he’d do is whinge.
And Lindsey hasn’t changed either, retorts Mike. Of course, Lindsey never moaned when they were together.
Well, Lindsey replies tartly. Mike never gave her anything to moan about.
Mike laughs shortly, saying she moaned enough; and Lindsey jokes that she must have been faking it.
Tim is surprised. He never realised that Lindsey and Mike had once been a couple. Jimmy puts an end to the banter and the posse tear off in the Capri.
Inside the Farnham house, Anthea is looking after Emma, whilst WPC Wilson carries on with the investigation. She is still puzzled about why Jacqui and Max are certain Gobby was involved with this. Jacqui explains the relationship of Gobby to Clint and Ron volunteers his part in the dilemma, identifying himself as the man awaiting trial for killing Gobby’s brother, Clint. The woman acknowledges that there was reason to believe Gobby nurtured a grudge. As far as Ron’s involvement in the proceedings, she makes an off-the-record remark that any scally who chooses to break into someone else’s home, takes his chances and deserves what comes his way.
Jacqui explains that Gobby went off his head when Jacqui dumped him. Now he was tormenting them, thinking that her relationship and engagement to Max was somehow a slight on Clint’s memory. He was paranoid, she says. (No, not paranoid, Jacqui, sociopathic, whereas your mate Kate is sociopathetic).
WPC Wilson observes that Gobby sounds like the culprit, all right. But they are not 100% convinced of this.
The posse park on the Street a short distance from the Moffatt house. Jimmy, seasoned criminal that he is, has assumed the role of Team Leader. He advises Mike that it would be best if he remained in the car, but Mike is adamant that he should accompany them too. After all, Harry was his nephew.
Jimmy agrees, but not only is Mike just recovering from an horrific injury, his presence in the Moffatt house just might prejudice Ron’s trial. It would look bad and could harm Ron’s case. Best if he were seen not to have any involvement at all. He should stay in the car, preferably with the motor running, in the event that they had to make a quick getaway.
At that moment, a police car approaches from another direction, parking in front of the Moffatt house. Tim wonders stupidly why they’re here.
‘Probably for the same reason we are,’quips Jimmy.
He wisely suggests that the quartet nestle down to await the departure of the ubiquitous bizzies.
Meanwhile, Nikki and Do-A-Little are scouring the woods for Harry. It’s broad daylight, but Nikki reckons the woods have a creepy feel about them. (Is it the woods, Nik, or the company you’re keeping right now? If I were Nikki, I’d feel creepy in Do-A-Little’s presence as well.)
As the posse await the bizzies’ departure, Lindsey tries, in vain, to contact Jackie about picking Kylie up from school. Apparently Jackie’s left the garage, and - according to Auntie Val - she was going downtown. Unless Jackie returned or Auntie Val offered, Lindsey would just have to leave the rest of the posse to their fate and scarper off to pick up Kylie.
Tim remarks casually that he wasn’t aware that Mike and Lindsey ever were an item. Oh, yes, Lindsey replies. They went out together for about a year. Yes, Mike agrees, it was about a year before he dumped her. Tim is curious; there’s something he needs to ask Lindsey. He cheekily asks if sleeping with Mike resulted in Lindsey deciding to become a lesbian.
Jimmy narkily suggests that they change the subject. But Lindsey refuses. In answer to Tim’s question, no, sleeping with Mike didn’t make her want to give up on men. There follows a jubilant whoop from Mike and some sexual banter regarding the size and prowess of Mike’s member, until Lindsey puts him in his place by recalling that it was more the size of a chipolata, if she remembered correctly.
Interlude: Poor, pitiful Katie appears to have bathed and washed her hair. It looks as though she’s going out somewhere too, as she’s booted and suited. She makes a call on her mobile, but the recipient of her call doesn’t answer.
Nikki and Do-A-Little continue their woodland search for Harry, with Nikki calling out his name, and then vainly realising that he probably couldn’t hear her anyway. Suddenly, Do-A-Little spies something and directs Nikki’s attention to a nearby tree. On one of the lower hanging branches, sits the shoe of a small child.
The posse continue to wait fruitlessly. Lindsey is hoping that Jackie returns shortly; the battery is running low in her mobile. Mike sits behind the wheel, ceaselessly drumming his fingers nervously on the dash. The others find this irritating and demand that he stop.
At that moment, an attractive blonde girl walks by the car. As he has a penchant for blondes, Tim is audibly appreciative. Jimmy reckons the sight of a pretty girl is an optimistic sign, and Tim asks Mike to rate the girl’s looks. Mike replies that on a scale of 1 to 2, he’d give her ‘one’ (an obvious play on words). Tim laughs and badgers Lindsey by asking if the passing girl were Lindsey’s type.
Lindsey jokes that she has a penchant for blondes. Didn’t Tim know? He’d do well to warn his Emily. Then she seriously comments on the idea of two women having sex with one another being a straight guy’s fantasy, saying that she knew this ‘Scots guy’ (naming no names of course, but WE know to whom she was referring) who got off on stuff like that. He even paid another woman to beat her up, so he could get his kicks watching.
Anyway, Lindsey continues, it’s nothing really unnatural about a same-sex attraction, and she cites the ancient Greeks’ practice. She informs Mike and Tim that, had they lived during those times, they would have fancied each other rotten.
(I’m going to venture a prediction here. Ever since the St Patrick’s Day show of 2000, there has been homosexual innuendo surrounding Tim, at the best of times, innuendo to which Tim has strenuously and vociferously objected. IN view of the fact that MOLEY has revealed that Tim will be returned to prison, I wonder if there’s going to be a problem with his sexual identity within those confines. Hmmmmmmm...)
Once again, squeamish Jimmy objects to the tone of the conversation and calls a halt to it. Suddenly, the quartet notice the police leaving the Moffatt residence, without Gobby in tow. Jimmy advises that they sit tight and wait until the police are well clear of the area before making a move toward the house.
After visiting the Moffatt house, the attending police constables ring WPC Wilson at the Farnhams’, She informs Jacqui, Max, Anthea and Ron that Ma Moffatt has denied knowing where Gobby is or how to get in touch with him. Jacqui knows that she isn’t telling the truth, and Ron refers to her as a ‘lying cow’. (Wonder how simpleton Anthea feels toward the woman now, knowing how she preyed upon her sympathy?)
Faced with this denial, the policewoman asks Jacqui and Max if they know of anyone else who would want to take Harry?
Back at the impromptu stake-out, Mike is insisting that he be allowed to accompany Jimmy, Lindsey and Tim as they prepare to visit Ma Moffatt. Jimmy again refuses to let Mike come along. He simply can’t risk prejudicing Ron’s trial. Mike protests that he feels a right div just sitting in the car like a lemon, whilst the others actively pursue what should be his aim. Harry is, after all, his nephew. But in the end, he agrees to stay.
We are next treated to a scene, reminiscent of either The Magnificent Seven or Gunfight at the O K Corral, where Jimmy, Lindsey and Tim bear down on the Moffatt abode. Honestly, all they need is sixguns and some twangy gee-tar music. YEEEEEE-HAH! Round’em up, MOOOOOVE’EM out, Rawhide!
WPC Wilson continues questioning Jacqui and Max. Is there anyone else they know who might harbour a grudge against the couple and might seek revenge via Harry? Jacqui and Max exchange puzzled looks, and then suddenly, Ron makes a suggestion.
He mentions Katie Rogers, and Jacqui is appalled at the thought. Why would Katie want to take Harry? To get back at Jacqui, explains Ron. Jacqui is shaken by Ron’s idea, but Ron reminds his daughter that the police need to explore every option. WPC Wilson asks about Katie and her reasons for revenge.
Jacqui explains that Katie used to be her best friend and was engaged to Clint Moffatt and she was heavily blaming, not only Ron, but Jacqui for Clint’s death. Ron reveals that Katie had made threats, not only to him, but also to Jacqui, verbally and at times physically abusing her.
Jacqui staunchly refuses to believe Katie could have any involvement in this, trying to explain to the WPC that Katie merely was having trouble coming to terms with Clint’s death. But then Ron confesses that he saw her earlier that day sitting in the middle of the Parade with Gobby Moffatt.
‘Thick as thieves, they were,’ Ron describes them. He tells the policewoman, over Jacqui’s protests, that Katie is highly unstable. (An apt assessment, I would say). Jacqui should face up to the fact that Katie, at the present time, was very capable of doing something like this.
Jacqui objects, saying she and Katy may have fallen out, but Katie would never put her through torture like this, not with an innocent child like Harry. Ron rhetorically asks why Jacqui insists on taking up for Katie.
The poor, pitiful subject of the previous conversation is next seen getting into a taxi on The Parade.
The doorbell rings in the Moffatt house, and sleazy Ma answers the door, only to find the threatening faces of Jimmy, Lindsey and Tim confronting her. Not waiting for an invitation, they barge past her astonished person and enter the house.
WPC Wilson continues to question the Dixons and Farnhams. She seems particularly interested in Anthea’s scepticism toward the theory that Katie had anything to do with Harry’s disappearance. Ron is trying to convince Jacqui that Katie is a definite possibility as a suspect. After all, there was no love lost between Katie and Jacqui, as far as Katie was concerned, and anyway, the police DO have to explore all options.
Jacqui is in tears now, saying that she doesn’t care who took her baby, she just wants Harry back. She blames herself for his disappearance. She turned her back on him for an instant, and he was gone.
Max calls out to her that WPC Wilson wants another word with Jacqui. Jacqui joins Max and Anthea. WPC Wilson says that Max has told her that his ex-wife had died. She explains that in a great deal of cases where children are taken, they are often taken by some relative who’s recently been denied access to the child. Has any relative been denied such access to Harry? Another grandparent, perhaps?
Again, Jacqui and Max exchange uneasy looks. Finally, Jacqui confesses that she and Max had a mega falling out with Lisa Morrissey, Susannah’s sister. She had been around earlier in the day, having a go because they were getting married and she objected.
Max objects now. He doesn’t think Lisa would be capable of such a thing, but Jacqui is adamant. The policewoman asks for Lisa’s address, in order to check her out. Max’s face is a picture of shock.
As the posse enter the Moffatt abode, Jimmy briefly explains their presence, saying they just wanted a little chat. Ma is immediately on the defensive. Did the Dixons send them, by any chance? That was a rich excuse! Jacqui Dixon’s kid goes missing, and the Dixons use it as yet another rod with which to beat the Moffatts. Any excuse to have a go at her and hers!
The posse inform the self-righteous underworld mum that Gobby was seen around the Farnhams’ earlier in the day, issuing threats. Shortly after he put in an appearance, young Harry goes missing. The collective posse reckon that Gobby had a lot to do with that disappearance.
Ma’s a feisty one. She insists that her darling lad had nothing to do with the crime. Did anyone see him take the child? No? Well, He’d have no reason to lie, then. (She’s one of those who try the smart-arse tack of ‘You didn’t see me do it, therefore you have to prove I did it’. Infuriatingly stupid). Ma laughs mirthlessly. Jacqui Dixon loses her kid for a few hours, when poor pitiable Ma’s lost hers for the rest of her life. Boo-hoo. But this elicits no sympathy from any of the posse.
Lindsey informs the others that Ma’s playing games, but Ma insists virtuously that her Gobby had nothing to do with the child’s disappearance. Why, Gobby would know better than to kidnap a child! Gobby knows what it’s like for someone to lose a child. (Oh, he’s a sensitive soul, that Gobby!) And here was a Dixon lynch mob, sent around to cause bother in her hour of grief.
Jimmy is non-plussed. He asks politely if she’d mind them having a look around. As he and Tim go upstairs, Tim looks around at Lindsey lagging behind. He asks if she’s O.K. Lindsey smiles dangerously and says she’s going to stay and have a chat with Ma ... Mother to mother.
Back at the Farnhams’, WPC Wilson presents Max and Jacqui with a child’s trainer in a plastic bag, asking if this looked like one of the shoes Harry was wearing. Max identifies it, and the woman explains that some neighbours found it in the woods nearby, in a tree. It looked as if it had been deliberately placed there by someone. Jacqui starts to cry, saying that Gobby did this deliberately. He was torturing her.
Left alone with the equally- hatchet faced Ma Moffatt, Ma asks Lindsey if she’s known Jacqui Dixon long. Oh, years, confesses Lindsey. Then the two are good friends? Asks Ma. Hardly, replies Lindsey. Lindsey is pursuing this simply because she can’t stand the thought of a child in danger.
Ma snorts briefly and observes that Lindsey must really be a good friend of Jacqui’s if she risked going to jail for pulling a stunt like this. Lindsey has the woman’s number figured. She smiles smugly and informs Ma Moffatt that SHE’S not taking the risk. She knows Ma’s a hard-faced bitch, but she also knows she’s no grass. There’s no way Ma would inform the police of what happened here today.
Ma admits she’s no grass and also that she would never grass her son up either.
Well, Lindsey’s a mother too, she confesses, as she picks up a framed picture of the Sainted Clint, taken when he was about eighteen. And as mothers, of course, they want to believe the best of their children. But they can never be sure. It must have come as a supreme shock for Ma to discover that her Clint was a common thief.
Ma is speechless. Lindsey continues. She had a younger brother. Oh, he was no angel, but she knew exactly what he was. Scum. He got heavily into drugs and low-lifes, and in the end he paid for it, with his own life. Little Jimmy’s parents had to face up to what Little Jimmy was, and so should Ma re Clint. Face it, she says, Clint was just a no-mark, robbing scally.
Ma slaps Lindsey across the face, and Lindsey returns the slap, following it up by grabbing Ma and shoving her against the wall.
‘The truth hurts, doesn’t it?’ Taunts Lindsey. And what’s more, she informs the other woman, Ma knows exactly what Gobby’s like too and what he’s capable of. In the course of the struggle, Ma tries to prey on Lindsey’s sympathy by carping on about he loss of Clint, but Lindsey is non-plussed, asking her if she knew what it was like to be kidnapped. Ma Moffatt could be Mother of the Year, for all Lindsey knows; but that doesn’t change the fact that a small boy’s gone missing and it’s the fault of Ma’s darling surviving son. Now Ma’d better tell Lindsey Gobby’s whereabouts, she warns, or Lindsey will unleash the Bitch from Hell.
Jacqui is being sick over the Farnham kitchen sink and is being tenderly ministered to by Max, when Ron enters. He apologises awkwardly and asks Max for a moment alone with his daughter. Max leaves the room, and Jacqui apologises for being caught in such an undignified position. She reckons rightly that the shock and stress of Harry’s disappearance have made her ill.
Ron tells his daughter that there is no need for her to apologise. If anything, he should be the one to do so. Jacqui had every right to have a go at him earlier for his attitude. He explains that he simply wants his children to have the best and not get hurt. If Ron is pigheaded, he says, it’s because he cares.
Jacqui asks through her tears why her father has been pushing her away lately.
Ron admits that he’s been stupid. Why, if Ron hadn’t shot Clint, then Harry would be here now. It’s all about Gobby’s revenge for what Ron did to Clint. Ron berates himself, reckoning that he’s just too much of a coward. He should have pleaded guilty to the murder charge and been done with it.
Jacqui vehemently disagrees. Ron did what he did to protect his family, but Ron reminds her that the Bible authorises an eye for an eye.
Jacqui tries to convince Ron that Gobby’s kidnapping of Harry is more his way of getting back at Jacqui rather than Ron, but Ron tells Jacqui that he would gladly go to prison for the rest of his life, if it meant getting Harry back safe and sound. Jacqui retorts that Ron is not going to prison.
Tim and Jimmy return from making a search of the Moffatt house for clues about Harry, only to find Lindsey physically tussling with Ma Moffatt in the lounge. Tim and Jimmy manage to pull them apart, with Tim remarking that it was impossible to leave Lindsey alone in a room with another woman for a minute. Lindsey reports to Jimmy that Ma’s not budging on disclosing Gobby’s whereabouts. Ma maintains that even if she did know where he was, she wouldn’t tell the likes of them.
Mike Dixon, seated in the Capri outside, clocks a taxi stopping in front of the Dixon house, and notices its passenger getting out. Simultaneously, the posse inside, hear a car horn sound outside. Jimmy surreptitiously pulls back the net curtain on the front window to reveal poor pitiful Katie getting out of the taxi.
‘Ay ay,’ he says in mock surprise. ‘Who’s this?’
When Katie rings the Moffatt doorbell, she’s in for a shock; because it’s Lindsey who answers it.
‘What the hell are you doing here?’ She asks Lindsey, when she finds her unintelligible voice.
Lindsey smirks and replies, ‘I was just about to ask you the same thing.’
Max is standing in the Farnham lounge, unsure of what to do next, he is so distraught. He picks up a framed photo of himself, Susannah and the children and stares at it uncomprehendingly for a long time. Anthea enters the room, carrying Emma. She watches as Max continues to gaze at the picture. She states the obvious: Max still must miss Susannah.
Max tells Anthea that he realises that she must think that he and Jacqui are rushing into this marriage, but he really loves Jacqui and wants to marry her. He struggles to articulate his thoughts. It’s just that times like these make Susannah’s death seem ... He’s unable to finish.
Anthea tells him that he shouldn’t dwell on the past. He needs to think of Emma and getting Harry back.
Max wonders if Susannah is looking down on them all right now. (Sure she is, along with Saint Clint). He wonders if she’s looking down on Harry and keeping him safe. Anthea warns Max that he has to be strong now, for Jacqui.
Poor, pitiful Katie is shocked beyond belief to find the posse at the Moffatt house. Similarly, the posse are less than impressed by her appearance and find it hard to believe her visit to Ma Moffatt to be a coincidence. In fact, they’re downright sceptical. It’s too much of a coincidence.
Ma is playing up the fact that she was manhandled, or rather womanhandled, by Lindsey, garnering sympathy from Katie. (Easy to see exactly whom Gobby takes after). Katie wants to know what exactly the posse are playing at. Lindsey replies that they were merely trying to find a three year-old child.
Poor pitiful Katie is outraged, pointing out righteously how shaken up poor pitiable Ma Moffatt is. They should be ashamed of themselves. Things got out of control, explains Lindsey, simplistically.
Katie can’t understand the reason the posse have taken this vendetta on themselves. She points out to Lindsey that Jacqui can’t stand the sight of her. And Tim, well, didn’t he get enough of prison? Tim replies that he was doing this for Mike, as Mike’s a mate. This is the sort of things mates do, he reminds Katie pointedly. Well, announces Katie in a huff, if he seriously thought the Dixons would be grateful to him and stick up for his actions, she’d have them know the Dixons didn’t give two figs for any of them. You couldn’t rely on the Dixons for any support. Katie finishes by telling them to go now, or she would call the police.
The posse decide that nothing more will be gained by this venture, so they depart. As they leave, Tim warns Katie: ‘We’ll make sure everyone on The Close knows whose side you were on when we get back.’ In retaliation, Katie picks up the phone and starts to count, threateningly.
Jacqui isn’t faring so well during the ordeal of waiting for word on Harry. She’s weeping and saying over and over how much she wants her son back, how she’s aching for him. Max tries to reassure her, saying that the police will surely find Harry. But Jacqui reiterates that it’s the not knowing that frightens her.
Max holds her gently and tells her that the pair of them will get through this crisis together. He reminds her of how solid she was when he needed her the most. Jacqui is inconsolable. What good had all that strength done for her, when her son had disappeared, had been taken off by some madman?
Max promises her that Harry will come back to his mother and father who love him. He reminds Jacqui that no matter what other people say, family endures.
Ron sits pensively, out of sight on the Farnham stairs, listening to Max and Jacqui. Through the bannisters on the stairway, he can barely see into the Farnham lounge, but he notices Max holding Jacqui’s hand tenderly.
The posse return to Mike and the waiting car. Jimmy and Lindsey trail in the wake of Tim who runs ahead of them. Jimmy’s a bit perturbed by the fact that Lindsey got a bit heavy with Ma Moffatt. Lindsey replies that the woman was lying and it annoyed her.
Jimmy asks her why exactly she wanted to tag along on this adventure today. Lindsey explains she did this because she was fed up with being taken for a loser. Jimmy replies that he doesn’t thing she’s a loser. In fact, she’s a wonderful daughter and an even better mother. But Lindsey disagrees. She wants to be someone, someone more than just the girl in the blue sweatshirt who works in the garage. Jimmy thought she might have done this, hoping for Jacqui Dixon to become her bezzy mate, but Lindsey says that if she hadn’t come, then Mike would have got into trouble by getting involved.
When they get in the car, Tim has a joke at Lindsey’s expense, telling Mike about Lindsey being ‘all over’ Ma Moffatt, and asking Lindsey if she fancied the older woman.
Mike, however, is more interested in the visit of Katie Rogers. He’s downright suspicious of it. He informs Jimmy and the rest of Ron’s sighting of Katie with Robbie earlier in the day. (It’s so difficult to remember that the whole week’s episodes take place in the course of a day). Mike suspects the two of them cooked up the kidnapping scheme.
Jimmy announces that they are going to wait and see if Mike’s assumptions are true. He instructs Tim, now behind the wheel, to move the car and park it around the corner, out of sight.
Inside the Moffatt house, Katie picks up the phone, telling Ma Moffatt that it’s time they made ‘that phone call’ now.
Anthea and Ron are having a conflab about the current situation. Anthea tries to comfort Ron by saying that it’s good that Max and Jacqui have each other at the moment. She doesn’t think either of them would have been able to face this crisis alone.
Ron remarks, surprisingly, that that was the mark of a good relationship - when each participant is strong for the other in fraught and difficult times. The couple holds together for the love and support of one another, a bit like he and Anthea, he muses. Looking at Anthea, he observes that she thinks he’s been too hard on Max, doesn’t she?
Anthea agrees, asking Ron if he’s now having second thoughts about Max Farnham as a prospective son-in-law.
Ron sighs. Well, he still has his doubts, and he knows what Max got up to in the past, but he can see that Max truly cares for Jacqui. Anthea encourages Ron by saying that if Max and Jacqui truly love each other, this love will get them through the hard times; Ron, like Max, shouldn’t dwell on the past.
As the posse wait around the corner from the Moffatts’ for the departure of poor pitiful Katie, Lindsey has finally succeeded in contacting Jackie about picking Kylie up from school. Still, she observes to Jimmy, she really feels guilty about not being there for her daughter at the end of Kylie’s first day of school. In fact, she really misses Kylie. (That’s a surprise. Lindsey hardly ever acknowledged the child’s existence previously). Jimmy tries to assauge any guilt Lindsey might feel by reminding her that it wasn’t as if Lindsey had spent the afternoon getting her nails done.
Some of the posse are finding the thankless task of sitting and waiting in a car rather taxing. Tim wonders aloud how some private detectives and undercover policemen manage this for hours upon hours, day in and day out on stake-outs. Ah, but in the end, Jimmy reminds him, these bizzies and private dicks all get their men, and the criminals get sent down to prison.
Yeah, Tim remarks, morosely, and then you get out of prison, and no one wants to know you.
‘Tell me about it,’ comments Jimmy. In fact, that’s what Lindsey and Mike found too, when they came out of prison.
Tim is even more astonished now. Lindsey and Mike in prison? (Of course, it’s never mentioned that they were held on trumped-up charges in a Thai prison). Tim looks at the pair with new-found respect.
Jimmy asks rhetorically what Tim hated most about prison. Tim replies that he hated the food and not being able to go to the toilet when you wanted to. Jimmy tells him that he’s wrong. The most hateful thing about prison is being away from your loved ones, having to speak to them through a glass partition, being separated from the people you love most. No one deserves that.
Mike remarks that Jacqui did nothing to deserve being separated from Harry the way she was now.
Once again, Tim asks Lindsey if her experience in prison influenced her decision to become a lesbian ... Because, you know, you hear all sorts of things.
Lindsey laughs and remarks on Tim’s curiousity about this subject, but demurs, saying that had nothing to do with her sexual inclinations.
Suddenly out of the rear view mirror, the posse notice a taxi pulling away from the Moffatts’ with poor pitiful Katie inside. The taxi passes the Dixon car, parked on the street, without silly Katie even recognising it. As it passes, Jimmy instructs Tim to follow the taxi, but not to get so close that Katie might notice them in pursuit.
Ron and Jacqui sit at the Farnham kitchen table, having yet another heart-to-heart in the interminable wait for news about Harry. Ron is tearful, admitting to Jacqui that he’d let her down; he’d let everyone in his family down. If anything happens to little Harry, says Ron, he’ll never forgive himself. Ron reminds Jacqui that there isn’t anything he wouldn’t do for her or any of the family. If it meant spending the rest of his life behind bars, he’d do that, if it meant Harry would return safe and sound.
Jacqui assures Ron that Harry IS coming home safe and sound. What’s more, she tells him, come Chrimbo, Ron will be right here, watching Harry, Emma and Baby Beth opening all their pressies.
‘All me grandkids,’ sniffles Ron, smiling through his tears. (And forgetting his eldest grandchild, Josh, in the process).
He confesses to Jacqui that all he ever wanted for her was the best. Jacqui tells him that that’s exactly what she’ll be getting when she walks down the aisle with Max - the best. (The best what remains to be seen).
The posse follow Katie’s taxi, at a distance, as it turns into what appears to be a derelict industrial estate of some sort. The taxi stops at a deserted factory-type building, with windows all boarded. Katie gets out of the taxi and stands outside one of the buildings.
Tim parks the car at a discreet distance, and Mike remarks that Katie MUST be meeting Gobby here - there’s no other reason for her to have come to a place like this. As he and Mike start to get out of the car, Jimmy stops the pair of them. He tells them to take it easy. It wouldn’t do for them to make their presences known, like bulls in china shops, especially if Gobby is about. It would only make him scarper. They don’t want to blow the operation before it’s even begun.
Katie stands looking about the place. As soon as Jimmy catches her looking the opposite way, he gives the signal and the quartet sneak out of the car and run across the tarmac to hide themselves behind a stack of industrial pallets, Tim with the baseball bat for protection. As soon as they are safely hidden, Gobby makes his presence known - from a loading bay above where Katie stands.
Gobby calls down to Katie: ‘So you wanted to see me?’
Looking up at him, Katie asks if Gobby has Harry with him or if he has someone else minding him.
Anthea and Ron take their leave of Jacqui and Max, telling them that they’ll leave them to have some time to themselves for a bit, but reminding the couple that they are just next door if they need anything. A WPC is remaining with them to care for Emma. As he and Anthea leave, Ron glances back to see Max and Jacqui wrapped desperately in each other’s arms. The look on Ron Dikko’s face is indescribable with emotion.
Back at the derelict site, the posse observe the confrontation between Gobby and Katie, although it appears that the pair may just be slightly out of hearing range. Gobby answers Katie’s question with a question of his own. Who says Gobby has Harry?
Well, if he hasn’t got the baby, reasons Katie, why is he hiding out in a place like this? Gobby says he needs to keep a low profile for a bit. There are some people out there, he informs Katie, who would like to rearrange his face.
Katie looks at him suspiciously as he jumps from the loading bay to face her on ground level. (Rather, a double jumped from the loading bay, because the actor who plays Gobby has a gammy footie injury, as well as being a tub of lard that would bounce if he jumped off anything higher than a meter.)
Gobby reckons Katie is going to need some convincing of his innocence as well. He mentions the Dixons’ sending a bunch of scallies around to terrorise his poor Ma. If he ever finds them, he threatens, they’ll be floating face down in the Mersey.
Katie still isn’t convinced, but Gobby tries to tell her it’s not his game to go around terrorising tots. All this comes from him going around to the Farnhams’ in the first place. He wishes he’d never gone now. He should have known better, the way Jacqui takes things and twists events to suit her. Jacqui, he continues, never gave him a proper chance, she was so busy two-timing him with ‘that geriatric Max Farnham’. And if Katie doesn’t believe that, then she’s no better than Jacqui.
Quite rightly, Katie asks Gobby why she should believe him at all - after all the lies he’d told about her in the past.
But this time, Gobby maintains that he’s telling the truth. And he pulls a coup that’s destined to ensure that poor pitiful Katie believe him - he swears on the grave of Saint Clint the Duck. Once she hears him do that, the look on poor pitiful Katie’s miserable face changes from suspicion to uncertainty. If Gobby swears on the grave of someone who was a saint in every way but officially, he must be telling the truth.
Gobby then begins the charm offensive with Katie - the poor, downtrodden, misunderstood fella routine. How could anyone suspect him of kidnapping a child? Why, he couldn’t even protect his own brother. No siree, Bob, all this bother could be laid at the feet of one person - Ron Dixon. Now, no one will believe Gobby had nothing to do with Harry’s disappearance.
He certainly hopes they find the little fella, poor little mite. Poor pitiful Katie informs Gobby that she’s going to phone Jacqui and takes out her mobile.
Jacqui receives the call on her own mobile at the Farnhams’. Katie tells Jacqui that she’s with Gobby at the moment, and that he hasn’t got Harry. In fact, Gobby is swearing that Harry’s disappearance is nothing to do with him. Jacqui is uncertain, but Gobby asks Katie to let him have a word with Jacqui.
When he take s the phone, he swears to Jacqui on Ma Moffatt’s life that he had nothing to do with taking the boy. In fact, he’d like to get ahold of the lowlife who DID snatch him. He’d give him a good kicking. (Now THAT I’d like to see - Gobby Moffatt kicking himself!) He tells Jacqui that he knows she thinks he’s violent (er, she KNOWS that), but one thing he’d never do is snatch a kid. Did she think he’d endure a 10-year stretch just to get back at her? He ends by telling her that he hopes they find the culprit who took Harry.
Jacqui asks to speak to Katie again, and Katie tells her that Katie thinks Gobby’s being honest this time. Jacqui thanks her for calling and rings off. Jacqui turns to Max and says that Gobby’s adamant that he hasn’t got Harry. What’s more, he sounds truthful. But, Max points out, if Gobby hasn’t got Harry, then who has?
Interlude: We are treated to a spectacular view of Liverpool, from what appears to be a venue high above the city. As the camera pulls back, we see that it’s actually an untidy room in a high-rise flat. Little Harry stands by the door of the room.
Back on the Close, an S-reg Ford Mondeo broomstick careens into view, screeching to a halt outside the Farnham house. The Wicked Witch of the West, aka Lisa Morrissey, face like thunder, gets out of the broomstick and slams the door violently, before marching purposely up to the front door.
Back at the site, Jimmy tells his troop to move out, it’s time they had a word with Gobby. They leave their hiding place as Katie and Gobby walk toward Gobby’s latest car, an H-reg Astra. Katie is wondering if perhaps some sort of paedophile could have snatched Harry, and Gobby is reckoning that it probably would have been better if he had taken the kid, in that case. Just then, he spies the quartet of Jimmy, Mike, Lindsey and Tim, armed with the ubiquitous bat, marching purposely toward him. Gobby shouts that Katie’s set him up and lunges into his car, as she vehemently protests that she knew nothing about them. Gobby starts the car and makes a wild turn in the vehicle to escape. As he reverses, he glances Katie and knocks her out cold, before escaping.
The quartet observe that she’s unconscious, but Mike urges them to pursue Gobby. He’ll stay with Katie and phone for an ambulance. Jimmy, Tim and Lindsey leg it back to the car and disappear after the fleeing Gobby.
Lisa Morrissey is having it out, yet again, with Max and Jacqui. This time, she’s insulted that she had to hear from the police that her nephew had gone missing. In fact, the police had wanted to know if, perhaps, SHE had kidnapped him!
Max tries to intercede, saying that the police had wanted the names of anyone who had perhaps been denied access to Harry, and her name had to be given. No prizes for guessing who gave the bizzies her name - Lisa looks at Jacqui accusingly. How could Jacqui imagine that Lisa would kidnap her own nephew -
But that’s just it, interrupts Jacqui. Harry’s not Lisa’s nephew. Jacqui’s his mother and Max is his father. Yes, she continues, Jacqui’s Harry’s mother - you know, Jacqui, who pushed Susannah down the stairs, supposedly? Lisa looks abashed and apologise for that accusation, attributing it to remarks made in the heat of the moment. Jacqui tells Lisa that she’s nothing to Harry, nothing but a reminder of the past. Lisa protests that she loves Harry and Emma.
Mike has remained with poor pitiful Katie, who’s just coming around after Gobby glanced her in his getaway car. Mike demands to know what Katie’s part in all of this is, but Katie denies that she had anything to do with Harry’s disappearance. Mike is sceptical. So he’s supposed to believe that her appearance round the Moffatts’, on the same day that Harry is taken, is supposed to be construed as coincidental? What was she doing there, he demands.
Katie says that she had planned to spend the day with Ma Moffatt. But Mike still doesn’t believe her.
Katie asks Mike how long he’s known her. She admits that there’s no love lost between her and the Dixons, but maintains that she wouldn’t have taken Harry.
Why not? Demands Mike.
Because she knows what it’s like to lose someone you really love, moans poor pitiful Katie, directing attention to her self-pity once again. After all, misery loves company. She asks Mike if he realises how difficult it’s been for poor pitiful Katie not to have Jacqui to talk to anymore? (Sorry, no sympathy here - Katie blanked Jacqui). Why, Jacqui and Clint were everything poor pitiful Katie had had in the world and now she’d lost them both, when Mike’s precious sister turned her back on poor pitiful Katie. (Sorry, run that by me again? I thought Katie shut Jacqui out. Jacqui was the one who made all the overtures of friendship in the aftermath of the shooting. But Katie was demanding 100% loyalty from Jacqui and asking her to forsake her own father. When Jacqui couldn’t do that, KATIE turned her back on JACQUI, to such a degree that she now blames Jacqui more for Clint’s death than Ron!)
Poor pitiful Katie then hits below the belt, asking how Mike would feel if he lost Rachel? (She should so imagine, because Katie’s encouraged Rachel enough).
Mike grudgingly admits that he believes her, and drapes his jacket about her shoulders, whilst he phones for the ambulance yet again.
The remaining members of the posse are now hot on Gobby’s trail. Tim has him in his sights, but Jimmy is advising caution. Tim should hold back a bit, because Gobby will see them tailing him and panic. Not heeding anything Jimmy says, Tim speeds up to pursue, as Lindsey asks if Tim’s insured to drive Ron’s car. Sure, Tim replies, exultantly, fully comp! He races off, trying to keep a panicking Gobby in his sights.
Lisa is still having a face-off with Max and Jacqui. Jacqui still isn’t convinced that Lisa doesn’t have Harry. How can she be sure? That’s rich, remarks Lisa, coming from someone who actually sold Harry.
Jacqui’s temper is frayed. She demands to know who exactly Lisa is, coming around here, crying crocodile tears about wanting to do what’s best for the children. Lisa asks rhetorically if Jacqui seriously imagined that Lisa would hurt those children. Why, she loved those kids. They were everything she had in the world, all that was left to her of Susannah, anyway.
Max demands to know why Lisa was intent on making trouble for him and Jacqui getting married. Lisa admits that she was disappointed. Disappointed? Snorts Jacqui, dismissively. Disappointed that this happened before Lisa had the chance herself to get her oar into the situation and get Max for herself!
Lisa said that she was lonely. She wasn’t married and only had a few friends. She was afraid, after Max and Jacqui got involved with each other that they wouldn’t want her coming around to see the kids. Oh, for a few months they would tolerate her, yes. But it would only be a matter of time before she were excluded altogether.
Max reminds Lisa that they had always said she could see the children whenever she wanted. Jacqui interposes that the only thing they would object to is the way she seemed to be hovering about and criticising the way they were bringing up the children, coupled with all her silly threats and accusations.
Lisa is forced to admit that Jacqui had done a good job of caring for the children since Susannah died - better than she could have done, herself. A lot of the things she said were said in the heat of anger, and she apologises. But she reminds them that Susannah was her only sister, and when she died, Lisa was left all on her own. All she really wanted was someone to acknowledge her loss. Max and Jacqui had each other and a network of family and friends to sustain them. She had no one. (Awwwwwwwwwww! Boo, sniff) She truly never intended to hurt anyone.
Jacqui takes the situation in hand and says that they all have to pull together now in an effort to support one another until Harry is returned safely.
The car chase between the posse and Gobby continues. Gobby has sussed that he’s being followed and creates havoc amongst the traffic. Against Jimmy’s advice, Tim tears down a side road, saying it’s a short cut, and suddenly finds himself tailing Gobby again. As they approach a roundabout, however, Jimmy stalls the car.
Tim demands to know why Jimmy did this. Now Gobby will get away! Jimmy remarks calmly and cryptically that that’s what they want him to think.
Jacqui and Max are alone now, Lisa having departed. A WPC is playing with Emma in the back garden. Jacqui is distraught. She’s come up with the notion that Harry’s disappearance is punishment for her having sold him. Selling a child! What was she thinking of! You don’t sell anything as precious as a child. There are people who believe that people pay for past mistakes. Well, maybe that was true, she surmises.
Max is looking increasingly uneasy as she says these words. Suddenly he wheels around to face her. Maybe it’s not Jacqui who’s paying for the past. Maybe it’s Max’s sin, he says. He’s done something far worse.
Worse than selling a child? Asks Jacqui.
Far worse, admits Max. In fact, it’s time Jacqui found out exactly what sort of man she was marrying. Jacqui dismisses his rant. She knows all about the affairs and the women. Max opens his mouth to tell her something, something important, but at that moment the WPC brings Emma into the house, and the sight of a police uniform stills Max’s tongue.
The posse have caught up with Gobby in the car park of a high-rise complex, which (shades of Dan on Eastenders), appears to be abandoned. They spy him locking his car. Tim pulls up and the trio begin running toward him, Tim still with the baseball bat. Gobby sees them and takes off. They pursue, Tim in the lead and dropping the bat, which is picked up by a panting Jimmy, followed by Lindsey, running like a penguin in her pencil skirt.
Tim pursues Gobby closely; then as Gobby, panting and sweating, waddles up a hill, Tim executes a rugby tackle from behind and floors the fleeing felon. As they tussle, Jimmy and Lindsey gain on the pair. When Jimmy arrives on the scene, he pulls a protesting Tim from Gobby, lifts Gobby to his feet by the front of his jacket and - holding him before him - Jimmy nuts the younger yob square on the forehead, felling him yet again and bloodying his nose. Jimmy rubs his own forehead gingerly.
High above, Harry has climbed onto the windowsill and is looking down.
Gobby lies prone on the ground, groaning and bleeding from the nose. Jimmy tells Tim to search him for any clue on his body as to the whereabouts of Harry. Tim finds nothing, but in the process, he manages to lift Gobby’s wallet and stuff it down the front of his trousers.
Humiliated at his own inability, Gobby protests from the ground that he didn’t kidnap ‘Jacqui’s brat.’ Well, remarks Jimmy at his best, if he had nothing to hide, why did he run from them, both here and at the derelict site?
Funny that, says Gobby. He has a funny feeling every time he sees a group of people approaching him with a baseball bat. He gets the impression that they just might want to beat him up and it’s instinctive to run.
Jimmy insists that Gobby has everything to do with Harry’s disappearance, and he demands that Gobby tell the trio where the child is.
‘Did you stash him on his own,’ asks Lindsey, ‘or is one of your mates looking after him?’
Gobby denies any knowledge. Jimmy threatens him, telling him that unless he tells them what they want to hear, Tim has his permission to take the baseball bat and ‘knock seven shades of the brown stuff’ from Gobby. Again, Gobby refuses, and Jimmy instruct Tim to use the bat. Tim brings the baseball bat down on Gobby.
Back at The Close, Jacqui is, by now, hysterical. She grabs her jacket and runs to the front door of the Farnham house. Max rushes after her, demanding to know where she’s going. ‘To find me son,’ cries Jacqui, as she runs out of the house.
Harry, meanwhile, accidentally dislodges the screen on the window, resulting in him clinging to the window ledge and hanging precariously head-first out of the ledge. Down below, Gobby has maintained his innocence throughout the drubbing received via Tim and the baseball bat. Lindsey is at a loss at his obstinence. Maybe he IS telling the truth, she remarks.
But Tim and Jimmy maintain that he’s lying. Suddenly, from above they hear a child shouting, ‘Mummy!’
Looking up, they recognise Harry (although how they can recognise someone ten stories above them is beyond me).
Back on the Close, Jacqui stands in the middle of the street, screaming hysterically for Harry. Max rushes out and gathers her comfortingly in his arms.
The child, meanwhile, hangs precariously out the window, screaming for his mother, as Jimmy, Lindsey and Tim stare up at him, immobile with horror.
Nice to see Brookside produce an episode that rivals itself at its height in brilliance. An episode where only what was necessary to the action happened and where only tried and true established characters were used. Any peripheral characters were those of a promising nature as well. No Emily preening, pouting and screeching and no Murray whinges. It’s just a shame that this episode was pitted against that other soap marvel on BBC 1 ... Sven’s Boys. One question, however ... Where the hell were Rachel and Beth? There was nary a mention of the former and only a passing one of the latter.
Having discovered Harry to be missing from the back garden, Max and Jax are, understandably, frantic. Jacqui dashes next door and bangs incessantly on the Dixon front door. Meanwhile, a visibly shaking Max phones the police to report Harry missing.
Ron answers the door. Wasting no time, a tearful Jacqui asks if Harry happens to be there. Ron is confused. Harry? At the Dixons’? No. What’s happened to Harry? Ron wants to know.
Jacqui exclaims that Harry’s gone missing from the back garden, and she thinks Gobby’s snatched him.
Reaching the police, Max is so fraught that he forgets to give them his name and address until asked. He tells them his three year-old son’s been taken from the back garden, and he’s pretty sure he knows who’s responsible.
The Dixons, meanwhile, have taken Jacqui inside and are trying to comfort her. Mike, walking miraculously without the aid of crutches now, demands the car keys from Ron. Anthea, ever wanting to believe the best of white trash, is asking Jacqui if she’s sure Gobby is behind this.
Mike, who’s finding it hard to mask his distaste for Anthea after recent events, asks her rhetorically why Jacqui shouldn’t be sure it was Gobby. This is just the sort of thing Gobby would do. Ron hands him the keys to the rattletrap. Anthea asks where he’s bound. Mike shouldn’t even be driving yet, she warns.
Mike answers her shortly, ‘To find me nephew.’ And he stops briefly to tell Jacqui not to worry. Ron is doing his best to calm the girl down, but Jacqui is quick to note Ron’s change of attitude. She remarks that Ron is the very picture of concern now, whereas he wasn’t before. Ron reminds Jacqui that she is his daughter and Harry is his grandson. And Max is Harry’s father, she reminds Ron.
As Mike gets into the rattletrap Capri, the police pull up outside the Farnham house. Nikki, Ray and Do-A-Little emerge from the bungalow, as Tim approaches Mike, asking what all the commotion is about. Mike explains hurredly to them all that Gobby Moffatt has snatched Harry, and Mike was on his way to pay Ma Moffatt a little visit. Tim remembers that Mike shouldn’t be driving yet and volunteers to come with him in order to drive.
No, thanks, says Mike. The last time he got into a car driven by Tim, he ended up in hozzy for months. Tim reminds him that he was off his head that night, Anyway, Mike should at least let Tim accompany him - strength in numbers and all that. Mike agrees, and Tim dashes off, telling Mike that there was something that he needed to pick up from Jimmy’s before they left.
Ray asks Mike if there’s anything any of them can do to help, and Do-A-Little offers to check the woods. Kids that age are mighty mobile, he says with authority. It could be that he may have wandered off into the nearby woods. Nikki volunteers to accompany him.
Tim is just about to leave Hotel Corkhill, carrying a baseball bat (used as a weapon here, but as a sports item in the States. I wonder, is the weapon version steel-enforced, as in the games version?). He’s stopped by Lindsey who queries where he’s bound and with that bat. Jimmy enters the room at that moment, commenting on the bizzie car parked outside Max Farnham’s house.
Tim explains that Gobby Moffatt’s snatched Harry and he and Mike were on their way round the Moffatts to get the baby back, hence the need for the baseball bat. Lindsey immediately volunteers to go with the pair of them. Tim is slightly taken aback at her offer, but Lindsey explains that more than one person might have been involved with Gobby in taking Harry. They might need help.
But, Tim stutters, Lindsey’s a ...
Girl? Finishes Lindsey. Well, she just wants Tim to know that the baseball bat he’s carrying happens to belong to her.
Tim is even more amazed. What need did she have for something like that? Lindsey looks at Jimmy, but decides to defer telling Tim about her past escapades (well, I thought Tim would have known anyway, since he was living at Mick’s and working for Jacqui and Lindsey at that time), simply informing Tim that there was a lot about Lindsey that he didn’t know. He agrees that she can come, and as they start to leave, Lindsey asks if Jimmy’s coming too.
The police enter the Farnham house to begin their investigation, assuming correctly that Jacqui is Harry’s mother and, incorrectly, that she’s Mrs Farnham. Max corrects that assumption, informing them that she’s Harry’s mother, but she’s actually ‘Miss Dixon’.
(Gee, just think ... If Leo had stayed, he could have been investigating this! Mind-boggling!)
WPC Wilson begins by asking how Jacqui and Max are sure that Gobby Moffatt is behind this mess. Max explained that Gobby had shown up earlier, making bother. Did he actually threaten to kidnap the child, the WPC asks.
No, answers Jacqui. But he made threats in general. He said she would curse the day she ever knew him.
Well, the policewoman calmly begins, the first thing they have to do is complete what the police call a ‘Missing from Home’ report.
Missing from home! Exclaims Jacqui. Harry’s been kidnapped!
WPC Wilson explains that this is the procedure they must follow. Now, when exactly did Harry go missing? Jacqui answers that it would have been slightly before noon. She went into the back garden to get him and his sister, and Harry wasn’t there.
And what was he wearing?
Together, Jacqui and Max try to think. A blue hooded jacket and denims. Shoes? His new white ‘trainees’, streaked with black.
And did he have any distinguishing marks?
Jacqui and Max gaze at each other frantically, Jacqui wondering why that last question mattered, but realising its implications.
Outside, Tim, Jimmy and Lindsey pile into the Dixon car with Mike. Mike is surprised at Jim’s and Lindsey’s presence. What the hell were they doing? This was a serious operation, not a day trip to Blackpool. Tim explains that he brought the other two as back-up, while Lindsey tries to reach Jackie on her mobile. She explains that, in case they are late, Jackie will have to pick Kylie up from her first day back at school. Mike starts to whinge about the time Lindsey’s taking, but Lindsey reminds him that she’s taking care of her child, like any mother. But that’s Mike for you, she says. He’s never changed. In the entire year they went out together, whenever she tried to do something for him, all he’d do is whinge.
And Lindsey hasn’t changed either, retorts Mike. Of course, Lindsey never moaned when they were together.
Well, Lindsey replies tartly. Mike never gave her anything to moan about.
Mike laughs shortly, saying she moaned enough; and Lindsey jokes that she must have been faking it.
Tim is surprised. He never realised that Lindsey and Mike had once been a couple. Jimmy puts an end to the banter and the posse tear off in the Capri.
Inside the Farnham house, Anthea is looking after Emma, whilst WPC Wilson carries on with the investigation. She is still puzzled about why Jacqui and Max are certain Gobby was involved with this. Jacqui explains the relationship of Gobby to Clint and Ron volunteers his part in the dilemma, identifying himself as the man awaiting trial for killing Gobby’s brother, Clint. The woman acknowledges that there was reason to believe Gobby nurtured a grudge. As far as Ron’s involvement in the proceedings, she makes an off-the-record remark that any scally who chooses to break into someone else’s home, takes his chances and deserves what comes his way.
Jacqui explains that Gobby went off his head when Jacqui dumped him. Now he was tormenting them, thinking that her relationship and engagement to Max was somehow a slight on Clint’s memory. He was paranoid, she says. (No, not paranoid, Jacqui, sociopathic, whereas your mate Kate is sociopathetic).
WPC Wilson observes that Gobby sounds like the culprit, all right. But they are not 100% convinced of this.
The posse park on the Street a short distance from the Moffatt house. Jimmy, seasoned criminal that he is, has assumed the role of Team Leader. He advises Mike that it would be best if he remained in the car, but Mike is adamant that he should accompany them too. After all, Harry was his nephew.
Jimmy agrees, but not only is Mike just recovering from an horrific injury, his presence in the Moffatt house just might prejudice Ron’s trial. It would look bad and could harm Ron’s case. Best if he were seen not to have any involvement at all. He should stay in the car, preferably with the motor running, in the event that they had to make a quick getaway.
At that moment, a police car approaches from another direction, parking in front of the Moffatt house. Tim wonders stupidly why they’re here.
‘Probably for the same reason we are,’quips Jimmy.
He wisely suggests that the quartet nestle down to await the departure of the ubiquitous bizzies.
Meanwhile, Nikki and Do-A-Little are scouring the woods for Harry. It’s broad daylight, but Nikki reckons the woods have a creepy feel about them. (Is it the woods, Nik, or the company you’re keeping right now? If I were Nikki, I’d feel creepy in Do-A-Little’s presence as well.)
As the posse await the bizzies’ departure, Lindsey tries, in vain, to contact Jackie about picking Kylie up from school. Apparently Jackie’s left the garage, and - according to Auntie Val - she was going downtown. Unless Jackie returned or Auntie Val offered, Lindsey would just have to leave the rest of the posse to their fate and scarper off to pick up Kylie.
Tim remarks casually that he wasn’t aware that Mike and Lindsey ever were an item. Oh, yes, Lindsey replies. They went out together for about a year. Yes, Mike agrees, it was about a year before he dumped her. Tim is curious; there’s something he needs to ask Lindsey. He cheekily asks if sleeping with Mike resulted in Lindsey deciding to become a lesbian.
Jimmy narkily suggests that they change the subject. But Lindsey refuses. In answer to Tim’s question, no, sleeping with Mike didn’t make her want to give up on men. There follows a jubilant whoop from Mike and some sexual banter regarding the size and prowess of Mike’s member, until Lindsey puts him in his place by recalling that it was more the size of a chipolata, if she remembered correctly.
Interlude: Poor, pitiful Katie appears to have bathed and washed her hair. It looks as though she’s going out somewhere too, as she’s booted and suited. She makes a call on her mobile, but the recipient of her call doesn’t answer.
Nikki and Do-A-Little continue their woodland search for Harry, with Nikki calling out his name, and then vainly realising that he probably couldn’t hear her anyway. Suddenly, Do-A-Little spies something and directs Nikki’s attention to a nearby tree. On one of the lower hanging branches, sits the shoe of a small child.
The posse continue to wait fruitlessly. Lindsey is hoping that Jackie returns shortly; the battery is running low in her mobile. Mike sits behind the wheel, ceaselessly drumming his fingers nervously on the dash. The others find this irritating and demand that he stop.
At that moment, an attractive blonde girl walks by the car. As he has a penchant for blondes, Tim is audibly appreciative. Jimmy reckons the sight of a pretty girl is an optimistic sign, and Tim asks Mike to rate the girl’s looks. Mike replies that on a scale of 1 to 2, he’d give her ‘one’ (an obvious play on words). Tim laughs and badgers Lindsey by asking if the passing girl were Lindsey’s type.
Lindsey jokes that she has a penchant for blondes. Didn’t Tim know? He’d do well to warn his Emily. Then she seriously comments on the idea of two women having sex with one another being a straight guy’s fantasy, saying that she knew this ‘Scots guy’ (naming no names of course, but WE know to whom she was referring) who got off on stuff like that. He even paid another woman to beat her up, so he could get his kicks watching.
Anyway, Lindsey continues, it’s nothing really unnatural about a same-sex attraction, and she cites the ancient Greeks’ practice. She informs Mike and Tim that, had they lived during those times, they would have fancied each other rotten.
(I’m going to venture a prediction here. Ever since the St Patrick’s Day show of 2000, there has been homosexual innuendo surrounding Tim, at the best of times, innuendo to which Tim has strenuously and vociferously objected. IN view of the fact that MOLEY has revealed that Tim will be returned to prison, I wonder if there’s going to be a problem with his sexual identity within those confines. Hmmmmmmm...)
Once again, squeamish Jimmy objects to the tone of the conversation and calls a halt to it. Suddenly, the quartet notice the police leaving the Moffatt residence, without Gobby in tow. Jimmy advises that they sit tight and wait until the police are well clear of the area before making a move toward the house.
After visiting the Moffatt house, the attending police constables ring WPC Wilson at the Farnhams’, She informs Jacqui, Max, Anthea and Ron that Ma Moffatt has denied knowing where Gobby is or how to get in touch with him. Jacqui knows that she isn’t telling the truth, and Ron refers to her as a ‘lying cow’. (Wonder how simpleton Anthea feels toward the woman now, knowing how she preyed upon her sympathy?)
Faced with this denial, the policewoman asks Jacqui and Max if they know of anyone else who would want to take Harry?
Back at the impromptu stake-out, Mike is insisting that he be allowed to accompany Jimmy, Lindsey and Tim as they prepare to visit Ma Moffatt. Jimmy again refuses to let Mike come along. He simply can’t risk prejudicing Ron’s trial. Mike protests that he feels a right div just sitting in the car like a lemon, whilst the others actively pursue what should be his aim. Harry is, after all, his nephew. But in the end, he agrees to stay.
We are next treated to a scene, reminiscent of either The Magnificent Seven or Gunfight at the O K Corral, where Jimmy, Lindsey and Tim bear down on the Moffatt abode. Honestly, all they need is sixguns and some twangy gee-tar music. YEEEEEE-HAH! Round’em up, MOOOOOVE’EM out, Rawhide!
WPC Wilson continues questioning Jacqui and Max. Is there anyone else they know who might harbour a grudge against the couple and might seek revenge via Harry? Jacqui and Max exchange puzzled looks, and then suddenly, Ron makes a suggestion.
He mentions Katie Rogers, and Jacqui is appalled at the thought. Why would Katie want to take Harry? To get back at Jacqui, explains Ron. Jacqui is shaken by Ron’s idea, but Ron reminds his daughter that the police need to explore every option. WPC Wilson asks about Katie and her reasons for revenge.
Jacqui explains that Katie used to be her best friend and was engaged to Clint Moffatt and she was heavily blaming, not only Ron, but Jacqui for Clint’s death. Ron reveals that Katie had made threats, not only to him, but also to Jacqui, verbally and at times physically abusing her.
Jacqui staunchly refuses to believe Katie could have any involvement in this, trying to explain to the WPC that Katie merely was having trouble coming to terms with Clint’s death. But then Ron confesses that he saw her earlier that day sitting in the middle of the Parade with Gobby Moffatt.
‘Thick as thieves, they were,’ Ron describes them. He tells the policewoman, over Jacqui’s protests, that Katie is highly unstable. (An apt assessment, I would say). Jacqui should face up to the fact that Katie, at the present time, was very capable of doing something like this.
Jacqui objects, saying she and Katy may have fallen out, but Katie would never put her through torture like this, not with an innocent child like Harry. Ron rhetorically asks why Jacqui insists on taking up for Katie.
The poor, pitiful subject of the previous conversation is next seen getting into a taxi on The Parade.
The doorbell rings in the Moffatt house, and sleazy Ma answers the door, only to find the threatening faces of Jimmy, Lindsey and Tim confronting her. Not waiting for an invitation, they barge past her astonished person and enter the house.
WPC Wilson continues to question the Dixons and Farnhams. She seems particularly interested in Anthea’s scepticism toward the theory that Katie had anything to do with Harry’s disappearance. Ron is trying to convince Jacqui that Katie is a definite possibility as a suspect. After all, there was no love lost between Katie and Jacqui, as far as Katie was concerned, and anyway, the police DO have to explore all options.
Jacqui is in tears now, saying that she doesn’t care who took her baby, she just wants Harry back. She blames herself for his disappearance. She turned her back on him for an instant, and he was gone.
Max calls out to her that WPC Wilson wants another word with Jacqui. Jacqui joins Max and Anthea. WPC Wilson says that Max has told her that his ex-wife had died. She explains that in a great deal of cases where children are taken, they are often taken by some relative who’s recently been denied access to the child. Has any relative been denied such access to Harry? Another grandparent, perhaps?
Again, Jacqui and Max exchange uneasy looks. Finally, Jacqui confesses that she and Max had a mega falling out with Lisa Morrissey, Susannah’s sister. She had been around earlier in the day, having a go because they were getting married and she objected.
Max objects now. He doesn’t think Lisa would be capable of such a thing, but Jacqui is adamant. The policewoman asks for Lisa’s address, in order to check her out. Max’s face is a picture of shock.
As the posse enter the Moffatt abode, Jimmy briefly explains their presence, saying they just wanted a little chat. Ma is immediately on the defensive. Did the Dixons send them, by any chance? That was a rich excuse! Jacqui Dixon’s kid goes missing, and the Dixons use it as yet another rod with which to beat the Moffatts. Any excuse to have a go at her and hers!
The posse inform the self-righteous underworld mum that Gobby was seen around the Farnhams’ earlier in the day, issuing threats. Shortly after he put in an appearance, young Harry goes missing. The collective posse reckon that Gobby had a lot to do with that disappearance.
Ma’s a feisty one. She insists that her darling lad had nothing to do with the crime. Did anyone see him take the child? No? Well, He’d have no reason to lie, then. (She’s one of those who try the smart-arse tack of ‘You didn’t see me do it, therefore you have to prove I did it’. Infuriatingly stupid). Ma laughs mirthlessly. Jacqui Dixon loses her kid for a few hours, when poor pitiable Ma’s lost hers for the rest of her life. Boo-hoo. But this elicits no sympathy from any of the posse.
Lindsey informs the others that Ma’s playing games, but Ma insists virtuously that her Gobby had nothing to do with the child’s disappearance. Why, Gobby would know better than to kidnap a child! Gobby knows what it’s like for someone to lose a child. (Oh, he’s a sensitive soul, that Gobby!) And here was a Dixon lynch mob, sent around to cause bother in her hour of grief.
Jimmy is non-plussed. He asks politely if she’d mind them having a look around. As he and Tim go upstairs, Tim looks around at Lindsey lagging behind. He asks if she’s O.K. Lindsey smiles dangerously and says she’s going to stay and have a chat with Ma ... Mother to mother.
Back at the Farnhams’, WPC Wilson presents Max and Jacqui with a child’s trainer in a plastic bag, asking if this looked like one of the shoes Harry was wearing. Max identifies it, and the woman explains that some neighbours found it in the woods nearby, in a tree. It looked as if it had been deliberately placed there by someone. Jacqui starts to cry, saying that Gobby did this deliberately. He was torturing her.
Left alone with the equally- hatchet faced Ma Moffatt, Ma asks Lindsey if she’s known Jacqui Dixon long. Oh, years, confesses Lindsey. Then the two are good friends? Asks Ma. Hardly, replies Lindsey. Lindsey is pursuing this simply because she can’t stand the thought of a child in danger.
Ma snorts briefly and observes that Lindsey must really be a good friend of Jacqui’s if she risked going to jail for pulling a stunt like this. Lindsey has the woman’s number figured. She smiles smugly and informs Ma Moffatt that SHE’S not taking the risk. She knows Ma’s a hard-faced bitch, but she also knows she’s no grass. There’s no way Ma would inform the police of what happened here today.
Ma admits she’s no grass and also that she would never grass her son up either.
Well, Lindsey’s a mother too, she confesses, as she picks up a framed picture of the Sainted Clint, taken when he was about eighteen. And as mothers, of course, they want to believe the best of their children. But they can never be sure. It must have come as a supreme shock for Ma to discover that her Clint was a common thief.
Ma is speechless. Lindsey continues. She had a younger brother. Oh, he was no angel, but she knew exactly what he was. Scum. He got heavily into drugs and low-lifes, and in the end he paid for it, with his own life. Little Jimmy’s parents had to face up to what Little Jimmy was, and so should Ma re Clint. Face it, she says, Clint was just a no-mark, robbing scally.
Ma slaps Lindsey across the face, and Lindsey returns the slap, following it up by grabbing Ma and shoving her against the wall.
‘The truth hurts, doesn’t it?’ Taunts Lindsey. And what’s more, she informs the other woman, Ma knows exactly what Gobby’s like too and what he’s capable of. In the course of the struggle, Ma tries to prey on Lindsey’s sympathy by carping on about he loss of Clint, but Lindsey is non-plussed, asking her if she knew what it was like to be kidnapped. Ma Moffatt could be Mother of the Year, for all Lindsey knows; but that doesn’t change the fact that a small boy’s gone missing and it’s the fault of Ma’s darling surviving son. Now Ma’d better tell Lindsey Gobby’s whereabouts, she warns, or Lindsey will unleash the Bitch from Hell.
Jacqui is being sick over the Farnham kitchen sink and is being tenderly ministered to by Max, when Ron enters. He apologises awkwardly and asks Max for a moment alone with his daughter. Max leaves the room, and Jacqui apologises for being caught in such an undignified position. She reckons rightly that the shock and stress of Harry’s disappearance have made her ill.
Ron tells his daughter that there is no need for her to apologise. If anything, he should be the one to do so. Jacqui had every right to have a go at him earlier for his attitude. He explains that he simply wants his children to have the best and not get hurt. If Ron is pigheaded, he says, it’s because he cares.
Jacqui asks through her tears why her father has been pushing her away lately.
Ron admits that he’s been stupid. Why, if Ron hadn’t shot Clint, then Harry would be here now. It’s all about Gobby’s revenge for what Ron did to Clint. Ron berates himself, reckoning that he’s just too much of a coward. He should have pleaded guilty to the murder charge and been done with it.
Jacqui vehemently disagrees. Ron did what he did to protect his family, but Ron reminds her that the Bible authorises an eye for an eye.
Jacqui tries to convince Ron that Gobby’s kidnapping of Harry is more his way of getting back at Jacqui rather than Ron, but Ron tells Jacqui that he would gladly go to prison for the rest of his life, if it meant getting Harry back safe and sound. Jacqui retorts that Ron is not going to prison.
Tim and Jimmy return from making a search of the Moffatt house for clues about Harry, only to find Lindsey physically tussling with Ma Moffatt in the lounge. Tim and Jimmy manage to pull them apart, with Tim remarking that it was impossible to leave Lindsey alone in a room with another woman for a minute. Lindsey reports to Jimmy that Ma’s not budging on disclosing Gobby’s whereabouts. Ma maintains that even if she did know where he was, she wouldn’t tell the likes of them.
Mike Dixon, seated in the Capri outside, clocks a taxi stopping in front of the Dixon house, and notices its passenger getting out. Simultaneously, the posse inside, hear a car horn sound outside. Jimmy surreptitiously pulls back the net curtain on the front window to reveal poor pitiful Katie getting out of the taxi.
‘Ay ay,’ he says in mock surprise. ‘Who’s this?’
When Katie rings the Moffatt doorbell, she’s in for a shock; because it’s Lindsey who answers it.
‘What the hell are you doing here?’ She asks Lindsey, when she finds her unintelligible voice.
Lindsey smirks and replies, ‘I was just about to ask you the same thing.’
Max is standing in the Farnham lounge, unsure of what to do next, he is so distraught. He picks up a framed photo of himself, Susannah and the children and stares at it uncomprehendingly for a long time. Anthea enters the room, carrying Emma. She watches as Max continues to gaze at the picture. She states the obvious: Max still must miss Susannah.
Max tells Anthea that he realises that she must think that he and Jacqui are rushing into this marriage, but he really loves Jacqui and wants to marry her. He struggles to articulate his thoughts. It’s just that times like these make Susannah’s death seem ... He’s unable to finish.
Anthea tells him that he shouldn’t dwell on the past. He needs to think of Emma and getting Harry back.
Max wonders if Susannah is looking down on them all right now. (Sure she is, along with Saint Clint). He wonders if she’s looking down on Harry and keeping him safe. Anthea warns Max that he has to be strong now, for Jacqui.
Poor, pitiful Katie is shocked beyond belief to find the posse at the Moffatt house. Similarly, the posse are less than impressed by her appearance and find it hard to believe her visit to Ma Moffatt to be a coincidence. In fact, they’re downright sceptical. It’s too much of a coincidence.
Ma is playing up the fact that she was manhandled, or rather womanhandled, by Lindsey, garnering sympathy from Katie. (Easy to see exactly whom Gobby takes after). Katie wants to know what exactly the posse are playing at. Lindsey replies that they were merely trying to find a three year-old child.
Poor pitiful Katie is outraged, pointing out righteously how shaken up poor pitiable Ma Moffatt is. They should be ashamed of themselves. Things got out of control, explains Lindsey, simplistically.
Katie can’t understand the reason the posse have taken this vendetta on themselves. She points out to Lindsey that Jacqui can’t stand the sight of her. And Tim, well, didn’t he get enough of prison? Tim replies that he was doing this for Mike, as Mike’s a mate. This is the sort of things mates do, he reminds Katie pointedly. Well, announces Katie in a huff, if he seriously thought the Dixons would be grateful to him and stick up for his actions, she’d have them know the Dixons didn’t give two figs for any of them. You couldn’t rely on the Dixons for any support. Katie finishes by telling them to go now, or she would call the police.
The posse decide that nothing more will be gained by this venture, so they depart. As they leave, Tim warns Katie: ‘We’ll make sure everyone on The Close knows whose side you were on when we get back.’ In retaliation, Katie picks up the phone and starts to count, threateningly.
Jacqui isn’t faring so well during the ordeal of waiting for word on Harry. She’s weeping and saying over and over how much she wants her son back, how she’s aching for him. Max tries to reassure her, saying that the police will surely find Harry. But Jacqui reiterates that it’s the not knowing that frightens her.
Max holds her gently and tells her that the pair of them will get through this crisis together. He reminds her of how solid she was when he needed her the most. Jacqui is inconsolable. What good had all that strength done for her, when her son had disappeared, had been taken off by some madman?
Max promises her that Harry will come back to his mother and father who love him. He reminds Jacqui that no matter what other people say, family endures.
Ron sits pensively, out of sight on the Farnham stairs, listening to Max and Jacqui. Through the bannisters on the stairway, he can barely see into the Farnham lounge, but he notices Max holding Jacqui’s hand tenderly.
The posse return to Mike and the waiting car. Jimmy and Lindsey trail in the wake of Tim who runs ahead of them. Jimmy’s a bit perturbed by the fact that Lindsey got a bit heavy with Ma Moffatt. Lindsey replies that the woman was lying and it annoyed her.
Jimmy asks her why exactly she wanted to tag along on this adventure today. Lindsey explains she did this because she was fed up with being taken for a loser. Jimmy replies that he doesn’t thing she’s a loser. In fact, she’s a wonderful daughter and an even better mother. But Lindsey disagrees. She wants to be someone, someone more than just the girl in the blue sweatshirt who works in the garage. Jimmy thought she might have done this, hoping for Jacqui Dixon to become her bezzy mate, but Lindsey says that if she hadn’t come, then Mike would have got into trouble by getting involved.
When they get in the car, Tim has a joke at Lindsey’s expense, telling Mike about Lindsey being ‘all over’ Ma Moffatt, and asking Lindsey if she fancied the older woman.
Mike, however, is more interested in the visit of Katie Rogers. He’s downright suspicious of it. He informs Jimmy and the rest of Ron’s sighting of Katie with Robbie earlier in the day. (It’s so difficult to remember that the whole week’s episodes take place in the course of a day). Mike suspects the two of them cooked up the kidnapping scheme.
Jimmy announces that they are going to wait and see if Mike’s assumptions are true. He instructs Tim, now behind the wheel, to move the car and park it around the corner, out of sight.
Inside the Moffatt house, Katie picks up the phone, telling Ma Moffatt that it’s time they made ‘that phone call’ now.
Anthea and Ron are having a conflab about the current situation. Anthea tries to comfort Ron by saying that it’s good that Max and Jacqui have each other at the moment. She doesn’t think either of them would have been able to face this crisis alone.
Ron remarks, surprisingly, that that was the mark of a good relationship - when each participant is strong for the other in fraught and difficult times. The couple holds together for the love and support of one another, a bit like he and Anthea, he muses. Looking at Anthea, he observes that she thinks he’s been too hard on Max, doesn’t she?
Anthea agrees, asking Ron if he’s now having second thoughts about Max Farnham as a prospective son-in-law.
Ron sighs. Well, he still has his doubts, and he knows what Max got up to in the past, but he can see that Max truly cares for Jacqui. Anthea encourages Ron by saying that if Max and Jacqui truly love each other, this love will get them through the hard times; Ron, like Max, shouldn’t dwell on the past.
As the posse wait around the corner from the Moffatts’ for the departure of poor pitiful Katie, Lindsey has finally succeeded in contacting Jackie about picking Kylie up from school. Still, she observes to Jimmy, she really feels guilty about not being there for her daughter at the end of Kylie’s first day of school. In fact, she really misses Kylie. (That’s a surprise. Lindsey hardly ever acknowledged the child’s existence previously). Jimmy tries to assauge any guilt Lindsey might feel by reminding her that it wasn’t as if Lindsey had spent the afternoon getting her nails done.
Some of the posse are finding the thankless task of sitting and waiting in a car rather taxing. Tim wonders aloud how some private detectives and undercover policemen manage this for hours upon hours, day in and day out on stake-outs. Ah, but in the end, Jimmy reminds him, these bizzies and private dicks all get their men, and the criminals get sent down to prison.
Yeah, Tim remarks, morosely, and then you get out of prison, and no one wants to know you.
‘Tell me about it,’ comments Jimmy. In fact, that’s what Lindsey and Mike found too, when they came out of prison.
Tim is even more astonished now. Lindsey and Mike in prison? (Of course, it’s never mentioned that they were held on trumped-up charges in a Thai prison). Tim looks at the pair with new-found respect.
Jimmy asks rhetorically what Tim hated most about prison. Tim replies that he hated the food and not being able to go to the toilet when you wanted to. Jimmy tells him that he’s wrong. The most hateful thing about prison is being away from your loved ones, having to speak to them through a glass partition, being separated from the people you love most. No one deserves that.
Mike remarks that Jacqui did nothing to deserve being separated from Harry the way she was now.
Once again, Tim asks Lindsey if her experience in prison influenced her decision to become a lesbian ... Because, you know, you hear all sorts of things.
Lindsey laughs and remarks on Tim’s curiousity about this subject, but demurs, saying that had nothing to do with her sexual inclinations.
Suddenly out of the rear view mirror, the posse notice a taxi pulling away from the Moffatts’ with poor pitiful Katie inside. The taxi passes the Dixon car, parked on the street, without silly Katie even recognising it. As it passes, Jimmy instructs Tim to follow the taxi, but not to get so close that Katie might notice them in pursuit.
Ron and Jacqui sit at the Farnham kitchen table, having yet another heart-to-heart in the interminable wait for news about Harry. Ron is tearful, admitting to Jacqui that he’d let her down; he’d let everyone in his family down. If anything happens to little Harry, says Ron, he’ll never forgive himself. Ron reminds Jacqui that there isn’t anything he wouldn’t do for her or any of the family. If it meant spending the rest of his life behind bars, he’d do that, if it meant Harry would return safe and sound.
Jacqui assures Ron that Harry IS coming home safe and sound. What’s more, she tells him, come Chrimbo, Ron will be right here, watching Harry, Emma and Baby Beth opening all their pressies.
‘All me grandkids,’ sniffles Ron, smiling through his tears. (And forgetting his eldest grandchild, Josh, in the process).
He confesses to Jacqui that all he ever wanted for her was the best. Jacqui tells him that that’s exactly what she’ll be getting when she walks down the aisle with Max - the best. (The best what remains to be seen).
The posse follow Katie’s taxi, at a distance, as it turns into what appears to be a derelict industrial estate of some sort. The taxi stops at a deserted factory-type building, with windows all boarded. Katie gets out of the taxi and stands outside one of the buildings.
Tim parks the car at a discreet distance, and Mike remarks that Katie MUST be meeting Gobby here - there’s no other reason for her to have come to a place like this. As he and Mike start to get out of the car, Jimmy stops the pair of them. He tells them to take it easy. It wouldn’t do for them to make their presences known, like bulls in china shops, especially if Gobby is about. It would only make him scarper. They don’t want to blow the operation before it’s even begun.
Katie stands looking about the place. As soon as Jimmy catches her looking the opposite way, he gives the signal and the quartet sneak out of the car and run across the tarmac to hide themselves behind a stack of industrial pallets, Tim with the baseball bat for protection. As soon as they are safely hidden, Gobby makes his presence known - from a loading bay above where Katie stands.
Gobby calls down to Katie: ‘So you wanted to see me?’
Looking up at him, Katie asks if Gobby has Harry with him or if he has someone else minding him.
Anthea and Ron take their leave of Jacqui and Max, telling them that they’ll leave them to have some time to themselves for a bit, but reminding the couple that they are just next door if they need anything. A WPC is remaining with them to care for Emma. As he and Anthea leave, Ron glances back to see Max and Jacqui wrapped desperately in each other’s arms. The look on Ron Dikko’s face is indescribable with emotion.
Back at the derelict site, the posse observe the confrontation between Gobby and Katie, although it appears that the pair may just be slightly out of hearing range. Gobby answers Katie’s question with a question of his own. Who says Gobby has Harry?
Well, if he hasn’t got the baby, reasons Katie, why is he hiding out in a place like this? Gobby says he needs to keep a low profile for a bit. There are some people out there, he informs Katie, who would like to rearrange his face.
Katie looks at him suspiciously as he jumps from the loading bay to face her on ground level. (Rather, a double jumped from the loading bay, because the actor who plays Gobby has a gammy footie injury, as well as being a tub of lard that would bounce if he jumped off anything higher than a meter.)
Gobby reckons Katie is going to need some convincing of his innocence as well. He mentions the Dixons’ sending a bunch of scallies around to terrorise his poor Ma. If he ever finds them, he threatens, they’ll be floating face down in the Mersey.
Katie still isn’t convinced, but Gobby tries to tell her it’s not his game to go around terrorising tots. All this comes from him going around to the Farnhams’ in the first place. He wishes he’d never gone now. He should have known better, the way Jacqui takes things and twists events to suit her. Jacqui, he continues, never gave him a proper chance, she was so busy two-timing him with ‘that geriatric Max Farnham’. And if Katie doesn’t believe that, then she’s no better than Jacqui.
Quite rightly, Katie asks Gobby why she should believe him at all - after all the lies he’d told about her in the past.
But this time, Gobby maintains that he’s telling the truth. And he pulls a coup that’s destined to ensure that poor pitiful Katie believe him - he swears on the grave of Saint Clint the Duck. Once she hears him do that, the look on poor pitiful Katie’s miserable face changes from suspicion to uncertainty. If Gobby swears on the grave of someone who was a saint in every way but officially, he must be telling the truth.
Gobby then begins the charm offensive with Katie - the poor, downtrodden, misunderstood fella routine. How could anyone suspect him of kidnapping a child? Why, he couldn’t even protect his own brother. No siree, Bob, all this bother could be laid at the feet of one person - Ron Dixon. Now, no one will believe Gobby had nothing to do with Harry’s disappearance.
He certainly hopes they find the little fella, poor little mite. Poor pitiful Katie informs Gobby that she’s going to phone Jacqui and takes out her mobile.
Jacqui receives the call on her own mobile at the Farnhams’. Katie tells Jacqui that she’s with Gobby at the moment, and that he hasn’t got Harry. In fact, Gobby is swearing that Harry’s disappearance is nothing to do with him. Jacqui is uncertain, but Gobby asks Katie to let him have a word with Jacqui.
When he take s the phone, he swears to Jacqui on Ma Moffatt’s life that he had nothing to do with taking the boy. In fact, he’d like to get ahold of the lowlife who DID snatch him. He’d give him a good kicking. (Now THAT I’d like to see - Gobby Moffatt kicking himself!) He tells Jacqui that he knows she thinks he’s violent (er, she KNOWS that), but one thing he’d never do is snatch a kid. Did she think he’d endure a 10-year stretch just to get back at her? He ends by telling her that he hopes they find the culprit who took Harry.
Jacqui asks to speak to Katie again, and Katie tells her that Katie thinks Gobby’s being honest this time. Jacqui thanks her for calling and rings off. Jacqui turns to Max and says that Gobby’s adamant that he hasn’t got Harry. What’s more, he sounds truthful. But, Max points out, if Gobby hasn’t got Harry, then who has?
Interlude: We are treated to a spectacular view of Liverpool, from what appears to be a venue high above the city. As the camera pulls back, we see that it’s actually an untidy room in a high-rise flat. Little Harry stands by the door of the room.
Back on the Close, an S-reg Ford Mondeo broomstick careens into view, screeching to a halt outside the Farnham house. The Wicked Witch of the West, aka Lisa Morrissey, face like thunder, gets out of the broomstick and slams the door violently, before marching purposely up to the front door.
Back at the site, Jimmy tells his troop to move out, it’s time they had a word with Gobby. They leave their hiding place as Katie and Gobby walk toward Gobby’s latest car, an H-reg Astra. Katie is wondering if perhaps some sort of paedophile could have snatched Harry, and Gobby is reckoning that it probably would have been better if he had taken the kid, in that case. Just then, he spies the quartet of Jimmy, Mike, Lindsey and Tim, armed with the ubiquitous bat, marching purposely toward him. Gobby shouts that Katie’s set him up and lunges into his car, as she vehemently protests that she knew nothing about them. Gobby starts the car and makes a wild turn in the vehicle to escape. As he reverses, he glances Katie and knocks her out cold, before escaping.
The quartet observe that she’s unconscious, but Mike urges them to pursue Gobby. He’ll stay with Katie and phone for an ambulance. Jimmy, Tim and Lindsey leg it back to the car and disappear after the fleeing Gobby.
Lisa Morrissey is having it out, yet again, with Max and Jacqui. This time, she’s insulted that she had to hear from the police that her nephew had gone missing. In fact, the police had wanted to know if, perhaps, SHE had kidnapped him!
Max tries to intercede, saying that the police had wanted the names of anyone who had perhaps been denied access to Harry, and her name had to be given. No prizes for guessing who gave the bizzies her name - Lisa looks at Jacqui accusingly. How could Jacqui imagine that Lisa would kidnap her own nephew -
But that’s just it, interrupts Jacqui. Harry’s not Lisa’s nephew. Jacqui’s his mother and Max is his father. Yes, she continues, Jacqui’s Harry’s mother - you know, Jacqui, who pushed Susannah down the stairs, supposedly? Lisa looks abashed and apologise for that accusation, attributing it to remarks made in the heat of the moment. Jacqui tells Lisa that she’s nothing to Harry, nothing but a reminder of the past. Lisa protests that she loves Harry and Emma.
Mike has remained with poor pitiful Katie, who’s just coming around after Gobby glanced her in his getaway car. Mike demands to know what Katie’s part in all of this is, but Katie denies that she had anything to do with Harry’s disappearance. Mike is sceptical. So he’s supposed to believe that her appearance round the Moffatts’, on the same day that Harry is taken, is supposed to be construed as coincidental? What was she doing there, he demands.
Katie says that she had planned to spend the day with Ma Moffatt. But Mike still doesn’t believe her.
Katie asks Mike how long he’s known her. She admits that there’s no love lost between her and the Dixons, but maintains that she wouldn’t have taken Harry.
Why not? Demands Mike.
Because she knows what it’s like to lose someone you really love, moans poor pitiful Katie, directing attention to her self-pity once again. After all, misery loves company. She asks Mike if he realises how difficult it’s been for poor pitiful Katie not to have Jacqui to talk to anymore? (Sorry, no sympathy here - Katie blanked Jacqui). Why, Jacqui and Clint were everything poor pitiful Katie had had in the world and now she’d lost them both, when Mike’s precious sister turned her back on poor pitiful Katie. (Sorry, run that by me again? I thought Katie shut Jacqui out. Jacqui was the one who made all the overtures of friendship in the aftermath of the shooting. But Katie was demanding 100% loyalty from Jacqui and asking her to forsake her own father. When Jacqui couldn’t do that, KATIE turned her back on JACQUI, to such a degree that she now blames Jacqui more for Clint’s death than Ron!)
Poor pitiful Katie then hits below the belt, asking how Mike would feel if he lost Rachel? (She should so imagine, because Katie’s encouraged Rachel enough).
Mike grudgingly admits that he believes her, and drapes his jacket about her shoulders, whilst he phones for the ambulance yet again.
The remaining members of the posse are now hot on Gobby’s trail. Tim has him in his sights, but Jimmy is advising caution. Tim should hold back a bit, because Gobby will see them tailing him and panic. Not heeding anything Jimmy says, Tim speeds up to pursue, as Lindsey asks if Tim’s insured to drive Ron’s car. Sure, Tim replies, exultantly, fully comp! He races off, trying to keep a panicking Gobby in his sights.
Lisa is still having a face-off with Max and Jacqui. Jacqui still isn’t convinced that Lisa doesn’t have Harry. How can she be sure? That’s rich, remarks Lisa, coming from someone who actually sold Harry.
Jacqui’s temper is frayed. She demands to know who exactly Lisa is, coming around here, crying crocodile tears about wanting to do what’s best for the children. Lisa asks rhetorically if Jacqui seriously imagined that Lisa would hurt those children. Why, she loved those kids. They were everything she had in the world, all that was left to her of Susannah, anyway.
Max demands to know why Lisa was intent on making trouble for him and Jacqui getting married. Lisa admits that she was disappointed. Disappointed? Snorts Jacqui, dismissively. Disappointed that this happened before Lisa had the chance herself to get her oar into the situation and get Max for herself!
Lisa said that she was lonely. She wasn’t married and only had a few friends. She was afraid, after Max and Jacqui got involved with each other that they wouldn’t want her coming around to see the kids. Oh, for a few months they would tolerate her, yes. But it would only be a matter of time before she were excluded altogether.
Max reminds Lisa that they had always said she could see the children whenever she wanted. Jacqui interposes that the only thing they would object to is the way she seemed to be hovering about and criticising the way they were bringing up the children, coupled with all her silly threats and accusations.
Lisa is forced to admit that Jacqui had done a good job of caring for the children since Susannah died - better than she could have done, herself. A lot of the things she said were said in the heat of anger, and she apologises. But she reminds them that Susannah was her only sister, and when she died, Lisa was left all on her own. All she really wanted was someone to acknowledge her loss. Max and Jacqui had each other and a network of family and friends to sustain them. She had no one. (Awwwwwwwwwww! Boo, sniff) She truly never intended to hurt anyone.
Jacqui takes the situation in hand and says that they all have to pull together now in an effort to support one another until Harry is returned safely.
The car chase between the posse and Gobby continues. Gobby has sussed that he’s being followed and creates havoc amongst the traffic. Against Jimmy’s advice, Tim tears down a side road, saying it’s a short cut, and suddenly finds himself tailing Gobby again. As they approach a roundabout, however, Jimmy stalls the car.
Tim demands to know why Jimmy did this. Now Gobby will get away! Jimmy remarks calmly and cryptically that that’s what they want him to think.
Jacqui and Max are alone now, Lisa having departed. A WPC is playing with Emma in the back garden. Jacqui is distraught. She’s come up with the notion that Harry’s disappearance is punishment for her having sold him. Selling a child! What was she thinking of! You don’t sell anything as precious as a child. There are people who believe that people pay for past mistakes. Well, maybe that was true, she surmises.
Max is looking increasingly uneasy as she says these words. Suddenly he wheels around to face her. Maybe it’s not Jacqui who’s paying for the past. Maybe it’s Max’s sin, he says. He’s done something far worse.
Worse than selling a child? Asks Jacqui.
Far worse, admits Max. In fact, it’s time Jacqui found out exactly what sort of man she was marrying. Jacqui dismisses his rant. She knows all about the affairs and the women. Max opens his mouth to tell her something, something important, but at that moment the WPC brings Emma into the house, and the sight of a police uniform stills Max’s tongue.
The posse have caught up with Gobby in the car park of a high-rise complex, which (shades of Dan on Eastenders), appears to be abandoned. They spy him locking his car. Tim pulls up and the trio begin running toward him, Tim still with the baseball bat. Gobby sees them and takes off. They pursue, Tim in the lead and dropping the bat, which is picked up by a panting Jimmy, followed by Lindsey, running like a penguin in her pencil skirt.
Tim pursues Gobby closely; then as Gobby, panting and sweating, waddles up a hill, Tim executes a rugby tackle from behind and floors the fleeing felon. As they tussle, Jimmy and Lindsey gain on the pair. When Jimmy arrives on the scene, he pulls a protesting Tim from Gobby, lifts Gobby to his feet by the front of his jacket and - holding him before him - Jimmy nuts the younger yob square on the forehead, felling him yet again and bloodying his nose. Jimmy rubs his own forehead gingerly.
High above, Harry has climbed onto the windowsill and is looking down.
Gobby lies prone on the ground, groaning and bleeding from the nose. Jimmy tells Tim to search him for any clue on his body as to the whereabouts of Harry. Tim finds nothing, but in the process, he manages to lift Gobby’s wallet and stuff it down the front of his trousers.
Humiliated at his own inability, Gobby protests from the ground that he didn’t kidnap ‘Jacqui’s brat.’ Well, remarks Jimmy at his best, if he had nothing to hide, why did he run from them, both here and at the derelict site?
Funny that, says Gobby. He has a funny feeling every time he sees a group of people approaching him with a baseball bat. He gets the impression that they just might want to beat him up and it’s instinctive to run.
Jimmy insists that Gobby has everything to do with Harry’s disappearance, and he demands that Gobby tell the trio where the child is.
‘Did you stash him on his own,’ asks Lindsey, ‘or is one of your mates looking after him?’
Gobby denies any knowledge. Jimmy threatens him, telling him that unless he tells them what they want to hear, Tim has his permission to take the baseball bat and ‘knock seven shades of the brown stuff’ from Gobby. Again, Gobby refuses, and Jimmy instruct Tim to use the bat. Tim brings the baseball bat down on Gobby.
Back at The Close, Jacqui is, by now, hysterical. She grabs her jacket and runs to the front door of the Farnham house. Max rushes after her, demanding to know where she’s going. ‘To find me son,’ cries Jacqui, as she runs out of the house.
Harry, meanwhile, accidentally dislodges the screen on the window, resulting in him clinging to the window ledge and hanging precariously head-first out of the ledge. Down below, Gobby has maintained his innocence throughout the drubbing received via Tim and the baseball bat. Lindsey is at a loss at his obstinence. Maybe he IS telling the truth, she remarks.
But Tim and Jimmy maintain that he’s lying. Suddenly, from above they hear a child shouting, ‘Mummy!’
Looking up, they recognise Harry (although how they can recognise someone ten stories above them is beyond me).
Back on the Close, Jacqui stands in the middle of the street, screaming hysterically for Harry. Max rushes out and gathers her comfortingly in his arms.
The child, meanwhile, hangs precariously out the window, screaming for his
mother, as Jimmy, Lindsey and Tim stare up at him, immobile with horror.
Summary © 2001 Marion Watts
Brookside and all related materials are © Mersey Television 1982-2001