Of course - but neither of them is exactly happy, are they? They can't sustain relationships, and they both seem to wish they could.

It's not really about labels - it's about coming to terms with your own feelings. Then you can be happy in your own skin, and it's easier to connect with someone else.

Robert to be fair can't even bond with his sister, niece, nephew, brother or mum. Never mind his lovers.

That's true. Maybe he's just an arse, always has been and always will be.

But there's still hope for Lawrence.

He gave Rob a job because he wanted to sleep with him?

I get the feeling that Robert sees the worst in people.

I don't think so. But they did hint that Lawrence's increasing attraction to Robert made it easy for Robert to twist him round his little finger. Robert basically admitted to playing him, and Lawrence was gutted.

I expect he just gave him a job because he was a go-getter, then Robert did his charming all smiles thing, and Lawrence started to get drawn in.

It's never been made completely clear, but that's how I read it.

Great post, I read it that way too. I have no doubt that Lawrence was attracted to Robert, he's good looking, confident and ambitious and I can imagine him really playing up to Lawrence's soft side.

To be honest, I think if Robert had gone the whole hog and tried to sleep with Lawrence, he'd have scared the poor bloke to death!!!

That's more or less how I read the scene.
But...
It all came from Robert's dialogue / actions.

The scene (from Lawrence's point of view) was never made clear and was ambiguous to say the least - had you not previously known that Lawrence's had had a gay relationship with Edna's husband, you could easily have just read Lawrence's reaction as one of shock & anger that Robert had even suggested such a thing.

Oo, great point. I wonder what Lawrence would have done if Robert had given him a direct come-on? Robert is really charming when he wants to be, has a absolutely knock-em-dead 100 gigawatt smile, and I wonder if Lawrence just really enjoyed the feeling of working closely with a young attractive guy who seemed to like him - if it was all excitement and buzz, with a bit of fantasy thrown in, but something he would never have taken steps to make real.


True, Lawrence never actually confirmed in words that he'd fancied Robert. But to me, that wasn't the reaction of a guy who was shocked and angry, it was the reaction of someone who realised he'd been caught out in an infatuation with a younger guy, bang to rights, and was completely mortified.

But it's all in the interpretation, as you've said. I wonder if we'll ever find out.

It would be nice to think they we' re going to find out more about Lawrence in the coming weeks and get to know him better. I hope the imprisonment was not just a plot device to up the emotional ante of wrongful imprisonment and get Bernice back with Andy over a Steam punk catalogue or whatever it was she gave him

Bernice is determined to bed Lawrence next week.

Even the idea of this makes me cringe. I can't decide who I feel more sorry for. Bernice being so desperate and most likely getting rejected or Lawrence being forced to hurt Bernice and compromise himself. Poor bloke