James touched his face which showed they are intimate looked like they were to kiss

I genuinely think all this is down to plot changes. I've always felt that Mac being abusive was never planned and something they just sprung out. Look at the difference in direction between the hospital scenes when John was blind to the rushed job we have now? The pacing, different in direction sticks out like a sore thumb. While the Mac story has shown alot of promise, it appears the writers have completely abandoned developing JP and James as a couple in the process. So disapointing because while I like them, I can't see myselr becoming invested in them if they carry on like this. It just feels like as a viewer, we're just going through the motions instead of experiencing them.

Hopefully we'll know more tomorrow and through the rest of the week.

I found that so rushed and written poorly.

As much as I love Alfie and want to see a Jade aftermarth, I don't think imaginary Jade is neccassarily. Their last scene together was beautiful.

More developement was needed on James corner tonight.

Yeah! Wonder if he'll keep seeing her

Meh to the Myra stuff! Think was expecting more screen time but yeah felt rushed. Hopefully tomorrow more scenes even if bad ones

I never thought JP and James were meant to be anything, was more to show JP how much he loved Scott, but then they realized that JP/Scott was pretty hated by everyone bar the guy who plays Scott, the Mac/James thing was planned there were hints but when the writers saw McNight was popular and went with than, then thought how do we deal with this lets have JP as James' support

I didnt like the Alfie scenes much,

James has always hated Mac (at the time it looked irrational) since his first few appearances.

Hmm, yeah maybe this is how it went down.

If they develop McNight through the abuse storyline, with all the ups and downs that will entail, I'll be pleased.

If they carry on like this, they will just be one of the always rotating HO pairings, instead of being a great couple that will stand out. They'll be a Ste/Sinead (well, better than them, at least! ) instead of a Stendan.

Maybe I'm being overly pessimistic and negative, but there are things that a show must do in order to create a successful ship that resonates with the audience (which isn't an easy task, the McDeans, Stendans, Chryeds etc don't come around every day for a reason), and right now it seems they are not willing to or interested in (or capable of) doing them with McNight.

I think the Mac stuff was always planned, they were always going to go down the road of telling us why James is the way he is.

This is still really early in the relationship and the abuse storyline, we have no idea what they have planned, although Greg has said JP will feature heavily.

Maybe they are just friends at the moment and James was chancing his luck with JP, we have seen him do it a few times before

This is why feel they got them together offscreen so can split up after this week and then build up getting back together..or something along those lines

I'm sure JP will feature a lot in the future, but how a story begins is just as important, if not more. They are depriving us of the most interesting stuff, the process of actually getting close and bringing down walls, and building up trust (a trust that JP should not have at this point).

That's true but I remember on one of James's very early appearances, he made a comment to Mac about him not fighting harder to keep him. Mac, at the time, sounded quite sincere when he explained that he just didn't want James in the middle of a custody battle. It was also implied very early on that James was the way he was because he lost someone. There was some subtle hints alluding to this. However I do think the writers changed thier minds on James's back story later on and it appears, they've sacrificed any developement between him and JP as a result.

The only way they can turn this around for me is if jp dumps James and then we actually see some development but even that, will make any 'getting together' rather tame. Because of how they've started, anything now will appear disjointed.

I agree. I really think they peaked at the hospital scenes and when James dumped JP at the door. During that time, it looked like they were going with the emotional abuse story from Marnie, which at the time, provided a much more interesting angle of James being shut down. However those weeks later when the Mac story started, they weren't quite the same. How close they quirky got was unbelievable, especially offscreen.

Even Patrick had his tender moments with Maxine, so I could view those scenes that way.

I completely agree on McNight being rushed. I thought JP hated James? How did his eyes miraculously in the space of weeks? However, there is precedent of JP being a doormat when it comes to his own issues for a guy he fancies, so he may have shoved his reservations aside if it meant having a chance to get inside James' pants.


Still a cool love story...if they showed it.

I think the moment JP learned about James' abuse all was forgiven. It's not really warranted, given what James did, but it does fit with his character.

I'm still cautiously optimistic. If they develop them properly as a couple through this that would be brilliant; we'll see.

That episode left me a little cold, I think its time to move onto something else now and not focus on characters like Diego and Myra. Just like the last episode, it was too brief to have any believable progression. I'm disappointed. I thought Nathan and James would have a proper talk. The only good thing about the episode was the end, when John Paul told Nathan, now my interest has been peeked again.
In terms of James and John Paul, I think that John Paul is close at the moment because James has no one else, he needs someone, and John Paul wants to be that, they might not be officially a couple. James has no idea what a healthy relationship is, so he doesn't know what the rules are, on John Paul's side, he's a nurturer, he's more looking after James right now then anything, plus he feels James's pain because of the abuse he suffered himself, so he's invested in that too.
Also, what was with James's suit?

After they 1st slept together JP looked like he could change James and wanted to
but then when James was cruel to Scott JP decided no the good looking rich guy was too cruel
Then he seemed to avoid James other than using him to help his family, he seemed to want it to be business to keep from feeling anything, after pretending to be a couple he clearly had feelings for James, said to Nancy that, even was trying to bump into him, after that he stayed away because he had to be with scott, then moved in with scott and James made a move again and ended up with him again, JP has always be seduced by James and how broken he is and just wanted to understand him

James even scoffed that does his sad sob story mean hes forgiven, but JP did reject him in the loft

Jades funeral was meant to be bright colours

I can understand JP forgiving James and wanting to support him after finding out about the abuse, but he could do so as a friend, they didn't need to put them together (if they are together) with such rush.

Also, I would have been satisfied with JP asking James an explanation about his behaviour after the hospital, when he dumped JP at the McQueen's and told him about the bet. I don't like that they glossed over that. JP was entitled an explanation, if only to understand. But as usual, he is written as a doormat who doesn't stand up for himself.

Maybe I have to finally accept that that is indeed a trait of JP's personality, given that it persists from relationship to relationship.

I think it is. My poor baby.

Ugh, I thought for a moment that tonight's scenes were up on ahsan c's channel, but no, they are from friday's episode.

Sigh.