An Affair to Remember

Pretty much all the feedback on the Karlita (Karl and Sunita) affair is negative. 'Out of character', and 'sleazy' are the kindest things we've heard. It's certainly not been played like a coy 'nudge, nugdge, wink, wink' type affair we've seen in the past or even a fairly straightforward one but with a lower mark on the sleaze scale. Perhaps that's because many of the past affairs involved characters that we liked, characters that had a certain charm and chemistry. This one has none of that. And according to the poll in this post, it's even out-sleazed the Molvin  (Molly and Kevin) affair which, in my books, had reached a new low at that point.

Sunita was always loyal and kind and honest. If she felt hard done by or taken for granted, she'd have confronted Dev, not thrown up her hands and chased after the first man that gave her a cheeky grin. Karl is a newish character and we haven't really seen him in a sympathetic light since he's been here. He's a gambler, he's a bit of a schemer and most definitely feckless. We did hear that he'd cheated on Stella in the past so this is, at least, not a personality transplant for him.

For the past couple of months we've been peering at the screen through our fingers whenever Sunita and Karl have played tonsil hockey with their tongues or plugging our ears and singing "la la la I can't hear you" when one makes blatantly sexual comments to the other like when Sunita suggested she wouldn't wear underwear beneath her Jubilee cossie. How many of you out there were as creeped out about that one as I was? I might have expected that out of Beth or Tracy but not Sunita.

Now we're at the point of the affair where Dev is suspicious. He found the wad of cash that Sunita is keeping for Karl, the gambling win that Karl is hiding from Stella and though he leaped to the wrong conclusion about that, he's putting a lot of other pieces of the puzzle in the right places. All this time she wants to herself, all these friends coming out of the woodwork needing to talk to her including an overnight with one of them. He's sure she's having an affair.

Anyone that's had a cheating spouse has seen all of this before. Once you're suspicious, you watch, listen and try to catch them in a lie. The cheater's reactions are varied but they all try to do a merry dance to try to keep you from finding out the truth. Smoke and mirrors. Fancy footwork. Or, as we in Canada might say with reference to (ice) hockey, stick handling. But those of us watching who've been there recognize the bluff for what it is and it's not pretty. As awful as this storyline is, I have to say from the point of view of a once wronged spouse, it's painfully realistic.

Dev confronted Sunita with his suspicions and she started down that cliched route. First, she pretended not to know what he was talking about. She denied. She put it all down to his overactive imagination. Then, she broke her own phone so as not to have to call or take a call from Karl, pretending it was "Laura". She accused Dev of bullying her. You could tell she was backed into a corner but there was still a way out. Right out the door and into Stella's back room which was obviously the worst place she could be, considering she's doing Stella's fella but she grabbed the first hand hold she could, like someone dangling off a cliff. Doesn't matter that the roots are shallow and she could very easily plummet down onto the rocky shores below.

Even if Dev backs down and Sunita goes home, even if the affair ends with a whimper and they think they're in the clear, it's going to come out. These things always do. Will Sunita go quietly? Will either Dev or Sunita end up in the corner shop flat? Will Stella weld shut the lock on her handbag, the one in which she's already got Karl's 'family jewels' firmly situated. Will there be blood and carnage on the street or forgiveness?