Last Tango in Halifax – Forever is a mighty long time.

Last Tango in Halifax: 2x06. 

If Last Tango in Halifax is about all the different ways that people become family, then one of the core elements of that process is sharing – sharing a life, sharing your history, sharing your feelings. Caroline told Kate that she has a difficult time sharing her emotions because she grew up in a family that never talked. Gillian can’t share because she is carrying a secret around with her, one that she hasn’t told anyone, and that burden has ruined her life. Alan and Celia were married to people that they didn’t love as much as they now love each other – even if Alan says at his wife’s grave that he doesn’t rue a moment he spent with her (but he is now happier with Celia than he ever thought he would be, again), even if Celia constantly reminds herself that the other side of the coin of having been unhappily married is Caroline (but she might not have had Caroline, but been happy -  happier – than she was in that awful marriage). The episode, for the most part, is upbeat and happy, comes with chaotic wedding planning, funny anecdotes from Alan and Celia’s past, a dance scene, but the more important moments are when the characters finally share their burdens, or forgive others or themselves, to find at least a bit of happiness. 

Alan needs to acknowledge that he doesn’t harbour any resentment against his wife’s choice not to pass on the note to him, all those years ago, when everything could have been different. He does so when he visits her grave with Gillian and Emily Jane.

Alan: I hope that’s alright. I hope you don’t mind. I think.. well, we always said life was for living. And when you’re gone… I just… I hope I know you were very young when you didn’t pass that letter on to me, Celia’s letter, and I’m flattered, I’m flattered that you thought so much of me. And I don’t regret anything. What would be the point? I don’t, anyway. I just, I hope you would be pleased for me. I think I need to know I have your blessing.

Celia needs to forgive her sister for marrying Frank, because more than just the fact that she lost Frank, someone who doesn’t seem to have been that important to her anyway, she’s realized that this is what drove her into the unhappy marriage with Kenneth, a fact that she never shared with Muriel, who also didn’t know how unhappy she was with him. For both of them, it’s always been difficult to both be grateful for their past, because they wouldn’t have Caroline, or Gillian, or any of their grand-children without it, and still grieve over the lost years that they never got to share. It feels like this is the final ritual of forgiveness that is necessary before the great ceremony (that and Celia finding out that not getting the house was Alan’s fault), so that nothing tarnishes their happiness and luck to have found each other again after so many years.  

For Gillian, it starts where the last episode left off, the morning after she told Caroline about what really happened with Eddie. She is worried about what Caroline is going to do with that information, that she will go to the police, but Caroline is still working through the shock of knowing the true extent of Eddie’s brutality. “Nobody should ever have to live like that”, which is what Gillian needs to hear in the moment, because in a way, she’s been working up to that confession all season. The half-confession to John was like a test that didn’t really matter, because John’s judgement wouldn’t matter, considering what kind of a person he is – but Caroline’s does matter. She couldn’t tell her father because the idea of losing him, in case he wouldn’t understand, is too terrifying, and the question of whether she will ever be able to have a relationship with Robbie, while keeping that secret, haunts everything. 

Caroline: Wonder why you told me. Did it make you feel better?
Gillian: I don’t know. Do you wish I hadn’t told you?
Caroline: I suppose you told me because you needed to. Needed to tell someone, I’m just wondering why it was me.
Gillian: Because you were here. Because I was drunk.
Caroline: Do you want me to turn you in? Is that why you told me?
Gillian: No. No.

It’s the most definite no that Gillian has ever uttered, and a turning point, because it makes it clear that despite all her self-destructive instincts, she still has so many things that she can’t afford to lose, especially now, with her granddaughter (because for the past episodes it felt like Gillian was more balanced through taking care of Emily Jane). 

Gillian: I've buggered everything up, haven’t I? We could have been friends and I…
Caroline: Had a lot to deal with. You were dropped in a marriage with a man who… we are friends. You told me because you needed to. I’m not gonna turn you in, I’m not gonna turn you in alright.
Gillian: You sure?
Caroline: Yeah.
Gillian: Really?
Caroline: Yeah.

Caroline will only reveal how absolutely horrified she is by what Eddie did (and what Eddie did, since it’s never really made clear before that point) in her later conversation with Kate, after trying to make sense of the weird day she’s having, but at this point, the one thing she does tell Gillian is that she agrees with her that trying to be in a relationship with Robbie would “open a can of worms”, and that she thinks that Gillian should move on. 

It’s quite interesting how the episode continuously ties in Kate, who in theory should be on the fringes of the story, since she and Caroline appear to be so very much at odds that they can only talk to each other like strangers: first, she is the one who returns Lawrence, because Lawrence in his panic over not being able to reach his mum called William, who suggested he try Kate (which is lovely as well, William being the person who adjusts best to the idea of an extended family, realizing how reliable Kate is, being the first to actually call Alan “grandpa”). Then Caroline uses the fact that Kate helped Lawrence to try and talk to her, after having been turned down repeatedly before – 

Caroline: I think she told me because she drank too much and we were telling each other things, and the point is, apart from the fact that it was a really weird evening, the point is I realized that amidst all the disappointment and complexity and mundanity and madness of the day today, we had something really nice that happened between us. I know you’ve made your mind up about me, and I know I leave a lot to be desired sometimes, but I decided it was worth one more time, asking, saying I’m sorry for all the things I got wrong, And I will try, I would try harder.
Kate: No. Thank you.

It sounds like a very definite “No”, which in the light of what happens later in the episode only really makes sense if Kate has just spent the past few months desperately trying to keep herself away from Caroline and try to move on. The conversation that they have starts awkward, strangers trying to figure out how to talk to each other again, with Caroline subtly checking if Kate has a new girlfriend, and if Greg is still part of the picture in terms of the baby, and then Caroline makes the odd decision to share the details of the conversation with Gillian (not the fact that Gillian killed Eddie, but the abusive marriage) – because Kate would be the kind of person that she wishes to be able to share this with, the same way she instinctively turned to her when her mum and Alan went missing. It’s a very definite sounding “no” at the end (and the “thank you” makes it sound even worse – when Caroline walks back to her car after the conversation, she seems shell-shocked), but then, when Caroline finds out that Kate has driven herself to the hospital because she’s afraid that something is wrong with the baby, Kate reacts just as instinctively to her being there and seeks comfort, even if she awkwardly withdraws once her worries turn out to be without cause. It’s an automatic intimacy that both of them resort to, even if it passes once the moment is gone, even if Caroline ends up giving Kate’s number to Celia, when she remembers  that she wants her to play “The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba” at the wedding, rather than asking her to come herself. The mere fact that Kate is already so embedded in this family that Celia would be the one to ask her to come, and then later, to stay beyond the ceremony, is meaningful. 

Everything leads up to the wedding, Alan and Celia finally stopping to look into the past to be able to fully enjoy their future together, however long it may last, Robbie hearing from all the men of the family that he should get back together with Gillian, despite (or because) she is a handful, and challenging, and has balls, Celia inviting Kate to play piano at the wedding, possibly not just because she really cares about that song, but because she’s watched her daughter be miserable over the break-up. This is what Last Tango in Halifax has also always been about: Celia and Alan finding each other after all these years, and embracing that happiness, and proving to Caroline and Gillian that you can still find that happiness late in life, after whatever blows you’ve suffered before. It makes sense that their wedding would be the moment when Robbie realizes he can’t let go of Gillian, when first Caroline glances at Kate while her mother and Alan say their vows and then later Kate watches Caroline as she gives her speech, summing up not only what Alan and Celia mean to each other, but what their luck means to her as well. 

Caroline: When my mum told me that she was getting married again, I said, ‘yes mother, shall we discuss it in the car’ and she said ‘we are serious know’, and I said… But she was serious, and they did, and here we are. My mum is unique. She’s clever, she’s funny, she’s supportive, she’s very loving, and she’s very kind, she also likes to say it like it is now and again but I think Alan’s ready for that. And I think Alan deserves someone as wonderful as my mum because he is, without doubt, one of the loveliest, kindest men I’ve ever met. This was made in heaven, I really believe that, and I think we are all very privileged to have been a part of that. I hope that my mum, and my new dad will have years and years and years ahead of them together, inspiring us all with heir extraordinary love for each other, and their extraordinary passion and zest for life. Thank you.

It gives Gillian the courage to ask Robbie to dance with her, later that night, and it’s why Kate comes back at a moment when Caroline has already completely given up (her “How unlikely is that” in response to Kate’s Christmas wishes making it clear how frustrated she is). 

Kate: I got in. I shut the door. Then I turned around and I came straight back. Do you wanna dance?
Caroline: This is like…
Kate: What?
Caroline: Forever.
Kate: Well, to quote Prince, forever is a mighty long time. You know. In theory.

I struggled with the imbalance in that relationship for a while this season, the idea that Caroline was the only one who had to develop in order for them to work, the unreasonable way in which their fight escalated, despite the fact that they more than anyone else on the show should have been able to work through the issues like adults – which was always the greatest thing about them. It’s good that Kate is the one who ends up coming back – because their story isn’t, or shouldn’t be, about Kate forgiving Caroline for not being brave enough, for not catching up with her more quickly. I still wish this had gone differently, but it’s hard not to be swayed by that scene, because it’s the emotional core of the episode, the grand moment that makes everyone else stop in their tracks (even if it’s just for an exasperated “Oh, I thought she’d gone” from Celia). 

Somehow, it’s a happy ending for everyone that doesn’t completely paint over the things that are ahead – the question of how long Alan and Celia’s future will be, how Caroline and Kate will handle raising that child together, and more than anything, what it means for Gillian now that she’s opened the can of worms. 

Random notes: 

And none for you, John. (what an odd decision to include his particular squalor and misery in that final montage though). 

Celia: Do they do lap dancing with fellas? Is that the same as polo dancing?

The episode also repeatedly and definitely confirms my suspicions that Celia never liked John – Caroline says so, and then there’s a string of hilarious anecdotes about Celia being awful to him (and then that Christmas when you let all his tires down…”)

William’s “you’ve spent years insisting I was gay and now you’re bringing Angus as your plus one and not realizing the irony of it” look is very, very good. 

Muriel: Celia, I would have thought You’d have him better trained by now. 

Celia: Clearly not. Not yet.

I’d be perfectly happy with a couple of more scenes of Gillian and Caroline giggling hysterically together (and Gillian’s “You’re right, she’s very entertaining” was a nice callback of the scene after Celia and Caroline made up after last year’s fight). 

Everyone’s reactions to Kate and Caroline kissing was perfect: Lawrence was embarrassed, William and Alan were ecstatic and happy, Gillian was proud, Muriel was scandalized, Celia was… slightly annoyed at how public it was, I suppose.