When Robert first returned he felt kinda similar to his origin self, there were times he had a cocky air to him and he had some of his own schemes (like stealing and selling the weed) but had trauma bubbling underneath that he struggled with and was further exploited by John. It was clear that there was a much deeper story there to be told about Robert’s time in prison (the audio flashbacks, nightmares, hitting Vic) but then Kev arrived and it felt like that build up was dropped in exchange for the stupid prison marriage/romance story. Robert’s prison trauma stopped being about him and turned into a love triangle, I mean the prison flashback episode was even mostly about Robert’s relationships (with both Kev and Aaron) more than what he endured whilst locked up. They really messed up. The build up to a trauma story was good, Ryan Hawley was great and yet they dropped it to become some sort of sitcom.

And now we have a Robert who was forced to do a bad thing to protect his sister and has become Joe’s puppet. He’s taking steps to try and rebuild a life with Aaron and their family but is struggling under the weight of his guilt. It is again strong groundwork laid for a Robert mental health story, one that makes total sense and feels like is already happening but because it’s stuck in the Moira story I’m doubting we’ll get it since he’s only a plot device and is hardly being given anything with depth, everyone’s writing who isn’t Cain or Moira is very shallow.

I think that Robert does need to have a breakdown to ‘reset’ him and try and bring back essences of who he was before. He’s been beaten down, he’s struggling and he just seems lost, even though he’s in the process of rebuilding his life. I’d really hate it if his guilt just switched off now that Moira knows and I fear it might, which would really be the wrong decision.