Thread by @QueerlyAutistic

I have this real, awful sinking feeling in my stomach around everything #Ballum related this Christmas. Not even a worry that they're going to break up, because I'll take that as a story, but that everything is going to be utterly pointless and out of character.

Ben's behaviour around Callum last week made ZERO sense and was a pointless scene if Ian didn't tell Ben about Callum. Ben suddenly nervous around Callum because he's a police officer after literally everything that's happened in the last three months? Sorry, what?

After Callum's literally covered for him before when he thought Ben had murdered someone? After Callum did all this stuff for the Mitchells recently, at his own risk, to the point where Ben was basically telling him about everything the Mitchells were doing?

If it truly was just Ben having guilty feels about Ian, or being scared of going back to prison, there is no reason for him to be shifty around Callum. In fact, that's even more reason for him actually speaking to Callum and asking for his help to cover himself.

If ben was avoiding Callum because of his guilt around Ian, why have Ben literally jump up and go visit Ian in order to not be in the same room as Callum? Why would he be ghosting Callum at all - even if it WAS Ian related, he'd need a reason to suddenly not trust him.

And why waste valuable screentime on sending Ben home and having that scene, when they could have just as easily had Ben doing the guilty feels at the hospital with his mum where he was the last time we saw him before that scene?

And again, why waste a scene when you're already cramming it in with Callum and Ian, when you could just as easily have Callum not wanting to report that it was Ian who grassed because he didn't want Ben to do something bad? Wasted scenes all over the place!

My only hope that I'm clinging to, naively, is that a flashback may be somewhat unreliable in terms of the order of things, or that there's some other twist up their sleeve, because if this doesn't all link together in some way, everything feels so pointless.

I know that character and...y'know...consistency take a backseat during Christmas in favour of ridiculous plots, but all this would be out of character AND such a waste of time in terms of filming and writing with such limited space?

IT MAKES NO SENSE.

And then to potentially start a whole other thread of the story with Stuart (I mean, we're pretty certain that 'hot water' thing is because he did something to DIDH, right?) without wrapping the dangling threads that lay forgotten in the ruins of Christmas?

I know nothing is disproved yet, but if we don't find out that Ian told Ben about Callum when he confronted him in The Vic that night, literally everything can go to hell because nothing makes sense anymore.

And I was one of the ones who actually kind of enjoyed the trauma of Callum lying to Ben and doing all this stuff purely to try and protect him. But it needs to come out soon, or all that wound up tension will be lost. We need to move forward. This isn't fun anymore.

Anyway, they need to hurry up and give Tony his wish of being 'Callum Mitchell' in the credits, and they can't do that unless they sort this first.

You're going to refuse that face? Seriously? You monsters.