Trying – Scott of the Atlantic

By: Gladys Luna

Scott (Darren Boyd) is standing in front of the vast ocean thinking about the adventure he is about to start while the rest of his family and friends are on their way to meet him for his big boat launch. While Nikki (Esther Smith), Jason (Rafe Spall) and Tyler (Cooper Turner) discuss the football game that will happen later that day, Princess (Scarlett Rayner) is worried sick about her final exams results that are already on the mail but she doesn’t have the courage to open yet. In the meantime, Karen (Sian Brooke) still doesn’t believe that Scott will dare to row across the Atlantic and even tells Jilly (Marian McLoughlin) that she found tickets for an Ed Sheeran concert happening in September, which confirms her suspicions that her husband won’t leave her side. When she arrives to the beach she is surprised to see all of the people gathered there and wastes no time in demanding answers from Scott who appears to be more certain than ever of what he is about to do. He explains that he has found some American sponsors that will support him and takes the opportunity to give her an early birthday present since he won’t be there on that date, which happens to be the concert tickets that she had already discovered. He asks her to make up with Nikki and invite her to go to the concert with her since she will need her by her side once he is gone. It wasn’t until this moment when Karen notices how serious her husband has been all along. The rest of the family arrives and Jason immediately goes to find Freddy (Oliver Chris) and scolds him for failing on his task of dissuading Scott from doing such a crazy thing, but the other man confesses that he was inspired by the man’s courage and willingness to go beyond what’s possible and feels that he is ready for it. While they discuss this Scott can be seen on the ground having troubles managing the equipment he will use, something that makes Karen and Jason a bit uncertain about whether or not he is ready for what is to come.

Everyone begins to settle around and then Nikki spots Victor (Phil Davis) talking with a woman named Debbie (Carol Walton) who he refers to as a new friend. Nikki cannot help but to feel happy for him. She then sees Karen face to face and they decide to go in different directions since they are still mad at each other. Later on, while Vic is showing Debbie the boat in which Scott will sail soon, she drops a big bomb on him that he later discusses with Nikki – confessing that his friend has asked to start a sex life with him. However, he admits that his late wife’s shape is still in the memory foam of the sofa and he is afraid that if someone else sits there then his wife will be gone forever. Understanding this, all that Nikki can advise to him is to make a list of the things he likes about spending time with Debbie before he jumps into any conclusions and he agrees.

As a way to calm her angst about Scott leaving, Karen tries to find some comfort in Freddy’s knowledge, after all, he is a rower himself and trained her husband for this but her concerns only grow when he confesses that he only worked in the administrative side and was never allowed to row and this is his way of accomplishing that goal. Sometime later, when seeing that Karen is having a very hard time processing everything that is happening, Nikki decides to take the first step and talks to her managing to calm her down so, finding the courage she needed to stop all the madness going on there, Karen rushes to the boat and starts beating it with a piece wood she found but Scott stops her and takes her aside to talk. She is convinced that her lack of attention to him has led him to this point and he assures her that for once, he wants to accomplish something in his life. After spending some time talking she finally convinces him to stay so he ends up canceling everything.

Later on Jason, Nikki, Princess and Tyler arrive to the football field ready for the last game of the season. As always, Jason encourages the kids (David Kapfunde, D’Angelou Osei-Kissiedu, Oscar Wallwork, Alex Ranganathan and Sienna Sayer) to give their best, but things change when the opposite team coach (Nathan Welsh) assumes that they have already won the game and also dares to make jokes about the kids for not having parents that would take care of them. Noah (Karl Collins) shows up in the field and tells Jason and Nikki that he is there with Mark (Matthew Spencer) and Sarah (Stephanie Levi-John), some potential parents for one of the kids. He wants to make sure that the kid is on his best behavior at the game, something that Jason promises. Meanwhile, Scott is driving home when he sees Stevie’s (Matilda Flower) drawing of him and makes a life-changing choice. Back at the game Nikki asks Princess about the exams’ results and the teenager lies to her saying that she hasn’t received any email yet at the same time that she questions how is it possible that no one in Mallorca knew anything about Kat. It appears that both daughter and mother are lying to each other. The game is not going as planned and Jason’s team is losing. Nikki encourages her husband to let the kids be themselves on the field, but he refuses until he enters the locker room and sees other parents talking badly about the kids and assuming they are meant to lose he. Therefore, he goes back and apologizes to the kids for stealing their anger and wanting them to fit in in order to be someone they are not. He asks them to use all of the memories where they ever felt bad as fuel to be on top of their game. He then asks Princess and Nikki to distract Mark and Sarah so they won’t see their potential adoptive kid act badly on the field. Even though the pair must have appeared to be far from the odd before they accomplish their goal. In the end, the kids didn’t win the game but at least prevented the other team from going to the finals.

Princess takes the courage she needs and opens her exams’ results email then yells at the top of her lungs that she has passed. Noah talks to Jason and offers him a job as a social worker. Everyone gathers at Nikki and Jason’s house to celebrate and then Jason informs Nikki about Noah’s job offer. They both agree that to take it is the best for him because he will do a great job. It feels like he was born for it. Later, Vic approaches Nikki and tells her that he has been thinking about what she asked him to do and he ended up concluding that is not that he was into dating but into helping people to fix things around their house. It seems he has decided to officially become a handyman and Tyler has helped him get his name out there. Karen is concerned that Scott hasn’t arrived to the celebration yet and is surprised when seeing that she has several missed calls from Freddy. Princess asks Nikki to let her borrow her phone to see the pictures she has taken of the celebration and when scrolling through them she sees the photos she took while in Mallorca. She is surprised when Kat’s face show up on the screen. Right that moment Nikki goes to the door and finds Freddy who is there to let them know that Scott has decided to row across the Atlantic. She lets him in so he can talk to Karen and then she freezes right in her spot when seeing Kat (Charlotte Riley) standing on the other side of the street staring at her.