As this episode of The Split begins, Hannah (Nicola Walker) stays inside with Rose (Fiona Button) while the others hold a memorial ceremony for James outside. Nathan (Stephen Mangan) offers to get takeaway Friday with Vinnie (Toby Oliver) and the others as he runs in the opposite direction. Liv (Elizabeth Roberts) asks her father whether he is disappearing again before he receives a message from Kate saying she is thinking of him. Moments later, Hannah confirms to Rose that the last ones are leaving now and she apologized to James’s parents for her. As Nina (Annabel Scholey) joins them, Hannah says she’ll call her tomorrow to say it was a beautiful funeral. Rose asks them to go.

Hannah goes downstairs where Nathan tells her he has a position statement to finalize for court tomorrow. Nina and Ronnie (Ian McElhinney) decide to hitch a ride with Nathan since Ronnie thought he’d return to his house. Ruth (Deborah Findlay) calls Nathan her favorite son-in-law. After Nathan tells Liv he’ll see her tomorrow, Hannah explains Nathan and Ronnie are going to show her around their old alma mater. Nathan isn’t thrilled when he learns that Gael or the man-child is coming along. Outside, Hannah asks Nathan whether he is going straight to Kate’s book launch tomorrow. She admits they couldn’t have gotten through this week without him. Then, she asks why they’re doing this.

Nate says they’ve been through this, but Hannah wonders if they have actually talked about it without a child, mother, or phone buzzing. She says James is dead and that shows her they only have this one life. She suspects Kate is a perfectly nice person but has only been a few months at best. She says they have 20 years of chaos and brilliant mess. Nathan breaks the news that Kate is 10 or 11 weeks pregnant. He didn’t use contraception because he didn’t have to think about it with her. She asks whether Kate is going to keep it. Nathan promises to call her before leaving Hannah. In the morning, Ruth tells Zander (Chukwudi Iwuji) and Tyler (Damien Molony) how it went. Zander asks whether it helped that James saved a life by donating his heart before admitting he doesn’t think he has that act of generosity in him.

Ruth agrees that it is marvelous and she is very proud. Then, she says they should go to the book launch to show Melanie Aickman (Anna Chancellor) that they are unafraid, unabashed, and unfazed. She claims the whole Nathan and Kate relationship is a phase, but Hannah believes it is more than that. Ruth says someone needs to bring him to his sense. When Nina says there is no way she’ll get a sitter this late, Tyler offers to take Cora. Zander asks them not to look at him since he is going to be busy. He has no intention of becoming a father. When Nina says Tyler would be a good dad, Zander asks her not to encourage him. Hannah goes to her office and looks at the keychain with red shoes.

Nina tells Ruth that they’re going to have to move to a new flat because all of the plastic crap Cora is accumulating. Ruth finds it odd that she said we. Tyler offers to help since he knows a friend who works in real estate. Once Ruth steps away, Nina tells Tyler that she knows about them. Moments later, Hannah works with two lesbian lovers and their sperm donor friend. She tells them it is an informal agreement confirming that this conception was via artificial insemination. As a result, there are no legal rights or parental responsibilities for Gus (Tom Rhys Harries) as a known donor to a married couple. Bella and Sian are the legal parents. Nina says he could’ve been the legal father had this been a natural conception.

He is a free man this way. Bella and Sian tell them how everything happened during a trip when Bella started ovulating. Bella was at a fashion week in Paris so she couldn’t be there. Bella gives Gus a picture of the ultrasound. When Nathan meets up with Kate (Lara Pulver), they kiss. She asks him not to let grief be a means to avoid this. Kate insists he’ll need to integrate them into her life at some point. Nathan confesses he told Hannah because she has a radar and he can never get the big stuff past her. Kate wonders if he told her because he wants Hannah to be a part of their reality now. She reminds him that half of his family is invited tonight and she needs him by her side.

A message on Nathan’s phone sends him away. Hannah joins Gus who says they’re going to make great parents. He confirms he has known Bella since they were five. She claims she got him into fashion, but it was the other way around. She did her first catwalk in his back garden. Once Sian leaves, Hannah walks back into the room and hears Bella telling Gus he’ll always be part of the family. Hannah grabs her phone and says she wants photos as soon as the baby arrives. Later, Hannah tells Nina she thinks the child was naturally conceived. It is a grenade waiting to go off. Hannah says Gus could be left with no parental rights if he changes his mind and wants to be recognized as the legal parent. Hannah believes they have a duty of care if they did sleep together.

Nina argues that Bella is their client so they have a duty to protect her. Hannah explains they have a duty to the child to know who the parent is if he was naturally conceived. Nina wonders if it matters as long as the child is born since Rex hasn’t seen Cora since she was born. Hannah wonders if anyone cares about the truth anymore. She finds the ultrasound picture when she returns to the meeting room. Rose goes to the police station to see Liza (Melissa Johns). When Liza arrives, she tells Rose she could’ve dropped the items off for her. Rose admits she wanted to pick them up herself. She leaves with his items and bike moments later. Leondra gets a call from Hannah telling her she is meeting with Felix’s lawyer JJ Johnson this morning.

Hannah reveals they’re looking to defend the petition and will not accept her grounds of unreasonable behavior. They knew they weren’t going to make this easy for them. JJ is a reasonable man. Hannah asks about the transplant patient and learns he is good. As for Rose, she is as well as can be expected. The transplant coordinator, Allison, will be happy to speak to Rose if she’d like to speak to the recipient’s family. Hannah thinks it is a little early for that though, but she promises to get in touch. After the call, Zander tells Hannah about JJ Johnson being in the diary for today. She knows he told his brother-in-law to get good representation. Zander reveals they told the boys yesterday. Judging by the amount of whisky he and Felix drank after, they didn’t take it well.

Since it doesn’t make sense, they’re worried about Leni’s state of mind. Zander wants to know if his sister is with someone else. He pleads with her to dig a little deeper and find out because he can’t handle drinking more with Felix. He also tells her that the meeting with Nathan at Melanie’s is first thing tomorrow. Zander wonders what their gameplan is since she ripped up her divorce agreement. He believes they’ll want to make some adjustments because Melanie is a master at racking up the hours. Then, Hannah meets with JJ to discuss Samuelson and Hale. He confirms they’re going to defend Leni’s divorce petition because the reasons for unreasonable behavior are weak.

He says the respondent belittles the petitioner’s role as an equal contributor to the household and with childcare responsibilities. This has caused the petitioner to feel unsupported. JJ’s client claims he has been very supportive, but he is concerned that his wife seems tired and might be overdoing it. As for Hannah’s client, she feels he has been disengaging from family life for quite some time. Felix is refusing to accept his wife’s petition for divorce on the ground of unreasonable behavior. He will defend his position although Hannah doesn’t think he’ll succeed. JJ would be doing his client a disservice if he didn’t describe how saddened and surprised his client is by his wife’s actions.

Hannah says her client is determined. If that is the case, Felix would like his wife and children to be supported and advised by a mutually appointed psychologist to best manage the impact on their sons. JJ says there is a risk that this thing could blow up. Mrs. Hale would be best complying at least as an acknowledgment of Felix’s concern and despair. Hannah tells him she’ll get back to him on that before leaving. During the tour of the university, Liv asks her father if he has something to say and whether he is seeing someone. After he tells her about Kate, Liv questions whether he regrets screwing it up with mom. He says it is complicated, but she believes he just walked out. Nathan says she might want to talk to her mom about that. While Gael tries to calm things, Nathan admits it is serious in a way and Kate is 39 or 40-ish.

Liv complains how men can just get younger women, but not women or her mother. She gets upset and tells him she is 19 and getting married. If he wants to lecture her, he should look at himself. Liv claims it is Nathan who is messing up this family. Hannah meets with Leni to tell her they’re struggling to understand her decision. She warns Leni that they could use this as further evidence that she and the boys need to be psychologically assessed. They may begin probing her personal life and uncover things she doesn’t wish raised that could be used in future court proceedings. Hannah knows she doesn’t think she can share this with Felix, but he might be the one who can support her the most. Her diagnosis is going to be increasingly difficult to hide.

Leni doesn’t want Felix to see that. She tells Hannah that there is no cure for motor neuron disease. When Hannah tries to comfort her, Leondra notices she has taken her wedding ring off. As for Leni, she is still wearing hers. She is okay with a psychologist assessing her. She wonders what is the worst that could happen, but nothing is going to change her mind. When Rose looks at James’s phone, she still sees his fingerprints on the screen. She listens to his voicemail messages and finds one from Nathan saying he just can’t tell her. She learns that he is having another baby. At work, Nina tells Hannah that Gus is there to pick something up. Hannah asks her what she’d advise if she had a client withholding medical information intrinsic to a divorce.

Nina says she would professionally keep quiet. However, if it changes two people’s divorce, she would say screw it. She repeats what Hannah said about people not caring about the truth anymore. Then, she forces Hannah to go with her to the book launch. They run into Gus downstairs as he begins talking about Cora. He takes the ultrasound picture from Hannah who asks if he has a minute to talk. She has done this agreement before, but something about this one is not right. She says lies are always found out. While she doesn’t represent him, she has a duty of care to Bella so she has found herself in a difficult situation. Gus says it was one night and he promised Bella because she loves Sian. Hannah says that deserves honesty and she can’t advise her client to sign something that isn’t true.

She urges him to be honest now. Zander talks to Ruth who has been helping Christie with a client. She tells him about Christie’s office and why he came to her instead of him. When Tyler walks by with the baby, Zander asks how she knew she wanted children. She says she didn’t and instead it was the 70s. Back then, you didn’t think about the ifs, buts, or whys. Tyler asks Nina if she meant what she said about him making a good dad. She says yes. Rose barges into Nathan’s office to confront him about the baby situation. She complains that he told James who had no chance of conceiving a baby of his own. She is so angry with him right now. Nathan says she is in a club with Vinnie, Liv, and Till. Hannah is angry and disappointed with him too. Rose asks if he is going to cry.

Then, she asks if he wants to go get pissed at Kate’s book thing. At the book event, Ronnie asks Hannah if he can have a word, but she asks if they can it later. He won’t say what it is about. Hannah tells Nathan she believes Ronnie is getting ready to dump her mother since she is getting good with surprises. They talk about Liv wanting to drop out and hook up with an underpaid, oversexed, entrepreneur. Nathan alleges he wants to import cocaine so Hannah calls him xenophobic. She learns that he told Liv something about Kate before their conversation is interrupted. Nina urges them to make sure Liv signs a good prenup. Ruth believes they should talk to Liv alone. Nina says they can take him out if that fails.

When Rose hears that, she says it is easy since you can just cycle left across a T-junction without looking. Melanie tells everyone that the author will be reading an excerpt in five minutes. Hannah and Rose begin chugging drinks before Kate stands up and reads from her book. While Kate continues, Hannah and Rose sit on beanbags nearby. Hannah says they used to spend hours in libraries when the kids were little and Vinnie would always nick stuff. Rose finds it weird that she is never going to do any of that and she doesn’t want to hear that there will be another life. Rose admits the last thing she said to him was that she didn’t want to adopt.

Hannah says she spoke to Leni today, but Rose doesn’t want to know because it hurts too much. They agree James was the best as Hannah insists she knows what it is like. Hannah says there are days when she looks at Nathan and can’t believe it is happening. Rose doesn’t think she should equate that to her grief though. She reminds Hannah that she cheated on Nathan and acted like she was wronged when he did the same to her. Rose lets her listen to the voicemail of Nathan asking James how to tell the person he loves the most in the world that he screwed up. She says the only thing that is the same is that they both screwed up. Hannah has a choice because Nathan is still here while James is gone. When Rose gets mad, she tells her to stop blaming everyone else and do something about it.

As Hannah goes downstairs, Melanie tells her what a nightmare it has been putting her show together. Melanie asks Nathan and Hannah to meet her tomorrow so they can wrap this thing up and move on with their lives. When Kate asks Hannah if she has a nice evening, she says not particularly. She loved the book or what she read of it. Hannah makes a ring of wine on the book and apologizes. Ruth admits she was always impressed with those who write. Hannah says especially those who have so little direct experience with the blended family. Nathan defends Kate by saying she is meticulous with her research. Hannah mentions that they’re having a baby and that surprises everyone. Melanie says life is amazing and a phoenix may rise out of the ashes.

Nina says she is going to get Hannah a car since she is drinking more. When Ruth asks Hannah if they should move, Kate says that might be a good idea. Hannah tells her to piss off. When Kate leaves, Ruth says she seems nice. Nathan agrees and calls it a relief. He realizes it is going to take some time for them to get used to it. JJ approaches Hannah to say he was talking to Kate and it might be a good idea to get her on board the Felix and Leni case. Hannah says it is a brilliant idea. As she begins walking away, she starts crying and breaking down. Nathan finds Hannah crying as she says it is embarrassing that she thought he really wanted to get back together.

She lets him know that she heard the message that he screwed up and believes Kate should hear that. Hannah asks if he really wants to go through this before kissing him. He stops her and admits he wants to do it. Nina tells Hannah that the taxi has arrived. Rose rides to the memorial for James where he died and sits down. She sits down and listens to the message saying she does want kids. Ruth goes home to comfort Hannah while Nina picks up Cora from Tyler. Once Nina finds her fast asleep, she calls Tyler a child whisperer. She is going to need her own room if Tyler is going to move his stuff in.

They kiss until Zander wakes up and interrupts. He asks Nina how she does this on her own. Zander claims kids are a headache and you count down the days until you’re free again. They make you forget why you didn’t want them. He wonders if he needs to give them to Tyler if he loves him. He asks how he can deny him children. When Tyler asks Nina what that was about, she says nothing. Kate tells Nathan she is relieved in a way that it is out there now. They can start talking about it now and working it into their divorce decisions. Kate knows he is scared, but she is confident they’re going to get through this. Everyone is afraid to turn the page on a new life. Nathan can do this though.

Hannah has opened the door for him to start looking for ways to integrate the family now. The kids can get to know Kate and there will be no more secrets. She tells Nathan she loves him. Later that night, Hannah seems to have a panic attack. In the morning, Hannah goes looking for Rose who isn’t in her room. Instead, Rose is at the church where she talks to a priest. She says his parents insisted on the burial. She would’ve had James cremated because she thinks he would’ve preferred that. Rose isn’t sure what she is doing there. She got James’s bike since it didn’t feel right to leave it unclaimed. She says they couldn’t do much with his brain. As for his heart, it saved a life and she is supposed to get solace from that.

Rose learns about Glen’s jumble sales and considers selling some of James’s stuff there. They agree that they had an amazing wedding here that Rose calls one of the best days of their lives. She believes they have those best days because they’re tent pegs that hold everything down when the rest blows away. Rose doesn’t want to hear that this is part of God’s grand plan since it sucks. Glen says she is sorry before the breakfast helpers interrupt. Hannah meets with Zander who warns her to be ready because Melanie is going to come in hard. As Nathan arrives, Zander tells Hannah he believes they can still regain control. During the meeting, Melanie admits they don’t think the agreements are fair since they never got the signed papers and Nathan’s situation has changed.

Hannah finds out that they want her to sell the house although they previously agreed it would happen after the children left home. Nathan would also like to spend one night a week in the family home. Melanie says it would preferably coincide with Hannah working late since she hears that frequently happens. Hannah says the kids are just getting used to them being apart while Nathan says the kids will be fine. Nathan would like more than a few hours with Tilly and Vinnie in whatever chicken shop they can find. Hannah believes Vinnie is upset because his father just absented himself from family life without any real attempt to work things out. Hannah begins laughing when Nathan tells her she can play with the narrative.

After he says he can’t do this, Melanie believes they’ve said enough anyway. Zander tells Melanie they’re going to need time to discuss the new requirements, but the amicable divorce is now out of the window. He hopes this won’t be an excuse to turn it into the street fight he knows she is capable of. Hannah finds it funny that Nathan has read any book besides John Grisham and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. She calls him a selfish, self-involved, heartless prick. He asks if she is saying that because he wants to spend time with his kids in a place they can call home. He is adamant he will be visiting the place that he owns and pays for and will have one night a week without her and with his new girlfriend.

It is his life now and she no longer has a say in who he sleeps with, who he decides to build a life with, or has a kid with. She tells him she doesn’t know who he is anymore. Hannah has another panic attack before telling Zander she is okay. Then, they find Bella arguing with Sian about sleeping with Gus just one night. Sian asks Hannah if she feels better and really thought she didn’t know. Bella calls her a great lawyer and says she didn’t have to say anything. Gus wonders if the truth is better than a lie after all. Hannah goes to her office where she begins throwing things around. She throws the red shoes keychain against the wall.

Then, Christie (Barry Atsma) finds he has a voicemail from Ruth. She tells him it is time so he needs to get on a flight to London.

 

The Split Review

Things are starting to heat up as Nathan and Hannah go to war during their divorce proceedings. The series has a lot going on at once with Rose dealing with the loss of James, Tyler and Nina’s affair, Hannah’s divorce, and the side cases. Still, everything is handled well so it doesn’t feel overwhelming or difficult to follow.

The story has an authentic feel to it that will likely touch a lot of people who’ve been through similar situations. I enjoyed the episode and expect it to get even better from here on out with Christie coming back to stir things up. I believe Christie might push Hannah back into Nathan’s arms although I could be wrong. The episode scores a 7 out of 10. Recaps of The Split can be found on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support Reel Mockery by following this link.