Aw, no :-(

[selenay]

I didn't watch Holby live this week and on Wednesday morning, when I logged into Twitter, I saw that something significant had happened. It was pretty much impossible to avoid the spoilers and, in some ways, they weren't entirely surprising. I'd been wondering if that was the way they were planning to tie-up the Berena storyline for a while.

After all, they were never going to get Jemma Redgrave back as a cast regular. It was incredible she stayed as long as she did. And having Berena as a long-distance relationship wasn't easy, because it was difficult to keep the story-line moving forward with only one participant on-screen. Occasional mentions were never going to be enough - it was easy for new viewers not to realise it was even a thing! There were really only two options that made sense: have Serena say fuck it all and move to Nairobi to be with Bernie, or break them up.

A part of me is sad and disappointed that they went with option two. I'll be hunting down all the denial fic and AU fic to cope with this.

At the same time, keeping Serena in the show has potential. We've got a gorgeous middle-aged gay woman on screen, every week, and I really hope they give her another epic and beautiful lady romance that gets to stay happily-ever-after-ed. That representation is still so important and Serena is a character I'd really miss if she left forever.

So although I'm sad, I'm not devastated forever and I'd been a Holby fan long before Berena started so I won't be dropping it now.

The other thought I had is that if they had to break up Berena, this wasn't a terrible way to do it. The storyline emphasised that they were still in love, probably always would be, and hinted that they're maintaining a friendship. It was a story about how people can love each other very much, but sometimes that isn't enough to make a relationship work. I loved the discussion where they both confessed that either of the staying together options (Bernie leaving Nairobi, Serena leaving Holby) would result in them changing things about their personality that was part of what each of them had fallen in love with. Bernie was never meant to settle down in suburbia, Serena is the heart of her family and hospital, they fell for each other because of those things.

So while I'm mourning the end of one of my favourite canon ships, I'm also relieved about the way it went.

And I really, really hope that Serena gets another lovely amazing lady to love :-D