Coding: Susan Kennedy/Tom Scully
Spoilers: Episode 4529
Learning Curve
She's got that stupid joke stuck in her head. Karl told it to her on their first date. 'There was a Priest, a Rabbi and a Tsar.' It's been circling her brain all day, she can't fathom why.
She doesn't think of Karl very often anymore, it's such a relief not to hate him so venomously. Not to waste hour after hour wondering what she could have done differently. She wants to heal and she thinks maybe this is the beginning of that: she doesn't have to pretend that she's moved on, because she has.
But that joke won't go away. It keeps returning.
Tom's made her realise the value of so many things she'd taken for granted. The world, her world, doesn't revolve around Karl and Isabelle anymore. She'd forgotten that, had gotten lost in her grief. Tom led her back from the brink and she'll always love him for that: for his timing. For knowing she needed him as much as he needed her.
Her life with Karl is a faint echo.
Her life with Tom feels like borrowed time but whatever the outcome, she wouldn't change a moment. She feels balanced and Susan likes this new-found independence. She's had her family; raised her children - sent them off into the world and Karl soon followed.
She's with Tom now but she's been through too much to depend solely on someone else for her happiness. She won't make that mistake again.
When Tom takes her out for dinner that evening, she tells him the joke.
"There was a Priest, a Rabbi and a Tsar," she begins.
"You need new material Susan – that joke's archaic!" he teases.
She smiles to herself, he's right and she promises herself she won't think on it again. Like so many things, it has no place in her life now.