YMMV / Apple Tree Yard

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Mark Costley is subject to some debate, given the ambiguous nature of his character. Does he really have a personality disorder or is he putting on a show to gain sympathy and a lighter sentence? Did he ever really care about Yvonne or was she just another 'conquest' for him?
  • Some viewers have speculated that Yvonne actually did mean what she said when she ‘jokingly’ told Mark to kill George and was in a sense manipulating him and the court the whole time.
• Epileptic Trees: Bizarrely unrelated to the content of Apple Tree Yard itself - a faction of extremist Sherlock John/Sherlock fans convinced themselves that this show did not exist, and that the advertised timeslot of its first episode on BBC 1 would be filled with a secret fourth episode of Sherlock Season Four (which it had replaced in the schedule) that would establish canon John/Sherlock in it as a romantic Grand Finale to the show and fix issues they had with the extremely divisive fourth season. Their reactions when this did not pan out were not pretty.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • After being forced to admit she had an affair with Mark and lied about it, Yvonne returns disheartened to her cell…and finds a ‘Hang in There’ card from her son telling her loves her and is there for her.
  • After the trial is over, Gary - even though he had recently learned she had had an affair - comes up to Yvonne and just hugs her.
• Tearjerker: Yvonne struggling to cope with the aftermath of the rape is heart-wrenching to watch, as is her account of the attack during the trial.
• The Woobie:
  • Yvonne. Regardless of your opinion on her decision to cheat on her husband, she doesn't deserve to be viciously raped and then stalked by her rapist. She is left in a state of constant terror for months, to the point where she feels forced to quit her job, and feels she cannot go to anyone for help or it will come out that she had an affair. She is wrongly arrested for George's murder, gets manipulated by Mark into lying about the affair, making it worse when the truth comes out, and is then slut-shamed and accused of lying about being raped because of her affair. She only gets dragged into the murder and trial because of Mark's actions and had simply been trying to move on with her life after the assault. Emily Watson's performance certainly helps to portray Yvonne as vulnerable and sympathetic.
  • Yvonne's daughter to an extent. She's just found out she's pregnant, then learns her mother was raped and has been dealing with it alone for months, only finding out what happened when her mother is arrested for murdering her rapist. She actually has to miss out on part of her mother's trial due to going into labour, having to cope with the emotional stress of what's happening to Yvonne on top of having a new baby to look after.

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