Yahoo News Our Girl is bringing Elvis's story back for series 4 as Georgie Lane tries to find closure
Simmering away under the high stakes of Our Girl's Army tours, the will-they-won't-they romance between Georgie Lane (Michelle Keegan) and her colleague Elvis (Luke Pasqualino) kept viewers invested while also allowing for a more relatable story to contrast the ongoing jeopardy.
Their intense relationship was always one that looked sure to burn out. Georgie never needed a man (and she knew it), but she also never quite managed to leave Elvis behind for too long.
The decision was torn away from them when Elvis' tragic death formed the shocking cliffhanger at the end of season three's first half. To say the move proved divisive among fans would be an understatement, but creator of the BBC One drama Tony Grounds stood firmly by it – largely, it seems, because he didn't have much choice but to write the fan-favourite character out of the show.
Admitting that there were a "combination of factors" involved in the decision, he acknowledged that the show's central romance was both "brilliant and toxic" and so, by pulling them apart, it was "honouring that story".
"It was a great dramatic way to go with it," Grounds also told the Radio Times in the same interview. "Being in the forces, [Elvis is] quite close to death all the time so that was the one thing that stuck in my mind."
Whatever was to happen in that particular concluding episode, which aired for the first time in October 2017, it was written in stone that actor Luke Pasqualino would not be coming back afterwards. "[He] had signed a contract to do another show which tied him up for five years with Snatch. So we had no choice," Grounds conceded in the same interview.
"We could have sent [Elvis] to prison or on holiday or just not seen him for five years but that seemed a bit daft, so we thought let's take this brave way – and he dies on the battlefield in Georgie Lane's arms. We were forced into that way of thinking because I love him and I would happily have had Elvis in forever."
It seems clear that viewers agreed with this sentiment, as the latter part of season three (without Pasqualino) saw a decline in the ratings. While this can't conclusively be linked, the plot must have had at least some bearing on it. Following the loss of her second-time fiancé, the story continued with Georgie throwing herself into her work, with tours in Nigeria, Belize and Bangladesh.
It also introduced some complicated romantic feelings between Georgie and Captain James (Ben Aldridge), whose marriage to season one's Molly Dawes (Lacey Turner) had come to an end. This, to be frank, pissed off fans of the show quite a bit.
Our Girl's season four (due to start on BBC One on March 24) will take a few steps backwards, revisiting Georgie's heartbreak and grief over losing Elvis, as she attempts to process her emotions. At a recent press event for the launch of the new series, Tony Grounds explained: "Georgie is still missing the love of her life. She hasn't come to terms with this – whether you'd call it PTSD, or just a sort of deep sadness that she's got."
In the new episodes, Georgie will return to Afghanistan to face her ghosts. Not only is this the place that saw the death of her ex, but it also means that the person responsible is still in the picture.
"We're following the British Army's tour there. She wants to heal, and reach some kind of conclusion," the show boss explained to Digital Spy and other media. "And then, of course, the warlord that they're after is still there. The warlord has been in that area of Kabul for a long time, and it's the person that killed her fiancé."
Michelle Keegan also underlined that "this series really sums up [the fact she had no closure]. It's her grieving, and her trying to get over his death."
To account for the shift in tone and narrative, reverting back to Elvis' storyline, Tony Grounds explained: "We sort of tried to show at the end of the last series that, you know Captain James was in a bad place. He was definitely suffering from PTSD. Georgie was suffering. They did come together. There were moments in there where he kept calling Georgie the name Molly. There was confusion. There was an ambiguity. It was just a quick passing thing, but they both knew it shouldn't have happened, and they both wish it hadn't happened."
Explaining the backstory, Grounds added: "[Captain James] left the Army, and has gone back, and tried to make it work with Molly Dawes, who is his wife. [Georgie] thought it was the right decision. She encouraged him, and supported him in that. And she stayed with the army."
Through the weight of Georgie's emotional scenes, interspersed with flashbacks, Elvis' presence is very much felt once again – this was clear from the moment the season four trailer arrived online. It feels a lot like fan service, but we're not mad about it one bit.
For those that have committed to the show, this move feels like a direct nod to what captured imaginations seasons ago. We can only hope that the new season, as it unfolds, provides just closure for the relationship that we watched and, against our better judgement, probably, if we admit it, rooted for.
Our Girl series 4 will run for six episodes on BBC One.
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