#and two of the episodes he worked on were 'if not for you' and 'hanssen/hemingway' aka some of the best henrik episodes

[lonelier-version-of-you]

Honestly, I feel like the fact that Andy Bayliss was a script editor on Hanssen/Hemingway makes the way Johnrik were paralleled with Henrik’s parents make so much sense.

[lonelier-version-of-you]

I honestly can’t get over the fact that I discovered today that Andy Bayliss started out as a script editor on Holby through S14-S16. I have no idea how I didn’t know that before, I always thought he only started working on the show when he started writing episodes (which was during S17).

This just... it explains so much.

More specifically, according to his IMDB, the list of episodes he was a script editor on includes “If Not For You” and “Hanssen/Hemingway”. Suddenly I completely understand why Bayliss got Henrik so well. He was learning from the very, very best. Those are two of the greatest Henrik character exploration episodes - the latter being the Henrik backstory episode, written by Justin Young himself, the man who gave us Henrik in the first place.

Of course “Losing Game” (I know that one was co-written), “How Loud It Is”, “Group Animal”, “No Matter Where You Go, There You Are - Part Two”, “One Man And His God”, and “Report to the Mirror” were all so great. They were written by someone who worked on the show during series 15, Henrik’s best era. That makes so much sense.

(Also, this means most of the episodes that really go out of their way to be clear that Johnrik was romantic were written by someone who had been working on the show during Henrik’s first stint. 😎 So that’s a nice “fuck you” to the crowd who act like there was suddenly a bunch of new writers/producers who decided to “turn Henrik gay” when Russ arrived - not only is Henrik bi, not gay, and Russ was not his first romance with a man, but Henrik’s actual first same-gender romance was pushed hardest by... someone who had been working on Holby for almost as long as Henrik himself had been there, and who worked on an episode written by Henrik’s literal creator.)

[lonelier-version-of-you]

Henrik Hansen

This one was so obvious two entire people asked for it! Here we go. *cracks knuckles*

Why I like them: God, where do I even start? He's just perfect. An utterly incredible character. Specifically, he is literally the best autistic character I have ever seen in any piece of media, ever.

I love that he has low empathy, and is still incredibly loving and compassionate to the point that it practically defines him. I love how he struggles with emotional stuff and prefers to take a more logical view of the world, and yet this actually informs his sense of morality rather than making him go "lol I'm the only person who matters and I don't care about anybody else" (which is actually a very illogical point of view, but for some reason, it's still an attitude all too common in characters like Henrik).

I love how he's chronically mentally ill and hasn't magically gotten better, but he's still portrayed as someone who's trying their best and is worthy of love and support, rather than "not trying hard enough to recover".

I love that he's a queer autistic character (you really would be shocked how rare those are).

I love how he once had a meltdown in public and his friends didn't get mad at him for it or take him any less seriously as a professional afterwards.

Basically, he is really fucking important to me. By far my favourite fictional character of all time.

Why I don't: He really needs to work on his misogyny.

And his emotionally lashing out at people to deal with his own feelings, while a relatable trait I can sympathise with, is a bad thing and he needs to work on that too.

His treatment of Sahira, in general (I'm talking about the early episodes where he was her former mentor and in love with her, not the recent stuff that completely changed the story to make them "childhood friends"), was just awful and very very toxic. In light of the fact that he's obviously been written as an abuse survivor from the start, I can understand his behaviour a lot more and think it was a very realistic portrayal of someone trying - without realising they were trying - to re-enact their own trauma that they hadn't properly acknowledged or dealt with, but it doesn't make the way he treated her okay. (However, he did evidently learn from it, as he hasn't treated anyone like that since, so I'll give him that.)

Favourite episode: Can I pick a top 5? If Not For You, Never Let Me Go, Group Animal, We Need To Talk About Fredrik, No Matter Where You Go There You Are part 2. (Listed in no particular order, except chronological.)

Honourary mentions to Blind Spot, The Cost of Loving & Like A Prayer, One Man And His God, Black Dog, Report To The Mirror, In The Right Place, and, of course, Hanssen/Hemingway.

Favourite season: SERIES. 15. Enough said. The writing for him in that series was just spot on.

...It probably also helps that it's by far the series that makes most of a point of the fact that Henrik is disabled, so there's that. That's definitely part of why I love it so much.

Series 19 is a close runner-up for the second half of the series (i.e. the Fredrik storyline) alone, as is series 20 (I genuinely felt Henrik's characterisation was mostly very good throughout series 20, for all its other faults).

Favourite line: Same one as ever. "Have you never wanted to escape? Feel that weightlessness one normally feels only in water? Finally feel... truly free? I'd like nothing more." from Hanssen/Hemingway.

Favourite outfit: I adored this one at first sight, and it's probably still my favourite: his outfit from S22E25, the episode where Essie dies.

Nabbed this screenshot from @hcscreenshots because I couldn't be bothered to go and search the episode to get one myself:

It's just, like, such a queer outfit and I love it.

He's also worn a few outfits over the years that have matched the colours of the bisexual pride flag, so I like those. Good for him. And I like the pink or purple shirts he sometimes wears.

OTP: Johnrik 5ever, but I also really adored him with Carole and I'm very very sad they'll never properly be together. And him and Maja were definitely soulmates, just soulmates who never worked out. :(

I'm liking him with Russ so far too, but I'll have to wait a little longer and see more of them before I can call them an OTP.

BroTP: Him and Jac, obviously. I love their friendship. I also really love his dynamics with Sacha and with Dom. His friendship with Arthur was perfect (autistic solidarity!), he has some great autistic solidarity going on with Jason too. His friendship with Tara was really underrated. And, of course, I enjoy his friendships with all the rest of the Cryptid Squad. ...Aaaand now I'm just listing all my favourite Henrik friendships, lmao.

I also platonically (and romantically, but just for fun) ship him with Eli. I know they've barely shared any scenes so far, but I liked their interactions in S23E24.

Headcanon: Hm. *looks at my long list of Henrik headcanons, tries to figure out which ones I haven't shared yet* Oh, here's one: he enjoys sewing. Especially by hand (I think he'd find the repetitive motions very soothing), but even with a sewing machine. I like to think his mum taught him how when he was a child - he saw her mending something, and wanted to know what she was doing - and it's been a hobby of his ever since.

Unpopular opinion: Do you WANT me to get started on my unpopular Henrik opinions? We could be here all week.

But here's one: he should not be CEO. Not only is he not even good at the job, but it makes him utterly miserable! He only does the job because he feels obligated to! This has literally been explicitly stated in multiple episodes! Why is everyone so obsessed with seeing Henrik keep doing a job that makes him miserable?

A wish: I just want him to get an autism diagnosis. And I want him to come out to himself and find a happy relationship (those 2 things can be connected or not, I don't care). I want them to mention his Judaism again before the show ends. I want him to move to Casualty and get the writing Casualty gives their disabled characters, but NOT the writing Casualty gives their queer characters 'cause that usually sucks.

But most of all, I just want him to get a happy ending.

An oh-god-please-don't-ever-happen: It would absolutely emotionally destroy me if they ever killed him off. I'm not exaggerating. You all saw how I was when I thought he was going to die last month.

5 words to best describe them: Compassionate (this comes, and always should come, first). Intelligent. Isolated. Caring. Self-sacrificing.

My nickname for them: Don't really have one, although sometimes I like to call him 'min vacker kanelbulle' (Swedish for "my beautiful cinnamon roll", lmao). Also, I say "Henrik my poor baby" so often - because of how much they torment him - that it's practically a nickname of its own at this point. XD