Del's old friend Jumbo Mills returns to Peckham and asks him to help run his car business in Australia.
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Del's old friend Jumbo Mills returns to Peckham and asks him to help run his car business in Australia.
I'd like to talk about the ending of Del turning down Jumbo's offer to stay with Rodney:
Clearly the only reason Del decided to stay in England was for Rodney. On all other counts, going to Australia would have been the best decision for Del. But Rodney threw one hell of a tantrum when Del considered going to Australia without him, and this was when Del realized how important their partnership was for Rodney.
Rodney acted in a completely unreasonable manner in this episode. He needs to decide between one of two options:
#1.Rodney is a mature grown-up person who can take care of himself and stand on his own two feet without Del holding his hand.
#2.Rodney is still a kid and needs Del to hold his hand and support him.
Rodney doesn't choose between Option #1 and Option #2, but rather he picks either one when it is convenient for him. Rodders wants to have his cake and eat it too.
When Del wants to go to Australia, Rodney chooses Option #2 and gets angry at Del for even considering leaving him behind.
But when it suits his convenience, Rodney also chooses Option #1. He frequently claims that Del is holding him back and that if it weren't for him, Rodney would be doing so much better with his life. Rodders even attempted to break up the partnership and start something on his own back in "Healthy Competition" from Series 3.
Rodney ultimately needed to choose between one of the two options rather than wavering between the two to suit his present convenience.
On the other side of the coin, I believe Rodney's reaction stems from the complexity of the sibling relationship. While Del and Rodney are frequently at each other's throats throughout the series like many brothers, it is always evident that they share a strong brotherly bond.
The fact that Rodney was devastated at the prospect of he and Del being thousands of miles apart merely proves how strong that bond actually is.
Finally, another thing I ought to bring up is that it's Del's business "brilliance" that always kept the Trotters going. Lots of people think Rodney couldn’t make it on his own because he’d never been taught how to be independent.
Del might've sent him the money from Oz, but things could've just as well gone wrong. He couldn't risk it and leave Rodney helpless if something bad had happened to him. After all, Del did promise their mum he would look after Rodders.