Wemma: 'If Emma and I were blessed enough to have a child...'

A request was made to analyse all the times in season 3 in which there was talk about Will and Emma wanting to start a family. Here are some thoughts:

Episode 301: The Purple Piano Project
Sue, in her campaign speech, has declared she will not provide any funding for Arts programs in schools. Will marches into Figgins' office and declares Sue is threatening his livelihood and that he is thinking about starting a family.

Reflection: In this first mention of wanting a child Will says 'I am thinking about starting a family.' I think it's pertinent to stress the 'I'. At this point we can ascertain the following:
1. Will sees Emma as the person he wants to have children with therefore
2. He truly believes her OCD will not stand in the way which means
3. Does he fully  understand the depth/complexity of her disorder?
This question was answered two episodes later.


Episode 303: Asian F
Will has found Emma's stash of bridal magazines and he gently informs her that 'marriage is just one of several milestones [he]looks forward to sharing with her.' Later in the episode Will declares to Emma's parents, 'If Emma and I were blessed enough to have a child...' and 'if my child had OCD I'd maybe try and show her a little more compassion...'

Reflection: In these references to having children Will now uses 'Emma and I', instead of just 'I' and since Emma's facial expression indicates no surprise at this announcement we are lead to believe that having children is something they both agree upon (although it's not until ep 12 that this is clarified). Will also indicates that he's prepared to accept and show compassion towards any child they may produce (which just makes his doubts about marriage in 'Yes No' even more dumbfounding. Maybe RIB thought we wouldn't notice but Wemma shippers have VERY LONG MEMORIES.)

Episode 309: Extraordinary Merry Christmas
I know what you're thinking - there was nothing mentioned in this episode about wanting to start a family but, remember the episode stills that were released at the time? Emma wiping a little girl's hands and Will building 'I love you' with the building blocks?

Reflection: These are images showing Emma coping with messy children and the joy on Will's face as he watches Emma interacting with the children, thus indicating that Will sees Emma as mother material. VERY INTERESTING that these scenes were cut. My theory is they had to go because once again they contradict Will's behaviour in the following episode.

Episode 310: Yes No
Will has asked Emma's parents for her hand in marriage. Part of the reason for Mr Pillsbury saying no is he thinks Emma is incapable of having a family so he says to Will, 'forget kids, is this what you want for yourself?' This puts doubts in Will's mind about a future with Emma and he questions her, 'What happens when we have a house...and a baby?'

Reflection: The word 'baby' is tacked on the end of his sentence as though he's been afraid to say it. To some extent he probably is...it's what he really, really wants and yet their relationship is still void of sex. Although he loves her, he must be questioning himself whether or not he loves her enough to give up on the idea of having a family because the reality is she may never be able to.

Episode 12: The Spanish Teacher
Tenure is up for grabs and Will wants it because, as he explains to Figgins, 'Emma and I will be starting a family soon.' Later in the episode Emma confronts Sue about 'hogging her fiance's nog' and we hear Emma for the first time speak out loud her desires, 'I know how it feels to want to start a family. I want to have a baby too.' The whole 'we want to start a family' motif surfaces for a third time in the episode when Will says, 'Do you realise how important this tenure is for us if we want to start a family? We'll always be able to feed our kids...'

Reflection:
So now the shippers know it's not just Will wanting a family but it's Emma wanting to start a family too. It only took half a season of episodes to clarify it! This time Will throws in the word 'if'; 'If we want to start a family.' He's being realistic and sees starting a family as a joint decision. He's also seeing himself as the only bread winner and I liked Emma's reminder to him that she can look after herself and in fact she could be the bread winner. I would like to see this as a foreshadowing to Will becoming a stay at home dad while Emma goes back to work after the birth of  their child.

Episode 315: Big Brother
Emma and Will go with Sue to her doctor's appointment to find out the sex of her child. While there is no direct reference to them wanting a child, it's Emma's idea to go with Sue for moral support and it's Emma's view on the gender of the child that's heard - 'besides, boys aren't that bad anyway.'

Reflection:
Again this indicates Emma's progression with her OCD and how comfortable she is with the idea of pregnancy, gender of child and visiting a medical clinic. The camera captures their response to Sue's news as though they are the parents! It's almost like a trial run for their own pregnancy.

For the remainder of the season we just had to sit back and wait for the reproductive process to take place. Unfortunately we never got to see it.

In conclusion:
My theory is that all of the dialogue about starting a family or having a child were either red herrings to make the viewers think that a pregnancy might be on the cards during the season or to make them believe that Wemma sex would happen much sooner than it did. The season was really focused on Emma controlling her OCD rather than letting it control her and having sex was the final frontier which was achieved. Therefore a pregnancy was never in the script and RIB managed to suspend Wemma sex for 21 episodes. When someone tweeted Ryan the question 'Will Wemma have a baby in season 4?' He replied 'Let's get them married first.' Of course he might be being sly - I think it would be kind of amusing to see firstly, what Emma's reaction would be to a pregnancy before marriage and secondly, a pregnant Emma walking down the aisle. However, I think Emma deserves her fairy tale wedding so shippers, sit back, get yourself a drink and put your feet up, we could be in for a very long journey as we now wait to see how long RIB continue to suspend the wedding and babies.