That's it, sometimes the storylines take years to develop, in real time.
There's a current storyline about domestic violence, specifically this new coercive control law that has recently been introduced in real life. There's a couple where the man isolated the wife from her family and friends, constantly attaked her self esteem and finally controlled her whole life. The story was believable because it happened gradually over several years. Without that example, I'm not sure I would have ever considered it a real thing.