Another outstanding episode, essentially a four-header, and one that shows exactly how much the show is on fire at the moment. Every one of the four major protagonists in this tale stepped up to the plate, and the storyline was enhanced by the splicing together of both Linda's version of events and Dean's.
After tonight, I'd definitely say there is no doubt that Dean knew exactly what he'd done. He may have tried and failed to manipulate Linda into thinking their sex had been consensual, but he had no problem in convincing Shirley, and surprisingly, Shirley, for all the wrong reasons and with all her pejorative maternal history, emerges as the character for whom you ended up feeling the sorriest, because the poor dumb bitch was being played and duped at the one time in her life she wanted to be thought of as a good mum.
It'll all end up in the gutter.
An Innocent Man - Mick:-
I put my hand up to admit it: I wasn't best happiest at the prospect of Danny Dyer fronting EastEnders. I was wrong. He's one of the best things about the show right now, and if Mr Dyer wanted to use this genre to prove to other people that he wasn't a one-trick pony of a Cockney geezer gangsta, he's proved all his critics wrong.
Dyer played an absolute blinder tonight.
I was worried, when this storyline emerged, that Mick wouldn't believe Linda. She'd left it a long time before telling what had happened, and by that point in time, as the police pointed out, it came down to a matter of he-said-she-said and of proving whether there had or hadn't been consent. As close as Mick was to Shirley during the time he thought her his sister, and considering the fact that he'd spent the entire year putting her needs and demands before Linda's, I thought the die was cast.
Instead, Mick is sticking with Linda. They've been together since they were, respectively, fourteen and fifteen years old; they were parents as children, themselves, and I would doubt there would be anyone who would know the other so exclusively as Mick knows Linda and as Linda knows Mick.
His concern for her, and the very fact that he felt her pain were most evident in the voiceover scene where Linda is talking about the rape, and Mick is sat in the foyer of the police station, seemingly, feeling everything Linda went through and rocking back and forth in silent pain. Very evocative and very powerful scene. There is no doubt in Mick's mind of Linda's innocence in all of this, and also, there is no doubt in Mick's mind that he feels guilt as well - that's what was meant when he tearfully apologised to her for letting her down, when the atmosphere in the police station, whilst waiting for her to finish her statement, became so turgid he had to leave and he left in tears.
He wasn't just apologising for not being there when she, herself, rushed from the statement room (for the same reason, that's how much in tune she and Mick are with each other), but for letting her down on that day, for deeming it all-important and first and foremost to run away looking for Shirley, who'd actually committed a crime, and leaving Dean in the Vic with Linda, specifically, with instructions for Linda to emotionally babysit him.
Dyer's performance was raw but excellent, especially when Linda informed him that what had happened had changed the pair of them. Significant was the remark Linda made to Mick about how this wouldn't go away or be solved by pretending to be normal and make cakes and have parties. It was truly as if their eternal childhood had gone forever, and they'd been brutally pulled into adulthood, not only by what Dean had done, but by the fact that Dean had been brought back into their lives by Shirley.
The Pretty Flamingo - Linda:
I always found it odd and a bit quaint that Mick and Linda should have as their song something from nearly fifty years ago - timeless music, yes, but not of their generation.
I was much impressed with Linda tonight. As she entered the police station and began to speak with the policewoman assigned to her case, I was steeling myself for the ubiquitous change of heart, the one look at the video room and Linda clutching her stomach and stuttering ~ I ... I can't do this. Not now~ before dashing out, past an open-mouthed Mick.
But she didn't, and that surprised and pleased me.
This has bothered Linda now for so long, and she's kept it bottled inside her for the very reasons that were shown at Christmas, it was as she said. She was afraid of what would happen, but as soon as she acknowledged that fear, she realised that it could be met.
Now that she'd told Mick, now that they'd had time away from the place where all this had happened, she was of a clearer and more determined mind. The first hurdle had been to make a statement to the police. The second is to tell her children.
The irony of all of this was that two crimes were committed the day Linda was raped. Dean raped Linda whilst Mick was frantically trying to find poor pitiful Shirl, who'd committed a crime, herself, that day. She'd shot a man. Mick wasted all that time chasing after a sullied rainbow and then begging the victim and his wife not to prosecute Shirley, and his own wife was hiding a secret of a heinous crime committed against her.
Juxtaposing Dean's version of events with Linda's was effective in that it revealed to the viewer that Dean knew exactly what he was doing when he raped Linda and why he did it.
For once, the writing room stuck with facts and didn't embellish. Linda told everything - from how and why Dean turned up out of the blue, to the belief that he was Mick's nephew, to the bonding between him and Linda's children. She told about him fondling her arse the day of the photoshoot and the kiss, which came about the time of Mick's involvement with Ian and Rainie.
The policewoman in all of this was a masterclass in victim support and Linda's constant apologies and explanations for not saying anything about Dean's inappropriate touching and his behaviour resulted in the police officer encouraging her and telling her that she believed her.
Especially effective were Linda's two relations of the rape - the first, when the enormity of the event was closing in on her, and she told how she was forced onto the table, how she was focused on the flowers - lavender, a tyoe she'd always liked - how she was paralysed with fear, which surprised her, because she'd always thought that, in a situation like that, she'd fight and scream, yet she was numb with fear and did nothing. The enormity of having to admit to that overwhelmed her, and she had to rush from the room.
The momentary fear she felt when she didn't see Mick at first was palpable, but when she found him, she was able to draw strength from him and imbue him with that selfsame strength.
Her second attempt at relating the events of the rape was more graphic - in detail, how Dean subdued her, ripped her panties off and raped her, and all she could hear and all that was in her mind were the words to the song, hers and Mick's song, Pretty Flamingo. This is a constant reminder to Linda in her own home. There's wallpaper featuring a flamingo design in her bedroom.
Relaying the events leading to the rape was an accurate depiction as well - how she tried to comfort Dean maternally, how she did tell him that she loved and cared about him as a mother would, but how, after witnessing an exchange between her and her children, Dean's manner changed, as if he wanted to show her that he wasn't one of her children. Rape is, after all, a sexual crime of power and control.
More importantly, and now the police have evidence from Linda's phone, is the way Dean behaved afterward - I'd forgotten he'd sent her a text, saying no one need ever know, but I thought they'd have gone more into the detail of the way he tried to make it sound as if Linda had consented, when she hadn't.
All in all, Kellie Bright gave an amazing performance.
Liar - Dean:-
Dean has one big issue: rejection. When he's rejected, he reacts adversely, and tonight we see that he still has problems relating to women, as evidenced by his awkward come-on to the client just leaving his salon.
As I said, juxtaposing his version of events with Linda's proves that he knew all along what he'd done to her. That was evident the day after the event, when he was sitting alone in the salon, literally scared shitless at what had happened. When he realised that Linda had said nothing, he seized the moment - carpe diem - and sought to psychologically manipulate her into believing that she'd consented to having sex with him, or, at least, that her silence was tacit consent.
Not only has Dean tried to manipulate Linda (and failed), he now realises that he has to manipulate Shirley, an easier task.
He's taken aback by Shirley's momentary frisson of doubt about the events. Shirley's clearly worried about the fact that Linda had told her that she told Dean to stop it, and that Dean continued. Faced with her doubt, Dean's quick on his mental feet to remind her, after she informs him that only she and his grandfather were fighting his corner, that he's been alone and on his own for years now and didn't need her.
Time enough alone in the salon convinces Dean that he's better having Shirley fight his corner than being on his own. After all, the name of his game is divide and conquer.
So Dean's version of events to a Shirley eager to lap up any adverse information on Linda regarding her behaviour towards and cuckholding of Mick, is to play up Linda's role as the predator. In Dean's version, Linda was always flirting, always provocative. Linda did the chasing and Dean was the innocent - a flattered innocent, yes, but who was he to turn down something offered on a plate, which is what Dean's convinced Shirley that Linda did.
The crux moment of the episode came when Shirley asked Dean, at the same moment that the police woman asked Linda, if Linda said "no." Dean said that Linda said nothing, that she was positively encouraging in her advances, and Linda categorically said that she'd tried to stop Dean's advances.
Dean strung up Shirley like the proverbial kipper, even playing the poor, wronged boy who wasn' believed and who has to run away, which stops Shirley in her tracks and makes her declare her belief in his version.
It's mete to know that what tipped Dean ultimately over the edge was Shirley running out of Walford after having shot Phil, leaving Dean crying pitiably, telling her he loved her and begging her not to leave him.
Like I said, Dean has rejection issues and those stem from his dear old ma.
Shirley:- Of all the characters in tonight's episode, Shirley was the saddest. If Dean has guilt issues, Shirley's ridden with guilt over having abandoned Dean. She's always ridden with guilt over having abandoned Dean, especially when Dean's about. This time, however, she's ridden with guilt over possibly preferring her secret son to the son who's begging her for some love and attention.
(Note: Kevin is "Kevin" now and not "Dad" to Dean anymore. After an hour spent in the company of a criminal, Buster Bloodvessel is now "dad" to Dean. Carly, on the other hand, has been quietly forgotten).
Shirley is bound and determined to stand by Dean, but she's conflicted by the fact that Linda told her she'd told Dean to stop when he started making unwanted advances. That niggles her for some reason, and she confronts Dean with this, which he categorically and, ultimately, convincingly denies. She's also conflicted because siding with Dean means being in opposition to Mick, who's choosing to believe Linda. For Shirley, as she stated tonight, this is her opportunity to be there for Dean, to have his back, especially since she's never been there for him at various times in his past. This is a chance to prove herself a mother for Shirley, and the absolute irony of this will be that she's duped by the son, whom she's abandoned so many times, and her secret son, her Number One son and his wife, won't be too quick to forget whom Shirley chose to believe and why. What Dean fed her tonight was a diet designed to enhance her already grounded dislike and distrust of Linda.
I hope this entire storyline doesn't end with Mick hugging Shirley and telling her everything is fine and welcoming her back into the family fold. Linda would have something to say about that, and I would imagine Linda has a long memory. This is a long road back, if ever, for Shirley.
Very good and powerful episode.
After tonight, I'd definitely say there is no doubt that Dean knew exactly what he'd done. He may have tried and failed to manipulate Linda into thinking their sex had been consensual, but he had no problem in convincing Shirley, and surprisingly, Shirley, for all the wrong reasons and with all her pejorative maternal history, emerges as the character for whom you ended up feeling the sorriest, because the poor dumb bitch was being played and duped at the one time in her life she wanted to be thought of as a good mum.
It'll all end up in the gutter.
An Innocent Man - Mick:-
I put my hand up to admit it: I wasn't best happiest at the prospect of Danny Dyer fronting EastEnders. I was wrong. He's one of the best things about the show right now, and if Mr Dyer wanted to use this genre to prove to other people that he wasn't a one-trick pony of a Cockney geezer gangsta, he's proved all his critics wrong.
Dyer played an absolute blinder tonight.
I was worried, when this storyline emerged, that Mick wouldn't believe Linda. She'd left it a long time before telling what had happened, and by that point in time, as the police pointed out, it came down to a matter of he-said-she-said and of proving whether there had or hadn't been consent. As close as Mick was to Shirley during the time he thought her his sister, and considering the fact that he'd spent the entire year putting her needs and demands before Linda's, I thought the die was cast.
Instead, Mick is sticking with Linda. They've been together since they were, respectively, fourteen and fifteen years old; they were parents as children, themselves, and I would doubt there would be anyone who would know the other so exclusively as Mick knows Linda and as Linda knows Mick.
His concern for her, and the very fact that he felt her pain were most evident in the voiceover scene where Linda is talking about the rape, and Mick is sat in the foyer of the police station, seemingly, feeling everything Linda went through and rocking back and forth in silent pain. Very evocative and very powerful scene. There is no doubt in Mick's mind of Linda's innocence in all of this, and also, there is no doubt in Mick's mind that he feels guilt as well - that's what was meant when he tearfully apologised to her for letting her down, when the atmosphere in the police station, whilst waiting for her to finish her statement, became so turgid he had to leave and he left in tears.
He wasn't just apologising for not being there when she, herself, rushed from the statement room (for the same reason, that's how much in tune she and Mick are with each other), but for letting her down on that day, for deeming it all-important and first and foremost to run away looking for Shirley, who'd actually committed a crime, and leaving Dean in the Vic with Linda, specifically, with instructions for Linda to emotionally babysit him.
Dyer's performance was raw but excellent, especially when Linda informed him that what had happened had changed the pair of them. Significant was the remark Linda made to Mick about how this wouldn't go away or be solved by pretending to be normal and make cakes and have parties. It was truly as if their eternal childhood had gone forever, and they'd been brutally pulled into adulthood, not only by what Dean had done, but by the fact that Dean had been brought back into their lives by Shirley.
The Pretty Flamingo - Linda:
I always found it odd and a bit quaint that Mick and Linda should have as their song something from nearly fifty years ago - timeless music, yes, but not of their generation.
I was much impressed with Linda tonight. As she entered the police station and began to speak with the policewoman assigned to her case, I was steeling myself for the ubiquitous change of heart, the one look at the video room and Linda clutching her stomach and stuttering ~ I ... I can't do this. Not now~ before dashing out, past an open-mouthed Mick.
But she didn't, and that surprised and pleased me.
This has bothered Linda now for so long, and she's kept it bottled inside her for the very reasons that were shown at Christmas, it was as she said. She was afraid of what would happen, but as soon as she acknowledged that fear, she realised that it could be met.
Now that she'd told Mick, now that they'd had time away from the place where all this had happened, she was of a clearer and more determined mind. The first hurdle had been to make a statement to the police. The second is to tell her children.
The irony of all of this was that two crimes were committed the day Linda was raped. Dean raped Linda whilst Mick was frantically trying to find poor pitiful Shirl, who'd committed a crime, herself, that day. She'd shot a man. Mick wasted all that time chasing after a sullied rainbow and then begging the victim and his wife not to prosecute Shirley, and his own wife was hiding a secret of a heinous crime committed against her.
Juxtaposing Dean's version of events with Linda's was effective in that it revealed to the viewer that Dean knew exactly what he was doing when he raped Linda and why he did it.
For once, the writing room stuck with facts and didn't embellish. Linda told everything - from how and why Dean turned up out of the blue, to the belief that he was Mick's nephew, to the bonding between him and Linda's children. She told about him fondling her arse the day of the photoshoot and the kiss, which came about the time of Mick's involvement with Ian and Rainie.
The policewoman in all of this was a masterclass in victim support and Linda's constant apologies and explanations for not saying anything about Dean's inappropriate touching and his behaviour resulted in the police officer encouraging her and telling her that she believed her.
Especially effective were Linda's two relations of the rape - the first, when the enormity of the event was closing in on her, and she told how she was forced onto the table, how she was focused on the flowers - lavender, a tyoe she'd always liked - how she was paralysed with fear, which surprised her, because she'd always thought that, in a situation like that, she'd fight and scream, yet she was numb with fear and did nothing. The enormity of having to admit to that overwhelmed her, and she had to rush from the room.
The momentary fear she felt when she didn't see Mick at first was palpable, but when she found him, she was able to draw strength from him and imbue him with that selfsame strength.
Her second attempt at relating the events of the rape was more graphic - in detail, how Dean subdued her, ripped her panties off and raped her, and all she could hear and all that was in her mind were the words to the song, hers and Mick's song, Pretty Flamingo. This is a constant reminder to Linda in her own home. There's wallpaper featuring a flamingo design in her bedroom.
Relaying the events leading to the rape was an accurate depiction as well - how she tried to comfort Dean maternally, how she did tell him that she loved and cared about him as a mother would, but how, after witnessing an exchange between her and her children, Dean's manner changed, as if he wanted to show her that he wasn't one of her children. Rape is, after all, a sexual crime of power and control.
More importantly, and now the police have evidence from Linda's phone, is the way Dean behaved afterward - I'd forgotten he'd sent her a text, saying no one need ever know, but I thought they'd have gone more into the detail of the way he tried to make it sound as if Linda had consented, when she hadn't.
All in all, Kellie Bright gave an amazing performance.
Liar - Dean:-
Dean has one big issue: rejection. When he's rejected, he reacts adversely, and tonight we see that he still has problems relating to women, as evidenced by his awkward come-on to the client just leaving his salon.
As I said, juxtaposing his version of events with Linda's proves that he knew all along what he'd done to her. That was evident the day after the event, when he was sitting alone in the salon, literally scared shitless at what had happened. When he realised that Linda had said nothing, he seized the moment - carpe diem - and sought to psychologically manipulate her into believing that she'd consented to having sex with him, or, at least, that her silence was tacit consent.
Not only has Dean tried to manipulate Linda (and failed), he now realises that he has to manipulate Shirley, an easier task.
He's taken aback by Shirley's momentary frisson of doubt about the events. Shirley's clearly worried about the fact that Linda had told her that she told Dean to stop it, and that Dean continued. Faced with her doubt, Dean's quick on his mental feet to remind her, after she informs him that only she and his grandfather were fighting his corner, that he's been alone and on his own for years now and didn't need her.
Time enough alone in the salon convinces Dean that he's better having Shirley fight his corner than being on his own. After all, the name of his game is divide and conquer.
So Dean's version of events to a Shirley eager to lap up any adverse information on Linda regarding her behaviour towards and cuckholding of Mick, is to play up Linda's role as the predator. In Dean's version, Linda was always flirting, always provocative. Linda did the chasing and Dean was the innocent - a flattered innocent, yes, but who was he to turn down something offered on a plate, which is what Dean's convinced Shirley that Linda did.
The crux moment of the episode came when Shirley asked Dean, at the same moment that the police woman asked Linda, if Linda said "no." Dean said that Linda said nothing, that she was positively encouraging in her advances, and Linda categorically said that she'd tried to stop Dean's advances.
Dean strung up Shirley like the proverbial kipper, even playing the poor, wronged boy who wasn' believed and who has to run away, which stops Shirley in her tracks and makes her declare her belief in his version.
It's mete to know that what tipped Dean ultimately over the edge was Shirley running out of Walford after having shot Phil, leaving Dean crying pitiably, telling her he loved her and begging her not to leave him.
Like I said, Dean has rejection issues and those stem from his dear old ma.
Shirley:- Of all the characters in tonight's episode, Shirley was the saddest. If Dean has guilt issues, Shirley's ridden with guilt over having abandoned Dean. She's always ridden with guilt over having abandoned Dean, especially when Dean's about. This time, however, she's ridden with guilt over possibly preferring her secret son to the son who's begging her for some love and attention.
(Note: Kevin is "Kevin" now and not "Dad" to Dean anymore. After an hour spent in the company of a criminal, Buster Bloodvessel is now "dad" to Dean. Carly, on the other hand, has been quietly forgotten).
Shirley is bound and determined to stand by Dean, but she's conflicted by the fact that Linda told her she'd told Dean to stop when he started making unwanted advances. That niggles her for some reason, and she confronts Dean with this, which he categorically and, ultimately, convincingly denies. She's also conflicted because siding with Dean means being in opposition to Mick, who's choosing to believe Linda. For Shirley, as she stated tonight, this is her opportunity to be there for Dean, to have his back, especially since she's never been there for him at various times in his past. This is a chance to prove herself a mother for Shirley, and the absolute irony of this will be that she's duped by the son, whom she's abandoned so many times, and her secret son, her Number One son and his wife, won't be too quick to forget whom Shirley chose to believe and why. What Dean fed her tonight was a diet designed to enhance her already grounded dislike and distrust of Linda.
I hope this entire storyline doesn't end with Mick hugging Shirley and telling her everything is fine and welcoming her back into the family fold. Linda would have something to say about that, and I would imagine Linda has a long memory. This is a long road back, if ever, for Shirley.
Very good and powerful episode.
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