Kinda easy to see the theme of tonight's episode. This harkens back to EastEnders of yore, to the 80s and 90s when practically each episode followed a theme. It's nice to see that again, and I wish they did it more often.
If I had to pick a star to shine in tonight's episode, I'd pick Linda Henry, and I'll explain why later; but with Henry's scenes came the downer of the piece.
This was one of those episodes, as well, which used the absolute minimum of characters, and that worked a treat as well.
Secrets and sisters, eh?
The Sapphic SisTAHS.
Oh, Roxy, you poor, poor bitch.
The line of the night went to Ronnie, when she uttered the fateful command that struck fear in Roxy's heart.
Choose.
As watchable as this part of the episode was, it was still a bit queasily sick - the obsession Ronnie has with her sister is indelibly mixed with her psychopathy, but it's also eerily more than slightly tinged with sapphic incest. Roxy is the childwoman, the baby sister not allowed to grow up, but also that one soupcon of forbidden love. Ronnie obsesses on Roxy. She went as far as organising a lovelife for Roxy, with Aleks, and insisted Roxy reveal to her every bump and grind of the first date.
If Ronnie obsesses on Roxy, she's manipulated Roxy into believing that Roxy absolutely cannot cope without Ronnie. At the first instance of a declaration of independence, Ronnie starts working and worming her way into Roxy's relationship to ensure it fails. Damian ... Sean ... Alfie ... Carl.
Ronnie overheard Charlie's and Roxy's conversation, and she manipulated the situation by playing the vulnerable victim in order to get Roxy to confess her sin. Roxy's naivete and her love (mingled with a healthy dose of fear) of her sister forced her to reveal her deceit. Actually, Roxy's excuse for her behaviour tonight was a perfectly plausible one. She and Charlie were worried sick about Ronnie, shortly after her accident, for which Roxy blames herself, and in their despair, they turned to one another - for comfort sex, initially.
What Roxy's sparing Ronnie from is the fact that both have admitted since that they have feelings for each other, and that Charlie has actually admitting preferring Roxy to Ronnie. Ronnie uttered a home truth tonight, herself, when she confessed to thinking the only reason she and Charlie were together was because of the baby, and she was right. I never thought either of them were anything other than fuck buddies. Charlie may have been attracted, even intrigued; but they got together, circumstantually, right at the rime Roxy was actually enjoying romping the beds with Aleks, in defiance of Ronnie's dictate forbidding the association. Rather than live vicariously through her sister's sex life, when she didn't dare take her sister as a lover, herself, Ronnie happened upon Charlie, and the rest is history.
Roxy's been so conditioned to be dependent on Ronnie, she honestly believes she couldn't exist apart from her. When Ronnie's nearby, she has such an innate need to see and be with her, and this behaviour is much, much like that of a fearful, recalcitrant child currying favour from a cold mother. Ronnie enforces this guilt complex in Roxy. Her first words to her sister tonight were:-
You always take what's mine. (Referencing the irresistible Jack). Roxy actually "took" Jack once, when he and Ronnie were apart, and she fell pregnant; but in the end, it was Jack who "chose" Ronnie, as Roxy pointed out to Charlie not so long ago. Men "choose" women other than Roxy. Jack always wanted Ronnie; Max chose Tanya; Alfie chose Kat.
This time, unbeknownst to Ronnie, Charlie has actually chosen her sister. The only problem is that he's married to Ronnie.
Tonight, for the first time, really, we got to witness how Ronnie has her abject hold over Roxy. She guilt-trips her. Roxy "takes" what belongs to Ronnie. Roxy took Jack. Roxy took Charlie. There was even a man with whom Ronnie was involved, but Roxy indirectly prohibited that relationship from developing because Roxy was involved with Carl, and Ronnie killed Carl.
Never ever forget that this woman is a murderer. Never ever doubt that she is due a hefty dose of karma.
So the basic premise of Ronnie's control over Roxy is simple and brilliantly child-like, yet evil in its intensity - make Roxy feel everything is her fault and as her penance, make her choose between the object of her desire and her loyalty to Ronnie.
Roxy will be a sucker every time. Like a lamb led to slaughter, Roxy creepily climbs into bed with Ronnie, who issues another dictate - Charlie must never know that Ronnie knows he and Roxy slept together.
Charlie will so be killed. I'm betting Ronnie and Vincent combine to kill him, and Roxy's moral compass will be severely conflicted, because as this story progresses, she'll come to realise what Ronnie plans to do, and she knows exactly that of which Ronnie is capable. After all, Roxy knows that Ronnie's already killed one boyfriend of whom she didn't approve.
I think this storyline just might be the end of Veronica. I hope it is.
Archie even got a mention tonight. Dad messed me up. Well, yes, Ronnie, but I reckon you were pretty much a chip off the old block well before Archie was contrived to have been a paedophile.
The Mitchell sisters remind me of another pair of sisters made famous in a film many years ago - and just as creepy.
The Sibling Friends.
Any screentime for the divine Denise is all right by me, and tonight we were allowed to be party to another passel of secrets as revealed by Kim. I've lost track of Kim's story about her pregnancy. First, the child belonged to her husband, Vincent; then she didn't, she was the product of a one night stand whom Kim met in the jacuzzi whilst on a cruise.
Now ... it seems that most of what Kim had said initially was the truth, but some of her story and what we were initially fed during her absence throughout 2014 somehow doesn't add up.
Kim and Vincent met in a kebab shop. In Walford in December 2013. So the great "winter romance" between
They went to Spain and then on a cruise. We know that because Denise skyped Kim regularly, and on one occasion, near the time of Lucy Beale's death, when she skyped her, Kim revealed she was married. Got that? Around the time of Lucy Beale's death, Kim was married and on a cruise ship honeymoon (and working whilst on the cruise). Yet in Anniversary Week, the flashback episode showed Vincent was in Walford or nearby on Good Friday.
From what Kim related tonight, it seems that Kim returned to England to tell Vincent about the pregnancy and caught him in the aftermath of some sort of violent act, being cleaned down by his lackey. Having someone's blood washed from him. (I have to say that Vincent looks about as dangerous as Danger Mouse). So where did Kim go after that? Back to the ship? She's told this story to someone before, but I can't remember who that was.
It's obvious that, even though she was afraid of what she saw, Kim is still carrying a torch for Vincent. He's certainly obsessed by her - or at least by the thought of their child. Another obsessive psychopath roaming the streets of Walford. That's the problem with EastEnders - there's too much of certain things: child abuse victims, rape victims, people with parent issues, murderers, psychopaths ...
The entire Vincent brouhaha paled before the big secret revealed in the vignette - that Patrick and Denise are in arrears with the mortgage on the house and it's about to be repossessed. Hang on ... I thought Kim owned the property outright as a settlement from her part of the restaurant she owned with her ex. Bad continuity?
Twisted Sisters.
Oh dear ... more Carter secrets.
Honestly, the less I see of Sylvie the better. It's a safe assumption to say that the Carters dominated a full 50 per cent of this episode. Two of the four vignettes featured them and their satellites - Shirley and Tina juxtaposed and interlaced with Sylvie's and Babe's themes. It worked to a degree, but it ended up leaving us with questions and a sense of bewilderment - not the least being ...
What the hell happened in Ramsgate and what does it have to do with Queenie Trott?
Sylvie certainly is as manipulative as Babe in her own way. She's supposed to have Alzheimer's, yet she appears to be able to turn her episodes on and off at will. The part when Babe smacked her across the face and she went into a reminscence about her mother hitting her - this after Babe's remark that Sylvie had never accomplished anything unless it was on her back - prompting Babe to feel remorse and comfort her, only to be bitten, was quite shocking and a bit sinster.
Now we know that Sylvie wasn't actually present in the caravan when Mick was born, that she was off "flirting" with someone she'd met. What exactly was going on? How was Queenie connected? Was Heather there as well at the birth of Mick? If so, this was something to which Heather never ever alluded in conversations, and we, the viewers, know the real reason why. But that's beside the point. I do remember Babe saying that the Trotts lived upstairs from Babe, and that was how Shirley came to know Heather.
The dynamic between Sylvie and Babe is sort of a more warped and inverted version of Ronnie and Roxy, except Sylvie was the more glamorous older sister who pinched all the men whom Babe desired. Sylvie's success is a measure of Babe's frustration, and as Sylvie waned, Babe stepped up to the plate and took over both Sylvie's children and Sylvie, herself, contriving to keep Sylvie's whereabouts and existence from her children.
Babe accused Sylvie of constantly denigrating her children, when it turns out that Sylvie's mother denigrated both Sylvie and Babe, calling Babe, as Sylvie recalled, the runt of the litter.
In this respect, this family have a lot in common with the Mitchells in their generational cruelty to their children.
I still don't like either of these women, but I'm grateful for the context of the backstory.
Terrahawk and the Court Jester.
Yes, haven't we been here before? Shirley and Mick at loggerheads? Shirley makes a point in the vilest way, Mick snarls, Shirley leaves and Tina the Court Jester begs Mick to make it good with Shirley.
The Court Jester is batting for Stan - pinch-hitting, we call it in the States, and she wants to effect Stan's dying wish for Mick and Shirley to make peace.
Meanwhile, Shirley and Buster Bloodvessel ...
... have de-camped to the cafe to commiserate and lick their wounds. Shirley whines that she has no home nor any family, when Buster offers himself, Dean and Tina as she walks through the door.
There's a sister-to-sister talk which - HURRAH! - goes a bit of the way into Shirley's backstory regarding her marriage and her first child, but there are still gaps and timespans, as well as incidents, that either don't add up or have changed.
I accept that Shirley is conflicted. She's affronted that Mick, effectively, asked her to choose between him and Dean. This is also like the Mitchell tale of co-dependency. Of course, Shirley doesn't want to choose. Why should she? Both Dean and Mick are her sons, but Dean has done a horrible thing, and the only way Shirley can deal with that is to keep telling herself that Dean is innocent of what he's been accused.
When Tina points out that whether Dean has or hasn't raped Linda, Mick would always believe Linda, that remark made me more than a little angry. Tina's naivete was grating also. Initially, when the rape was actually revealed, Tina was Team Mick. I still remember her telling Shirley that the best thing for Shirley to do was to take Dean and leave. Tina tells Shirley that Mick would never have sold the Vic, but Shirley had some convoluted idea that if she could make Mick leave Walford with Linda and his kids, she would have the Vic for her and Dean. In other words, the only way Dean can stay in Walford is for Mick and co to leave.
Shirley vehemently protests Dean's innocence, but as long as she does that and as long as she demonises Linda, then there's no hope ever of a reconciliation.
Then Linda Henry affects a soliloquy relating Mick's birth and her life afterward, and she gave a stunning performance. She related the horror of the caravan birth, whilst this relation was interspersed with scenes of Sylvie and Babe remembering the same event, but in different ways. Babe said Sylvie was out flirting with some man; Shirley remembered her having a smoke outside the caravan, and returning when the baby had been born, but offering little comfort to Shirley.
The fact that Shirley was asked, ordered not to think of the child as hers has echoes of the Kat-Zoe birth story which is about to be revisited.
What was very interesting was hearing her speak of meeting Kevin, especially since Denise, only minutes before, had left Kevin out of her litany of husbands. Everyone seems to be forgetting Kevin these days. Yet Shirley remembered a man of great warmth, who made her laugh and believe in herself. She blamed herself for Jimbo's disability - when CF is actually a genetic disorder inherited from both the father and the mother. She couldn't bear the treatment the boy had to undergo, which was akin to torture, and felt this was a punishment for her and that she didn't deserve to be a parent.
OK, I can buy that, certainly as a reason for leaving, but there was no explanation of why she was unfaithful to Kevin, not once, but twice. Until we hear that, the story isn't finished. Linda Henry is a formidable actress and carried off those scenes with great aplomb, but Shirley's current behaviour, not so much her staunch defence of Dean as much as it's related to her innate dislike of Linda, still makes Shirley eminently unlikeable, self-pitying and vile.
Shirley, at least, knows that she's not been a good mother, so why does everyone around her curry and coddle her ego by telling her that she is a good mother? Tina's reminiscence of Shirley being like a mother to them doesn't add up in the timescale because Shirley and Kevin were married right about the time Tina and Mick returned from care. That's another thing. Mick and Tina have always referred to being fostered in families. Mick was quite fond of his, and it's been referenced that Tina liked her foster home as well, but now, as of tonight, Tina was in a care home? Really?
Shirley dispatches Tina to the Vic to "look after Mick." Again, really? Mick is a grown man. Of what are they afraid? Of whom are they afraid? Linda? I liked the scene Tina encountered of Mick, Linda, Nancy and Lee, upstairs, with a take-away curry, talking like a real family - Lee, referencing Turkey as bordering on Syria and the problems there was a great and current remark - made Tina realise that she doesn't belong in that dynamic either, so she opts to move in with Shirley.
The Foxes should start charging room and board, and let's hope that DTC, also, realises that the Carter dynamic works best with Mick, Linda, Nancy and Lee.
The rest can go.
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