I don't want to say I called it, but ... I called it. If anything, under Sean O'Connor, the show's cornered the market in stating the bleeding obvious. The only thing that made the rape allegation - an alleged incident which took three full episodes to establish the fact that what supposedly took place was actually a rape - something that never really happened was the fact that so much action in Sean O'Connor's EastEnders takes place off screeen, that this had the remotest possibility of actually having happened.
This was actually a genuinely good episode - probably the best one in ages. It used a minumum of cast, including the omnipresent Denise, who. of course, has a history now with the Taylor family and who simply must appear in 9/10 of every O'Connor-produced episode of the programme, as well as the Murrays, who know of the Taylors from their previous abode.
The purpose of this episode was two-fold: to introduce the family properly, give them an immediate connection, albeit pejorative, with the residents of the Square, and to begin the redemption of Keegan. I have to say, I don't like Keegan at all, and even though it's now been literally proven that his claim of having sex with Louise was all a twisted lie, it's the sort of lie which could kill a girl's reputation to the quick, even moreso because his lie is being propagated by Snaggle and the increasingly and ludicrously idiotic Sniggle, who is even more of an offensive racial stereotype than Dex-TAAAH ever was.
But I have to say this: Zach Morris is a pretty good young actor, because the guy seems like such a nice and pleasant young man, to convince the audience that he's the odious, walking piece of shit misogynist that so fully hates women that he will actually do physical violence against one (a teacher) and lie about a similar act against another (Louise), must show his acting skills.
However, it also has to be said that Keegan is another of O'Connor's walking social statements. The old addage that violence begets violence and that all abusive men were once abused children holds true in Keegan. The moment I heard on the show that he had been expelled from one school from having glassed a teacher, and that teacher almost lost an eye, I knew the victim was a woman. All of Keegan's physical violence and verbal disrespect is aimed at women - he was initially shown as being intent on humiliating Louise, something which has now culimated in him spreading a lie in order to humiliate her even more, but it's a lie the scope of which he is totally ignorant. In fact, this lie - and what happened at Louise's part - reveals to the world just how totally ignorant Keegan, Sniggle and Snaggle really are.
The bullies spiked Louise's drinks, which made her violently and seriously ill, making her vomit blood and fall into a fit. That's criminal assault, and they could have been prosecuted. They even lied to Louise, telling her that Travis had spiked her drink, because they probably actually did know that they'd be up the sewanee for that one. However, none of them knew that what Keegan said - the fact that he had had sex with Louise at this party when she was totally drunk, so drunk that she didn't remember having sex - was actually admitting to having sex with someone so wasted as to be able to give sexual consent - in other words, rape. Keegan was actually bragging about having committed a rape, whilst Sniggle and Snaggle were happily and gigglingly spreading the rumour as evidence of Louise's stupidity. That's also slander.
Also revealed in this episode was something I'd suspected all along as well - that Keegan promulgated that rumour, vile and ignorant as it was, for the same reason he had targeted Louise for humiliation all those times before - inviting her to the boys-only party at Shakil's house, filming her distress in the bus crash and now this - because he secretly likes her. On a lesser level, teasing and tormenting 11 and 12 year-old girls is something a pubescent boy does because he's unsure of himself socially and too sexually immature; but taken to a level when a 15 or 16 year-old does it to a girl of a similar age, it can become harassing and downright dangerous.
Keegan likes Louise, but feels unworthy of her, especially since she seems to be attracted to the one boy in school who is everything he isn't - Travis Law-Hughes, obviously from a middle-class background, well-spoken, double-barreled surname, noble, square of jaw, talented, intelligent and thoughtful - in Keegan's words, someone from a boy band, all "hair and teeth." Once again, we have O'Connor's social pronouncements - the waging, raging class warfare battle - the pristine and prissy middle-classes versus the great unwashed. It's interesting to note that Louise, a Mitchell, has a foot in both camps; and that's because we're unsure of what the Mitchells are anymore. They've progressed from the East End bruisers with Peggy I (Jo Warne) who could have believably been their mother to middle-class aspirants, with businesswoman Peggy II, upper-class old East End and yummy mummy Ronnie fitting into middle-class gymkhanas. The Travis-Louise-Keegan conflict can also be traced back, yet again, to the age-old mediaeval morality tale of the Good Knight-Bad Knight conflict over the damsel in distress.
So, ultimately, we have an introductory picture of Keegan the walking social more - a violent male from a home dominated by an aggressive single mother. He is the only bi-racial child in a family where all the other kids are white and the only one who uses his father's surname. Already we have a theme in this episode linking the primary story (the Taylors and Louise's rape) to the secondary story featured (Steven and Lauren).
Both Keegan and Steven are the misfits in their families. Steven has heard Ian remark to Jane that he regards Steven apart from the rest of his kids because Steven isn't his son. Steven has done nothing, since his discovery at 13 that he wasn't Ian's son, but strive for acceptance to the point that it's actually made him mentally unstable. He didn't fit in with his birth father's lifestyle in New Zealand, and he still doesn't fit in with Ian's grand design. He's even treated as a mere convenience by his so-called girlfriend, the mother of his brother's child.
The irony between Keegan and Steven is that Steven has always borne Ian's surname, whilst Keegan stands apart from the rest of his family by having a different surname. Karen Taylor's offhand excuse for that is that her other children's father (or fathers, because in the previous episode, she implied that her brood was the result of two relationships) had a surname which was unpronounceable. The gist of Keegan's background is that he looks different from his siblings, he's got a different surname, and he's treated differently. Karen coddles and spoils her daughter, who's vapid and silly and really ought to be in school, but isn't forced to go. She's another one who's supposed to be younger than she looks. Keegan is 15 (when the actor portraying him, another adult,is almost 20); this girl is supposed to be 13 or 14 and looks older than twenty. The younger twins have learning difficulties, and I wonder if the daughter is illiterate, herself. Keegan is the son designated with looking after the twins, seeing them to school and such. For all her rough edges, Karen seems to be a loving, if selfish, mum, except with Keegan and the oldest boy, Keanu, yet she expects the requisite kiss on the cheek and abeyance.
Keegan has grown up with her aggression and abuse. He knows if he lashes out at her, she probably would do to him what she did to Sharon in this instance,and so he takes his mis-directed aggression, verbally and otherwise, out on other females - the teacher, who, attempting to discipline him, gets glassed in the eye; his verbal abuse of Denise, which resulted in her assaulting him and her getting the police record, of which Karen so cheerfully reminded her; the ritual humiliation of Louise and Rebecca (he sent the porn film), with Louise's humiliation in the extreme. It's the classic case of the abused child becoming the abuser. He bragged of rape; in another instance, he may have been capable of it. Yet in the midst of all this, we see him for what he truly is - a big, ignorant, insecure and potentially dangerous child.
Keegan gets off on intimidating women. He runs from the slightest confrontation with a male - Shakil thumping him, Travis humiliating him, a threatening look from Kush and a stern word from even Derek - all send him scurrying off. Keegan fears men and has anger issues towards women. That said, I hope the warped sense of the writing room isn't veering toward Louise eventually forgiving him and becoming friends, even having a romance with him; because simply due to his background, he'd be the last male with whom she should get involved.
On the other hand, in a beautifully minimalist performance, we also got the measure of the Taylor's oldest son, Keanu (in addition to the ubiquitous bare-chested towel scene). He's quiet and determined to get on in life, despite his family. When Mummy demands he look at the boiler, he quietly remarks, after having spent the night sleeping on the floor, that he has to go to work. This is a young man who's keen on his apprenticeship and wants to progress. The manner in which he left the flat, thumping down the stairs and slamming the door, indicated only his disgust and impatience with his family's foibles.
I like Keanu, but as with the Murrays, whom I don't particularly like - it gets on my nerves the way Christopher Timothy's character speaks platitudes in half-sentences (Every cloud, eh?) - are Sean O'Connor's direct replacements for DTC characters that O'Connor axed. In Les and Pam's place we get the Murrays, the virtual epitomes of old codgers, from their vintage car to her incessant vapours and his cheery old-man cheekiness); in place of Lee Carter, we get another serious, single-minded young man with quiet fortitude in Keanu Taylor, who has just enough of that bad-boy edge blended with serious reserve to see him bonking Whitney in less than three months' time, just when the ink is drying on her divorce papers.
As I suspected, the "rape" was actually a sick joke, which will be resolved when the "special examination" of Louise reveals that she's still a virgin. I found the policewoman's attitude a bit off in the scene where she's talking to Louise, although I gather her suspicions were aroused when Louise said that she first learned of what had happened when Keegan told her his version of events. It almost seemed that the woman didn't believe that Louise was too drunk to remember what happened, although situations like this do occur; situations also arise where a woman says yes, under the influence of drink, and then thinks otherwise after the fact. Still, at least, they've arrested Keegan. This also drove home the fact to anyone of a certain age who didn't know that having sex with a girl who's too drunk to know what she's doing or too out of it, is rape. At least, they had Karen spell that out word by word to Keegan. In the long run, I hope the bullies are punished for this too.
As well, without ever mentioning the word "community", the bond of such was established between Stacey and Sharon, once Rebecca told Stacey what had happened to Louise. Immediately, Stacey, a rape victim, herself, felt empathy.I was beginning to wonder if Karen would be arrested for what was directly an assault on Sharon, but once I saw two police cars arrive, I knew Sharon had reported Karen. It was good that this was followed through as well, especially since Joyce Murray was a witness.
It's going to be interesting seeing where the Taylors go from here, but I would imagine that this will result in all-out war on the Mitchells now, with this being the big storyline where Phil returns home.
Finally, there was the sub-plot between Steven and Lauren. Lauren's actually pulled another sickie, ostensibly from finding out that Josh was engaged. I don't know how she retains a job there -she was home all of the previous week, and now she's sick again, deserving a day off. This reinforces the notion of the entitled Lauren being lazy,which has always been true.
I can't understand why it's so important to Abi to have Josh, someone she's only met once, at her 21st party, or why she should think that the party would be an immense success by his presence. He's coming for one reason: Lauren. Steven knows that, even if insipid Abi doesn't. I gather the shit will hit the fan next week.
This was actually a genuinely good episode - probably the best one in ages. It used a minumum of cast, including the omnipresent Denise, who. of course, has a history now with the Taylor family and who simply must appear in 9/10 of every O'Connor-produced episode of the programme, as well as the Murrays, who know of the Taylors from their previous abode.
The purpose of this episode was two-fold: to introduce the family properly, give them an immediate connection, albeit pejorative, with the residents of the Square, and to begin the redemption of Keegan. I have to say, I don't like Keegan at all, and even though it's now been literally proven that his claim of having sex with Louise was all a twisted lie, it's the sort of lie which could kill a girl's reputation to the quick, even moreso because his lie is being propagated by Snaggle and the increasingly and ludicrously idiotic Sniggle, who is even more of an offensive racial stereotype than Dex-TAAAH ever was.
But I have to say this: Zach Morris is a pretty good young actor, because the guy seems like such a nice and pleasant young man, to convince the audience that he's the odious, walking piece of shit misogynist that so fully hates women that he will actually do physical violence against one (a teacher) and lie about a similar act against another (Louise), must show his acting skills.
However, it also has to be said that Keegan is another of O'Connor's walking social statements. The old addage that violence begets violence and that all abusive men were once abused children holds true in Keegan. The moment I heard on the show that he had been expelled from one school from having glassed a teacher, and that teacher almost lost an eye, I knew the victim was a woman. All of Keegan's physical violence and verbal disrespect is aimed at women - he was initially shown as being intent on humiliating Louise, something which has now culimated in him spreading a lie in order to humiliate her even more, but it's a lie the scope of which he is totally ignorant. In fact, this lie - and what happened at Louise's part - reveals to the world just how totally ignorant Keegan, Sniggle and Snaggle really are.
The bullies spiked Louise's drinks, which made her violently and seriously ill, making her vomit blood and fall into a fit. That's criminal assault, and they could have been prosecuted. They even lied to Louise, telling her that Travis had spiked her drink, because they probably actually did know that they'd be up the sewanee for that one. However, none of them knew that what Keegan said - the fact that he had had sex with Louise at this party when she was totally drunk, so drunk that she didn't remember having sex - was actually admitting to having sex with someone so wasted as to be able to give sexual consent - in other words, rape. Keegan was actually bragging about having committed a rape, whilst Sniggle and Snaggle were happily and gigglingly spreading the rumour as evidence of Louise's stupidity. That's also slander.
Also revealed in this episode was something I'd suspected all along as well - that Keegan promulgated that rumour, vile and ignorant as it was, for the same reason he had targeted Louise for humiliation all those times before - inviting her to the boys-only party at Shakil's house, filming her distress in the bus crash and now this - because he secretly likes her. On a lesser level, teasing and tormenting 11 and 12 year-old girls is something a pubescent boy does because he's unsure of himself socially and too sexually immature; but taken to a level when a 15 or 16 year-old does it to a girl of a similar age, it can become harassing and downright dangerous.
Keegan likes Louise, but feels unworthy of her, especially since she seems to be attracted to the one boy in school who is everything he isn't - Travis Law-Hughes, obviously from a middle-class background, well-spoken, double-barreled surname, noble, square of jaw, talented, intelligent and thoughtful - in Keegan's words, someone from a boy band, all "hair and teeth." Once again, we have O'Connor's social pronouncements - the waging, raging class warfare battle - the pristine and prissy middle-classes versus the great unwashed. It's interesting to note that Louise, a Mitchell, has a foot in both camps; and that's because we're unsure of what the Mitchells are anymore. They've progressed from the East End bruisers with Peggy I (Jo Warne) who could have believably been their mother to middle-class aspirants, with businesswoman Peggy II, upper-class old East End and yummy mummy Ronnie fitting into middle-class gymkhanas. The Travis-Louise-Keegan conflict can also be traced back, yet again, to the age-old mediaeval morality tale of the Good Knight-Bad Knight conflict over the damsel in distress.
So, ultimately, we have an introductory picture of Keegan the walking social more - a violent male from a home dominated by an aggressive single mother. He is the only bi-racial child in a family where all the other kids are white and the only one who uses his father's surname. Already we have a theme in this episode linking the primary story (the Taylors and Louise's rape) to the secondary story featured (Steven and Lauren).
Both Keegan and Steven are the misfits in their families. Steven has heard Ian remark to Jane that he regards Steven apart from the rest of his kids because Steven isn't his son. Steven has done nothing, since his discovery at 13 that he wasn't Ian's son, but strive for acceptance to the point that it's actually made him mentally unstable. He didn't fit in with his birth father's lifestyle in New Zealand, and he still doesn't fit in with Ian's grand design. He's even treated as a mere convenience by his so-called girlfriend, the mother of his brother's child.
The irony between Keegan and Steven is that Steven has always borne Ian's surname, whilst Keegan stands apart from the rest of his family by having a different surname. Karen Taylor's offhand excuse for that is that her other children's father (or fathers, because in the previous episode, she implied that her brood was the result of two relationships) had a surname which was unpronounceable. The gist of Keegan's background is that he looks different from his siblings, he's got a different surname, and he's treated differently. Karen coddles and spoils her daughter, who's vapid and silly and really ought to be in school, but isn't forced to go. She's another one who's supposed to be younger than she looks. Keegan is 15 (when the actor portraying him, another adult,is almost 20); this girl is supposed to be 13 or 14 and looks older than twenty. The younger twins have learning difficulties, and I wonder if the daughter is illiterate, herself. Keegan is the son designated with looking after the twins, seeing them to school and such. For all her rough edges, Karen seems to be a loving, if selfish, mum, except with Keegan and the oldest boy, Keanu, yet she expects the requisite kiss on the cheek and abeyance.
Keegan has grown up with her aggression and abuse. He knows if he lashes out at her, she probably would do to him what she did to Sharon in this instance,and so he takes his mis-directed aggression, verbally and otherwise, out on other females - the teacher, who, attempting to discipline him, gets glassed in the eye; his verbal abuse of Denise, which resulted in her assaulting him and her getting the police record, of which Karen so cheerfully reminded her; the ritual humiliation of Louise and Rebecca (he sent the porn film), with Louise's humiliation in the extreme. It's the classic case of the abused child becoming the abuser. He bragged of rape; in another instance, he may have been capable of it. Yet in the midst of all this, we see him for what he truly is - a big, ignorant, insecure and potentially dangerous child.
Keegan gets off on intimidating women. He runs from the slightest confrontation with a male - Shakil thumping him, Travis humiliating him, a threatening look from Kush and a stern word from even Derek - all send him scurrying off. Keegan fears men and has anger issues towards women. That said, I hope the warped sense of the writing room isn't veering toward Louise eventually forgiving him and becoming friends, even having a romance with him; because simply due to his background, he'd be the last male with whom she should get involved.
On the other hand, in a beautifully minimalist performance, we also got the measure of the Taylor's oldest son, Keanu (in addition to the ubiquitous bare-chested towel scene). He's quiet and determined to get on in life, despite his family. When Mummy demands he look at the boiler, he quietly remarks, after having spent the night sleeping on the floor, that he has to go to work. This is a young man who's keen on his apprenticeship and wants to progress. The manner in which he left the flat, thumping down the stairs and slamming the door, indicated only his disgust and impatience with his family's foibles.
I like Keanu, but as with the Murrays, whom I don't particularly like - it gets on my nerves the way Christopher Timothy's character speaks platitudes in half-sentences (Every cloud, eh?) - are Sean O'Connor's direct replacements for DTC characters that O'Connor axed. In Les and Pam's place we get the Murrays, the virtual epitomes of old codgers, from their vintage car to her incessant vapours and his cheery old-man cheekiness); in place of Lee Carter, we get another serious, single-minded young man with quiet fortitude in Keanu Taylor, who has just enough of that bad-boy edge blended with serious reserve to see him bonking Whitney in less than three months' time, just when the ink is drying on her divorce papers.
As I suspected, the "rape" was actually a sick joke, which will be resolved when the "special examination" of Louise reveals that she's still a virgin. I found the policewoman's attitude a bit off in the scene where she's talking to Louise, although I gather her suspicions were aroused when Louise said that she first learned of what had happened when Keegan told her his version of events. It almost seemed that the woman didn't believe that Louise was too drunk to remember what happened, although situations like this do occur; situations also arise where a woman says yes, under the influence of drink, and then thinks otherwise after the fact. Still, at least, they've arrested Keegan. This also drove home the fact to anyone of a certain age who didn't know that having sex with a girl who's too drunk to know what she's doing or too out of it, is rape. At least, they had Karen spell that out word by word to Keegan. In the long run, I hope the bullies are punished for this too.
As well, without ever mentioning the word "community", the bond of such was established between Stacey and Sharon, once Rebecca told Stacey what had happened to Louise. Immediately, Stacey, a rape victim, herself, felt empathy.I was beginning to wonder if Karen would be arrested for what was directly an assault on Sharon, but once I saw two police cars arrive, I knew Sharon had reported Karen. It was good that this was followed through as well, especially since Joyce Murray was a witness.
It's going to be interesting seeing where the Taylors go from here, but I would imagine that this will result in all-out war on the Mitchells now, with this being the big storyline where Phil returns home.
Finally, there was the sub-plot between Steven and Lauren. Lauren's actually pulled another sickie, ostensibly from finding out that Josh was engaged. I don't know how she retains a job there -she was home all of the previous week, and now she's sick again, deserving a day off. This reinforces the notion of the entitled Lauren being lazy,which has always been true.
I can't understand why it's so important to Abi to have Josh, someone she's only met once, at her 21st party, or why she should think that the party would be an immense success by his presence. He's coming for one reason: Lauren. Steven knows that, even if insipid Abi doesn't. I gather the shit will hit the fan next week.
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