It's still Monday in Eastenders, four episodes covering the space of one day and still one more to go. It's raining heavily - or should I say Hevverly? - and there are sounds of thunder in the distance. Appropriate weather for a welter of passion that's about to be unleased onto the Square.
Ben's run away, but this time he's run to the Walford Nick, and whom should happen to be there - why, it's DCI Marsden and DS Crisp, both on the same shift. Ben confesses, but Marsden is sceptical - and she has reason to be: Ben stitched her up before with his lies about Phil, so just when Marsden is needed most, she's had "wolf" called on her too many times previously. Besides, Ben's last escapade cost her her promotion.
Crisp, however, is another character; and he believes what Ben is saying, even though Phil and Shirley have made it through the doors of the station just as Ben is confronting his nemeses. For once, Marsden is Phil's godsend, and he plays along with her scepticism. A lifeline's been thrown him.
This was another good episode - tight, well-written (for the most part) and edgy.
We learned a lot of things tonight that many of the more astute viewers knew already, and some of which needs further exploration. Confronting Jay, Shirley remarked that the very moment she knew that Phil didn't love her, she took that truth on the chin, because, she said, she still had Heather.
That much is true. However much Shirl took Heather's friendship for granted, and she did and in the worst way, Heather was the one constant in her life, something upon which she could depend always. In many ways, Heather was her one true love, albeit not erotically.
Shirley often gave up Heather at particular periods of her life. She gave her up for Kevin, to become a wife and mother. She was always giving her up for Phil; and many times she used Heather - like when she convinced her to move onto the Square in order to have a deposit for a flat, the money for which Heather had.
Yet, Shirley gave up her most priceless possessions for Heather - her children. Walked out the door on three small kids, one of whom was disabled and who later died, and didn't look back, just to spend the bulk of the 1980s partying down with Heather, geeing up a Pepsi and Shirley routine and listening to Heather moon after George Michael. For years, when she wasn't with some geezer, Shirley was with Heather; Heather became her surrogate child, to whom she often administered tough love. When Shirley's children came back into her life, Heather was jealous of Dean, who sought solace with his mother.
No matter what Shirl did to Heather - belittle her, humiliate her, lecture her, even desert her (cf: leaving her homeless to minister to Phil's addiction), Heather forgave her. When Heather almost died and had trouble caring for George on her own, Shirley defied Phil and moved her into their home.
Because Heather was her constant, and because Shirley knew Phil didn't love her. I date this to the aborted wedding and the discovery that Phil was sleeping with Glenda. She knew as soon as Phil couldn't and would't promise fidelity.
She even told Heather that the pair of them were living on borrowed time at Phil's house, dependent on Phil's whims. She referenced as much to Jay some months ago, when she reminded him that neither he nor she were real Mitchells.
The other surprising element of tonight's first episode was Phil's amazing arrogance regarding Shirley, assuming that just the sight of a flustered Ben at the station was enough to convince Shirley that she had to protect him, ordering her to go home and dispose of the picture frame.
All of this converging on the innocuous scene where it suddenly dawns on Jay that everything in the garden isn't rosy - the sight of the Mitchell back door wide open (although I find this hard to believe in that part of London), the misguided belief at first that they'd been burgled, only to have Jay's attention immediately drawn to the picture frame - the stuff of his nightmares.
And then, the ultimate confrontation with Shirley, which was priceless. Linda Henry and Jamie Borthwick played absolute blinders - Shirley relentless in discerning the truth and Jay, at first, uncertain, his loyalties torn, not wanting to betray Phil until Shirley told him brutally how much she'd trusted him and how good she thought he was - not a liar like Ben: another truth revealed which hadn't been stated before - that Shirley knew Ben lied and that he lived to lie. Followed by Jay's heart-rending admission that he wasn't a good person, his relation of what happened in Heather's flat and how, in his state of heightened vulnerability, Phil and Jay convinced him of the absolute invincibility of the Mitchells in circling-the-wagon mode. Family. Because Jay had no family and they were all he had.
But, as he admitted, now he'd lost everything; and he wanted his dad, who died brutally but with his moral core intact.
Back at the police station, we could smell Phil's panic, when it suddenly is made clear to him that if he's found to have known about this and not disclosed it, he'd go down too. One has to admire Ben's determination after all this, because Marsden (who really probably isn't that good a cop) was all for letting this one go - the boy crying wolf again - until Ben related the detail about covering Heather's face with a teatowel and Crisp remembered the fibres on her face.
Jay's got to face his demons now, and we have to know if Shirley loves her faux family more than she hates them. Will she give up the frame? After all this, she shouldn't even have to hesitate, but maybe she's afraid too, that after all this, she will have lost everything and everyone too.
Don't put your eggs in one basket.
The other doings this evening, I didn't like - more imbedding of Sharon into the Branning dynamic, more utilisation of an established, iconic and original Walford character to justify the existence of a sleazy, dysfunctional band of jumped-up white trash. Jack was craven, and the selling of the engagement ring was equally pathetic and insulting to Sharon.
Her entry into the pub brought home to her just how much things had changed since she was last there, but rather than the protracted flirty-flirty damsel-in-distress bit about selling her ring to Jack, surely Tracey would have slipped her a couple of free meals and Alfie, had he been there or been told, wouldn't have begrudged her that.
The dialogue between her and Tanya, as well, was all wrong. Admitting to Tanya that she didn't think Tanya's appropriated clothing was all that special. WTF? Although, I think this is a proper reaction of Tanya to Sharon. Sharon is the type of woman Tanya would bitch about excessively behind her back.
And I'm sorry, I'm not warming to "the amazing Harry Hickles." A male version of Tiffany Butcher, and I shudder to imagine them in a scene together. Mug for the camera!
This should have been all about the Mitchells tonight.
Ben's run away, but this time he's run to the Walford Nick, and whom should happen to be there - why, it's DCI Marsden and DS Crisp, both on the same shift. Ben confesses, but Marsden is sceptical - and she has reason to be: Ben stitched her up before with his lies about Phil, so just when Marsden is needed most, she's had "wolf" called on her too many times previously. Besides, Ben's last escapade cost her her promotion.
Crisp, however, is another character; and he believes what Ben is saying, even though Phil and Shirley have made it through the doors of the station just as Ben is confronting his nemeses. For once, Marsden is Phil's godsend, and he plays along with her scepticism. A lifeline's been thrown him.
This was another good episode - tight, well-written (for the most part) and edgy.
We learned a lot of things tonight that many of the more astute viewers knew already, and some of which needs further exploration. Confronting Jay, Shirley remarked that the very moment she knew that Phil didn't love her, she took that truth on the chin, because, she said, she still had Heather.
That much is true. However much Shirl took Heather's friendship for granted, and she did and in the worst way, Heather was the one constant in her life, something upon which she could depend always. In many ways, Heather was her one true love, albeit not erotically.
Shirley often gave up Heather at particular periods of her life. She gave her up for Kevin, to become a wife and mother. She was always giving her up for Phil; and many times she used Heather - like when she convinced her to move onto the Square in order to have a deposit for a flat, the money for which Heather had.
Yet, Shirley gave up her most priceless possessions for Heather - her children. Walked out the door on three small kids, one of whom was disabled and who later died, and didn't look back, just to spend the bulk of the 1980s partying down with Heather, geeing up a Pepsi and Shirley routine and listening to Heather moon after George Michael. For years, when she wasn't with some geezer, Shirley was with Heather; Heather became her surrogate child, to whom she often administered tough love. When Shirley's children came back into her life, Heather was jealous of Dean, who sought solace with his mother.
No matter what Shirl did to Heather - belittle her, humiliate her, lecture her, even desert her (cf: leaving her homeless to minister to Phil's addiction), Heather forgave her. When Heather almost died and had trouble caring for George on her own, Shirley defied Phil and moved her into their home.
Because Heather was her constant, and because Shirley knew Phil didn't love her. I date this to the aborted wedding and the discovery that Phil was sleeping with Glenda. She knew as soon as Phil couldn't and would't promise fidelity.
She even told Heather that the pair of them were living on borrowed time at Phil's house, dependent on Phil's whims. She referenced as much to Jay some months ago, when she reminded him that neither he nor she were real Mitchells.
The other surprising element of tonight's first episode was Phil's amazing arrogance regarding Shirley, assuming that just the sight of a flustered Ben at the station was enough to convince Shirley that she had to protect him, ordering her to go home and dispose of the picture frame.
All of this converging on the innocuous scene where it suddenly dawns on Jay that everything in the garden isn't rosy - the sight of the Mitchell back door wide open (although I find this hard to believe in that part of London), the misguided belief at first that they'd been burgled, only to have Jay's attention immediately drawn to the picture frame - the stuff of his nightmares.
And then, the ultimate confrontation with Shirley, which was priceless. Linda Henry and Jamie Borthwick played absolute blinders - Shirley relentless in discerning the truth and Jay, at first, uncertain, his loyalties torn, not wanting to betray Phil until Shirley told him brutally how much she'd trusted him and how good she thought he was - not a liar like Ben: another truth revealed which hadn't been stated before - that Shirley knew Ben lied and that he lived to lie. Followed by Jay's heart-rending admission that he wasn't a good person, his relation of what happened in Heather's flat and how, in his state of heightened vulnerability, Phil and Jay convinced him of the absolute invincibility of the Mitchells in circling-the-wagon mode. Family. Because Jay had no family and they were all he had.
But, as he admitted, now he'd lost everything; and he wanted his dad, who died brutally but with his moral core intact.
Back at the police station, we could smell Phil's panic, when it suddenly is made clear to him that if he's found to have known about this and not disclosed it, he'd go down too. One has to admire Ben's determination after all this, because Marsden (who really probably isn't that good a cop) was all for letting this one go - the boy crying wolf again - until Ben related the detail about covering Heather's face with a teatowel and Crisp remembered the fibres on her face.
Jay's got to face his demons now, and we have to know if Shirley loves her faux family more than she hates them. Will she give up the frame? After all this, she shouldn't even have to hesitate, but maybe she's afraid too, that after all this, she will have lost everything and everyone too.
Don't put your eggs in one basket.
The other doings this evening, I didn't like - more imbedding of Sharon into the Branning dynamic, more utilisation of an established, iconic and original Walford character to justify the existence of a sleazy, dysfunctional band of jumped-up white trash. Jack was craven, and the selling of the engagement ring was equally pathetic and insulting to Sharon.
Her entry into the pub brought home to her just how much things had changed since she was last there, but rather than the protracted flirty-flirty damsel-in-distress bit about selling her ring to Jack, surely Tracey would have slipped her a couple of free meals and Alfie, had he been there or been told, wouldn't have begrudged her that.
The dialogue between her and Tanya, as well, was all wrong. Admitting to Tanya that she didn't think Tanya's appropriated clothing was all that special. WTF? Although, I think this is a proper reaction of Tanya to Sharon. Sharon is the type of woman Tanya would bitch about excessively behind her back.
And I'm sorry, I'm not warming to "the amazing Harry Hickles." A male version of Tiffany Butcher, and I shudder to imagine them in a scene together. Mug for the camera!
This should have been all about the Mitchells tonight.
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