Three women and their guilt - Sharon, Katshit and Shirley.
This was a surprisingly good episode, with only minor irritating bits. Luckily, the writer and producer focused, primarily, on characters played by the strongest actors at the moment - Patrick, Jay, Denise and, of course, Shirley - because Linda Henry is absolutely playing a blinder at the moment.
Who knows if Shirley is destined to stay in Walford? She's pretty isolated at the moment, but if this be Linda Henry's swansong, she's going out in style, whenever she leaves.
Shirley is torn. She's spent most of the six months since Heather's murder, screaming for justice for her dead friend, and all the while, I imagine Shirley's been thinking about Heather's last days and how, exactly, Shirley treated Heather during that time. Their friendship was literally a co-dependent one.
Heather was totally dependent and devoted to Shirley. In a way, their friendship was a mirror image of Shirley's relationship with Phil. Heather was 100% loyal to Shirley and trusted her implicitly, to the point of depending on her for, literally, everything. The highest honour Heather paid Shirley was to ask her to be a second mother to George and to help Heather raise him.
To a great degree, Heather was Shirley's doormat, the way Shirley has subordinated herself to Phil, in a desperate plea for his love.
Shirley, on the other hand, was quite happy to party down and, on occasion, look after Heather; but there was always another motive for her actions: when she found the pressures of being a wife and mother too much, she was quite happy to return to gadding about with Hev, even though Heather reminded her how Shirley had callously dumped Heather's friendship when Shirley had found Kevin. That was Shirl's modus operandi - the BFF would do until some bloke poked along and then the friend was dropped by the wayside.
Or, Shirley would stand up to Heather's mother, but only because she wanted Heather to move out so she could provide the deposit Shirley needed on a flat. When Phil needed or wanted Shirley's attention, Heather was left high and dry - sometimes in a most merciless way, like when Shirl left Heather, homeless and with a baby, on a park bench, callously reminding her that Shirley was neither Heather's mother nor George's.
Yet when Shirley was in serious danger of being left on her own, and Heather found herself in the unusual situation of being loved-up, Shirley did her level best to pry Heather away from Andrew's arms, even forcing her, on the even of her wedding, to choose between Shirley's friendship or marriage with Andrew.
This is why Shirley's rant at Jay tonight rang hollow - listing all the people who had been hurt by Jay's silence after Heather's death, with Andrew and herself being first on the list of injured parties. In the wake of Heather's death, Andrew was the first suspect; and his criminal record and activities surrounding her death, added impetus to Shirley's campaign to see him brought to justice.
This is Shirley's dilemma at the moment, and this is why she is wallowing in the drink of self-pity: Shirley has failed Heather, yet again. She knows that Phil was the mastermind behind Ben's cover-up. Ben's confessed and is in jail awaiting sentencing. Jay's confessed, and Jay's now apologised to Shirley.
This is Jay, who's now lost his parents, his grandmother, and Phil, who's taken him in. He's lost Heather, who was his friend and Abi, his girlfriend. Billy has abandoned him. He's admitted to Ben that part of the reason he stayed schtum was out of misguided loyalty to the Mitchells whose surname he'd adopted as his own. But, like his father, he has a moral conscience, and I believe him when he says that everything about Heather's death will stay with him for the rest of his life. Patrick, who loved Heather like a daughter and who never failed her, has found it in his heart to forgive Jay; because Jay is genuinely contrite.
Shirley, on the other hand, cannot forgive him. She cannot let go, because this projection is a way of Shirley dealing with her own guilt. She wasn't there for Heather when she needed her. She abandoned her on the eve of her wedding, as she'd abandoned her countless numbers of times before, when a man got in the way. Shirley, who stayed with Phil even knowing that he didn't love her and wouldn't ever be faithful, lived for the crumbs of love from Phil's table and basked in the power and the swagger she got from parading around Walford as part of the Mitchell enclave.
Now, she hates herself because, after all this, she still loves Phil. That's why she never disclosed to the police his part in the cover-up. She loves him and she's angry with herself for doing so, and thus, she wants him to suffer as much as and along with her. If that means getting blinding drunk, she wants Phil to drink with her - after all, when Phil was at his lowest several years ago, she drank with him. it got him into her bed. Now, maybe that's what she needs too - the excuse of a good drunk to get back into Phil's bed.
Denise is right; Shirley needs to leave Walford. As long as she remains, she'll be drawn to Phil. Again and again and again. Because she still loves him, but he doesn't love her.
I apologise to monalisa62003, but Phil does not love Shirley. His confession of love for her tonight was just another desperate plea to get her back onside, because he fears she's a loose cannon. He's lost his son, his family unit has crumbled around him, the woman he really loves is in Walford at a most inopportune time - actually, I don't know if Phil and Sharon are in any fit state to help each other, but I do think they both need to be around each other more - and he's fearing Shirley will cut loose with what she knows about his involvement in the cover-up. This is why he wants her back under the same roof as he. If that means Phil has to play happy families with Shirley for the next thirty years, he'll do it to safeguard his freedom; but the only other way he has of dealing with her is to get her out of Walford, and that's why he called Carly. Even if she didn't go, Carly, with Shirley's first grandchild, would offer a distraction to Shirley and maybe something positive.
But he isn't doing that for her out of compassion or love. He's doing it out of self-preservation. His remark that because he loves Shirley, he can't take a drink, is just throwing more crumbs of hope her way and a euphemism for him wanting to stay in control.
Shirley doesn't need Phil, but she does need to face her demons and apologise to Heather's memory for failing her, yet again. The one good thing that has come from this has been her bonding with Denise, as a friend. As Kathy and Pat bonded as friends after Pete's death, I always thought the same could happen with Denise and Shirley after Kevin died. If Shirley does stay in Walford, I'd like to see this friendship grow.
The sorry Shaggerline story continues, and just as I said, Kat was the one to infest the Vic with bedbugs because of Shaggerman's infested flat. And, of course, the cryptic messages keep flying about. Kat texting someone; Michael's or Jack's phone gets a message. Michael disappearing here and there; Jack hinting that it's not always blondes he likes.
Listen ... the Shagger is Derek. Why? Because we've seen less of Derek lately than we've seen of any of the usual suspects. Secondly, if Jack, Max or Michael had leased that literal fleapit, there'd be hell to pay. Bedbugs are transmitted by people who hang around infested places like that - so you'd be hearing of Tanya screaming halfway around the Square because the Brannings, with Abi, gurning Oscar and nastynice Lauren being exposed. Janine would certainly have something to say about the situation - again, with a new baby in the house. And Amy and Roxy are staying at Jack's. Close quarters like that and Roxy would certainly notice.
It's none of the above. I'm surprised the Butcher household isn't infected, but Tyler's been away and Whitney's as physically dirty as Kat appears, so I doubt she'd notice. Carol would, however, if she were there.
Anyway, Kat's a total bitch and a dumb one at that. Quite rightly, Alfie doesn't want her back in the Vic before it's been decontaminated. For fuck's sake, they have a small child, and those decontaminants could be deadly for him, but Kat's got to prove a point; and when Alfie, for her own good and for Tommy's safety, refuses to let her return, she takes umbrage and starts texting her Big Dick.
This woman is so narcissistic and vile, it's beyond belief. I realise that Lorraine Newman is pointing this story in a certain direction in an effort to rehabilitate Kat - basically because the EastEnders' production team destroyed her - but really, is it worth it? Are there many people (besides the totally irrelevant, man-hating vald) who really think it's worth the time and effort to rebuild this character? Especially as she's going to be rebuilt via the loss of her husband's integrity.
Nope.
Save the BBC a few quid in an exhorbitant salary and sack her. That ship has sailed. And was sunk by Bryan Kirkwood.
Her attempt at the end to return (successfully) was patently false and pathetic. I hate her, and I used to like the character; and more than Shirley, she looked as though she needed a bath.
Poor Janine is the one for whom I feel sorriest at the moment. Janine is hormonal. She's most likely suffering from PND, as well as still getting over the stress of the last week's of her pregnancy and the treatment she endured during that time.
She's also still grieving for and missing Pat. Yes, she has trust issues. She's remembering her last marriage, and how she was bitterly betrayed within weeks of marrying. She's had that Class A Bitch Kat insinuate that Michael doesn't love her; and she's had that Class B Bitch Tanya insinuate that she wouldn't be at all surprised if Michael were having an affair.
Michael is just as much to blame. He's so hung up on having access to her fortune (I think she was right to remind him that it was her money); he's so fucking secretive and dismissive of her at times. I realise TPTB are trying to convey the fact that he's just as broken as she is and with poor social skills being in a relationship where he's actually loving his wife and daughter, but the pair of them need a mediator.
And here's where Pat would knock heads with them both. She'd confront Michael and tell him his wife didn't need extravagant presents, she just needed to know that she could trust him. (Remember Max bought Tanya expensive things when he would cheat around?) OK, Pat is dead, but Janine is so isolated. Most people whom she would feel comfortable consulting - Dot or Carol - aren't about.
It's heat-wrenching watching her in a spiral, although Billy's "relationship advice" was a light moment. I like the fact that the Billy-Janine friendship has survived all these years, even though at times one has betrayed the other. Apart from her daughter, at the moment, Billy's really the only person she has.
And, finally, Sharon. Tonight I realised that, whenever she's interacting with her son or one of the Brannings, especially Jack, I really hate her. This isn't Sharon, this is some wimp mother. I was also reminded of the fact tonight that when she was with Dennis, her treatment of him veered from the stereotypical caricatured poutiness of a combined Marilyn Monroe imitator crossed with Jessica Rabbit and Miss Piggy and - yes! - a mother with her child. I used to cringe when she referred to Dennis as "mah dahlin' ". I used to cringe when she referred to Grant that way. I'm waiting for her to start referring to DamienDen like that.
The kid is a sissy. He needs a haircut for starters. And a woman wrote this episode tonight, and Sharon's dialogue with DamienDen was bloody awful. My sixteen year-old made a face and looked at me tonight, saying, "Please tell me you never spoke to me that way when I was six."
Trust me, I didn't.
She speaks to him like a three year-old, and - oh, my godfathers! - she's even using the Steve McDonald-baby-voice! OK, I realise maybe they want to convey an overprotective mother, but this is ridiculous.
As for Jack, that was brass. Jack thinks nothing of parading a bevy of strange and nameless women through his flat to breakfast with his daughter, sees his oldest daughter in France once every two or three years, and hasn't seen his son in Portugal since he was born. Yet because he got into DamienDen's mamma's knickers for a night, he's Uncle Jack the Father Figure. Pull the other one! Time for Jack to take a tour of Europe and visit the kids he's dropped in various countries.
Sharon was right to tick him off for assuming parental advice regarding her son. Jack is just some bloke, a port in a storm for DamienDen's mother. She was also right to put him off with the fact that her son was the most important man in her life right now; but - fuck me - in less than five seconds, she's in his face flirting with him. There's something wrong with Sharon - either the writing's bad or there's something we should know about her charaacter but don't ... yet.
This was a surprisingly good episode, with only minor irritating bits. Luckily, the writer and producer focused, primarily, on characters played by the strongest actors at the moment - Patrick, Jay, Denise and, of course, Shirley - because Linda Henry is absolutely playing a blinder at the moment.
Who knows if Shirley is destined to stay in Walford? She's pretty isolated at the moment, but if this be Linda Henry's swansong, she's going out in style, whenever she leaves.
Shirley is torn. She's spent most of the six months since Heather's murder, screaming for justice for her dead friend, and all the while, I imagine Shirley's been thinking about Heather's last days and how, exactly, Shirley treated Heather during that time. Their friendship was literally a co-dependent one.
Heather was totally dependent and devoted to Shirley. In a way, their friendship was a mirror image of Shirley's relationship with Phil. Heather was 100% loyal to Shirley and trusted her implicitly, to the point of depending on her for, literally, everything. The highest honour Heather paid Shirley was to ask her to be a second mother to George and to help Heather raise him.
To a great degree, Heather was Shirley's doormat, the way Shirley has subordinated herself to Phil, in a desperate plea for his love.
Shirley, on the other hand, was quite happy to party down and, on occasion, look after Heather; but there was always another motive for her actions: when she found the pressures of being a wife and mother too much, she was quite happy to return to gadding about with Hev, even though Heather reminded her how Shirley had callously dumped Heather's friendship when Shirley had found Kevin. That was Shirl's modus operandi - the BFF would do until some bloke poked along and then the friend was dropped by the wayside.
Or, Shirley would stand up to Heather's mother, but only because she wanted Heather to move out so she could provide the deposit Shirley needed on a flat. When Phil needed or wanted Shirley's attention, Heather was left high and dry - sometimes in a most merciless way, like when Shirl left Heather, homeless and with a baby, on a park bench, callously reminding her that Shirley was neither Heather's mother nor George's.
Yet when Shirley was in serious danger of being left on her own, and Heather found herself in the unusual situation of being loved-up, Shirley did her level best to pry Heather away from Andrew's arms, even forcing her, on the even of her wedding, to choose between Shirley's friendship or marriage with Andrew.
This is why Shirley's rant at Jay tonight rang hollow - listing all the people who had been hurt by Jay's silence after Heather's death, with Andrew and herself being first on the list of injured parties. In the wake of Heather's death, Andrew was the first suspect; and his criminal record and activities surrounding her death, added impetus to Shirley's campaign to see him brought to justice.
This is Shirley's dilemma at the moment, and this is why she is wallowing in the drink of self-pity: Shirley has failed Heather, yet again. She knows that Phil was the mastermind behind Ben's cover-up. Ben's confessed and is in jail awaiting sentencing. Jay's confessed, and Jay's now apologised to Shirley.
This is Jay, who's now lost his parents, his grandmother, and Phil, who's taken him in. He's lost Heather, who was his friend and Abi, his girlfriend. Billy has abandoned him. He's admitted to Ben that part of the reason he stayed schtum was out of misguided loyalty to the Mitchells whose surname he'd adopted as his own. But, like his father, he has a moral conscience, and I believe him when he says that everything about Heather's death will stay with him for the rest of his life. Patrick, who loved Heather like a daughter and who never failed her, has found it in his heart to forgive Jay; because Jay is genuinely contrite.
Shirley, on the other hand, cannot forgive him. She cannot let go, because this projection is a way of Shirley dealing with her own guilt. She wasn't there for Heather when she needed her. She abandoned her on the eve of her wedding, as she'd abandoned her countless numbers of times before, when a man got in the way. Shirley, who stayed with Phil even knowing that he didn't love her and wouldn't ever be faithful, lived for the crumbs of love from Phil's table and basked in the power and the swagger she got from parading around Walford as part of the Mitchell enclave.
Now, she hates herself because, after all this, she still loves Phil. That's why she never disclosed to the police his part in the cover-up. She loves him and she's angry with herself for doing so, and thus, she wants him to suffer as much as and along with her. If that means getting blinding drunk, she wants Phil to drink with her - after all, when Phil was at his lowest several years ago, she drank with him. it got him into her bed. Now, maybe that's what she needs too - the excuse of a good drunk to get back into Phil's bed.
Denise is right; Shirley needs to leave Walford. As long as she remains, she'll be drawn to Phil. Again and again and again. Because she still loves him, but he doesn't love her.
I apologise to monalisa62003, but Phil does not love Shirley. His confession of love for her tonight was just another desperate plea to get her back onside, because he fears she's a loose cannon. He's lost his son, his family unit has crumbled around him, the woman he really loves is in Walford at a most inopportune time - actually, I don't know if Phil and Sharon are in any fit state to help each other, but I do think they both need to be around each other more - and he's fearing Shirley will cut loose with what she knows about his involvement in the cover-up. This is why he wants her back under the same roof as he. If that means Phil has to play happy families with Shirley for the next thirty years, he'll do it to safeguard his freedom; but the only other way he has of dealing with her is to get her out of Walford, and that's why he called Carly. Even if she didn't go, Carly, with Shirley's first grandchild, would offer a distraction to Shirley and maybe something positive.
But he isn't doing that for her out of compassion or love. He's doing it out of self-preservation. His remark that because he loves Shirley, he can't take a drink, is just throwing more crumbs of hope her way and a euphemism for him wanting to stay in control.
Shirley doesn't need Phil, but she does need to face her demons and apologise to Heather's memory for failing her, yet again. The one good thing that has come from this has been her bonding with Denise, as a friend. As Kathy and Pat bonded as friends after Pete's death, I always thought the same could happen with Denise and Shirley after Kevin died. If Shirley does stay in Walford, I'd like to see this friendship grow.
The sorry Shaggerline story continues, and just as I said, Kat was the one to infest the Vic with bedbugs because of Shaggerman's infested flat. And, of course, the cryptic messages keep flying about. Kat texting someone; Michael's or Jack's phone gets a message. Michael disappearing here and there; Jack hinting that it's not always blondes he likes.
Listen ... the Shagger is Derek. Why? Because we've seen less of Derek lately than we've seen of any of the usual suspects. Secondly, if Jack, Max or Michael had leased that literal fleapit, there'd be hell to pay. Bedbugs are transmitted by people who hang around infested places like that - so you'd be hearing of Tanya screaming halfway around the Square because the Brannings, with Abi, gurning Oscar and nastynice Lauren being exposed. Janine would certainly have something to say about the situation - again, with a new baby in the house. And Amy and Roxy are staying at Jack's. Close quarters like that and Roxy would certainly notice.
It's none of the above. I'm surprised the Butcher household isn't infected, but Tyler's been away and Whitney's as physically dirty as Kat appears, so I doubt she'd notice. Carol would, however, if she were there.
Anyway, Kat's a total bitch and a dumb one at that. Quite rightly, Alfie doesn't want her back in the Vic before it's been decontaminated. For fuck's sake, they have a small child, and those decontaminants could be deadly for him, but Kat's got to prove a point; and when Alfie, for her own good and for Tommy's safety, refuses to let her return, she takes umbrage and starts texting her Big Dick.
This woman is so narcissistic and vile, it's beyond belief. I realise that Lorraine Newman is pointing this story in a certain direction in an effort to rehabilitate Kat - basically because the EastEnders' production team destroyed her - but really, is it worth it? Are there many people (besides the totally irrelevant, man-hating vald) who really think it's worth the time and effort to rebuild this character? Especially as she's going to be rebuilt via the loss of her husband's integrity.
Nope.
Save the BBC a few quid in an exhorbitant salary and sack her. That ship has sailed. And was sunk by Bryan Kirkwood.
Her attempt at the end to return (successfully) was patently false and pathetic. I hate her, and I used to like the character; and more than Shirley, she looked as though she needed a bath.
Poor Janine is the one for whom I feel sorriest at the moment. Janine is hormonal. She's most likely suffering from PND, as well as still getting over the stress of the last week's of her pregnancy and the treatment she endured during that time.
She's also still grieving for and missing Pat. Yes, she has trust issues. She's remembering her last marriage, and how she was bitterly betrayed within weeks of marrying. She's had that Class A Bitch Kat insinuate that Michael doesn't love her; and she's had that Class B Bitch Tanya insinuate that she wouldn't be at all surprised if Michael were having an affair.
Michael is just as much to blame. He's so hung up on having access to her fortune (I think she was right to remind him that it was her money); he's so fucking secretive and dismissive of her at times. I realise TPTB are trying to convey the fact that he's just as broken as she is and with poor social skills being in a relationship where he's actually loving his wife and daughter, but the pair of them need a mediator.
And here's where Pat would knock heads with them both. She'd confront Michael and tell him his wife didn't need extravagant presents, she just needed to know that she could trust him. (Remember Max bought Tanya expensive things when he would cheat around?) OK, Pat is dead, but Janine is so isolated. Most people whom she would feel comfortable consulting - Dot or Carol - aren't about.
It's heat-wrenching watching her in a spiral, although Billy's "relationship advice" was a light moment. I like the fact that the Billy-Janine friendship has survived all these years, even though at times one has betrayed the other. Apart from her daughter, at the moment, Billy's really the only person she has.
And, finally, Sharon. Tonight I realised that, whenever she's interacting with her son or one of the Brannings, especially Jack, I really hate her. This isn't Sharon, this is some wimp mother. I was also reminded of the fact tonight that when she was with Dennis, her treatment of him veered from the stereotypical caricatured poutiness of a combined Marilyn Monroe imitator crossed with Jessica Rabbit and Miss Piggy and - yes! - a mother with her child. I used to cringe when she referred to Dennis as "mah dahlin' ". I used to cringe when she referred to Grant that way. I'm waiting for her to start referring to DamienDen like that.
The kid is a sissy. He needs a haircut for starters. And a woman wrote this episode tonight, and Sharon's dialogue with DamienDen was bloody awful. My sixteen year-old made a face and looked at me tonight, saying, "Please tell me you never spoke to me that way when I was six."
Trust me, I didn't.
She speaks to him like a three year-old, and - oh, my godfathers! - she's even using the Steve McDonald-baby-voice! OK, I realise maybe they want to convey an overprotective mother, but this is ridiculous.
As for Jack, that was brass. Jack thinks nothing of parading a bevy of strange and nameless women through his flat to breakfast with his daughter, sees his oldest daughter in France once every two or three years, and hasn't seen his son in Portugal since he was born. Yet because he got into DamienDen's mamma's knickers for a night, he's Uncle Jack the Father Figure. Pull the other one! Time for Jack to take a tour of Europe and visit the kids he's dropped in various countries.
Sharon was right to tick him off for assuming parental advice regarding her son. Jack is just some bloke, a port in a storm for DamienDen's mother. She was also right to put him off with the fact that her son was the most important man in her life right now; but - fuck me - in less than five seconds, she's in his face flirting with him. There's something wrong with Sharon - either the writing's bad or there's something we should know about her charaacter but don't ... yet.
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