If this were an opera of the Masood tragedy, can you imagine Zainab and Masood singing this?
Well, she's gone back to Paksitan, with adorable Kamil in tow - that's Kamil, who, at three, was more easily understandable and handled dialogue better than the combined efforts of Tyler, Joey and the Little Cock.
This was another surprisingly good episode, with some interesting touches. (Appreciate it while you can; the Branningfest returns next week.) The juxtaposition of Tyler and Whitney and their engagement party, a young couple just starting out on the road to matrimony; that juxtaposed even further with the sour-faced Bianca's malign disapproval, even further juxtaposed with Carol's surprisingly hopeful outlook for Whitney - all of this played against the Masoods dissecting the last remnants of their relationship in a brutally honest, yet tender way. And that played out against the incessant ticking of the clock, which began last night's episode, and amplified tonight's, ticking out the remaining minutes of the Masoods' relationship.
Masoods No More.
Time's running out for Zainab and Masood, and some brutal home truths were admitted tonight.
However, Zainab will never admit the truth - that her attitude throughout thirty years of marriage gradually wore Masood down to such a degree that he couldn't go on living with her. Did he love her? Yes, and he still does; but he knows that nothing will change her, he knows that - as much as she loved and loves him - she will continue to push, cajole and nag him, disdaining him as an underachiever.
That Zainab was the driving force in the Masood family is without dispute. She drove all of them beyond what they could conceivably achieve and then reacted to their failures as a personal affront.
Masood is right. He's an "OK bloke." But that isn't enough for Zainab. One of the things which attracted her, once again and for the first time, to her original arranged husband Yusef, when he returned again and entered her life. He was a doctor, and Masood a postman. Zainab's high opinion of herself and her family in comparison to others was her guiding light.
Masood had just had enough. This was never about Ayesha - and, almost to the end, Zainab was virtually insisting that it was, because it was easy for her to rationalise Masood's behavioiur as indicative of a man attracted to a much-younger and more attractive woman than the wife he'd grown accustomed to after 30 years of marriage.
Last night on Digital Sky Soap fora, a lot of people were amazed that the Masoods were splitting up over something apparently so trivial as her putting too much salt in his food or not noticing that he'd grown a beard. It may seem trivial, but marriages do break up over mundane things such as these as often as they do dysfunctional behaviour like that of the Brannings across the Square.
Another thing Zainab admitted, and it was a sad admission, was that, whilst Masood had forged friendships and alliances in the Square, she hadn't. She had never integrated herself properly with the people who lived in Walford. Zainab always looked down upon her fellow residents. They were the great unwashed, the infidels. As much as she integrated was her eventual, yet sudden and OTT acceptance of Christian as part of the Masood dynamic. In the end, she couldn't even admit that Denise was her friend, referring to her as "that Denise."
Life in the Masood abode was whatever way Zainab wanted things done. She was a bully and another self-victimiser. It may have been the world's best-kept secret or yet another piece of Eastenders' retcon empire which prompted Masood to say that the two weeks Zainab left, when he kicked her out in October proved to him that the household got long fine in her absence.
Er ... did it?
I seem to recall Ajay and some missing money, a motorbike he repaired and then bought and dancing girls.
We'll see how this pans out now that she's left, ostensibly on an extended holiday. There won't be a wedding, so there won't be a divorce; and whether or not Zainab returns or Masood leaves to join her will depend on the actor, in the latter possibility, or whoever the EP happens to be when it's decided that they really, really, really, really need Zainab back.
The Happy Couple Shitney.
The engagement party was a motley affair tonight, and prior to the party, I'm glad Arthur stepped up to the plate for Tamwar, telling him he needed to take a night off from his family.
I was surprised to see Jay and Abi in attendance at the party tonight. Not only are they well out of the demographic of Brat Pack I, Abi is considerably younger than the rest. Clock the remarks regarding the happy couple of the moment: Arthur's cryptic remarks about marrying more than one time (does Poppy know he's had a marriage annulled?), Abi remarking that she wants to travel and get a career before settling down (which means she'll get up the duff when she sleeps with Jay next week and then fail her exams); and Whitney spontaneously remarking that she wants travel and a career too (then why's she marrying Tyler?) I was also surprised that Joey wasn't there, but considering he's been bullying the bride-to-be and was bopped by the groom, I take it he wasn't welcome.
As for Lauren, she was there for the free booze. Kudos to Lucy, who had other things on her mind and who now knows what "friends" her "friends" really are. Lauren is just a foul piece of work, and Lucy was right to ask Abi pointedly if her sister were capable of going anyplace without getting drunk.
The short answer is "no." She doesn't give a rat's arse about one friend's happiness or another's health scare. Lauren cares only about Lauren. I hope her liver rots.
The nice surprise about this other storyline was Carol's positive attitude toward Whitney and Tyler's engagement. Unlike Bianca, who's put a downer on the thing based on her own experience (a pejorative experience that was her fault, although - like most women in Walford - she'd never admit it), Carol thinks you have to look at a new couple in love and starting out with hope. They just might be the ones who'll make it (which means that Whitney and Tyler won't). Still, it was nice to see Carol give Tyler a hug and welcome him to the family. That's the Butchers and the Beales, instead of the rancid-eating Brannings.
Bianca is still poor ...
... but it's good to know she can always find money or someone to stump up for a double vodka and tonic. Hey ... wait a moment ... hasn't Bianca spent all that day, well into the evening, drinking in the pub with Katshit and Ajay? She was giggling inanely when she left, long enough to go home, give the kids some chicken nuggets, puke up her drink from the afternoon, make a bitchy comment about Whitney's engagement and return to the pub again?
Oh, and she's as good as divorced? As good as, but not quite. Does Legal Aid fund divorces? Because solicitors cost money.
Observation: This is the first episode where the equally vile Tiffany was seen, but, mercifully, not heard.
Tamwar and Lucy.
In a rare and inspired moment of emotional bonding, Tamwar and Lucy find themselves together at the bar of the Vic. An engagement party is the least important thing for both of them, as one's parents' are splitting and an aborted wedding was the start of the other's father's mental breakdown. Tamwar confides to Lucy about Masood and Zainab, and in the end, Lucy tells him she found a lump and is awaiting her biopsy results. It was a nice moment, although the fact that the visit to the doctor by Lucy and Denise, who appeared at the engagement soiree from out of nowhere, was done off-screen, lending credence to the assumption that Lucy's cancer scare will be just that, a scare; and that it will be a B-Lister storyline, backburnered in favour of Lauren drinking herself into oblivion and more Branning woes.
They return next week.
Puke.
Well, she's gone back to Paksitan, with adorable Kamil in tow - that's Kamil, who, at three, was more easily understandable and handled dialogue better than the combined efforts of Tyler, Joey and the Little Cock.
This was another surprisingly good episode, with some interesting touches. (Appreciate it while you can; the Branningfest returns next week.) The juxtaposition of Tyler and Whitney and their engagement party, a young couple just starting out on the road to matrimony; that juxtaposed even further with the sour-faced Bianca's malign disapproval, even further juxtaposed with Carol's surprisingly hopeful outlook for Whitney - all of this played against the Masoods dissecting the last remnants of their relationship in a brutally honest, yet tender way. And that played out against the incessant ticking of the clock, which began last night's episode, and amplified tonight's, ticking out the remaining minutes of the Masoods' relationship.
Masoods No More.
Time's running out for Zainab and Masood, and some brutal home truths were admitted tonight.
However, Zainab will never admit the truth - that her attitude throughout thirty years of marriage gradually wore Masood down to such a degree that he couldn't go on living with her. Did he love her? Yes, and he still does; but he knows that nothing will change her, he knows that - as much as she loved and loves him - she will continue to push, cajole and nag him, disdaining him as an underachiever.
That Zainab was the driving force in the Masood family is without dispute. She drove all of them beyond what they could conceivably achieve and then reacted to their failures as a personal affront.
Masood is right. He's an "OK bloke." But that isn't enough for Zainab. One of the things which attracted her, once again and for the first time, to her original arranged husband Yusef, when he returned again and entered her life. He was a doctor, and Masood a postman. Zainab's high opinion of herself and her family in comparison to others was her guiding light.
Masood had just had enough. This was never about Ayesha - and, almost to the end, Zainab was virtually insisting that it was, because it was easy for her to rationalise Masood's behavioiur as indicative of a man attracted to a much-younger and more attractive woman than the wife he'd grown accustomed to after 30 years of marriage.
Last night on Digital Sky Soap fora, a lot of people were amazed that the Masoods were splitting up over something apparently so trivial as her putting too much salt in his food or not noticing that he'd grown a beard. It may seem trivial, but marriages do break up over mundane things such as these as often as they do dysfunctional behaviour like that of the Brannings across the Square.
Another thing Zainab admitted, and it was a sad admission, was that, whilst Masood had forged friendships and alliances in the Square, she hadn't. She had never integrated herself properly with the people who lived in Walford. Zainab always looked down upon her fellow residents. They were the great unwashed, the infidels. As much as she integrated was her eventual, yet sudden and OTT acceptance of Christian as part of the Masood dynamic. In the end, she couldn't even admit that Denise was her friend, referring to her as "that Denise."
Life in the Masood abode was whatever way Zainab wanted things done. She was a bully and another self-victimiser. It may have been the world's best-kept secret or yet another piece of Eastenders' retcon empire which prompted Masood to say that the two weeks Zainab left, when he kicked her out in October proved to him that the household got long fine in her absence.
Er ... did it?
I seem to recall Ajay and some missing money, a motorbike he repaired and then bought and dancing girls.
We'll see how this pans out now that she's left, ostensibly on an extended holiday. There won't be a wedding, so there won't be a divorce; and whether or not Zainab returns or Masood leaves to join her will depend on the actor, in the latter possibility, or whoever the EP happens to be when it's decided that they really, really, really, really need Zainab back.
The Happy Couple Shitney.
The engagement party was a motley affair tonight, and prior to the party, I'm glad Arthur stepped up to the plate for Tamwar, telling him he needed to take a night off from his family.
I was surprised to see Jay and Abi in attendance at the party tonight. Not only are they well out of the demographic of Brat Pack I, Abi is considerably younger than the rest. Clock the remarks regarding the happy couple of the moment: Arthur's cryptic remarks about marrying more than one time (does Poppy know he's had a marriage annulled?), Abi remarking that she wants to travel and get a career before settling down (which means she'll get up the duff when she sleeps with Jay next week and then fail her exams); and Whitney spontaneously remarking that she wants travel and a career too (then why's she marrying Tyler?) I was also surprised that Joey wasn't there, but considering he's been bullying the bride-to-be and was bopped by the groom, I take it he wasn't welcome.
As for Lauren, she was there for the free booze. Kudos to Lucy, who had other things on her mind and who now knows what "friends" her "friends" really are. Lauren is just a foul piece of work, and Lucy was right to ask Abi pointedly if her sister were capable of going anyplace without getting drunk.
The short answer is "no." She doesn't give a rat's arse about one friend's happiness or another's health scare. Lauren cares only about Lauren. I hope her liver rots.
The nice surprise about this other storyline was Carol's positive attitude toward Whitney and Tyler's engagement. Unlike Bianca, who's put a downer on the thing based on her own experience (a pejorative experience that was her fault, although - like most women in Walford - she'd never admit it), Carol thinks you have to look at a new couple in love and starting out with hope. They just might be the ones who'll make it (which means that Whitney and Tyler won't). Still, it was nice to see Carol give Tyler a hug and welcome him to the family. That's the Butchers and the Beales, instead of the rancid-eating Brannings.
Bianca is still poor ...
... but it's good to know she can always find money or someone to stump up for a double vodka and tonic. Hey ... wait a moment ... hasn't Bianca spent all that day, well into the evening, drinking in the pub with Katshit and Ajay? She was giggling inanely when she left, long enough to go home, give the kids some chicken nuggets, puke up her drink from the afternoon, make a bitchy comment about Whitney's engagement and return to the pub again?
Oh, and she's as good as divorced? As good as, but not quite. Does Legal Aid fund divorces? Because solicitors cost money.
Observation: This is the first episode where the equally vile Tiffany was seen, but, mercifully, not heard.
Tamwar and Lucy.
In a rare and inspired moment of emotional bonding, Tamwar and Lucy find themselves together at the bar of the Vic. An engagement party is the least important thing for both of them, as one's parents' are splitting and an aborted wedding was the start of the other's father's mental breakdown. Tamwar confides to Lucy about Masood and Zainab, and in the end, Lucy tells him she found a lump and is awaiting her biopsy results. It was a nice moment, although the fact that the visit to the doctor by Lucy and Denise, who appeared at the engagement soiree from out of nowhere, was done off-screen, lending credence to the assumption that Lucy's cancer scare will be just that, a scare; and that it will be a B-Lister storyline, backburnered in favour of Lauren drinking herself into oblivion and more Branning woes.
They return next week.
Puke.
Zainab crying ''You ARE my best friend'' nearly set me off in floods, and I'm usually a hard-faced moo (apart from when Wellard died!!)
ReplyDeleteMe 2 but what about Denise, she was there for Z with Ysef and Z was there for her after her after Lucas, i Didn't like she left w/o saying anything to her, if Ajay had spilled the beans D would have gone over there but apparently after all they have been thru she still doesn't rate.
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