Saint Dennis and the Queen of the Shippers

vaslav37, the Digital Spy commentator, obviously thinks too much. He thinks so much that he loses the core concept of his thought at the moment - like reckoning that Sharon was going to be revealed as Cora's daughter, when a thousand proof positives that she wasn't could be easily cited.

He's thinking too much again, as evidenced by this thread concerning what he calls the "Post-Dennis Reveal."

Really, people are giving far, far too much credence to the consequences of what will happen once (if it ever happens) Sharon is made aware of the fact that, basically, Phil told Dennis that Jonnie Allen grabbed her by the neck.

Before I go into a more detailed examination of this, as well as sinking a ship sailing into unchartered waters, let's get a couple of things straight:-

• Phil didn't commit a crime. He simply told Dennis what Jonnie had done to Sharon. So Phil can't be put behind bars for this, like some people mistakenly think he can. What's his crime? Being an ugly man who told a pretty man a secret?
• Dennis was 32 years old. OK, he had the mental and emotional maturity of a twelve year-old (which probably explains why Sharon spoke to him in the same way she speaks to Dennis), but he was a grown man.

vaslav37  and his band of merry men seem to think that this big secret will be revealed at Christmas. Someone even thinks Jack will be the one to do the deed. Well, get this straight:-

Christmas 2013 will be ALL ABOUT THE MOONS, and Jack Branning isn't God. He fucking isn't even the Pope.

So who's going to tell Sharon what big, bad Phil did to poor widdle Dennis? Better asked, who's left that knew?

• Dennis knew, and he's dead. That knowledge died with him.
• Jonnie Allen may have sussed, but he's dead too. He seemed to think that Sharon was insipid enough to tell Dennis what happened.
• Danny Moon may have known too (but it's highly doubtful). Anyway, he's dead.
• Jake may have known. I suppose if Danny did know, he may have told him, or perhaps the Mitchell brothers did in the aftermath of Jonnie Week, but - again - that's doubtful. And, anyway, Jake may be dead. He certainly didn't tell Alfie. Con man that he is, Alfie Moon has immense compassion and a conscience.
• Peggy knows. In fact, she was the one who counselled Phil against telling Sharon what he'd done - not for his sake, but for Sharon's. Peggy's gone.
• Grant knows, and Grant's not around either.

There's no reason to think that Peggy would have told anyone like Ronnie, who could then have told Jack. Ronnie was family, but Phil and Grant were Peggy's immediate family, and it's not likely she'd share a secret like that with a niece whom she didn't even recognise when Ronnie arrived. So there's no way super bent cop Jack Branning would know.

Shirley? You're having a laugh now. Phil may have been quite happy to sleep with her, but he certainly shared no secrets with her - certainly not that calibre of tale. As angry as Shirley has been with Phil since Sharon's been back, she'd have lost no time in apprising Sharon of what Phil had done.

So the only person who can actually tell Sharon what happened with Dennis, is Phil. Unless Grant returns. Or Peggy. And I can't really see either of them on the horizon.

I think Phil's little secret will be consigned to the permanent Room 101 of unfinished storylines along with Mark Whateverhisnameis (Grant's secret son with Michelle) and all the post Billy stole. This has been made obvious because - since Sharon collapsed with her son on the place where Dennis met his sticky end - she's never once uttered his name, not even on the anniversary of his death, New Year's Day. Instead, she's been all loved up with Jack the Peg.

And now to a particularly obtuse argument being promoted by Digital Spy's Queen of the Dennis Shippers, KatrinaK.

She can't understand that between a husband and a wife, there has to be 100% of the utmost trust. In everything. That's why Tanya and Max's co-dependent relationship is so sick. That's why Alfie finally got the shits of Kat and kicked her back into the gutter. That's what was so wrong with Janine's relationship with Michael. And that's what doomed any future Sharon would have had with Dennis.

Lack of trust.

You don't have trust, you don't have a marriage. OK, Dennis was sexually abused as a child. He couldn't tell his wife that? Both Kat Moon and Ronnie Mitchell confided their abuse to their husbands; it's why Alfie and Jack made all the allowances they did for their wives' unacceptable behaviour up to a point. And Sharon didn't trust Dennis enough to tell him, "Look, Jonnie Allen's just threatened me and we have to leave Walford. We're having a baby and this place is nothing but a welter of bad memories. Let's leave and start afresh."

She couldn't, because she knew how he'd react. She knew she'd saddled herself with a violent and short-tempered man with a jealous streak and the behaviour patterns of a spoiled child. The person who argues against Queen KatrinaK of the Shipping Forecast, rightly states that, had Dennis actually lived, after beating Jonnie Allen to a pulp and throwing him a lifeline, he'd have been rotting away in Wormwood Scrubs now. Jonnie would have lived to testify, there was CCTV tape in evidence, and Dennis would even have been apprehended, had he actually made it to the US. (Pssst! There's such a thing as Interpol and extradition, you know; besides, with Dennis's criminal record and history of violent crime, he wouldn't have even been allowed to enter the US, even in the company of his wife, who must have possessed either a Green Card or naturalisation papers, allowing her to reside there; he'd have been turned back by officials in the customs' queue. But EastEnders has always been irresponsible in this respect - convincing people it's easy to get back babies you've handed over for adoption, how easy it is to marry someone classed as your legal sibling and how easy it is for anyone with no skill and no training to emigrate to the US or Australia or New Zealand).

Sharon never trusted Dennis, which is why she kept him on a short leash and treated him the way she should be treating Denny now, even to using what can only be described as baby-talk when addressing him. She patronised him in public, and it was clearly evident that she had to keep a rein on his behaviour in a way only a mother would a recalcitrant child. One shudders to think how she would have managed to cope with Dennis and with a baby as well.

But the argument that Sharon only told Phil about Jonnie's threat because he wasn't her husband is simply ludicrous. Here, try this: get married, but make sure you keep a close guy friend on the side. Now, acquire a secret which would affect both you and your spouse. Instead of telling the husband, tell the best guy friend. Now sit back and watch the shit hit the fan, along with your marriage.

Sharon's big character flaw has been her inveterate trust of Phil over everyone else. She trusted Phil over Grant, and she was married to Grant a helluva lot longer than she was married to her brother. As has been pointed out, she wasn't even willing to believe her own husband about Chrissie's part in murdering Den. However, she believed the tale once Phil, her ex-husband and their sister Sam convinced her.

Sharon was meant for the Mitchells. The Bruvs, themselves, were created for her entirely. Dennis was easy on the eye and nice while he lasted; but he was never anything more than a glorified plot contrivance and a pretty boy.

And Phil will tell Sharon his secret in February 2015, just in time for the 30th Anniversary, if the show survives that long.

In the meantime, this one's for Her Majesty of the Shippers:-

Consider this, on another psychological level ... perhaps Sharon told Phil, knowing he'd tell Dennis. That exonerates her of any blame in the event of Dennis's death. When she discovers the truth, it's easier to blame Phil than to blame herself for telling Phil, whilst subconsciously wanting Phil to tell Dennis - who should have finished Jonnie off entirely or not even tried.