Hello, It's Me.
Wow, something strange happened in that episode tonight. We had a bit of consistency.
David Beale returned. That's right. Beale. Because that's who he is. The name Wicks was acquired when his mother left his dad, pregnant with Brian Wicks's child - that would be Simon, not David.
David is all Beale, just like his daughter, just like his brother - all mouth and no trousers, arrogant, condescending, disdaining, able to turn on the charm and also just as able to weasel out of a situation when there is a need for it.
Ian Beale crying.
Bianca shouting, 'Ow'm ah gonna feed mah kids.
David turning to Carol for comfort sex.
Been there, done that. All Beale, and especially Pete's firstborn, right down to Pete's braying, bragging voice.
A couple of days ago, in anticipation of this most recent Second Coming, I watched David's initial exit from the Square back in 1996, in disgrace as usual. The numpties on Bullyboi Direct and Digital Spy who believe in Bryan Kirkwood's David need to know that most of that, and most of the love affair with Carol was retconned shit.
David Beale Wicks, tonight, was a continuation of the man who left the Square in the rain, in 1996, crying behind the wheel of his car with his schizophrenic teenaged son, Joe, crying after him in the wet. As David explained brilliantly to his ex-wife Lorraine in 1996, he can't commit. He's incapable of it. It's why he walked out on her, leaving her to bring up their two small children on her own. He didn't even know, when he arrived on the Square in 1993, that his daughter Karen had died.
He'd spent time in prison for tax fraud, so we know that, as a person, he's totally dishonest. It was that dishonesty - teaming up with Barry Evans to sell cut-and-shuts - which led to Pat meeting and subsequently marrying Roy.
Freed from Kirkwood's incessant retconning, David was true to his form tonight, full of home truths for Carol even right down to a contingency plan.
Here's the truth: Carol and David were never love's young dream. They were an adolescent fumble behind the bike sheds that led to Bianca. David conned 200 quid out of Pete Beale for Carol's abortion which she never had. The only times, subsequent to that, that he's sought sexual solace from Carol has been when he's been down on his luck. In 1996, this was a weekend after he'd been discovered to have been sleeping with his brother's wife, Cindy, and she'd absconded Walford with two of the three Beale children. He was, then, a virtual pariah. Even his mother and his Auntie Pauline avoided him like the plague.
Coincidentally, Carol was smarting, herself, from having discovered Alan had been unfaithful, so they got together - for one weekend only before they called it quits.
The next time they got together was right after Pat's death, when David was grieving. He abandoned her because her brothers called the right shot in apprising that he'd leave Walford and abandon Carol - much in the same way he would have probably abandoned Naomi.
As he said tonight and as he told Lorraine seventeen years ago, it's what he does.
He walked out on a wife and two young children because he couldn't cope with being a father and husband. When he left Walford in 1996, he trailed his brother's marriage, which he destroyed, in his wake, as well as a daughter who'd barely known him and a mentally challenged son. As he said tonight, he runs away. It's what he's done all his life and it was what he was doing tonight.
Both David and Ian like the trappings of success - the flash cars and lifestyle, the trophy women - but Ian grafts for the lot and David cuts corners. David runs away, and Ian - until now - has picked up the pieces. Both are weak men.
I was glad to see Ashdown, freed from Kirkwood, indulge in some consistency with David tonight - the memory of Pat being a less-than-perfect parent with David's recollection of thinking every mother smelled of brandy because Pat did, the nod about Carol's being honest only when it suits her. That's true as well, because we know that she lied to him about Bianca (as well as Bianca lying to Ricky about Tiffany). There was even a clever nod to Ashdown's retconning of the Brannings over the years with David's remark about Carol getting her "brothers" to beat him up, upon learning of Derek's "untimely demise."
When David first learned that Bianca was his daughter, Pat and Pauline called a conflab in the launderette to get to the bottom of the matter, closing up shop and summoning Carol and David to tell their respective sides of the story. David relayed the fact that Carol's three older brothers had beaten him up.
As the years passed, we eventually arrived at the situation where Carol had one older brothers and two younger ones who'd have been little more than toddlers. Go figure. Even the ludicrous show-down in January 2012 between the Branning men and David, for no real reason whatsoever other than to reveal that Jack may or may not have aided Derek in disposing of a body (an interesting piece of information which was never followed up) was a cack-handed allusion to Derek beating up David whilst Max and Jack nipped his ankles.
There was another strange interlude tonight in David's scene with Tiffany, another unbearable child. I find it difficult to fathom that Bianca's children seem to be unaware that Ian Beale is their great-uncle or that, indeed, Bobby and Tiffany are cousins. It doesn't help facts that writers increasingly make Bianca refer to Ian as "Ian Beale" when even as recently as a couple of months ago, Ian openly acknowledged that Bianca was his niece to Carl and he pointedly reminded her that she was family. Yet Tiffany is not only unaware that she and Bobby are related, she's further unaware that her grandfather is Bobby's uncle.
Go figure that one.
Still, yet more consistency reigned here. When Tiffany opined that Ian Beale wasn't nice and asked David if he agreed, David disagreed. Harken back, once again, to David's departure in 1996, when he went to try to make peace with Ian, in light of him having destroyed Ian's marriage. Ian handed him his arse, reminding him that because of what David had done, he'd lost Cindy and two of his children. David was chastened. Far be it for him to acknowledge Ian was a bad man when David was part and parcel of the way Ian is today. A big part of Ian's problem with Bianca is that she is David's daughter.
It's going to be interesting to see David within the dynamic of the Beale clan now that the twins are grown and Cindy's other daughter is on the Square. Another interesting connection for him is his step-sister Janine. (I keep reiterating this, but people need to realise that Janine is also Phil Mitchell's step-sister too).
This is why the element of consistency is important in continuing drama: history. Unfortunately, this has been lost through Kirkwood's and Newman's incessant pandering to the millenial element, embodied fully in the dire Digital Spy contributor Zack06, for whom no character's history is relevant to the present. This, more than anything, has been the programme's major problem in recent years.
Keeping this in mind, David's scenes with Carol played out in Pat's old bedroom, where she died and where he romped the beds with Carol (and where she hoped to romp the beds with Masood), was totally in character with David as the dodgy, insincere player that he is.
He doesn't love Carol, and he didn't come back for her. The letters he wrote were, most likely written when he was at a low point. He stopped by to give Bianca money and to leg it, with the leggy blonde. He was toying with Carol, raising her doubts about her relationship with Masood, and - once again - playing mind games. David has a thing about women in other relationships - it's what attracted him to Cindy, it's what attracted him to Simon's wife, it's what attracted him to Naomi and now that Carol's in another relationship, he's got an urge to bust that one too.
As for this relationship with Masood, interesting that Masood wouldn't touch alcohol because his faith proscribed it. Well, his faith also proscribes intimacy with infidel women, which is exactly what Carol is - and David is right. For anything serious, Carol would have to convert; because Masood's sleeping with her defiles him. Does Carol or do any of the writers, Ashdown included, know this?
That, and the Beale malarkey were the only weak spots in this episode. I actually liked the character of Naomi, and I hope the actress gets her wish and returns. In fact, I liked the character of Don, her husband. Now that's the sort of opposition to the Mitchells that's needed in Walford.
A good welcome back for David, as long as he's not Grandadded down and settled with Carol. As harsh as it seems, Naomi was right. She's a frump, and as for her being David's ex, there's been a lot of bulls crossed those cattle guards since that time. It's a sad thing to say, but Carol's one of the more promiscuous women characters on the Square, and she's old enough to know better.
David has to remain a player and not be weighed down under the confines of a cardigan, slippers and reading the grandchildren bedtime stories.
Let's see what happens.
Wow, something strange happened in that episode tonight. We had a bit of consistency.
David Beale returned. That's right. Beale. Because that's who he is. The name Wicks was acquired when his mother left his dad, pregnant with Brian Wicks's child - that would be Simon, not David.
David is all Beale, just like his daughter, just like his brother - all mouth and no trousers, arrogant, condescending, disdaining, able to turn on the charm and also just as able to weasel out of a situation when there is a need for it.
Ian Beale crying.
Bianca shouting, 'Ow'm ah gonna feed mah kids.
David turning to Carol for comfort sex.
Been there, done that. All Beale, and especially Pete's firstborn, right down to Pete's braying, bragging voice.
A couple of days ago, in anticipation of this most recent Second Coming, I watched David's initial exit from the Square back in 1996, in disgrace as usual. The numpties on Bullyboi Direct and Digital Spy who believe in Bryan Kirkwood's David need to know that most of that, and most of the love affair with Carol was retconned shit.
David Beale Wicks, tonight, was a continuation of the man who left the Square in the rain, in 1996, crying behind the wheel of his car with his schizophrenic teenaged son, Joe, crying after him in the wet. As David explained brilliantly to his ex-wife Lorraine in 1996, he can't commit. He's incapable of it. It's why he walked out on her, leaving her to bring up their two small children on her own. He didn't even know, when he arrived on the Square in 1993, that his daughter Karen had died.
He'd spent time in prison for tax fraud, so we know that, as a person, he's totally dishonest. It was that dishonesty - teaming up with Barry Evans to sell cut-and-shuts - which led to Pat meeting and subsequently marrying Roy.
Freed from Kirkwood's incessant retconning, David was true to his form tonight, full of home truths for Carol even right down to a contingency plan.
Here's the truth: Carol and David were never love's young dream. They were an adolescent fumble behind the bike sheds that led to Bianca. David conned 200 quid out of Pete Beale for Carol's abortion which she never had. The only times, subsequent to that, that he's sought sexual solace from Carol has been when he's been down on his luck. In 1996, this was a weekend after he'd been discovered to have been sleeping with his brother's wife, Cindy, and she'd absconded Walford with two of the three Beale children. He was, then, a virtual pariah. Even his mother and his Auntie Pauline avoided him like the plague.
Coincidentally, Carol was smarting, herself, from having discovered Alan had been unfaithful, so they got together - for one weekend only before they called it quits.
The next time they got together was right after Pat's death, when David was grieving. He abandoned her because her brothers called the right shot in apprising that he'd leave Walford and abandon Carol - much in the same way he would have probably abandoned Naomi.
As he said tonight and as he told Lorraine seventeen years ago, it's what he does.
He walked out on a wife and two young children because he couldn't cope with being a father and husband. When he left Walford in 1996, he trailed his brother's marriage, which he destroyed, in his wake, as well as a daughter who'd barely known him and a mentally challenged son. As he said tonight, he runs away. It's what he's done all his life and it was what he was doing tonight.
Both David and Ian like the trappings of success - the flash cars and lifestyle, the trophy women - but Ian grafts for the lot and David cuts corners. David runs away, and Ian - until now - has picked up the pieces. Both are weak men.
I was glad to see Ashdown, freed from Kirkwood, indulge in some consistency with David tonight - the memory of Pat being a less-than-perfect parent with David's recollection of thinking every mother smelled of brandy because Pat did, the nod about Carol's being honest only when it suits her. That's true as well, because we know that she lied to him about Bianca (as well as Bianca lying to Ricky about Tiffany). There was even a clever nod to Ashdown's retconning of the Brannings over the years with David's remark about Carol getting her "brothers" to beat him up, upon learning of Derek's "untimely demise."
When David first learned that Bianca was his daughter, Pat and Pauline called a conflab in the launderette to get to the bottom of the matter, closing up shop and summoning Carol and David to tell their respective sides of the story. David relayed the fact that Carol's three older brothers had beaten him up.
As the years passed, we eventually arrived at the situation where Carol had one older brothers and two younger ones who'd have been little more than toddlers. Go figure. Even the ludicrous show-down in January 2012 between the Branning men and David, for no real reason whatsoever other than to reveal that Jack may or may not have aided Derek in disposing of a body (an interesting piece of information which was never followed up) was a cack-handed allusion to Derek beating up David whilst Max and Jack nipped his ankles.
There was another strange interlude tonight in David's scene with Tiffany, another unbearable child. I find it difficult to fathom that Bianca's children seem to be unaware that Ian Beale is their great-uncle or that, indeed, Bobby and Tiffany are cousins. It doesn't help facts that writers increasingly make Bianca refer to Ian as "Ian Beale" when even as recently as a couple of months ago, Ian openly acknowledged that Bianca was his niece to Carl and he pointedly reminded her that she was family. Yet Tiffany is not only unaware that she and Bobby are related, she's further unaware that her grandfather is Bobby's uncle.
Go figure that one.
Still, yet more consistency reigned here. When Tiffany opined that Ian Beale wasn't nice and asked David if he agreed, David disagreed. Harken back, once again, to David's departure in 1996, when he went to try to make peace with Ian, in light of him having destroyed Ian's marriage. Ian handed him his arse, reminding him that because of what David had done, he'd lost Cindy and two of his children. David was chastened. Far be it for him to acknowledge Ian was a bad man when David was part and parcel of the way Ian is today. A big part of Ian's problem with Bianca is that she is David's daughter.
It's going to be interesting to see David within the dynamic of the Beale clan now that the twins are grown and Cindy's other daughter is on the Square. Another interesting connection for him is his step-sister Janine. (I keep reiterating this, but people need to realise that Janine is also Phil Mitchell's step-sister too).
This is why the element of consistency is important in continuing drama: history. Unfortunately, this has been lost through Kirkwood's and Newman's incessant pandering to the millenial element, embodied fully in the dire Digital Spy contributor Zack06, for whom no character's history is relevant to the present. This, more than anything, has been the programme's major problem in recent years.
Keeping this in mind, David's scenes with Carol played out in Pat's old bedroom, where she died and where he romped the beds with Carol (and where she hoped to romp the beds with Masood), was totally in character with David as the dodgy, insincere player that he is.
He doesn't love Carol, and he didn't come back for her. The letters he wrote were, most likely written when he was at a low point. He stopped by to give Bianca money and to leg it, with the leggy blonde. He was toying with Carol, raising her doubts about her relationship with Masood, and - once again - playing mind games. David has a thing about women in other relationships - it's what attracted him to Cindy, it's what attracted him to Simon's wife, it's what attracted him to Naomi and now that Carol's in another relationship, he's got an urge to bust that one too.
As for this relationship with Masood, interesting that Masood wouldn't touch alcohol because his faith proscribed it. Well, his faith also proscribes intimacy with infidel women, which is exactly what Carol is - and David is right. For anything serious, Carol would have to convert; because Masood's sleeping with her defiles him. Does Carol or do any of the writers, Ashdown included, know this?
That, and the Beale malarkey were the only weak spots in this episode. I actually liked the character of Naomi, and I hope the actress gets her wish and returns. In fact, I liked the character of Don, her husband. Now that's the sort of opposition to the Mitchells that's needed in Walford.
A good welcome back for David, as long as he's not Grandadded down and settled with Carol. As harsh as it seems, Naomi was right. She's a frump, and as for her being David's ex, there's been a lot of bulls crossed those cattle guards since that time. It's a sad thing to say, but Carol's one of the more promiscuous women characters on the Square, and she's old enough to know better.
David has to remain a player and not be weighed down under the confines of a cardigan, slippers and reading the grandchildren bedtime stories.
Let's see what happens.
I think of Bianca as a person on two halves. First off, every Branning woman has to scream or screech. Considering that Bianca was the first (apart from Carol), I suppose the ones that followed were just written with that characteristic. Even Carol is not above the odd shouting match. Branning Women also have to have alcohol issues, so I am surprised Bianca hasnt yet.
ReplyDeleteBut I am looking forward to seeing more Beale side of her come out.
PP
It's good to see David Wicks (Beale) back. He needs to remain the uncomitted lothario that he always was and there's massive potential, as you say, with Cindy's kids being grown up to revisit the ghosts of 1996.
ReplyDeleteIt has always annoyed me that there seems to be little acknowledgement from Bianca's family that they are Ian's family too, which is probably why the weird cross-generational "puppy love" incest hasn't drawn as much comment as it should.
Thanks so much for another well-written and informative post! Can't begin to tell you how much I look forward to reading them.
ReplyDelete