I gave this one a nine, because I think Grant has moved on from Sharon. This is the same Grant who acted like a complete and utter arsehole when he was married to Tiffany, complete with sleeping with her mother, and capping everything off by sleeping, later, with Saint Kathy Beale to spite Phil. This is the same newly- metrosexual Grant who came back to Walford and made peace with Sharon.
He's in Portugal, living a life in the sun. If he thinks this is so much of a "sick joke," why didn't he come back and confront Phil about it? And Sam's got no real beef with Sharon. As for Sharon being what Auntie Sal deems a "tramp" or a "slut," maybe they need to look at Sam and her track record a bit more closely. By the way, wasn't it Sam jumping bail that caused Peggy to lose the pub to Archie?
So all that crap that Auntie Sal was spouting was just that - crapiola. Shall I say the word people hate so much as an adjective to qualify it?
Retconned crapiola.
I used to like Sal. She was the only person - and keep in mind that she's a non-Mitchell - who could stand up and administer applicable home truths to the Mitchells and survive the consequences.
Like this:-
But the last time we saw Sal, right before Roxy's abortive wedding, I was astounded at her telling Ronnie how proud she was that she'd return to the scene of her kidnapping crime and was literally thumbing her nose in the faces of the people she'd wronged.
It's really amusing to see the Mitchells go apeshit over Sharon potentially becoming a member of their tribe again, as if she's an ogre of the most massive proportions. Phil can be pushed into marrying a crazed child abuser (at Peggy's instigation), but mention "Sharon" and she's the worst thing to happen to either of the Mitchell brothers. How about Grant repeatedly treating the mother of his child like a piece of shit and being unfaithful to her with Lorraine Wicks and his own mother-in-law? We don't hear anything about that.
Last night, Peggy was ranting and creating in her own mind some sort of fable of Sharon selling the Vic out from under her, when tonight, we find that she's really, really angry about Phil selling the pub. And since when did Sal approve of Shirley? Since when did Sal really have anything to do with Shirley? Sal left the Vic with a bee in her bonnet about Peggy's "fairmly" speech in the summer of 2010, returned briefly that November to moan about not being invited to Ronnie's wedding and to inform Roxy that Amy was going to be a bridesmaid at her father's wedding when he married her aunt and their baby would be both Amy's cousin and half-sibling. When Sal left the first time, Phil was in a crackhouse and Shirley was nowhere to be found. When she reappeared, Phil and Shirley surfaced long enough to steal Roxy's money.
So all of a sudden, Shirley's the best thing since sliced bread for the Mitchells? Peggy would cross the street in a maelstrom of traffic to avoid someone like Shirley in the past. Bar help, but not family potential.
Sal still has some good lines, however ...
(To Ben): ~How was prison?~
Leaving Sal aside, where's Michelle's husband? She sent flowers signed from "Ian, Michelle and Mark Jnr." Michelle's husband is named Tim. He adopted Mark Fowler II, so the child would use his name. Vicki confirmed that when she was last on the Square, and surely we would have had a line in passing if Tim had died or if he and Michelle had divorced. To top that off, Tim would certainly have met Sharon in Florida.
Very bad continuity there.
But there were plenty of positives ...
Ronnie. Yep, that's right. I said "Ronnie." I'm still not a fan, and she's still a killer, who needs a comeuppance for presuming to play God and end another man's life, no matter how bad that man was; but I actually liked her tonight. Usually a barking mad psychopath and control freak and more than borderline creepy, she came across as the only sane voice in a roomful of thugs, idiots and fools tonight.
She, basically, paid lip service to Peggy's demand, which is why she got Phil out of the house and away from Sal, so they could have a reasonable approximation of Phil's feelings towards Sharon. And here's where there's another unintentional comic moment:- Phil's biggest gripe is that Sharon stole from him, and that seems to have caused great consternation, but shit! Phil stole the last bit of money his cousin had, Billy's stolen from family and there he was, bold as brass, making a fry-up for the pre-wedding breakfast. Ronnie's stolen from Phil any number of times, but because Sharon was fleecing Phil, with the aid of Marcus Christie, that's cause for getting the raving hump. The Mitchells really are the world's biggest hypocrites - watchable hypocrites, but hypocrites all the same.
At least, Ronnie took a measured and balanced view of the situation. Phil is conflicted. Sharon "betrayed" him, yet she'd bonded with Ben - as Ben told him, succinctly, that morning, in one of the best lines in the show, Sharon didn't judge him, unlike Shirley. Shirley would never ever change her opinion of Ben, and if Phil and Shirley got together, where would that leave Ben?
Where indeed? Harken back to Shirley's bitch-fueled entitlement attitude to Phil from the night before - Phil could see Ben anytime he wanted, she just didn't want Ben to be anywhere near her. Remind you a bit of Alfie's ultimatum to Roxy about Ronnie?
But Ronnie was the adult in the room. Phil had to make a choice - he had to either marry Sharon or walk away from her. And it was obvious that Ronnie didn't approve of Phil's glorious plan of humiliation.
Had she not have committed murder, I could almost like this version of Ronnie.
Linda Henry. That's the actress, not the vile character she plays. She's so good at making Shirley the lowest common denominator of amoral, entitled behaviour, it's very easy to believe that she becomes her character. I believe Letitia Dean when she says the two women get on so well together that they make mincemeat of the bitch scenes in the programme.
Shirley was at her childish worst tonight. She was the epitome of a jealous, bitter, old crone tonight, from her first scene, holding a cup of tea/coffee dangerously close to Sharon's wedding dress - you could imagine what she was going to do. From the get-go, she had every intention of sabotoging the wedding, and when that didn't work, she resorted to trashing the wedding cake and ripping decorations. All this time in the back of her mind, she was absolutely certain that the worst sort of humiliation awaited Sharon and she was enjoying the suspense.
Even Babe smelled her desperation.
It ain't happening, Babe. She stole from him. (Cue look of horror from that old trout Babe). This is from the woman who's stolen from her brother/son, her son/son and Phil on numerous occasions, not to mention the blackmailing. This is the woman who trashed Ian Beale's restaurant simply because he was Ben's brother. And people recoil in horror at the fact that Sharon stolemoney from Phil. That the horror of such an act comes from a known drug-pusher is all the more hilarious.
Shirley, Queen of Scrotes, whose self-pity at the hand she reckoned was dealt her in life, is so boundless that she rejects any expression of real love towards her, whilst begging for a crumb of the stuff from Phil's table, has a son, who is wordlessly begging for some sort of expression of love from her. He doesn't come out and say it, because he wants her to realise it from the heart, but she keeps being distracted by others in the face of her child. Tonight, Ben, who killed her best friend, employs a subtle manipulation just to dig the knife in and reveal to Shirley what her bitter, unbending nature has cost her. He apologised for killing Heather. He wanted Phil to marry Shirley. Shirley was like a mother to him, and Shirley can respond to none of this - because it would be a betrayal of Heather, but mostly because she has a son - she has two sons - to whom she really needs to be a mother.
This entire storyline is bringing Shirley to the nadir of her existence. Throughout this whole thing, she's been utterly spiteful, hateful, entitled, mean and vindictive. Rotten to the core. After this, there's only one way to go for the character, and that's up; but before she can garner any real sympathy, she has to address why she abandoned her youngest son, who harbours very real and very dangerous rejection issues.
Now she really has hit rock bottom with Phil's rejection, something on which she'd never planned, so cocksure she was of Sharon's humiliation, but now she's found the hidden gun. I think we can hazard a guess at who does the shooting here, but who gets shot?
Alfie and Stacey the Moral Arbiter. Absolutely brilliant. Stacey's another one who has a high moral code, even if she doesn't always live up to it. She recognises Alfie's desperation and why he did what he did, but she also realises, quite rightly, that he needs to tell Kat the truth. Now. But Alfie is always best, as a con artist, when he's on his back foot. The picture of Nana Moon is curiously gone, suddenly, replaced by a picture of Tommy and the twins, in the same picture frame.
No more Nana Moon means no proof that Alfie started the fire, which will probably be brought to light by Stacey to Kat someplace down the line.
Curious question: This was meant to be a Saturday. We saw Denny and Amy, who had parts to play in the wedding, but where were Tommy and the twins? Where was Lily? Where, for that matter, was Janet Mitchell?
Incidentals. Linda, taking her role as "Matron of Honour" seriously. Do I detect a bit of wishful thinking on Linda's part. Mick and Johnny gazing in wonder at the transformed Vic, just about spoke the unspoken whim of Linda.
Johnny: It's ....
Mick: It's what your mother wanted.
This is definitely a step up from a twelve year-old in a bedsheet and lemonade and Smarties at a reception. This is Linda's dream wedding, and the irony wasn't missed when Mick described Linda's role as "Chief Bridesmaid" only to have Nancy remark that it's "Matron of Honour" when the woman is married, and "chief bridesmaid" when she isn't.
The hairdressing scene. Sharon was spooked by Dean's original approximation to Sharon's original hairstyle which she wore when she married Grant. She remembered Shirley's snide remark about that, and although her hair is longer now then then, the front was very similar to the style she wore at her Boxing Day wedding. Plus, Roxy coming around to forgetting her sulk at being demoted to just bridesmaid by Sharon's getting her flowers, and Amy speaking more words in that scene than she'd done all her life on the Square. Another ironic moment when Linda prophesied that Roxy would be the next bride with Aleks asking the question. And the click of chemistry that should be expanded upon when Sharon suggested that Dean bring Stacey to the wedding. It's such a shame that Dean's been given a shelf-life, because this time around, he and Stacey would have worked.
Cora has a rival. Just as well Aunt Sal isn't hanging around.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Letitia Dean and Steve McFadden Have Entered the Building. This is it. This is what we've all been waiting for - well, anyone who remembers the special chemistry that these two have. During the past two years, we've seen brief flashes of it, but it all came to the fore tonight in that delicious scene upstairs in the Vic, and that brilliant line, which:-
This is where it all began, and this is where it ends.
Such a loaded and layered line, which could mean so many, many things with these two. The wonderful irony about that scene and the tragedy of it, is that even when both Sharon and Phil are brutally honest with each other, there are still secrets they aren't sharing, which we know will come out - Phil's infidelity with Shirley and Sharon's possession of Ronnie's gun. Phil thought all of this was about Dennis and got handed his arse when Sharon told him why she'd really tried to fleece him, ending with the double-edged remark, which bought Phil hook, line and sinker - the difference between Sharon and Phil was that she tried to make wrongs right, and he didn't. He never did. Dropping the information about having heard him discuss the raid on The Albert with Shirley made Phil look as if for a moment he may have messed himself.
This was the Sharon of old, and this is exactly how she dealt with the Mitchells and walked away, integrity intact. Phil dishes her shit, she throws it back to him with a garnered home truth and horror that Phil wanted to make a public exhibition the likes of which he'd planned, in front of her child, and in the next breath, he was full of praise for the way Sharon was with Ben. Not good enough for Sharon, she didn't want his acceptance because she was "good with his child". Marriage is the business for love and protection and trust - something she feels short shrift with from Phil, even if she's seen the better side of him with Ben, Jay and the Beales.
And maybe Ronnie's wise words got through to Phil - about how he lectured her re the baby and second chances. He'd hankered after the idea of Sharon all his adult life. She has feet of clay and he still loves her. Now's the time to get what he wants. In that short moment, I think Phil saw Sharon walking away.
And he made his choice.
The chemistry was positively crackling between those two. And I can't wait until Monday.
Brilliant episode.
He's in Portugal, living a life in the sun. If he thinks this is so much of a "sick joke," why didn't he come back and confront Phil about it? And Sam's got no real beef with Sharon. As for Sharon being what Auntie Sal deems a "tramp" or a "slut," maybe they need to look at Sam and her track record a bit more closely. By the way, wasn't it Sam jumping bail that caused Peggy to lose the pub to Archie?
So all that crap that Auntie Sal was spouting was just that - crapiola. Shall I say the word people hate so much as an adjective to qualify it?
Retconned crapiola.
I used to like Sal. She was the only person - and keep in mind that she's a non-Mitchell - who could stand up and administer applicable home truths to the Mitchells and survive the consequences.
Like this:-
But the last time we saw Sal, right before Roxy's abortive wedding, I was astounded at her telling Ronnie how proud she was that she'd return to the scene of her kidnapping crime and was literally thumbing her nose in the faces of the people she'd wronged.
It's really amusing to see the Mitchells go apeshit over Sharon potentially becoming a member of their tribe again, as if she's an ogre of the most massive proportions. Phil can be pushed into marrying a crazed child abuser (at Peggy's instigation), but mention "Sharon" and she's the worst thing to happen to either of the Mitchell brothers. How about Grant repeatedly treating the mother of his child like a piece of shit and being unfaithful to her with Lorraine Wicks and his own mother-in-law? We don't hear anything about that.
Last night, Peggy was ranting and creating in her own mind some sort of fable of Sharon selling the Vic out from under her, when tonight, we find that she's really, really angry about Phil selling the pub. And since when did Sal approve of Shirley? Since when did Sal really have anything to do with Shirley? Sal left the Vic with a bee in her bonnet about Peggy's "fairmly" speech in the summer of 2010, returned briefly that November to moan about not being invited to Ronnie's wedding and to inform Roxy that Amy was going to be a bridesmaid at her father's wedding when he married her aunt and their baby would be both Amy's cousin and half-sibling. When Sal left the first time, Phil was in a crackhouse and Shirley was nowhere to be found. When she reappeared, Phil and Shirley surfaced long enough to steal Roxy's money.
So all of a sudden, Shirley's the best thing since sliced bread for the Mitchells? Peggy would cross the street in a maelstrom of traffic to avoid someone like Shirley in the past. Bar help, but not family potential.
Sal still has some good lines, however ...
(To Ben): ~How was prison?~
Leaving Sal aside, where's Michelle's husband? She sent flowers signed from "Ian, Michelle and Mark Jnr." Michelle's husband is named Tim. He adopted Mark Fowler II, so the child would use his name. Vicki confirmed that when she was last on the Square, and surely we would have had a line in passing if Tim had died or if he and Michelle had divorced. To top that off, Tim would certainly have met Sharon in Florida.
Very bad continuity there.
But there were plenty of positives ...
Ronnie. Yep, that's right. I said "Ronnie." I'm still not a fan, and she's still a killer, who needs a comeuppance for presuming to play God and end another man's life, no matter how bad that man was; but I actually liked her tonight. Usually a barking mad psychopath and control freak and more than borderline creepy, she came across as the only sane voice in a roomful of thugs, idiots and fools tonight.
She, basically, paid lip service to Peggy's demand, which is why she got Phil out of the house and away from Sal, so they could have a reasonable approximation of Phil's feelings towards Sharon. And here's where there's another unintentional comic moment:- Phil's biggest gripe is that Sharon stole from him, and that seems to have caused great consternation, but shit! Phil stole the last bit of money his cousin had, Billy's stolen from family and there he was, bold as brass, making a fry-up for the pre-wedding breakfast. Ronnie's stolen from Phil any number of times, but because Sharon was fleecing Phil, with the aid of Marcus Christie, that's cause for getting the raving hump. The Mitchells really are the world's biggest hypocrites - watchable hypocrites, but hypocrites all the same.
At least, Ronnie took a measured and balanced view of the situation. Phil is conflicted. Sharon "betrayed" him, yet she'd bonded with Ben - as Ben told him, succinctly, that morning, in one of the best lines in the show, Sharon didn't judge him, unlike Shirley. Shirley would never ever change her opinion of Ben, and if Phil and Shirley got together, where would that leave Ben?
Where indeed? Harken back to Shirley's bitch-fueled entitlement attitude to Phil from the night before - Phil could see Ben anytime he wanted, she just didn't want Ben to be anywhere near her. Remind you a bit of Alfie's ultimatum to Roxy about Ronnie?
But Ronnie was the adult in the room. Phil had to make a choice - he had to either marry Sharon or walk away from her. And it was obvious that Ronnie didn't approve of Phil's glorious plan of humiliation.
Had she not have committed murder, I could almost like this version of Ronnie.
Linda Henry. That's the actress, not the vile character she plays. She's so good at making Shirley the lowest common denominator of amoral, entitled behaviour, it's very easy to believe that she becomes her character. I believe Letitia Dean when she says the two women get on so well together that they make mincemeat of the bitch scenes in the programme.
Shirley was at her childish worst tonight. She was the epitome of a jealous, bitter, old crone tonight, from her first scene, holding a cup of tea/coffee dangerously close to Sharon's wedding dress - you could imagine what she was going to do. From the get-go, she had every intention of sabotoging the wedding, and when that didn't work, she resorted to trashing the wedding cake and ripping decorations. All this time in the back of her mind, she was absolutely certain that the worst sort of humiliation awaited Sharon and she was enjoying the suspense.
Even Babe smelled her desperation.
It ain't happening, Babe. She stole from him. (Cue look of horror from that old trout Babe). This is from the woman who's stolen from her brother/son, her son/son and Phil on numerous occasions, not to mention the blackmailing. This is the woman who trashed Ian Beale's restaurant simply because he was Ben's brother. And people recoil in horror at the fact that Sharon stolemoney from Phil. That the horror of such an act comes from a known drug-pusher is all the more hilarious.
Shirley, Queen of Scrotes, whose self-pity at the hand she reckoned was dealt her in life, is so boundless that she rejects any expression of real love towards her, whilst begging for a crumb of the stuff from Phil's table, has a son, who is wordlessly begging for some sort of expression of love from her. He doesn't come out and say it, because he wants her to realise it from the heart, but she keeps being distracted by others in the face of her child. Tonight, Ben, who killed her best friend, employs a subtle manipulation just to dig the knife in and reveal to Shirley what her bitter, unbending nature has cost her. He apologised for killing Heather. He wanted Phil to marry Shirley. Shirley was like a mother to him, and Shirley can respond to none of this - because it would be a betrayal of Heather, but mostly because she has a son - she has two sons - to whom she really needs to be a mother.
This entire storyline is bringing Shirley to the nadir of her existence. Throughout this whole thing, she's been utterly spiteful, hateful, entitled, mean and vindictive. Rotten to the core. After this, there's only one way to go for the character, and that's up; but before she can garner any real sympathy, she has to address why she abandoned her youngest son, who harbours very real and very dangerous rejection issues.
Now she really has hit rock bottom with Phil's rejection, something on which she'd never planned, so cocksure she was of Sharon's humiliation, but now she's found the hidden gun. I think we can hazard a guess at who does the shooting here, but who gets shot?
Alfie and Stacey the Moral Arbiter. Absolutely brilliant. Stacey's another one who has a high moral code, even if she doesn't always live up to it. She recognises Alfie's desperation and why he did what he did, but she also realises, quite rightly, that he needs to tell Kat the truth. Now. But Alfie is always best, as a con artist, when he's on his back foot. The picture of Nana Moon is curiously gone, suddenly, replaced by a picture of Tommy and the twins, in the same picture frame.
No more Nana Moon means no proof that Alfie started the fire, which will probably be brought to light by Stacey to Kat someplace down the line.
Curious question: This was meant to be a Saturday. We saw Denny and Amy, who had parts to play in the wedding, but where were Tommy and the twins? Where was Lily? Where, for that matter, was Janet Mitchell?
Incidentals. Linda, taking her role as "Matron of Honour" seriously. Do I detect a bit of wishful thinking on Linda's part. Mick and Johnny gazing in wonder at the transformed Vic, just about spoke the unspoken whim of Linda.
Johnny: It's ....
Mick: It's what your mother wanted.
This is definitely a step up from a twelve year-old in a bedsheet and lemonade and Smarties at a reception. This is Linda's dream wedding, and the irony wasn't missed when Mick described Linda's role as "Chief Bridesmaid" only to have Nancy remark that it's "Matron of Honour" when the woman is married, and "chief bridesmaid" when she isn't.
The hairdressing scene. Sharon was spooked by Dean's original approximation to Sharon's original hairstyle which she wore when she married Grant. She remembered Shirley's snide remark about that, and although her hair is longer now then then, the front was very similar to the style she wore at her Boxing Day wedding. Plus, Roxy coming around to forgetting her sulk at being demoted to just bridesmaid by Sharon's getting her flowers, and Amy speaking more words in that scene than she'd done all her life on the Square. Another ironic moment when Linda prophesied that Roxy would be the next bride with Aleks asking the question. And the click of chemistry that should be expanded upon when Sharon suggested that Dean bring Stacey to the wedding. It's such a shame that Dean's been given a shelf-life, because this time around, he and Stacey would have worked.
Cora has a rival. Just as well Aunt Sal isn't hanging around.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Letitia Dean and Steve McFadden Have Entered the Building. This is it. This is what we've all been waiting for - well, anyone who remembers the special chemistry that these two have. During the past two years, we've seen brief flashes of it, but it all came to the fore tonight in that delicious scene upstairs in the Vic, and that brilliant line, which:-
This is where it all began, and this is where it ends.
Such a loaded and layered line, which could mean so many, many things with these two. The wonderful irony about that scene and the tragedy of it, is that even when both Sharon and Phil are brutally honest with each other, there are still secrets they aren't sharing, which we know will come out - Phil's infidelity with Shirley and Sharon's possession of Ronnie's gun. Phil thought all of this was about Dennis and got handed his arse when Sharon told him why she'd really tried to fleece him, ending with the double-edged remark, which bought Phil hook, line and sinker - the difference between Sharon and Phil was that she tried to make wrongs right, and he didn't. He never did. Dropping the information about having heard him discuss the raid on The Albert with Shirley made Phil look as if for a moment he may have messed himself.
This was the Sharon of old, and this is exactly how she dealt with the Mitchells and walked away, integrity intact. Phil dishes her shit, she throws it back to him with a garnered home truth and horror that Phil wanted to make a public exhibition the likes of which he'd planned, in front of her child, and in the next breath, he was full of praise for the way Sharon was with Ben. Not good enough for Sharon, she didn't want his acceptance because she was "good with his child". Marriage is the business for love and protection and trust - something she feels short shrift with from Phil, even if she's seen the better side of him with Ben, Jay and the Beales.
And maybe Ronnie's wise words got through to Phil - about how he lectured her re the baby and second chances. He'd hankered after the idea of Sharon all his adult life. She has feet of clay and he still loves her. Now's the time to get what he wants. In that short moment, I think Phil saw Sharon walking away.
And he made his choice.
The chemistry was positively crackling between those two. And I can't wait until Monday.
Brilliant episode.
