Is it possible to like an episode and yet to feel great consternation at the overt hypocrisy and ignorance of some characters? I think it is.
Examples:-
Alex. Alex is quick to label Alfie a liar, a cheat and a thief, but that's a bit pot-meet-kettle. One of the first things I remember Alex doing is pocketing the pitch fees Bianca and Kat had given to Tamwar, lying to Tamwar about making out a receipt later on. So not only was that lying, it was also stealing - two of the three sins of which he accused Alfie. He wasn't averse to taking bribes either, because wasn't that the way Alfie originally got his pitch - by throwing Aleks some money and a share of the profits for the first few months? Aleks is in a relationship with Roxy. Until recently, she thought he was a single man. He isn't, and he refuses to end his marriage. He is, effectively cheating on his wife. He is a cheat - again, something of which he accused Alfie. He was also part and parcel of the spray tan scam on Bianca's stall - a scam, another thing of which he accused Alfie. His vendetta is entirely against the Moons because Alfie exposed him as a liar and a cheat, himself; and he's now including Kat in his vendetta. He could give a rat's arse about the Moons' situation, and maybe he shouldn't, but then again, he has no right to take the moral high ground. Aleks has a child who lives in another country. It wouldn't surprise me if he's claiming child benefit here, which is illegal.
Phil's Gullibility. Of course, Marcus lied to save his skin. But Phil's either become a victim of the latest stupefication epidemic trolling the Square or he's a victim of early onset dementia, because he should know Sharon well enough to know that she's soft-hearted enough with those people with whom she has a long-standing familiarity and that she's open-minded enough to see the wider picture. Did she tell Marcus about what Phil did? I don't remember. Phil should remember that when Sharon hates someone, that hatred is open and visceral - think Cindy Beale, whom she hated after Cindy broke her and Wicksy up. Sharon is incapable of dissembling and deceiving. Had she have decided to leave Grant for Phil all those years ago, the first thing she would have done is told Grant and accept the consequences. Because Grant was in such a vulnerable state, she chose to end the affair with Phil and return to Grant. If Sharon had really wanted to blame Phil for Dennis's death after his confession, she'd have been on a plane for Florida months ago - in fact, within a few weeks of his confession. He should know Sharon well enough to know that she's utterly incapable of bitchery and dissembling, no matter what the present writers' room might want to depict.
Instead, he chose to believe Marcus, the only man left standing who successfully scammed the Mitchells. Phil would believe a bent brief, who'd done his family over, rather than stop and ask himself why Sharon would approach Marcus, or if he should even believe Marcus. The old, deliberate, analytical Phil would have done just that, and then, we would have had a brilliant two-header with Sharon and Phil akin to the episode we had back in 2002, when Sharon was in a relationship with retconned Fireman Tom, something that would get everything out into the open - Sharon's feelings about Dennis, what happened in the States, Phil's concerns for Ben. But no, it's far easier to close Phil's mind off to anything other than getting revenge on someone he now believes hates him. Well, he's lucky Sharon doesn't hate him - having two thugs beat you up would make most women run a mile. Still, Phil's got his doormat onside now. Lest we forget, Phil covered up the identity of the murderer of Shirley's so-called best friend for months. But no one ever mentions Heather's name anymore. Shirley can goo and daa over her son, but she'd throw George under a bus if it meant getting back with Phil. She's really a bitter and jealous woman, but the entire episode served as confirmation of the fact that Kat, Linda and Sharon are all the victims in the tragedies that are about to occur.
Alfie's got insurance, but he can't pay the rent. Actually, it looks as though he'd just taken out that home and contents insurance, which is sorta kinda weird only in the fact that, if he did, he'd have to pay the first instalment there and then - usually through a debit or credit card payment or cash, if you're dealing with an insurance broker. If he's just taken this out, and he's planning this fire, then the insurance company will surely smell a rat. Even if it's been in force for awhile, it's impossible to fathom how they could have paid insurance premiums, yet not paid the rent.
It seemed from Stacey's getting the post tonight that it's Big Mo, who's been in receipt of all this documentation. Where is Big Mo in all of this? She is the principal tenant. Does she even live there? If she doesn't, maybe she's charged the Moons with paying the rent, and they haven't been. We certainly need her part in the piece clarified.
Once again, Shane Richie played a blinder as a man so desperate to earn a crust for his family that he was reduced to rifling through rubbish for something to sell. The lead-in storyline for the fire is full of potholes and, quite brutally, insulting to the viewers' intelligence, and Jessie's face was beautifully expressive. She didn't have to say a word in her worry about Alfie, who's fast detaching himself from reality in this instance.
The Inevitable Carter Connection. Thank goodness, tonight's episode featured mainly the better Carters - Nancy and Linda. How deep is the hole Linda's going to dig for herself? If Dean came onto Linda, why can't she tell her husband about something that so offends her? It's all ambiguous enough to plant doubt in the head of people who should know, trust and love Linda, when the inevitable happens. Their naivete at believing Dean was genuinely apologising is quite jarring. The shock that Linda will endure when Dean does show his true colours will be all the more riveting. This is another example his manipulations.
Interesting that Nancy differentiates between her family - Mick, Linda, Johnny and Lee - as opposed to all of the other recent arrivals, specifically emphasising that she didn't want Dean's problems he had with his mother, boiling over into her family. It's also interesting to note that, apart from that initial "you-can-talk-to-me-whenever-you-want" scene at the beginning of the year with Johnny, Shirley's had almost zilch interaction with any of the Carter "kids."
Sharon. They're getting there with her character, but let's stop this five-minute-wonder "you're me best mate" palaver. She's known Linda less than a year, and during the better part of that year, they were at loggerheads. I love their interaction, but it took years before Pat called Peggy a friend, and vice versa. Now - or at least since 2008 - it seems as if friendships are instantaneous, almost as if every aspect of good friendship has to be explored now, rather than later, because later, one of the two friends might be gone. Bianca is the first and only friend Kat has ever had. Alfie veers between Ian, an old friend, in terms of his new bromance with Terry, but Sharon was BFF's with the abysmal Tanya, and now Linda's her best mate? What happened to Michelle? Distance doesn't dim true friendship. Friendship is based on a history of shared experiences, and Sharon shared nothing of that sort with Tanya and only a tangetial common background of being raised in a pub, which relates her to Linda. I love their interaction, but please, stop them running before they walk.
Bye Bye Butchers (Well, some of them). So Liam gets to stay. Not because of his exams and the difficulty of his GCSE year, as argued by his grandmother and by Saint Sonia - a valid reason for him to stay, but because Bianca sees him hugging Cindy the Single Mother, and reckons he's man enough to stay on his own. All this after the stroppiest of strops Liam threw, with his sole rationale for staying being "I'm-not-going-anywhere-if-Whit-can-stay-so-can-I". I know Bianca is extremely childish, but that was a childish paddy if ever there were one, and for that reason and that outburst, he should have gone to Milton Keynes.
The Liam-Cindy-TJ dynamic rings a bell of familiarity. The soap genre is known for its ability to re-cycle storylines, and I can so easily see this as a redux of Ian and Cindy Snr. TJ, IIRC, was the one who was keen for Cindy to keep the baby, saying he would stand by her. I accept that lads his age might change their minds about situations like that, but casting my mind back, Simon Wicks wasn't too keen to know Cindy, pregnant with his child, whilst he was involved with Sharon. Moving Liam closer to his Beale heritage, his pledge to support Cindy, that contrived speech about Cindy being a strong woman (please! Cindy is fifteen years old, having a child doesn't make you a woman - just look at Roxy and Bianca), it all points to Cindy linking up with Liam, being fond of him, but not loving him, only to have TJ or someone like him return in a year or two to turn her head. I wouldn't rule out a TJ return, when he's over sixteen and able to live away from Terry and Co - he's the type that this EastEnders likes to have on board in the "young male ingenue" category.
Did I hear Cindy wail that she's a "teenaged mother with a kid", who wouldn't be high on anyone's priority list (meaning - yes - the male stakes). Good grief! Is that all she's worried about? How about going back to school, getting qualifications, even going to university - it can be done with a baby - and getting a good profession/job/skill with which to support her child?
One of the best scenes was the last scene between Bianca and Carol outside the pub. At last and in the kindest way possible, Carol told Bianca to grow up. I know she's another character whom it's fashionable to dislike, but I'll miss Bianca. Yet another Beale departs this year, and a gaggle of Butchers. Post-2000 Bianca, especially 2008 and onwards Bianca wasn't a drop in the ocean to her original self. At least she got a happy ending - but it should have been with Ricky, she should have got the duff duff, and she most certainly should have got Julia's Theme. I was certainly surprised that she didn't. Coulda been worse, coulda been Little Mix, but Terry's godawful daughter singing was bad enough.
Better episode than the previous ones.
Examples:-
Alex. Alex is quick to label Alfie a liar, a cheat and a thief, but that's a bit pot-meet-kettle. One of the first things I remember Alex doing is pocketing the pitch fees Bianca and Kat had given to Tamwar, lying to Tamwar about making out a receipt later on. So not only was that lying, it was also stealing - two of the three sins of which he accused Alfie. He wasn't averse to taking bribes either, because wasn't that the way Alfie originally got his pitch - by throwing Aleks some money and a share of the profits for the first few months? Aleks is in a relationship with Roxy. Until recently, she thought he was a single man. He isn't, and he refuses to end his marriage. He is, effectively cheating on his wife. He is a cheat - again, something of which he accused Alfie. He was also part and parcel of the spray tan scam on Bianca's stall - a scam, another thing of which he accused Alfie. His vendetta is entirely against the Moons because Alfie exposed him as a liar and a cheat, himself; and he's now including Kat in his vendetta. He could give a rat's arse about the Moons' situation, and maybe he shouldn't, but then again, he has no right to take the moral high ground. Aleks has a child who lives in another country. It wouldn't surprise me if he's claiming child benefit here, which is illegal.
Phil's Gullibility. Of course, Marcus lied to save his skin. But Phil's either become a victim of the latest stupefication epidemic trolling the Square or he's a victim of early onset dementia, because he should know Sharon well enough to know that she's soft-hearted enough with those people with whom she has a long-standing familiarity and that she's open-minded enough to see the wider picture. Did she tell Marcus about what Phil did? I don't remember. Phil should remember that when Sharon hates someone, that hatred is open and visceral - think Cindy Beale, whom she hated after Cindy broke her and Wicksy up. Sharon is incapable of dissembling and deceiving. Had she have decided to leave Grant for Phil all those years ago, the first thing she would have done is told Grant and accept the consequences. Because Grant was in such a vulnerable state, she chose to end the affair with Phil and return to Grant. If Sharon had really wanted to blame Phil for Dennis's death after his confession, she'd have been on a plane for Florida months ago - in fact, within a few weeks of his confession. He should know Sharon well enough to know that she's utterly incapable of bitchery and dissembling, no matter what the present writers' room might want to depict.
Instead, he chose to believe Marcus, the only man left standing who successfully scammed the Mitchells. Phil would believe a bent brief, who'd done his family over, rather than stop and ask himself why Sharon would approach Marcus, or if he should even believe Marcus. The old, deliberate, analytical Phil would have done just that, and then, we would have had a brilliant two-header with Sharon and Phil akin to the episode we had back in 2002, when Sharon was in a relationship with retconned Fireman Tom, something that would get everything out into the open - Sharon's feelings about Dennis, what happened in the States, Phil's concerns for Ben. But no, it's far easier to close Phil's mind off to anything other than getting revenge on someone he now believes hates him. Well, he's lucky Sharon doesn't hate him - having two thugs beat you up would make most women run a mile. Still, Phil's got his doormat onside now. Lest we forget, Phil covered up the identity of the murderer of Shirley's so-called best friend for months. But no one ever mentions Heather's name anymore. Shirley can goo and daa over her son, but she'd throw George under a bus if it meant getting back with Phil. She's really a bitter and jealous woman, but the entire episode served as confirmation of the fact that Kat, Linda and Sharon are all the victims in the tragedies that are about to occur.
Alfie's got insurance, but he can't pay the rent. Actually, it looks as though he'd just taken out that home and contents insurance, which is sorta kinda weird only in the fact that, if he did, he'd have to pay the first instalment there and then - usually through a debit or credit card payment or cash, if you're dealing with an insurance broker. If he's just taken this out, and he's planning this fire, then the insurance company will surely smell a rat. Even if it's been in force for awhile, it's impossible to fathom how they could have paid insurance premiums, yet not paid the rent.
It seemed from Stacey's getting the post tonight that it's Big Mo, who's been in receipt of all this documentation. Where is Big Mo in all of this? She is the principal tenant. Does she even live there? If she doesn't, maybe she's charged the Moons with paying the rent, and they haven't been. We certainly need her part in the piece clarified.
Once again, Shane Richie played a blinder as a man so desperate to earn a crust for his family that he was reduced to rifling through rubbish for something to sell. The lead-in storyline for the fire is full of potholes and, quite brutally, insulting to the viewers' intelligence, and Jessie's face was beautifully expressive. She didn't have to say a word in her worry about Alfie, who's fast detaching himself from reality in this instance.
The Inevitable Carter Connection. Thank goodness, tonight's episode featured mainly the better Carters - Nancy and Linda. How deep is the hole Linda's going to dig for herself? If Dean came onto Linda, why can't she tell her husband about something that so offends her? It's all ambiguous enough to plant doubt in the head of people who should know, trust and love Linda, when the inevitable happens. Their naivete at believing Dean was genuinely apologising is quite jarring. The shock that Linda will endure when Dean does show his true colours will be all the more riveting. This is another example his manipulations.
Interesting that Nancy differentiates between her family - Mick, Linda, Johnny and Lee - as opposed to all of the other recent arrivals, specifically emphasising that she didn't want Dean's problems he had with his mother, boiling over into her family. It's also interesting to note that, apart from that initial "you-can-talk-to-me-whenever-you-want" scene at the beginning of the year with Johnny, Shirley's had almost zilch interaction with any of the Carter "kids."
Sharon. They're getting there with her character, but let's stop this five-minute-wonder "you're me best mate" palaver. She's known Linda less than a year, and during the better part of that year, they were at loggerheads. I love their interaction, but it took years before Pat called Peggy a friend, and vice versa. Now - or at least since 2008 - it seems as if friendships are instantaneous, almost as if every aspect of good friendship has to be explored now, rather than later, because later, one of the two friends might be gone. Bianca is the first and only friend Kat has ever had. Alfie veers between Ian, an old friend, in terms of his new bromance with Terry, but Sharon was BFF's with the abysmal Tanya, and now Linda's her best mate? What happened to Michelle? Distance doesn't dim true friendship. Friendship is based on a history of shared experiences, and Sharon shared nothing of that sort with Tanya and only a tangetial common background of being raised in a pub, which relates her to Linda. I love their interaction, but please, stop them running before they walk.
Bye Bye Butchers (Well, some of them). So Liam gets to stay. Not because of his exams and the difficulty of his GCSE year, as argued by his grandmother and by Saint Sonia - a valid reason for him to stay, but because Bianca sees him hugging Cindy the Single Mother, and reckons he's man enough to stay on his own. All this after the stroppiest of strops Liam threw, with his sole rationale for staying being "I'm-not-going-anywhere-if-Whit-can-stay-so-can-I". I know Bianca is extremely childish, but that was a childish paddy if ever there were one, and for that reason and that outburst, he should have gone to Milton Keynes.
The Liam-Cindy-TJ dynamic rings a bell of familiarity. The soap genre is known for its ability to re-cycle storylines, and I can so easily see this as a redux of Ian and Cindy Snr. TJ, IIRC, was the one who was keen for Cindy to keep the baby, saying he would stand by her. I accept that lads his age might change their minds about situations like that, but casting my mind back, Simon Wicks wasn't too keen to know Cindy, pregnant with his child, whilst he was involved with Sharon. Moving Liam closer to his Beale heritage, his pledge to support Cindy, that contrived speech about Cindy being a strong woman (please! Cindy is fifteen years old, having a child doesn't make you a woman - just look at Roxy and Bianca), it all points to Cindy linking up with Liam, being fond of him, but not loving him, only to have TJ or someone like him return in a year or two to turn her head. I wouldn't rule out a TJ return, when he's over sixteen and able to live away from Terry and Co - he's the type that this EastEnders likes to have on board in the "young male ingenue" category.
Did I hear Cindy wail that she's a "teenaged mother with a kid", who wouldn't be high on anyone's priority list (meaning - yes - the male stakes). Good grief! Is that all she's worried about? How about going back to school, getting qualifications, even going to university - it can be done with a baby - and getting a good profession/job/skill with which to support her child?
One of the best scenes was the last scene between Bianca and Carol outside the pub. At last and in the kindest way possible, Carol told Bianca to grow up. I know she's another character whom it's fashionable to dislike, but I'll miss Bianca. Yet another Beale departs this year, and a gaggle of Butchers. Post-2000 Bianca, especially 2008 and onwards Bianca wasn't a drop in the ocean to her original self. At least she got a happy ending - but it should have been with Ricky, she should have got the duff duff, and she most certainly should have got Julia's Theme. I was certainly surprised that she didn't. Coulda been worse, coulda been Little Mix, but Terry's godawful daughter singing was bad enough.
Better episode than the previous ones.
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