Kellie Bright owned this episode, but on the downside ... it was predictable, and totally the sort of episode that can be attributed to Dominic Treadwell-Collins.
There are seven shades of grey and seven shades of sensationalism. This is the subtler form
CarterTown: A Little Twitch. Well, well, hell's bells. So all isn't what it seems with Lee ... oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive ... As Nancy aptly surmised, Lee snowed Linda with a tale about his "red mist" of a temper being acquired in the military with all his combat experience ... yadda yadda. (Wherever did that "red mist" myth come to describe any troubled veteran of a military venture? I'm sure Grant used to use the same term).
But Nancy knows Lee's temper goes way back ... way back to childhood, when he left a scar on Nancy's arm in a fit of pique. And then, it's all forgotten, and they traipse off merrily to Johnny's Student Union, where Lee will treat them all to drinks.
CarterTown: Daddy's Home. The best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray. Andrew "Buster" Briggs is who we thought he was and more, and Mick and Dean are full brothers. However, once again, the Carter backstory is all over the place. Buster/Andy was reminiscing about Carly's christening, and remembered that Tina was very young then ... duhhhhh. No. Perhaps he meant, or perhaps Daisy Coulam meant Jimbo, who would only be four years younger than Mick.
Dean is 26, and Carly is three years older, which means Dean was born in 1988 and Carly in 1985. If she were christened before she was a year old, then Mick would have been nine, and the really young, bike-obsessed Tina would have been eleven. (And what an awful cliché in that dialogue):-
Buster: Are you two togevvah? I've known all along. Even when you was very young, at Carly's christening. All you was interested in was mah bike.
Yep, that's a sure-fire way to identify your daughter as a lesbian, by her interest in motorbikes. Shirley rides one. What does that make her? And Ronnie? And Lisa Shaw? They all, at one time, had an interest in motorbikes, but no, Buster/Andy, who rapidly lost his charm tonight, knew instantly that Tina, at aged eleven, was a lesbian.
Almost immediately from the beginning, it was established that Buster was Dean's father.
Buster to Shirley: Is it true?
Shirley: He's twenty-six. Do the maths.
Dean is shocked for all of five minutes, and demands to know from Shirley how she could do this to Kevin, who - at this point - is still "Dad." Shirley's explanation is shallow, crass and stupid.
Once you fall for someone, that's it.
No, Shirley, that's not it. You married Kevin. You had a child with him. He knew this man, who was present at your daughter's christening - your daughter who was fathered by someone other than your husband, but whom he loved as his own.
Since Buster's spent a lifetime in and out of prison, it goes without saying that, Shirley's explanation to Phil about "Andy" going away meant that Buster had gone inside, which is why she probably couldn't go bin Kevin and go with him when he left her up the duff with Dean. So all this shit about Shirley loving Kevin, all that wail of woe at his death about her loving Kevin first and loving him best (well, better than Denise in her view) was a tissue of lies, or - more succinctly -shit.
Just like, after the inadequate, shoulder-shrugging explanation to Dean about why she cheated on Kevin - and just why did she cheat on Kevin with whoever Carly's father was? Did she fall for him as well? - Buster shows up, they go to the cafe, and one of the worst scenes in EastEnders' history occurs.
I know Dean craves love from Shirley, but Dean loved and adored Kevin. I expected much more from him, something like him telling Buster/Andy to get stuffed, that Dean Wicks was his father and would always ever be. Instead, we got all this faux similarity bullshit - Buster's a smoker trying to quit, Dean's a smoker trying to quit; Buster's been inside and is currently serving a sentence for money-laundering; Dean's been inside, and served time for ... what?
Assault? Did he say a-fecking-ssault? Was he lying or did Coulam conveniently forget that Dean went to prison for perverting the course of justice. And how ironic to know that Dean, a rapist, is the son of a serial criminal - at best, a petty thief; and someone whose fecklessness makes Tina look like the only adult in the room, which in this surreal episode of Happy Families, Tina turned out to be just that.
Buster's on 24-hour release from prison, but - hey! It's not every day you become a dad, especially if some poor bloke you knew as a friend has raised your rapist son - so let's squelch prison - after all, there are too many prisoners in prison for them to ever miss Buster, and let's go off fishing at Camber Sands. All this done with Shirley sitting by his side and smiling dreamily at him, plus the ubiquitous encounter with Phil, whom Shirley couldn't even face.
Classy, Shirley, wishing she'd shot Phil dead. Phil needs to see how lucky he was choosing Sharon over Shirley, and face-to-face with Buster, I can understand why Shirley encouraged Phil to break the law and play the gangsta when they were together - fencing stolen goods, turning a blind eye to drugs being pushed at the R and R. Shirley was turning Phil's physical resemblance to Buster into reality. Now she has Buster back, she thinks she has the real deal. Oh, and the other surreal thing about this whole escapade was that Dean was ready to drop his business and his relationship with Stacey just to go off wandering around with a wanted felon and Shirley - "I'll call you when I'm settled" Carter.
I'll call you when I'm settled? Shirley, you're with a man who's on the run from the police. You'll never settle, and - as Mick said - you'll do time for aiding and abetting a felon. One can live in hope. I must admit, however, Mick's shopping Buster was a turn-up for the book, and we were all supposed to gasp with surprise when the police addressed him as Andrew Briggs, but did we?
DTC is so predictable in certain things, that people anticipate his so-called surprise revelations weeks before they transpire. Most people knew Karl Howman could only be one of two characters when it was announced that his character would have a link to the Square and upset a family dynamic. There was a longshot that he could be Terry Cant, Sonia's father, but the longer TPTBinsultedteased our intelligence by not releasing his name, we knew he was Andy, Mick's father. Even "Buster Briggs" didn't fool anyone, and most people sussed that he would turn out to be Dean's father too, just to make the rape reveal more complicated (and sensationalist).
We got the usual "oh-I'm-leaving" spiel from Shirley, and Stan repeating for emphasis the fact that he was dying ...
If I wasn't already dying, I'd starve to death in this house.
It's hungry work, dying ...
What will you lot be like when I'm on me deathbed.
It's like the audience has to be spoonfed over and over at five-minute intervals the fact that Stan is dying. Is there really a tranche of viewer with such a short attention span as to need constant reinforcement like that? I have known dying people, but I've never known a dying person to go on and on and on and on about dying in such an egocentric way, which clearly caused distress to Tina. And all the while, Shirley is intent only on running away from facing her father's death because she's found "the love of her life."
Shirley lied to Phil. If Buster/Andy is the love of her life, then she loved Andy, used Kevin and obsessed over Phil and tried to make him Andy. In the end, however, with Phil, it didn't work, because Phil isn't entirely without morals, and returned to Sharon, who is the love of his life. Buster/Andy is a man totally without morals or even loyalty. He says he has no more children, but as he's dishonest, we know that at the drop of a hat, some kid will appear on the horizon, as and when.
Dippy Dean may like his new Daddy as it will bring Mummy-Wums back into his sphere, but Mick certainly doesn't like him at all, and I don't think the firstborn Buster/Andy sussed he had in the duff-duff tonight is going to bond so quickly to Daddy Dearest.
I was totally Team Mick in that instance.
I don't think this guy loves Shirley. He loves the convenience of Shirley, which means he'll love her and get turfed out by the Mitchells or bin her when it's convenient for him, if he doesn't go back to prison first. This will all end in tears.
The irony of Mick grassing Buster, whilst Linda was encouraging Shirley to leave and take Dean didn't go amiss. Shirley got the chance to say some vile things to Linda, only to be hugged by her for moving the rapist from within her sphere. My guess is that Andy returns at Christmas to reveal his identity to Mick, but when will it be known that Dean is Linda's rapist? And will the doe-eyed, fragrant Shirley believe him?
CarterTown: L. Arguably the best part about tonight's episodes were the scenes between Danny Dyer and Kellie Bright. Secrets and lies, the whole thing. Is this something new?
Let me tell you a story. Years ago, when I were a young lass in America, there was (and still is) a daytime soap called Days of Our Lives. Before it got weird, it had this storyline way back in the late 1960s. See if it sounds familiar.
Bill and Mickey Horton were brothers, except this is America, and Bill is a doctor and Mickey is a lawyer. Bill loves pretty Laura, who's also a doctor, but she's in love with and marries Bill's brother Mickey. Mickey gets mumps, which can render a man sterile in some cases. But right after he's recovered, Bill can't help himself and rapes Laura. She gets pregnant, and decides to raise the child as Mickey's.
So ... you see, this storyline is as old as Croesus.
Mick's total and utter disbelief that Linda would not only abort a baby, his baby, but lie about the pregnancy and do that in secret cut him to the core. I can understand where he was coming from, and I can understand, in normal circumstances, why doing that, on Linda's part, would be wrong; but I also understand that Linda hasn't yet told Mick about her rape and the fact that she's unsure of the paternity of this child. I can understand why she's scared, but Mick played the bully to the worst degree - shunning her and psychologically shaming her, making her feel even worse than she felt already about what she'd decided. Trust me, NO woman wants to have an abortion, whatever the reason.
I could understand Mick's shock at Linda's lies and secrets, but really, this is the man who was lying and keeping secrets from her when he was coverinf for Ian a few months back. One is as bad as the other. Avoiding eye contact with her, pulling away from her touch, making her generally feel that she is the guilty party in all of this (without knowing what had happened) was bad enough, but screaming at her, just inches from her face was the worst part of bullying.
Mick even had the insouciance to ask Linda, after she'd decided to have the baby, thinking that Dean would be leaving the area, if she had thought he was bullying her into this? Well, yes, Mick, I think she did. Linda was distraught at Mick's discovery of her abortion. When Dean expressed doubts about leaving his business to go off on the run from the police with Shirley and his new dad, Linda picked up the ball and ran with it.
The kids can look after the salon. Or I can.
WTF? Who writes this stuff? I know Linda's desperate, but what about ~ Can't Stacey look after the salon? Or Lola?~
Seriously, Linda can just about fix her own hair with 1970s curlers, Johnny's at uni, Lee would scare he clientele off, and Nancy doesn't give a monkey's how she looks, so that's a business lost right there. But maybe the writer was having an off moment.
With Dean gone, Linda had the moment and the weapons she needed to get Mick back onside. She wants to have the baby. With Dean away, she can play her favourite game of make-believe once again and pretend that the baby is definitely Mick's. If she never sees Dean again, she can almost be sure of it. But when Dean shops Buster, and it's obvious now that Shirley and Son are staying, she's now caught in a trap. Even if the rape is revealed, it's Linda's word against Dean's.
I used to think this baby might just be Mick's. Now I'm not so sure. And since Stacey is going to know about the rape, and next year is going to be Stacey Year, after the Anniversary and all ... I see a stick in the mud of Walford.
There are seven shades of grey and seven shades of sensationalism. This is the subtler form
CarterTown: A Little Twitch. Well, well, hell's bells. So all isn't what it seems with Lee ... oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive ... As Nancy aptly surmised, Lee snowed Linda with a tale about his "red mist" of a temper being acquired in the military with all his combat experience ... yadda yadda. (Wherever did that "red mist" myth come to describe any troubled veteran of a military venture? I'm sure Grant used to use the same term).
But Nancy knows Lee's temper goes way back ... way back to childhood, when he left a scar on Nancy's arm in a fit of pique. And then, it's all forgotten, and they traipse off merrily to Johnny's Student Union, where Lee will treat them all to drinks.
CarterTown: Daddy's Home. The best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray. Andrew "Buster" Briggs is who we thought he was and more, and Mick and Dean are full brothers. However, once again, the Carter backstory is all over the place. Buster/Andy was reminiscing about Carly's christening, and remembered that Tina was very young then ... duhhhhh. No. Perhaps he meant, or perhaps Daisy Coulam meant Jimbo, who would only be four years younger than Mick.
Dean is 26, and Carly is three years older, which means Dean was born in 1988 and Carly in 1985. If she were christened before she was a year old, then Mick would have been nine, and the really young, bike-obsessed Tina would have been eleven. (And what an awful cliché in that dialogue):-
Buster: Are you two togevvah? I've known all along. Even when you was very young, at Carly's christening. All you was interested in was mah bike.
Yep, that's a sure-fire way to identify your daughter as a lesbian, by her interest in motorbikes. Shirley rides one. What does that make her? And Ronnie? And Lisa Shaw? They all, at one time, had an interest in motorbikes, but no, Buster/Andy, who rapidly lost his charm tonight, knew instantly that Tina, at aged eleven, was a lesbian.
Almost immediately from the beginning, it was established that Buster was Dean's father.
Buster to Shirley: Is it true?
Shirley: He's twenty-six. Do the maths.
Dean is shocked for all of five minutes, and demands to know from Shirley how she could do this to Kevin, who - at this point - is still "Dad." Shirley's explanation is shallow, crass and stupid.
Once you fall for someone, that's it.
No, Shirley, that's not it. You married Kevin. You had a child with him. He knew this man, who was present at your daughter's christening - your daughter who was fathered by someone other than your husband, but whom he loved as his own.
Since Buster's spent a lifetime in and out of prison, it goes without saying that, Shirley's explanation to Phil about "Andy" going away meant that Buster had gone inside, which is why she probably couldn't go bin Kevin and go with him when he left her up the duff with Dean. So all this shit about Shirley loving Kevin, all that wail of woe at his death about her loving Kevin first and loving him best (well, better than Denise in her view) was a tissue of lies, or - more succinctly -shit.
Just like, after the inadequate, shoulder-shrugging explanation to Dean about why she cheated on Kevin - and just why did she cheat on Kevin with whoever Carly's father was? Did she fall for him as well? - Buster shows up, they go to the cafe, and one of the worst scenes in EastEnders' history occurs.
I know Dean craves love from Shirley, but Dean loved and adored Kevin. I expected much more from him, something like him telling Buster/Andy to get stuffed, that Dean Wicks was his father and would always ever be. Instead, we got all this faux similarity bullshit - Buster's a smoker trying to quit, Dean's a smoker trying to quit; Buster's been inside and is currently serving a sentence for money-laundering; Dean's been inside, and served time for ... what?
Assault? Did he say a-fecking-ssault? Was he lying or did Coulam conveniently forget that Dean went to prison for perverting the course of justice. And how ironic to know that Dean, a rapist, is the son of a serial criminal - at best, a petty thief; and someone whose fecklessness makes Tina look like the only adult in the room, which in this surreal episode of Happy Families, Tina turned out to be just that.
Buster's on 24-hour release from prison, but - hey! It's not every day you become a dad, especially if some poor bloke you knew as a friend has raised your rapist son - so let's squelch prison - after all, there are too many prisoners in prison for them to ever miss Buster, and let's go off fishing at Camber Sands. All this done with Shirley sitting by his side and smiling dreamily at him, plus the ubiquitous encounter with Phil, whom Shirley couldn't even face.
Classy, Shirley, wishing she'd shot Phil dead. Phil needs to see how lucky he was choosing Sharon over Shirley, and face-to-face with Buster, I can understand why Shirley encouraged Phil to break the law and play the gangsta when they were together - fencing stolen goods, turning a blind eye to drugs being pushed at the R and R. Shirley was turning Phil's physical resemblance to Buster into reality. Now she has Buster back, she thinks she has the real deal. Oh, and the other surreal thing about this whole escapade was that Dean was ready to drop his business and his relationship with Stacey just to go off wandering around with a wanted felon and Shirley - "I'll call you when I'm settled" Carter.
I'll call you when I'm settled? Shirley, you're with a man who's on the run from the police. You'll never settle, and - as Mick said - you'll do time for aiding and abetting a felon. One can live in hope. I must admit, however, Mick's shopping Buster was a turn-up for the book, and we were all supposed to gasp with surprise when the police addressed him as Andrew Briggs, but did we?
DTC is so predictable in certain things, that people anticipate his so-called surprise revelations weeks before they transpire. Most people knew Karl Howman could only be one of two characters when it was announced that his character would have a link to the Square and upset a family dynamic. There was a longshot that he could be Terry Cant, Sonia's father, but the longer TPTB
We got the usual "oh-I'm-leaving" spiel from Shirley, and Stan repeating for emphasis the fact that he was dying ...
If I wasn't already dying, I'd starve to death in this house.
It's hungry work, dying ...
What will you lot be like when I'm on me deathbed.
It's like the audience has to be spoonfed over and over at five-minute intervals the fact that Stan is dying. Is there really a tranche of viewer with such a short attention span as to need constant reinforcement like that? I have known dying people, but I've never known a dying person to go on and on and on and on about dying in such an egocentric way, which clearly caused distress to Tina. And all the while, Shirley is intent only on running away from facing her father's death because she's found "the love of her life."
Shirley lied to Phil. If Buster/Andy is the love of her life, then she loved Andy, used Kevin and obsessed over Phil and tried to make him Andy. In the end, however, with Phil, it didn't work, because Phil isn't entirely without morals, and returned to Sharon, who is the love of his life. Buster/Andy is a man totally without morals or even loyalty. He says he has no more children, but as he's dishonest, we know that at the drop of a hat, some kid will appear on the horizon, as and when.
Dippy Dean may like his new Daddy as it will bring Mummy-Wums back into his sphere, but Mick certainly doesn't like him at all, and I don't think the firstborn Buster/Andy sussed he had in the duff-duff tonight is going to bond so quickly to Daddy Dearest.
I was totally Team Mick in that instance.
I don't think this guy loves Shirley. He loves the convenience of Shirley, which means he'll love her and get turfed out by the Mitchells or bin her when it's convenient for him, if he doesn't go back to prison first. This will all end in tears.
The irony of Mick grassing Buster, whilst Linda was encouraging Shirley to leave and take Dean didn't go amiss. Shirley got the chance to say some vile things to Linda, only to be hugged by her for moving the rapist from within her sphere. My guess is that Andy returns at Christmas to reveal his identity to Mick, but when will it be known that Dean is Linda's rapist? And will the doe-eyed, fragrant Shirley believe him?
CarterTown: L. Arguably the best part about tonight's episodes were the scenes between Danny Dyer and Kellie Bright. Secrets and lies, the whole thing. Is this something new?
Let me tell you a story. Years ago, when I were a young lass in America, there was (and still is) a daytime soap called Days of Our Lives. Before it got weird, it had this storyline way back in the late 1960s. See if it sounds familiar.
Bill and Mickey Horton were brothers, except this is America, and Bill is a doctor and Mickey is a lawyer. Bill loves pretty Laura, who's also a doctor, but she's in love with and marries Bill's brother Mickey. Mickey gets mumps, which can render a man sterile in some cases. But right after he's recovered, Bill can't help himself and rapes Laura. She gets pregnant, and decides to raise the child as Mickey's.
So ... you see, this storyline is as old as Croesus.
Mick's total and utter disbelief that Linda would not only abort a baby, his baby, but lie about the pregnancy and do that in secret cut him to the core. I can understand where he was coming from, and I can understand, in normal circumstances, why doing that, on Linda's part, would be wrong; but I also understand that Linda hasn't yet told Mick about her rape and the fact that she's unsure of the paternity of this child. I can understand why she's scared, but Mick played the bully to the worst degree - shunning her and psychologically shaming her, making her feel even worse than she felt already about what she'd decided. Trust me, NO woman wants to have an abortion, whatever the reason.
I could understand Mick's shock at Linda's lies and secrets, but really, this is the man who was lying and keeping secrets from her when he was coverinf for Ian a few months back. One is as bad as the other. Avoiding eye contact with her, pulling away from her touch, making her generally feel that she is the guilty party in all of this (without knowing what had happened) was bad enough, but screaming at her, just inches from her face was the worst part of bullying.
Mick even had the insouciance to ask Linda, after she'd decided to have the baby, thinking that Dean would be leaving the area, if she had thought he was bullying her into this? Well, yes, Mick, I think she did. Linda was distraught at Mick's discovery of her abortion. When Dean expressed doubts about leaving his business to go off on the run from the police with Shirley and his new dad, Linda picked up the ball and ran with it.
The kids can look after the salon. Or I can.
WTF? Who writes this stuff? I know Linda's desperate, but what about ~ Can't Stacey look after the salon? Or Lola?~
Seriously, Linda can just about fix her own hair with 1970s curlers, Johnny's at uni, Lee would scare he clientele off, and Nancy doesn't give a monkey's how she looks, so that's a business lost right there. But maybe the writer was having an off moment.
With Dean gone, Linda had the moment and the weapons she needed to get Mick back onside. She wants to have the baby. With Dean away, she can play her favourite game of make-believe once again and pretend that the baby is definitely Mick's. If she never sees Dean again, she can almost be sure of it. But when Dean shops Buster, and it's obvious now that Shirley and Son are staying, she's now caught in a trap. Even if the rape is revealed, it's Linda's word against Dean's.
I used to think this baby might just be Mick's. Now I'm not so sure. And since Stacey is going to know about the rape, and next year is going to be Stacey Year, after the Anniversary and all ... I see a stick in the mud of Walford.
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