Oh, what a tangled web we weave ... for a filler episode, that was pretty damned good. This is what EastEnders used to be like. Not every episode was a grand event, but even the filler episodes were watchable, especially when they had a little twist or reveal at the end.
This was a bloody brilliant episode, marred only by the marmite that's stinking up the Vic.
Gossip Girls.
Can't you just see Stacey and Shabnam bopping along to that theme?
How fabulous is the budding friendship between Stacey and Shabnam? Whoever thought of this should be rewarded abundantly. I used to cringe at Stacey's five-minute friendships with wet waifs and strays like the appalling Ruby Allen and the whiney Danielle. They were lesser mortals drawn like magnets to Stacey's bigger personality. She'd variously encourage them and toss them out like yesterday's news when they did something of which she didn't approve.
So many years on, and here are Shabnam and Stacey, older and maybe wiser, forging a friendship - the former pole dancer-in-secret who's now found religion and the former tearaway who's now grown up. I liked how Shabnam arranged for Stacey to have the food Lily wanted by "damaging" the tins in which they were found, and then arranged for Stacey to repay the favour by cutting her hair. It was touching beyond belief to hear the girls talking in the Masood kitchen, Stacey asking Shabnam why she wore the hijab when she never used to do so and Shabnam admitting to modesty in her religion, then Stacey admitting to missing Jean and, above all, Bradley. That made me a little sad to hear, and I'm glad Bradley hasn't been whitewashed out of existence as so many others (Ricky and Kevin) have been.
Prior to that, I liked the bit of banter between Kush and Shabnam in the Minute Mart when he was buying chewing gum. Line of the night to Shabnam:-
Your breath driving all your customers away?
As well as Kush eliciting a smile from her as he provocatively put the chewing gum into his mouth. I know it's corny, and I know Kush was introduced as a love interest for her, but it's been a change seeing him battle her barriers and watching them go down ever so reluctantly.
Finally, as banal as it was, I liked the gossip scene between the two girls in the ladies' at the Vic, the sort of thing you'd hear in any venue like that. Stacey knows Shabnam likes Kush, but Shabnam's objections seem silly - to Stacey, and I get the feeling, Shabnam's trying to convince herself that it doesn't make any difference that Kush isn't a practicing Muslim or that he isn't Pakastani. It's all down to one thing - the moment at Christmas, and the fact that Kush is seriously fit.
To think of how far these two characters have come in the space of a year and that they're friends is amazing. I would never ever have pegged Stacey and Shabnam down as friendship material. It works.
Ma Mitchell.
All together now ...
Ben's fucked up again
Ben's fucked up again
He's sold the Arches right under his nose
When Phil finds out, he'll have no place to go
He'll bounce his arse high, he'll kich his arse low
'Cause Ben's fucked up again ...
Big time ...
Oh, Ben ...
Ben the "businessman" is riding high, and when his wings are clipped, he falls to earth with a mighty thud. Smugly thinking that he'd pull one on Sharon by transferring the businesses to a "holding company," he gives her lip and plenty of cheek when she goes off to see Phil. Sharon suspects Ben's up to something and comes short of telling Phil, but holds back about the fact that Ben's gone off the rails. She's hoping for the best.
I was actually worried the dumbarsed little creep was actually going to sign over The Albert and the R and R, before a modicum of good sense stopped him and he thought that maybe, just maybe he should read the contents of what he was signing ...
Always Read the Label!!!
More important, always read whatevee document someone wants you to sign, first, and if you're in any doubt, find a solicitor to read it for you.
Max was gleefully triumphant as he reiterated the first rule of business is to always read a document you're supposed to sign first, before signing. If Ben had read the initial document, he'd have realised that he was signing ownership of the Arches over to Max, instead of all that malarkey Max was feeding him about holding companies nad such crap. Was Ben really serious in thinking that Max would give him back the Arches, as Max said, the only business which Phil has managed to retain throughout his years on the Square, and arguably, the business which means the most to Phil.
That has to hurt Ben. It certainly frightens him, because he knows whose arse Phil is going to kick when he returns. So what does Ben do? Why, he takes a crowbar to the cars on the car lot, as you do, resulting in Charlie, a man with a dislocated shoulder, giving him a damned good kicking.
Ben's been everybody's punchbag since he's returned to Walford - Dean, Lee and now Charlie - and maybe that's because he's just so slappable.
But the heroine of this piece was Sharon, who not only isn't afraid of cowed by Ben at all, and stands up to his childish arrogance. She's concerned when he returns from his run-in with Charlie, but when he refuses to budge an inch and still disdains her concern, she dismisses him with a cold warning about getting blood on the carpet.
Prior to that, her scene with Charlie was electric. Charlie is all over the place, and he's pathetic. He can't get to Phil, the man Nick has convinced him is responsible for Ronnie's injuries, so, for some reason, he comes to bully Sharon, who isn't having any of it.
If you want to know who did this, Charlie, you'd best be looking closer to home.
Good reference to the past when Sharon reminded him that she thought her father could do no wrong until her eyes were opened to what Den was and what he'd accomplished. She basically chewed Charlie up, spat him out and went about her business.
Sharon is back the way many viewers remember her. It took him some time, but DTC finally got her right. Let's hope this continues.
The Cottons: Walford Gothic.
It's darkly humourous watching the Cottons sat around the kitchen table trying to do normal. Nick sitting at the breakfast table, being confronted by Dot, who's found an old baby comforter she'd knitted for him when he was a baby - by picking apart one of her old cardigans, no less. Dot, Nick and Yvonne are all pushing Charlie to acknowledged his son, whom Roxy and Aleks have named Matthew.
It means "gift from God" says Dot, and who goes onto refer to the baby as a gift.
Charlie, on the other hand, is on a massive self-pity ramble, going on about how he and Ronnie had only been married for two hours before she went into Bride of Frankenstein mode. Word out now is that she may never wake up. (Chance would be a fine thing! Does that mean we'll get to see Ronnie's body curl up instinctively into a foetal position and turn green instead of looking like Sleeping Beauty with a pole sticking out of the top of her head?)
That news puts Charlie into an even deeper funk, so deep that he disgusts even Roxy, who vows to sit there beside her sisTAHHH until she wakes up. What the hell, Aleks can always look after the baby.
Inevitably, we have the Charlie-kicks-Ben-in-the-balls-because-he's-Phil's-son scene, which is interrupted by Yvonne, one of two people in the Cotton household with a conscience. While Charlie rants on and on about Phil Mitchell, Yvonne returns his rant, wailing about Nick poisoning Charlie's mind and causing all the trouble within the family, and finally, she confesses that Nick was the one who cut the brake line in the car in which Ronnie was riding.
Now what will CharlieBoy do?
The Incredible Smugness That Is Shirley.
Shirley's going to see Dean. She wants to bring Dean over for a family dinner. Both Tina and Stan caution against it, but Shirley won't have it. Dean's her son, she asserts stubbornly; and Linda is Lee's and Nancy's mother, Stan reminds her. Poor, pitiful Shirl, she's worried because Lee and Nancy might hate her rapist son. She's taken over the Vic, in the same way Max has slithered his way into The Arches, and is planning a Ladies' Night, just to show Mick what wonderful things she could do as Queen of the Vic.
Stan's got his mind on other things. He wants to take Cora dancing at Fifties Night. The scene between Timothy West and Ann Mitchell in the cafe was a treasure; you can tell the actors really enjoyed working together; but Tina has other plans for the evening. When she and rancid Shirley reminisce about how much Stan and Sylvie enjoyed dancing, Cora is intimidated and elects to sit the evening out. Then, at the dance, when Tina appears with Sylvie, that's the cat put amongst the pigeons. Sylvie manages to steal the moment, herself, by disappearing, prompting not only Stan, but Tina and even Cora to rush out looking for her.
It's clear, however, what Shirley's ignorant agenda is - get Dean back into the pub and force Linda out. Evil woman.
Good episode.
This was a bloody brilliant episode, marred only by the marmite that's stinking up the Vic.
Gossip Girls.
Can't you just see Stacey and Shabnam bopping along to that theme?
How fabulous is the budding friendship between Stacey and Shabnam? Whoever thought of this should be rewarded abundantly. I used to cringe at Stacey's five-minute friendships with wet waifs and strays like the appalling Ruby Allen and the whiney Danielle. They were lesser mortals drawn like magnets to Stacey's bigger personality. She'd variously encourage them and toss them out like yesterday's news when they did something of which she didn't approve.
So many years on, and here are Shabnam and Stacey, older and maybe wiser, forging a friendship - the former pole dancer-in-secret who's now found religion and the former tearaway who's now grown up. I liked how Shabnam arranged for Stacey to have the food Lily wanted by "damaging" the tins in which they were found, and then arranged for Stacey to repay the favour by cutting her hair. It was touching beyond belief to hear the girls talking in the Masood kitchen, Stacey asking Shabnam why she wore the hijab when she never used to do so and Shabnam admitting to modesty in her religion, then Stacey admitting to missing Jean and, above all, Bradley. That made me a little sad to hear, and I'm glad Bradley hasn't been whitewashed out of existence as so many others (Ricky and Kevin) have been.
Prior to that, I liked the bit of banter between Kush and Shabnam in the Minute Mart when he was buying chewing gum. Line of the night to Shabnam:-
Your breath driving all your customers away?
As well as Kush eliciting a smile from her as he provocatively put the chewing gum into his mouth. I know it's corny, and I know Kush was introduced as a love interest for her, but it's been a change seeing him battle her barriers and watching them go down ever so reluctantly.
Finally, as banal as it was, I liked the gossip scene between the two girls in the ladies' at the Vic, the sort of thing you'd hear in any venue like that. Stacey knows Shabnam likes Kush, but Shabnam's objections seem silly - to Stacey, and I get the feeling, Shabnam's trying to convince herself that it doesn't make any difference that Kush isn't a practicing Muslim or that he isn't Pakastani. It's all down to one thing - the moment at Christmas, and the fact that Kush is seriously fit.
To think of how far these two characters have come in the space of a year and that they're friends is amazing. I would never ever have pegged Stacey and Shabnam down as friendship material. It works.
Ma Mitchell.
All together now ...
Ben's fucked up again
Ben's fucked up again
He's sold the Arches right under his nose
When Phil finds out, he'll have no place to go
He'll bounce his arse high, he'll kich his arse low
'Cause Ben's fucked up again ...
Big time ...
Oh, Ben ...
Ben the "businessman" is riding high, and when his wings are clipped, he falls to earth with a mighty thud. Smugly thinking that he'd pull one on Sharon by transferring the businesses to a "holding company," he gives her lip and plenty of cheek when she goes off to see Phil. Sharon suspects Ben's up to something and comes short of telling Phil, but holds back about the fact that Ben's gone off the rails. She's hoping for the best.
I was actually worried the dumbarsed little creep was actually going to sign over The Albert and the R and R, before a modicum of good sense stopped him and he thought that maybe, just maybe he should read the contents of what he was signing ...
Always Read the Label!!!
More important, always read whatevee document someone wants you to sign, first, and if you're in any doubt, find a solicitor to read it for you.
Max was gleefully triumphant as he reiterated the first rule of business is to always read a document you're supposed to sign first, before signing. If Ben had read the initial document, he'd have realised that he was signing ownership of the Arches over to Max, instead of all that malarkey Max was feeding him about holding companies nad such crap. Was Ben really serious in thinking that Max would give him back the Arches, as Max said, the only business which Phil has managed to retain throughout his years on the Square, and arguably, the business which means the most to Phil.
That has to hurt Ben. It certainly frightens him, because he knows whose arse Phil is going to kick when he returns. So what does Ben do? Why, he takes a crowbar to the cars on the car lot, as you do, resulting in Charlie, a man with a dislocated shoulder, giving him a damned good kicking.
Ben's been everybody's punchbag since he's returned to Walford - Dean, Lee and now Charlie - and maybe that's because he's just so slappable.
But the heroine of this piece was Sharon, who not only isn't afraid of cowed by Ben at all, and stands up to his childish arrogance. She's concerned when he returns from his run-in with Charlie, but when he refuses to budge an inch and still disdains her concern, she dismisses him with a cold warning about getting blood on the carpet.
Prior to that, her scene with Charlie was electric. Charlie is all over the place, and he's pathetic. He can't get to Phil, the man Nick has convinced him is responsible for Ronnie's injuries, so, for some reason, he comes to bully Sharon, who isn't having any of it.
If you want to know who did this, Charlie, you'd best be looking closer to home.
Good reference to the past when Sharon reminded him that she thought her father could do no wrong until her eyes were opened to what Den was and what he'd accomplished. She basically chewed Charlie up, spat him out and went about her business.
Sharon is back the way many viewers remember her. It took him some time, but DTC finally got her right. Let's hope this continues.
The Cottons: Walford Gothic.
It's darkly humourous watching the Cottons sat around the kitchen table trying to do normal. Nick sitting at the breakfast table, being confronted by Dot, who's found an old baby comforter she'd knitted for him when he was a baby - by picking apart one of her old cardigans, no less. Dot, Nick and Yvonne are all pushing Charlie to acknowledged his son, whom Roxy and Aleks have named Matthew.
It means "gift from God" says Dot, and who goes onto refer to the baby as a gift.
Charlie, on the other hand, is on a massive self-pity ramble, going on about how he and Ronnie had only been married for two hours before she went into Bride of Frankenstein mode. Word out now is that she may never wake up. (Chance would be a fine thing! Does that mean we'll get to see Ronnie's body curl up instinctively into a foetal position and turn green instead of looking like Sleeping Beauty with a pole sticking out of the top of her head?)
That news puts Charlie into an even deeper funk, so deep that he disgusts even Roxy, who vows to sit there beside her sisTAHHH until she wakes up. What the hell, Aleks can always look after the baby.
Inevitably, we have the Charlie-kicks-Ben-in-the-balls-because-he's-Phil's-son scene, which is interrupted by Yvonne, one of two people in the Cotton household with a conscience. While Charlie rants on and on about Phil Mitchell, Yvonne returns his rant, wailing about Nick poisoning Charlie's mind and causing all the trouble within the family, and finally, she confesses that Nick was the one who cut the brake line in the car in which Ronnie was riding.
Now what will CharlieBoy do?
The Incredible Smugness That Is Shirley.
Shirley's going to see Dean. She wants to bring Dean over for a family dinner. Both Tina and Stan caution against it, but Shirley won't have it. Dean's her son, she asserts stubbornly; and Linda is Lee's and Nancy's mother, Stan reminds her. Poor, pitiful Shirl, she's worried because Lee and Nancy might hate her rapist son. She's taken over the Vic, in the same way Max has slithered his way into The Arches, and is planning a Ladies' Night, just to show Mick what wonderful things she could do as Queen of the Vic.
Stan's got his mind on other things. He wants to take Cora dancing at Fifties Night. The scene between Timothy West and Ann Mitchell in the cafe was a treasure; you can tell the actors really enjoyed working together; but Tina has other plans for the evening. When she and rancid Shirley reminisce about how much Stan and Sylvie enjoyed dancing, Cora is intimidated and elects to sit the evening out. Then, at the dance, when Tina appears with Sylvie, that's the cat put amongst the pigeons. Sylvie manages to steal the moment, herself, by disappearing, prompting not only Stan, but Tina and even Cora to rush out looking for her.
It's clear, however, what Shirley's ignorant agenda is - get Dean back into the pub and force Linda out. Evil woman.
Good episode.
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