Just little over a week to go, and TPTB are taking a subtle introduction to the final stages of a multi-faceted mystery.
This was good tonight - seriously good, with a couple of side issues thrown in to boot. As Stan was a fishmonger, it's mete that the episode take on a fishy aura about it.
Two Red Herrings.
Lauren is doing what Lauren does best - finding out something that she shouldn't know based on evidence she really shouldn't have seen. To date, Lauren has found out about Max's affair with Stacey, and she's found out that Stacey killed Archie. Now she's found out the identity of Lucy's killer. Something on that piece of paper gives her the missing link to the clue about the killer's identity. It bothers Lauren, and tonight's evidence, based on her behaviour, points to Peter as the culprit.
Lauren is also trying to get into Emma's phone, because - you know - there might be some sort of clue there, as in the message she sent to the killer near the end of her life. We can safely say that Lauren isn't the killer, but whoever is worries Lauren enough to make her wonder if she's doing the right thing by marrying Peter and, eventually, to take a long drink of Max's whiskey.
But there's a scene that casts a rosy hue of suspicion on both Abi and Whitney in this episode.
I know lots of viewers have reckoned Abi killed Lucy - a lot of that supposition comes on the strength of Abi's innate Tanya-esque bitchiness coming to the fore this year. Well, if you'd watched for the past couple of years, at least from 2011, you would have seen Abi evolving into the typical spoiled brat that she's always been - from demanding Jay buy her the trainers he mother, riddled with a cancer cold, would not to demanding that Jay pay for their lujo holiday in that godawful teen week of 2013, Abi is one snide little bitch.
Abi isn't turning psycho, she's just letting her true colours show through. She convinced herself that Jay was interested in Lola, when he wasn't, so much so that she actually achieved that which she set out to avoid - Jay dumped her. On the day of Phil's and Sharon's wedding. Of course, Abi blamed everyone and everything else but herself and her own stinking attitude, acting so abysmally and getting so drunk that she actually killed the Brannings' poor dog. I'll never forgive the little bitch for that.
But kill Lucy?
Even if she did so accidentally (which is how I believe Lucy was killed), Abi would have soldered herself to the upstairs loo since last April, she would be shitting herself so badly.
So the scene tonight, with a worried Lauren sat around a table with Abi and a wittering Whitney, where Abi frantically gave the killer an excuse to run wild and free (there'd be a trial, Ian and Peter would have to relive the events of the past year, Max's and Emma's names would have been dragged through the mud etc) - I mean, why go through a trial and the legal process, just let the killer go free and maybe everyone would forget. Maybe people would never know how or why Lucy was killed. That scene was a big red herring scene.
The other fish in the pond tonight was Whitney. We haven't seen Whitney for the better part of the year. We know she was angry with Lucy because Lee dumped Whitney for Lucy right before her death. We also know that Lucy bullied Whitney because of her weight, which resulted in Whitney saying some nasty things on Lucy's social media pages and leaving a note which hoped she rotted in hell at her funeral. But nothing more has been made of that - not by the police and not by anyone more serious than Tamwar.
Now, at the eleventh hour, we're being asked to watch Whitney quickly change the subject from possible murder trials and Lauren having doubts about marrying Peter to Whitney's trip with a classful of infant schoolers singing "The Wheels on the Bus."
Neither of these girls killed Lucy. Whitney is a character who is full of compassion, and again, whilst Lucy's death may have been accidental, one of the first things Whitney would have done would have been to have told Bianca. Like Abi, I can't see Whitney being cold and composed enough to keep a something of this magnitude a secret.
I kept wanting Lauren to crack the password for Emma's phone, but as she's thrown it across the room, in exchange for a swig of Max's whiskey, I guess that puts paid to that.
On an aside, I thought Abi's rudeness knew no bounds tonight when she upbraided Ian for suggesting Lauren have a drink at his stag do. Yes, he was drunk. Men do get drunk at their own stag dos. It's allowed. And, quite possibly, Ian forgot Lauren couldn't drink, wherein it should have been Peter who gently reminded Ian. Instead, Peter runs after Lauren, and Abi tells Ian he's pathetic.
I so want someone to smack Abi's chops.
One thing for certain ... Lauren's gone off Peter by a mile. I'm still thinking he's the killer, even though the viewers have known Ben Hardy has been leaving for quite awhile. Knowing that has drawn us off the scent of any possibility that he could be the killer.
Kudos to Jacqueline Jossa. She owned that episode tonight.
The Big Barracuda.
Hmmm ... Ian doesn't want a stag do, and his reason is that Jane the Queen thinks it's uncivilised.
ButBossy Jane the Queen wants Ian out of the house and away from her and Cindy tonight. Why?
Alfie's in his element in organising a stag do at the last moment, although the guest list is a little thin - Ben (Ian's brother), Jay (Ben's friend), Billy Mitchell (systematically and ritually verbally abused by Ian, so why wouldn't he come?), and Fatboy (making up the number), along with Lee and Mick behind the bar.
The best and most surprising part of this storyline was the emergence of Donna as a positive character, and Alfie's interaction with her. He's genuinely moved on from Kat. When he first saw Kat, sitting miserably on the stall, he briefly spoke to her and went onto speak at length with Donna. When Donna pulled her trick on Ian, Alfie asked if she'd accompany him to Ian's wedding.
It's nice to see the Ian-Alfie friendship resume. Their bromance has always been good, and one of the strongest male friendships since the Mitchell brothers and Nigel. Ian doesn't want another stag do because he's reminded of the numerous other ones he's had? Pardon me, if I don't remember. He wants this marriage to last ... ooo-er, as Dot would say. Foreshadowing remark much?
By the way, Ian looks more pregnant than Jacqueline Jossa.
The Slippery Eel.
Well, it's Nick - four days off his death and sitting in the house in which he killed Reg Cox. I wonder if Nick realises this. I actually thought these scenes were the most atmospheric of all - the dusty, ash-filled remnants of the Slater-Moon house, Nick sitting like a sepulchre in his black coat, coughing and shivering. Had he left the house for heroin and run out of the stuff? That's what the dialogue would lead one to believe.
Nice to know that Dot's at last feeling some remorse for having lied to all and sundry about him, sneaking around, herself - and it's a wonder she hasn't been seen bobble-heading around in that transparent coat. She's even lying to the light of her life, Charlie, about fixing food for the homeless. Now she's being asked by Nick to buy him some smack - not that she hasn't done this before, mind you.
We all know how this is going to end.
The Shark and Son.
Mick doesn't want to lose the only man he considers to be his father. Reasonable enough. But Mick refuses to take his sister-mother's calls. Shirley is taking turns phoning Dean and Mick, neither of whom take her calls. Get the picture, Shirl? They're just not that into you.
Shirley knows Mick is angry with her for siding with Dean in this misadventure, but Stan seems to think he can broker a peace. Really, Stan? It's not just about Shirley's other son raping her oldest son's wife, it's also about Shirley calling the wife a liar.
I didn't like the look Lee gave Grandad as he left the Carter lounge. Just when I'm beginning to like Lee, I don't want him aiding and abetting Stan.
The Missing Minnow and the Blowfish.
Max is one insecure man. And a coward. Yet again, he seeks a bully tactic by storming into the Mitchell home, standing over Ben and Jay and shouting the odds about them not being at work. Actually, I don't think they were phased. They could easily quit on him and await Phil's avenging angel act, but Sharon puts him in his place by saying Phil's bail hearing is today.
Well, it is, except that Phil deliberately gave Sharon the wrong time. She manages to lie to Max - a good one, saying Phil had business to which to attend, but as she says to the boys, Phil's done a runner to punish her for the Arches.
Well, we know where he's gone ... home to Mother, and when Peggy sweeps in, ready to heap all the blame on Sharon, Ben will confess his crime.
Mothers of the Year.
This time, Alfie's moved on, but Kat hasn't. The Dirty Girl is back in full force. She gets a notice that her rent is being raised - and how, exactly, did they manage to get their names on that flat? Dean's the main tenant, and they threw him out. Stacey's unemployed and on benefits, and Kat is earning a pittance.
Anyway, the rent is raised and Kat leaves Stacey to cover the stall while she goes off to drink at the Vic, spending money they don't have. She's drunk and has three very young children at home, being cared for by Stacey and Mo.
Not just Kat, but Roxy is feeling singularly sorry for the fact that her Ice Queen sister is still in suspended animation at the hospital. The doctor warns her that Ronnie might have severe brain damage if and when she should awake, but we all know that the Bride of Frankenstein will bound from the bed in one fell leap, probably on Friday, where she'll run off and kill Nick. And let Dot cop the blame for it.
So Essex and the Dirty Girl share a drink. Or two. Or three. Kids at home? Who cares?
Kudos to Alfie for throwing a drunken Kat out of the pub tonight. Alfie had no right? She's still his wife, and his children are under her care. I am so over the Dirty Girl.
Good episode. We're into the home stretch now.
This was good tonight - seriously good, with a couple of side issues thrown in to boot. As Stan was a fishmonger, it's mete that the episode take on a fishy aura about it.
Two Red Herrings.
Lauren is doing what Lauren does best - finding out something that she shouldn't know based on evidence she really shouldn't have seen. To date, Lauren has found out about Max's affair with Stacey, and she's found out that Stacey killed Archie. Now she's found out the identity of Lucy's killer. Something on that piece of paper gives her the missing link to the clue about the killer's identity. It bothers Lauren, and tonight's evidence, based on her behaviour, points to Peter as the culprit.
Lauren is also trying to get into Emma's phone, because - you know - there might be some sort of clue there, as in the message she sent to the killer near the end of her life. We can safely say that Lauren isn't the killer, but whoever is worries Lauren enough to make her wonder if she's doing the right thing by marrying Peter and, eventually, to take a long drink of Max's whiskey.
But there's a scene that casts a rosy hue of suspicion on both Abi and Whitney in this episode.
I know lots of viewers have reckoned Abi killed Lucy - a lot of that supposition comes on the strength of Abi's innate Tanya-esque bitchiness coming to the fore this year. Well, if you'd watched for the past couple of years, at least from 2011, you would have seen Abi evolving into the typical spoiled brat that she's always been - from demanding Jay buy her the trainers he mother, riddled with a cancer cold, would not to demanding that Jay pay for their lujo holiday in that godawful teen week of 2013, Abi is one snide little bitch.
Abi isn't turning psycho, she's just letting her true colours show through. She convinced herself that Jay was interested in Lola, when he wasn't, so much so that she actually achieved that which she set out to avoid - Jay dumped her. On the day of Phil's and Sharon's wedding. Of course, Abi blamed everyone and everything else but herself and her own stinking attitude, acting so abysmally and getting so drunk that she actually killed the Brannings' poor dog. I'll never forgive the little bitch for that.
But kill Lucy?
Even if she did so accidentally (which is how I believe Lucy was killed), Abi would have soldered herself to the upstairs loo since last April, she would be shitting herself so badly.
So the scene tonight, with a worried Lauren sat around a table with Abi and a wittering Whitney, where Abi frantically gave the killer an excuse to run wild and free (there'd be a trial, Ian and Peter would have to relive the events of the past year, Max's and Emma's names would have been dragged through the mud etc) - I mean, why go through a trial and the legal process, just let the killer go free and maybe everyone would forget. Maybe people would never know how or why Lucy was killed. That scene was a big red herring scene.
The other fish in the pond tonight was Whitney. We haven't seen Whitney for the better part of the year. We know she was angry with Lucy because Lee dumped Whitney for Lucy right before her death. We also know that Lucy bullied Whitney because of her weight, which resulted in Whitney saying some nasty things on Lucy's social media pages and leaving a note which hoped she rotted in hell at her funeral. But nothing more has been made of that - not by the police and not by anyone more serious than Tamwar.
Now, at the eleventh hour, we're being asked to watch Whitney quickly change the subject from possible murder trials and Lauren having doubts about marrying Peter to Whitney's trip with a classful of infant schoolers singing "The Wheels on the Bus."
Neither of these girls killed Lucy. Whitney is a character who is full of compassion, and again, whilst Lucy's death may have been accidental, one of the first things Whitney would have done would have been to have told Bianca. Like Abi, I can't see Whitney being cold and composed enough to keep a something of this magnitude a secret.
I kept wanting Lauren to crack the password for Emma's phone, but as she's thrown it across the room, in exchange for a swig of Max's whiskey, I guess that puts paid to that.
On an aside, I thought Abi's rudeness knew no bounds tonight when she upbraided Ian for suggesting Lauren have a drink at his stag do. Yes, he was drunk. Men do get drunk at their own stag dos. It's allowed. And, quite possibly, Ian forgot Lauren couldn't drink, wherein it should have been Peter who gently reminded Ian. Instead, Peter runs after Lauren, and Abi tells Ian he's pathetic.
I so want someone to smack Abi's chops.
One thing for certain ... Lauren's gone off Peter by a mile. I'm still thinking he's the killer, even though the viewers have known Ben Hardy has been leaving for quite awhile. Knowing that has drawn us off the scent of any possibility that he could be the killer.
Kudos to Jacqueline Jossa. She owned that episode tonight.
The Big Barracuda.
Hmmm ... Ian doesn't want a stag do, and his reason is that Jane the Queen thinks it's uncivilised.
But
Alfie's in his element in organising a stag do at the last moment, although the guest list is a little thin - Ben (Ian's brother), Jay (Ben's friend), Billy Mitchell (systematically and ritually verbally abused by Ian, so why wouldn't he come?), and Fatboy (making up the number), along with Lee and Mick behind the bar.
The best and most surprising part of this storyline was the emergence of Donna as a positive character, and Alfie's interaction with her. He's genuinely moved on from Kat. When he first saw Kat, sitting miserably on the stall, he briefly spoke to her and went onto speak at length with Donna. When Donna pulled her trick on Ian, Alfie asked if she'd accompany him to Ian's wedding.
It's nice to see the Ian-Alfie friendship resume. Their bromance has always been good, and one of the strongest male friendships since the Mitchell brothers and Nigel. Ian doesn't want another stag do because he's reminded of the numerous other ones he's had? Pardon me, if I don't remember. He wants this marriage to last ... ooo-er, as Dot would say. Foreshadowing remark much?
By the way, Ian looks more pregnant than Jacqueline Jossa.
The Slippery Eel.
Well, it's Nick - four days off his death and sitting in the house in which he killed Reg Cox. I wonder if Nick realises this. I actually thought these scenes were the most atmospheric of all - the dusty, ash-filled remnants of the Slater-Moon house, Nick sitting like a sepulchre in his black coat, coughing and shivering. Had he left the house for heroin and run out of the stuff? That's what the dialogue would lead one to believe.
Nice to know that Dot's at last feeling some remorse for having lied to all and sundry about him, sneaking around, herself - and it's a wonder she hasn't been seen bobble-heading around in that transparent coat. She's even lying to the light of her life, Charlie, about fixing food for the homeless. Now she's being asked by Nick to buy him some smack - not that she hasn't done this before, mind you.
We all know how this is going to end.
The Shark and Son.
Mick doesn't want to lose the only man he considers to be his father. Reasonable enough. But Mick refuses to take his sister-mother's calls. Shirley is taking turns phoning Dean and Mick, neither of whom take her calls. Get the picture, Shirl? They're just not that into you.
Shirley knows Mick is angry with her for siding with Dean in this misadventure, but Stan seems to think he can broker a peace. Really, Stan? It's not just about Shirley's other son raping her oldest son's wife, it's also about Shirley calling the wife a liar.
I didn't like the look Lee gave Grandad as he left the Carter lounge. Just when I'm beginning to like Lee, I don't want him aiding and abetting Stan.
The Missing Minnow and the Blowfish.
Max is one insecure man. And a coward. Yet again, he seeks a bully tactic by storming into the Mitchell home, standing over Ben and Jay and shouting the odds about them not being at work. Actually, I don't think they were phased. They could easily quit on him and await Phil's avenging angel act, but Sharon puts him in his place by saying Phil's bail hearing is today.
Well, it is, except that Phil deliberately gave Sharon the wrong time. She manages to lie to Max - a good one, saying Phil had business to which to attend, but as she says to the boys, Phil's done a runner to punish her for the Arches.
Well, we know where he's gone ... home to Mother, and when Peggy sweeps in, ready to heap all the blame on Sharon, Ben will confess his crime.
Mothers of the Year.
This time, Alfie's moved on, but Kat hasn't. The Dirty Girl is back in full force. She gets a notice that her rent is being raised - and how, exactly, did they manage to get their names on that flat? Dean's the main tenant, and they threw him out. Stacey's unemployed and on benefits, and Kat is earning a pittance.
Anyway, the rent is raised and Kat leaves Stacey to cover the stall while she goes off to drink at the Vic, spending money they don't have. She's drunk and has three very young children at home, being cared for by Stacey and Mo.
Not just Kat, but Roxy is feeling singularly sorry for the fact that her Ice Queen sister is still in suspended animation at the hospital. The doctor warns her that Ronnie might have severe brain damage if and when she should awake, but we all know that the Bride of Frankenstein will bound from the bed in one fell leap, probably on Friday, where she'll run off and kill Nick. And let Dot cop the blame for it.
So Essex and the Dirty Girl share a drink. Or two. Or three. Kids at home? Who cares?
Kudos to Alfie for throwing a drunken Kat out of the pub tonight. Alfie had no right? She's still his wife, and his children are under her care. I am so over the Dirty Girl.
Good episode. We're into the home stretch now.
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