Yet another consistently good episode, but I'm forced to ask myself if a lot of things from the past, being brought back by DTC, are for having lines drawn under them or for over-egging the omelette.
Take Sharon for example.
Family Affairs.
So Carole Hanley crawls from the woodwork and into Sharon's life yet again, this time when she's firmly ensconced in an established family with whom she's been familiar for two decades.
I must admit, I thought this mystery letter would emanate from Jan, but it's Carole and she wants to see Sharon, which can only mean one thing ... two hunks and a dollybird looming on the horizon. For all of us who've ever wished for Sharon's birth family, and I have been one of them ... be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.
Think of it ... there may have been some scope for these people when Sharon was isolated, but now she's a Mitchell, with a son and two stepsons and a gaggle of relatives. The last thing she needs are birth relatives, who are relative strangers, pouring into Sharon's life. Because we know that this is exactly what's going to happen. You know it. I know it, and anyone who knows how fond this EP is of over-egging knows it. He can't resist it. especially since Sharon's birth siblings are just about the right age demographic DTC enjoys employing.
So there you have it. I'm calling it. The moment Sharon put that letter in the drawer, you knew, you just knew the outcome of Carole wanting to see her meant something to do with her birth siblings invading her life space.
The big surprise of this story was Sharon saying Carole had got in touch with her a few years ago, but was she being euphemistic about when they found each other in the 90s, because this letter came addressed to Sharon Watts at the Vic. Carole wouldn't have known about Mitchell MkI, or Dennis Rickman or Mitchell MkII. She was right to confess to Jane that Angie, whom she qualified as her mum had her faults but made Sharon what she was today. Carole isn't contacting Sharon without a reason, and one thing I don't want to see is an instant reunion with brothers and a sister who ... well, who simply aren't her brothers and sister. They're three people who share a birth mother, that's all. The Hanley siblings don't share any common childhood memories or bonding experiences. Their mother rejected Sharon at birth and then rejected her again 21 years later. She didn't even want them to know who Sharon was.
You know something? You can almost smell out the character types and storylines surrounding the Hanleys looming in the distance. Older brother Hanley will be a man in his early thirties, a dodgy businessman with a high-end credit card debt and a cocaine habit. He'll be the bad'un who'll end up Roxy's toyboy. Younger brother Hanley will be ca 28 years old. He'll be the soft one, meaning well, and he'll try to bond with Sharon, whereas the older one will try to stitch her up, and he'll probably end up with Nancy Carter. Then widdle sister Hanley is in her early twenties. Since she doesn't know the history of the resident rapist who's planning on hanging around, she'll end up in the arms of Dean. Or maybe Max.
You just know it. You can see it coming.
But Sharon has other things on her mind, mostly getting Phil out of prison and getting the Arches back in Mitchell hands. Poor Abi. She gets used by Max to snooker Phil and used by Sharon to get a copy of the contract Ben signed which gave Max the Arches ...
I don't know what Sharon plans to do with the copy contract she fanagled out of Abi, who's worried about the way Max has been behaving; but she put on her warpaint and put up her hair in business fashion to try to get Max to see sense, which he wouldn't. Max wants to think twice about calling Sharon "thick". He needs to remember, or at least talk to that embodiment of ingratitude, his stepmother Dot, about who Sharon's father was and how he operated. She's also been married to both of the Mitchell brothers and lived to tell the tale. Max needs to reflect on the fact that the Brannings are always losers, and that Phil will get out and then Max's life simply won't be worth living.
And if Sharon is using a dead man to get what she wants, then Max used a dead woman he'd known five minutes as an excuse to get what he wanted.
This was actually, the best vignette of the episode, were it not for the Queen of Bovine emating methane gas all over the place.
The Bovine Wedding.
Jane the Queen is getting vexed at having Alfie as a houseguest. Jane the Queen is being overruled by Ian, who's quite happy to have Alfie around. I'm enjoying the Ian-Alfie bromance, and I'm glad their friendship hasn't been forgotten. Is Alfie working, however? I heard him mention the other day that Ian threw the odd job his way, but I'm wondering where he's getting the money to pay rent to Donna.
Jane the Murdering Queen seems to want a down-played wedding, and I wonder why she wants no attention drawn to her goodself. Jane the Queen is either a murderer, or she's covering for a murderer, or she's about to pin Lucy's murder on Ian.
I hope someone smacks Jane the Queen's arse about the Square and I hope she ends up as veal cutlets.
You're right to value Alfie's friendship more than Jane the Queen's greed, supercilious demeanour and false love, Ian. I would also.
CarterTown DeLuxe.
They'll be singing next.
I'm glad Stan's momentary lapse of good sense was restored to him by Lee, whom I actually like. It took Lee relating a soldier's attitude and fear of death to Stan to make him realise what Tina had been saying all along - that it was grossly unfair of Stan to expect Mick and Tina to help him end his life. As Linda said, it would get them all banged up. That's a bit selfish of Stan. Fine and dandy, if he wants to take charge of determining the end of his life, but it's wrong to involve the rest of his family if they are reluctant to do so. It seems that Stan was asking Mick and Tina to take responsibility for something for which he, himself, has no courage.
Perhaps he should habe asked Shirley. She could have drowned him.
Why were the Carters there at all tonight? For the first time since I can remember, they filled major space and did nothing. They cleared up the mess that was Stan's euthanasia, they saw fit that Stacey went to the police station and "said what they wanted her to say" (which was, what precisely? That Linda had confessed to Stacey that Dean had raped her? That Stacey was a victim of rape, herself? What?), and that there's a rift beginning to show, as Stan announces he's off to have a drink with Dean and says the wrong thing to Mick.
It's her word against his.
Mick doesn't know how long he can stand the sight of Dean swanning about in the Square. He thinks he'll kill him. (Please, not another one).
Do You Want to Know a Secret?
Everything bad happens on someone's birthday in EastEnders. Mick had a gaggle of home truths about his history revealed to him. Now Shabnam awakes thinking she's going to get a promotion at work, only to find out that they're closing the Minute Mart and she'll probably lose her job.
But how great is it seeing her friendship with Stacey? Loved the girlfriend hugs. Is Shabnam self-centred? Yes, but no moreso than many of the other residents of the Square. She lashes out because of the secret she's carrying, and it's not the fact that her Nan left her the inheritance she should have left Masood. It's something else, something so awesome that the pole dancer returned long enough and at just the right time to engage in a bit of a private performance with Kush.
Who didn't see that happening? And on whose shoulder do you think she'll run crying? That's right ... Stacey's.
Good episode.
Take Sharon for example.
Family Affairs.
So Carole Hanley crawls from the woodwork and into Sharon's life yet again, this time when she's firmly ensconced in an established family with whom she's been familiar for two decades.
I must admit, I thought this mystery letter would emanate from Jan, but it's Carole and she wants to see Sharon, which can only mean one thing ... two hunks and a dollybird looming on the horizon. For all of us who've ever wished for Sharon's birth family, and I have been one of them ... be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.
Think of it ... there may have been some scope for these people when Sharon was isolated, but now she's a Mitchell, with a son and two stepsons and a gaggle of relatives. The last thing she needs are birth relatives, who are relative strangers, pouring into Sharon's life. Because we know that this is exactly what's going to happen. You know it. I know it, and anyone who knows how fond this EP is of over-egging knows it. He can't resist it. especially since Sharon's birth siblings are just about the right age demographic DTC enjoys employing.
So there you have it. I'm calling it. The moment Sharon put that letter in the drawer, you knew, you just knew the outcome of Carole wanting to see her meant something to do with her birth siblings invading her life space.
The big surprise of this story was Sharon saying Carole had got in touch with her a few years ago, but was she being euphemistic about when they found each other in the 90s, because this letter came addressed to Sharon Watts at the Vic. Carole wouldn't have known about Mitchell MkI, or Dennis Rickman or Mitchell MkII. She was right to confess to Jane that Angie, whom she qualified as her mum had her faults but made Sharon what she was today. Carole isn't contacting Sharon without a reason, and one thing I don't want to see is an instant reunion with brothers and a sister who ... well, who simply aren't her brothers and sister. They're three people who share a birth mother, that's all. The Hanley siblings don't share any common childhood memories or bonding experiences. Their mother rejected Sharon at birth and then rejected her again 21 years later. She didn't even want them to know who Sharon was.
You know something? You can almost smell out the character types and storylines surrounding the Hanleys looming in the distance. Older brother Hanley will be a man in his early thirties, a dodgy businessman with a high-end credit card debt and a cocaine habit. He'll be the bad'un who'll end up Roxy's toyboy. Younger brother Hanley will be ca 28 years old. He'll be the soft one, meaning well, and he'll try to bond with Sharon, whereas the older one will try to stitch her up, and he'll probably end up with Nancy Carter. Then widdle sister Hanley is in her early twenties. Since she doesn't know the history of the resident rapist who's planning on hanging around, she'll end up in the arms of Dean. Or maybe Max.
You just know it. You can see it coming.
But Sharon has other things on her mind, mostly getting Phil out of prison and getting the Arches back in Mitchell hands. Poor Abi. She gets used by Max to snooker Phil and used by Sharon to get a copy of the contract Ben signed which gave Max the Arches ...
I don't know what Sharon plans to do with the copy contract she fanagled out of Abi, who's worried about the way Max has been behaving; but she put on her warpaint and put up her hair in business fashion to try to get Max to see sense, which he wouldn't. Max wants to think twice about calling Sharon "thick". He needs to remember, or at least talk to that embodiment of ingratitude, his stepmother Dot, about who Sharon's father was and how he operated. She's also been married to both of the Mitchell brothers and lived to tell the tale. Max needs to reflect on the fact that the Brannings are always losers, and that Phil will get out and then Max's life simply won't be worth living.
And if Sharon is using a dead man to get what she wants, then Max used a dead woman he'd known five minutes as an excuse to get what he wanted.
This was actually, the best vignette of the episode, were it not for the Queen of Bovine emating methane gas all over the place.
The Bovine Wedding.
Jane the Queen is getting vexed at having Alfie as a houseguest. Jane the Queen is being overruled by Ian, who's quite happy to have Alfie around. I'm enjoying the Ian-Alfie bromance, and I'm glad their friendship hasn't been forgotten. Is Alfie working, however? I heard him mention the other day that Ian threw the odd job his way, but I'm wondering where he's getting the money to pay rent to Donna.
Jane the Murdering Queen seems to want a down-played wedding, and I wonder why she wants no attention drawn to her goodself. Jane the Queen is either a murderer, or she's covering for a murderer, or she's about to pin Lucy's murder on Ian.
I hope someone smacks Jane the Queen's arse about the Square and I hope she ends up as veal cutlets.
You're right to value Alfie's friendship more than Jane the Queen's greed, supercilious demeanour and false love, Ian. I would also.
CarterTown DeLuxe.
They'll be singing next.
I'm glad Stan's momentary lapse of good sense was restored to him by Lee, whom I actually like. It took Lee relating a soldier's attitude and fear of death to Stan to make him realise what Tina had been saying all along - that it was grossly unfair of Stan to expect Mick and Tina to help him end his life. As Linda said, it would get them all banged up. That's a bit selfish of Stan. Fine and dandy, if he wants to take charge of determining the end of his life, but it's wrong to involve the rest of his family if they are reluctant to do so. It seems that Stan was asking Mick and Tina to take responsibility for something for which he, himself, has no courage.
Perhaps he should habe asked Shirley. She could have drowned him.
Why were the Carters there at all tonight? For the first time since I can remember, they filled major space and did nothing. They cleared up the mess that was Stan's euthanasia, they saw fit that Stacey went to the police station and "said what they wanted her to say" (which was, what precisely? That Linda had confessed to Stacey that Dean had raped her? That Stacey was a victim of rape, herself? What?), and that there's a rift beginning to show, as Stan announces he's off to have a drink with Dean and says the wrong thing to Mick.
It's her word against his.
Mick doesn't know how long he can stand the sight of Dean swanning about in the Square. He thinks he'll kill him. (Please, not another one).
Do You Want to Know a Secret?
Everything bad happens on someone's birthday in EastEnders. Mick had a gaggle of home truths about his history revealed to him. Now Shabnam awakes thinking she's going to get a promotion at work, only to find out that they're closing the Minute Mart and she'll probably lose her job.
But how great is it seeing her friendship with Stacey? Loved the girlfriend hugs. Is Shabnam self-centred? Yes, but no moreso than many of the other residents of the Square. She lashes out because of the secret she's carrying, and it's not the fact that her Nan left her the inheritance she should have left Masood. It's something else, something so awesome that the pole dancer returned long enough and at just the right time to engage in a bit of a private performance with Kush.
Who didn't see that happening? And on whose shoulder do you think she'll run crying? That's right ... Stacey's.
Good episode.
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