Buster's song for Shirley:-
Oh dear ... it's CarterVille once more ... shooby-do-lang-lang.
The SideShow: The Brannings vs The Mitchells.
Poor Jay. He doesn't know who he is these days. He came to Walford as Jay Brown. His father was named Jase Dyer. He legally changed his name to Jay Mitchell as soon as her turned sixteen and got a pair of boxing gloves from Phil. After Heather's killing and his telling the truth on Ben, Phil cast him out, and he became Jay Brown again. Now, in what is rapidly turning into The Battle of the Arches, Ben calls Jay's loyalty into question.
Is he a Branning or a Mitchell?
Well, he's neither. He's a Brown. Or a Dyer, depending on which way Jay looks at it. At the moment, he just wants to keep his head down, do a job, get a wage and cause no trouble. The last thing he needs is Ben compromising him and Phil passive-aggressively bullying him into taking sides in a situation Ben created.
Of course, Phil wants The Arches back. More than The Albert, more than the R and R, it's the place where he's able to do his dodgy dealing. It'w the epicentre of the bent side of Phil Mitchell. With Max, it's a business, and Jay seems comfortable with that. He wants a peaceful life. Simples.
Jay also knows that he resides within the Mitchell kingdom by the grace of Phil's goodwill, and that's about as dependable as a weathervane in the wind. He's been booted out before, he knows he'll be booted out again. But Jay has something neither Phil nor Ben possess in a great way - a moral conscience. Max treats both boys decently; that matters to Jay. As for Ben, he's got form in double-crossing his old man. Now he's trying to do things by the book and stick with Phil like glue. He's pretending to be straight, something Jay knows he isn't.
There's a big staring contest in the Vic, with Max being Billy-No-Mates and drinking alone, whilst Phil and Ben sit by the wall staring at him. As Jay emerges from the loos and passes Max, Max offers to buy him a drink, but Jay chooses Mitchelldom for the time being. However, Jay's stare at Max is more baleful than funny or threatening (which is the way you can describe Ben and Phil, respectively). Jay's thinking critically. However Max may have acquired The Arches - and that was through Ben's stupidity and arrogance - he's been a good boss.
Somewhere down the line, someone's going to break with Mitchelldom. I don't think it will be Ben the coward.
The Carters: Just Another Fine Mess.
Gosh, there's so much going on here, it's hard to keep your head straight.
The centre of all the action is Stan, who's probably about the most stationary of all the family and their satellites. Stan is dying, and don't we all know it?
There's another central paradigm to the action tonight, and that's the mystery of who grassed Dean to the police?
Well, the viewers know, don't we?
This is what starts all the balls rolling downhill. Sort of like Thunderball, that would be Buster Bloodvessel ...
Yuck. He neither compliments either Tom Jones or James Bond.
Buster, and I may say it freely, is a scrote.
The character is played by an actor who's seriously embarrassing, and the character, himself, is Phil-lite - all mouth and no trousers, another man hiding behind, whilst manipulating, a woman. We got a snippet of Buster's and Shirley's backstory tonight when, whist waiting to see an imprisoned Dean, he related the story of the lesson Shirley taught him - never give up on what you've got - and then he proceeded to relate the story of how someone had nicked his bike as a youngster and it was Shirley -Shirley - who got the bike back.
A girl fought his battle for him.
And that was the moment ... THE moment.
The moment what? The moment he'd sample the mechandise and then walk away? If Shirley taught him never to give up, why has it been always Shirley who's sought Bloodvessel? Bloodvessel's first action, after finding out Dean had been arrested, is to race out into the street and belloweather up at Mick's window, calling him "scum" and "grass." (In case you haven't forgotten, scrote, Mick is your son also). The next day, as he's sulking and preparing to leave, the only thing he can think to do is blameShirley and Dean for his not being able to abscond to Greece.
I truly cannot fathom whether Shirley believes Dean is innocent or not. I guess now she's back in the innocent camp. Most of the Carter action centres around what the rape crisis has devolved into - Stan calling the shots from his deathbed about wanting Mick to reunite with his real mother, Mick's relationship with Shrley and now with Buster, his birth father. Linda, the real epicentre of the piece, originally - ya know, the rape victim - has been shunted to the sidelines to such an extent that when Mick tells her tonight that Stan's dying wish is for Mick to make it right with Shirley, Linda gives this her blessing.
Yes, Shirley is Mick's mother, but she's also the person who's not been shy to put it about that Dean is the innocent party in the rape allegations, and Linda has been lying all along. Shirley and Bloodvessel are adamant about Dean's innocence. Dean even tells them he has substantial cash squirreled away at Blades - has he still been paying Phil Mitchell weekly? - enough for a good brief, whom, Shirley confides to Buster, can get Dean out in a New York Minute.
Bloodvessel's prime motive throughout the piece has been to stir trouble with "Mick the Grass," and this means hanging menancingly about the pub, trying to look fear-inducing and failing.
Kudos to Lee for sticking his oar in. Bloodvessel, a wheezing, unshaven, unfit scrote who's a poor man's Phil Mitchell thinks he can tackle a serving soldier (oh, all right, he's serving in the British Ava army) who's trained to the hilt and who's seen time in Afghanistan? Pull the other one. As Lee says ~You don't want to know.~
And kudos to Mick as well, for fronting that despicable scrotey little man out. Mick tells him that he doesn't need the extra aggravation, as his father is seeing out his last days, and they're concerned with him.
Up pops Mr Arrogance ...
Favvah? You wanna get yer facts straight.
And Mick does. Beautifully. Stan was the man who was there for him - only semi-there, but more than the sperm-donating scrote whom he doesn't know or like was. End of. Now Mick should mosey on down to the prison and scream that to Dean about Kevin; then he should mosey on across the Square and scream that to Sharon about Den and Ange.
Bloodvessel is intent on proving Mick was the person who grassed Dean - and he uses the royal "we" when speaking about Dean as if Dean is himself. After all, it was Mick who grassed "us" up the last time he was here. Shirley, on the other hand, was sublime in all her cowardice.
Linda Henry is right when she says that Shirley's motivating force is her cowardice. Usually, when the going got tough, Shirl got going. Tonight, it wouldn't have taken rocket science for Buster to fathom that Shirley was the one who'd told the police about Dean, after the way she dissuaded him from accusing Mick.
You don't know, you don't know became her mantra tonight. She was conflicted, yet again, by loyalty in protecting another son and loyalty to the man whom she supposedly loves, Mick's father. Finallly, Mick's demeanor was enough to convince the Scrote that he didn't grass Dean, and it's then and only then that Bloodvessel's one brain cell kicks into action.
Slowly but surely ...
... he comes to the conclusion that it's Shirley who's done the deed. He remembers her telling Buster and Dean that it could be a blessing that Dean's in prison. Then he'll get his day in court and be proven innocent legally. In the meantime, the police liaison officer is visiting Mick and Linda - ya know, the woman whom Dean raped? - apprising them of the fact that Dean had been taken off the streets. Not only had he been arrested for jumping bail, he'd assaulted a police officer, and he'd have to do time for that.
Shirley proves, yet again, how desperate she is for male company by tearing down the street after a sulking Bloodvessel, trying to explain to him how Dean needed to clear his name and prove his innocence in the court. Ironically, it was Lee and Nancy who inadvertantly reminded Bloodvessel of the importance of family, on the way to visit their grandfather (their choice of words). Even more ironically, Linda had stepped up to the plate and encouraged Mick to approach Shirley about a rapprochement.
But Shirley, being Shirley, is caught just at the moment when Bloodvessel returns, vowing to be there when Dean walks free from the court, an innocent man. Given the choice between reconciling with her son and cosying up with her babydaddy, Shirley chooses the man over the son.
I cannot wait to see their abject faces when it's finally brought home to them that saintly Dean is a rapist.
Meanwhile, we had Tina flapping about the place trying to move Stan's chair and find him a television, and Cora, steeling herself to visit Stan, in what was, probably, the best scene in the episode.
The quiet reminiscences and conversation between a woman and a man who found each other very late in life, too late - in fact - to have a life together, snatching whatever precious moments they could - the camera catching Cora subtly holding Stan's hand as Stan drifted off in one of the many pre-coma sleeps he'll have, only to awaken and ask that they be married the next day was poignant. Ann Mitchell and Timothy West, again, gave one of their many masterclasses in showing that acting needn't be all about shouting and screaming the odds.
Beautiful. And credit to Danny Dyer also.
Is This the Beginning of the End? (Sigh) ... the Moons. Kat is home, and I can't believe the psychiatric nurse simply told her that this would "take time." For what it's worth, I didn't think Alfie was shirking being around her by taking her place on the stall. I thought he was keeping the pitch open for her and earning money for her in her absence. Instead, he lets himself be convinced by Donna, that his place is in the flat, looking after Kat 24/7- probably because he's competition to Donna, if her face were anything to go by as Alfie made sales.
And, thus, we have Alfie swearing to move back into the flat, sleeping on the couch, in order to care for and look after Kat.
Duuuuuuh.
This was a watchable episode, but it was by no means outstanding, apart from the West-Mitchell scene.
I am offended that the rape storyline became little more than a plot device to develop the relationship between Mick and Shirley. Very bad of DTC to do that.
Oh dear ... it's CarterVille once more ... shooby-do-lang-lang.
The SideShow: The Brannings vs The Mitchells.
Poor Jay. He doesn't know who he is these days. He came to Walford as Jay Brown. His father was named Jase Dyer. He legally changed his name to Jay Mitchell as soon as her turned sixteen and got a pair of boxing gloves from Phil. After Heather's killing and his telling the truth on Ben, Phil cast him out, and he became Jay Brown again. Now, in what is rapidly turning into The Battle of the Arches, Ben calls Jay's loyalty into question.
Is he a Branning or a Mitchell?
Well, he's neither. He's a Brown. Or a Dyer, depending on which way Jay looks at it. At the moment, he just wants to keep his head down, do a job, get a wage and cause no trouble. The last thing he needs is Ben compromising him and Phil passive-aggressively bullying him into taking sides in a situation Ben created.
Of course, Phil wants The Arches back. More than The Albert, more than the R and R, it's the place where he's able to do his dodgy dealing. It'w the epicentre of the bent side of Phil Mitchell. With Max, it's a business, and Jay seems comfortable with that. He wants a peaceful life. Simples.
Jay also knows that he resides within the Mitchell kingdom by the grace of Phil's goodwill, and that's about as dependable as a weathervane in the wind. He's been booted out before, he knows he'll be booted out again. But Jay has something neither Phil nor Ben possess in a great way - a moral conscience. Max treats both boys decently; that matters to Jay. As for Ben, he's got form in double-crossing his old man. Now he's trying to do things by the book and stick with Phil like glue. He's pretending to be straight, something Jay knows he isn't.
There's a big staring contest in the Vic, with Max being Billy-No-Mates and drinking alone, whilst Phil and Ben sit by the wall staring at him. As Jay emerges from the loos and passes Max, Max offers to buy him a drink, but Jay chooses Mitchelldom for the time being. However, Jay's stare at Max is more baleful than funny or threatening (which is the way you can describe Ben and Phil, respectively). Jay's thinking critically. However Max may have acquired The Arches - and that was through Ben's stupidity and arrogance - he's been a good boss.
Somewhere down the line, someone's going to break with Mitchelldom. I don't think it will be Ben the coward.
The Carters: Just Another Fine Mess.
Gosh, there's so much going on here, it's hard to keep your head straight.
The centre of all the action is Stan, who's probably about the most stationary of all the family and their satellites. Stan is dying, and don't we all know it?
There's another central paradigm to the action tonight, and that's the mystery of who grassed Dean to the police?
Well, the viewers know, don't we?
This is what starts all the balls rolling downhill. Sort of like Thunderball, that would be Buster Bloodvessel ...
Yuck. He neither compliments either Tom Jones or James Bond.
Buster, and I may say it freely, is a scrote.
The character is played by an actor who's seriously embarrassing, and the character, himself, is Phil-lite - all mouth and no trousers, another man hiding behind, whilst manipulating, a woman. We got a snippet of Buster's and Shirley's backstory tonight when, whist waiting to see an imprisoned Dean, he related the story of the lesson Shirley taught him - never give up on what you've got - and then he proceeded to relate the story of how someone had nicked his bike as a youngster and it was Shirley -Shirley - who got the bike back.
A girl fought his battle for him.
And that was the moment ... THE moment.
The moment what? The moment he'd sample the mechandise and then walk away? If Shirley taught him never to give up, why has it been always Shirley who's sought Bloodvessel? Bloodvessel's first action, after finding out Dean had been arrested, is to race out into the street and belloweather up at Mick's window, calling him "scum" and "grass." (In case you haven't forgotten, scrote, Mick is your son also). The next day, as he's sulking and preparing to leave, the only thing he can think to do is blameShirley and Dean for his not being able to abscond to Greece.
I truly cannot fathom whether Shirley believes Dean is innocent or not. I guess now she's back in the innocent camp. Most of the Carter action centres around what the rape crisis has devolved into - Stan calling the shots from his deathbed about wanting Mick to reunite with his real mother, Mick's relationship with Shrley and now with Buster, his birth father. Linda, the real epicentre of the piece, originally - ya know, the rape victim - has been shunted to the sidelines to such an extent that when Mick tells her tonight that Stan's dying wish is for Mick to make it right with Shirley, Linda gives this her blessing.
Yes, Shirley is Mick's mother, but she's also the person who's not been shy to put it about that Dean is the innocent party in the rape allegations, and Linda has been lying all along. Shirley and Bloodvessel are adamant about Dean's innocence. Dean even tells them he has substantial cash squirreled away at Blades - has he still been paying Phil Mitchell weekly? - enough for a good brief, whom, Shirley confides to Buster, can get Dean out in a New York Minute.
Bloodvessel's prime motive throughout the piece has been to stir trouble with "Mick the Grass," and this means hanging menancingly about the pub, trying to look fear-inducing and failing.
Kudos to Lee for sticking his oar in. Bloodvessel, a wheezing, unshaven, unfit scrote who's a poor man's Phil Mitchell thinks he can tackle a serving soldier (oh, all right, he's serving in the British Ava army) who's trained to the hilt and who's seen time in Afghanistan? Pull the other one. As Lee says ~You don't want to know.~
And kudos to Mick as well, for fronting that despicable scrotey little man out. Mick tells him that he doesn't need the extra aggravation, as his father is seeing out his last days, and they're concerned with him.
Up pops Mr Arrogance ...
Favvah? You wanna get yer facts straight.
And Mick does. Beautifully. Stan was the man who was there for him - only semi-there, but more than the sperm-donating scrote whom he doesn't know or like was. End of. Now Mick should mosey on down to the prison and scream that to Dean about Kevin; then he should mosey on across the Square and scream that to Sharon about Den and Ange.
Bloodvessel is intent on proving Mick was the person who grassed Dean - and he uses the royal "we" when speaking about Dean as if Dean is himself. After all, it was Mick who grassed "us" up the last time he was here. Shirley, on the other hand, was sublime in all her cowardice.
Linda Henry is right when she says that Shirley's motivating force is her cowardice. Usually, when the going got tough, Shirl got going. Tonight, it wouldn't have taken rocket science for Buster to fathom that Shirley was the one who'd told the police about Dean, after the way she dissuaded him from accusing Mick.
You don't know, you don't know became her mantra tonight. She was conflicted, yet again, by loyalty in protecting another son and loyalty to the man whom she supposedly loves, Mick's father. Finallly, Mick's demeanor was enough to convince the Scrote that he didn't grass Dean, and it's then and only then that Bloodvessel's one brain cell kicks into action.
Slowly but surely ...
... he comes to the conclusion that it's Shirley who's done the deed. He remembers her telling Buster and Dean that it could be a blessing that Dean's in prison. Then he'll get his day in court and be proven innocent legally. In the meantime, the police liaison officer is visiting Mick and Linda - ya know, the woman whom Dean raped? - apprising them of the fact that Dean had been taken off the streets. Not only had he been arrested for jumping bail, he'd assaulted a police officer, and he'd have to do time for that.
Shirley proves, yet again, how desperate she is for male company by tearing down the street after a sulking Bloodvessel, trying to explain to him how Dean needed to clear his name and prove his innocence in the court. Ironically, it was Lee and Nancy who inadvertantly reminded Bloodvessel of the importance of family, on the way to visit their grandfather (their choice of words). Even more ironically, Linda had stepped up to the plate and encouraged Mick to approach Shirley about a rapprochement.
But Shirley, being Shirley, is caught just at the moment when Bloodvessel returns, vowing to be there when Dean walks free from the court, an innocent man. Given the choice between reconciling with her son and cosying up with her babydaddy, Shirley chooses the man over the son.
I cannot wait to see their abject faces when it's finally brought home to them that saintly Dean is a rapist.
Meanwhile, we had Tina flapping about the place trying to move Stan's chair and find him a television, and Cora, steeling herself to visit Stan, in what was, probably, the best scene in the episode.
The quiet reminiscences and conversation between a woman and a man who found each other very late in life, too late - in fact - to have a life together, snatching whatever precious moments they could - the camera catching Cora subtly holding Stan's hand as Stan drifted off in one of the many pre-coma sleeps he'll have, only to awaken and ask that they be married the next day was poignant. Ann Mitchell and Timothy West, again, gave one of their many masterclasses in showing that acting needn't be all about shouting and screaming the odds.
Beautiful. And credit to Danny Dyer also.
Is This the Beginning of the End? (Sigh) ... the Moons. Kat is home, and I can't believe the psychiatric nurse simply told her that this would "take time." For what it's worth, I didn't think Alfie was shirking being around her by taking her place on the stall. I thought he was keeping the pitch open for her and earning money for her in her absence. Instead, he lets himself be convinced by Donna, that his place is in the flat, looking after Kat 24/7- probably because he's competition to Donna, if her face were anything to go by as Alfie made sales.
And, thus, we have Alfie swearing to move back into the flat, sleeping on the couch, in order to care for and look after Kat.
Duuuuuuh.
This was a watchable episode, but it was by no means outstanding, apart from the West-Mitchell scene.
I am offended that the rape storyline became little more than a plot device to develop the relationship between Mick and Shirley. Very bad of DTC to do that.
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