I gave this an eight out of ten - harsh, I know. The brief glimpse of Kathy made the episode worthwhile. Apologising for a rapist killed it.
The (Brief) Return of the Prodigal.
With thanks to Shamelessness for meticulously recording the dialogue between Kathy and Phil:-
Kathy: I really appreciate this.
Phil: Well, don't get too used to it.
Kathy: I ain't.
Phil: 'Cause I ain't gonna be able to do this again for a while. Does er- Does Gavin suspect anything?
Kathy: Do you think I'd still be standing if he did?
Phil: I'm doing all I can.
Kathy: And I mean it, Phil, I really appreciate it.
Phil: And I can't do any more.
Kathy: So what you saying? It's down to me now?
Phil: I can't do this anymore.
Interesting. So now we know that "K" on Phil's phone is, indeed, Kathy. Plus, we get the first mention of Gavin. (Harken back to a line of dialogue Sharon said to Abi after getting the letters from Kris Hanley:- Gavin. My real dad's name was Gavin.
This isn't rocket science, really. What is rocket science is what the hell Phil is up to. When Kathy first made her appearance in February, she was called away by someone - Gavin, obviously - after pleading with Phil to be able to come home. Now, tonight, it appears that Phil is subsidising Kathy and Gavin in some way, keeping Gavin in the dark about something whilst, at the same time, keeping Kathy away from Walford.
We-he-he-he-he-hell, as Peggy used to intone, we can easily figure out the secret Phil has to keep away from Gavin - starts with an S and ends with an n, she's married to Phil, and she's the daughter Gavin's been trying to find since his family entrusted her care to Den and Angie Watts.
Something's down to Kathy to complete now - like maybe keeping Gavin off Sharon's scent? What? I have a feeling that the newly reincarnated gangster Phil has known that Kathy and Gavin weren't dead for quite sometime, and he's rattled that Sharon is searching for her dad. As much as Phil has said he'd help her find him, he'll throw a spanner in the works somehow. Pun intended.
I just wish we were done and dusted with the over-exposed Carters so we could concentrate on this storyline.
Finally, just a word about Gillian Taylforth: Her acting was fine.
She's good as Kathy, just as Letitia Dean is good as Sharon and Lacey Turner is good as Stacey. Kathy is Taylforth's comfort zone, and one in which she excels. Wil she ever be Oscar material? No, and I doubt she wants to be, but she's good as Kathy, and she's damned site better than Eeyore the Donkey or the Ice Queen who languidly raises her eyebrow for a commanding fee before skipping off to another commitment elsewhere, so leave her alone.
And now ... The Rest.
The Redemption of a Rapist. It's sheer brilliance that DTC has taken a chance name uttered to an original character at the beginning of the 1990s, realised that the same chance name was uttered in connection with another original character at the beginning of the Millennium, and created another, a positive link between these two characters by making two random names the same person.
And then there's the Dean factor.
I truly don't know what DTC is trying to achieve, but I get the distinct impression that somehow he, or his ineffectual writing room, is trying for Dean's redemption.
Making him Mr Sensitive, whining about how all he ever wanted was a child of his own so he wouldn't abandon it, and showing him and Shabnam, another prickly pear of a character, who is at times capable of being immensely unlikeable, bond weirdly over a child conceived in a drunken coupling in a toilet in an East End night club.
The only thing that will ever redeem Dean is for him to make a public apology to Linda, confess that he did, indeed, force himself upon her, and then take leave of his family and community.
Dean raped a woman. He raped his brother's wife, and then spread the word about that this was a clandestine affair, and that the victim was, in his version, a liar and a whore. He put that idea into his mother's head, and so desperate was she for his approval and so much did she dislike the victim, that she believed his tale in its entirety. Hissperm donor father, who has known him all of five minutes, might just be beginning to doubt Dean's innocence.
But, the inference is, ne'mind ... Dean's over Linda. After all, the baby was Mick's, and he's caught the fag-end of something that might be something but may also be nothing.
Dean is street-suss clever, and Shabnam has book sense but little common sense. Dean realises that he was soliloquising about wanting to be a good parent, when Shabnam burst out with the cry of She told you! and cryptically ran away. Dean was savvy enough to put two and two together, and wonder if something happened the night which he and Shabnam got together and which she has previously mentioned, but he has not. Indeed, she even wondered if he remembered the incident.
Dean's pretty good at blending into the background and popping up when someone, usually a woman, least expects it. He's managed to shock such people as Shirley, Linda (whom he stalked and raped), and now he susses that the Masoods leave their back door unlocked - in London, nowadays, really? and makes a furtive entrance. (It probably wasn't his first furtive entrance either, where Shabnam was concerned).
When he's thwarted in his efforts to get Shabnam to explain the consequences of their coupling six years ago, he bides his time and waits until she's on her own. That's when we find out that our Shabs is just as adept a liar as Dean is. Oh, and notice that from the getgo in tonight's episode, Dean was stalking her - hanging outside the Minute Mart, lurking in shadows. This is something he does best. It's sinister and it's creepy.
Yes, Shabnam's an adept liar, but she's inept as well, forgetting from one moment to the next the lie she's seeking to establish - that their baby was premature and died after two days, which - within minutes - has elongated into having lived more than a week, a discrepancy that a seasoned liar like Dean picks up on immediately.
Dean knows that Shabnam is lying, but I have a distinct feeling that DTC put the sympathy feelers out for Dean tonight, and Matt di Angelo played to the galleries Dean's pain - poignantly asking Shabnam whom the baby resembled, if she looked like him, what was her name, almost melting at the thought of his child being a little girl, all of this played against the backdrop of his brother's celebrating the birth of a son, whom Dean thought was his.
Once again, this was an episode written by Rob Gittins, and it's foreshadowing was cack-handed and laid on with a lathe. Shabnam whines to Stacey about how Masood must never find out about her child, all the while Masood is hanging about, dancing attendance on Shabnam and thinking her problem is an inability to decide between Asim, whom she's known for about an hour, and Kush. You just know that Masood is going to find out about his secret grandchild. The very fact that Shabnam was adamant she had to speak to Dean again, against Stacey's caution, tells you that the information Masood will receive will most likely be channeled by Shirley. There's a Carter in most every storyline.
The Family Disunion. There's a party at the Vic, and everyone's invited. Well, almost everyone, except Shirley, Dean and Buster. Basically everyone and anyone who believed Dean didn't rape Linda. Buster is all for going for a drink in the pub. It's a public house, after all, and Mick couldn't stop them. Well, he could bar them, I suppose. Shirley thinks just to drop a baby gift and a card by for Mick, but when she sees how disconsolate poor widdle Dean is, she can't bring herself to do it; but Buster can.
How much do I like Mick? A lot. He's one of my favourite Carters. Yes, I know they're shoved in our faces, but I like when Mick is playing mein Host as landlord of the Vic and intermingling with the public. I thought he was very good with nosy Pam, who "only said what other people were thinking" when she less than subtly asked whom the baby resembled.
Does he look like Linda?
I'm not one to gossip.
Are they priming Pam to be this generation's Dot? Sounds like it, complete with errant grandson in tow.
Vincent.
A Misbegotten Moon.
The moment it was hinted that Alfie was leaving with "a dark secret", viewers guessed that the obstacle barring the Moons' total happiness would be an illness of some sort. Alfie had a cursory medical examination - blood pressure, possibly a heart exam, and maybe some bloods drawn. A lot can be found out in those, but I don't think Alfie will die. Too many people are hoping for that.
However, they have to have clean enough medicals to get the insurance they need for the bar they've bought in Spain. Without that, they're shot, so what's he going to do? Fast-talk the doctor into giving him the all clear to go ahead with the insurance? I don't think this is cancer. It comes too soon on the heels of Carol's and Stan's stories. Maybe a heart ailment of some sort. Shane Richie has said he will return to the show, but I'm not so sure either of the Moons will be back next year, after their spin-off. Sometime in the future, but not for awhile. People have to understand the ubiquity of the word "break" in EastEndersLand.
Maybe Kat's secret son will turn out to be a doctor.
From the getgo in their scenes, you knew that there would be a health letdown for one of them, and as worried as Kat was and however much Alfie tried to find out her results, you knew that the victim would be Alfie. This much was so contrived, right down to the scene of extreme happiness in the Vic loo, where Kat extolled having everything she'd ever wanted and how she was moving forward in happiness. You knew there had to be some kind of pain.
Lady MacBeth Beale.
The fact that whenever we see a scene in the Beales' front room, Jane is frantically hoovering the spot where Lucy died, as if trying to eradicate her guilt that she hides so well. I find myself feeling sorry for Cindy, a character I don't even like, because however much Jane and Ian want her baby, they also want their businesses as well, and - I suspect - Cindy as a free babysitting service. It's a means of manipulation that they keep her sweet, because if any bird is going to sing about the guilt the Beales are hiding, it's Cindy.
Kathy made that episode. And Linda Henry's brief spell. The rest was pretty meh.
The (Brief) Return of the Prodigal.
With thanks to Shamelessness for meticulously recording the dialogue between Kathy and Phil:-
Kathy: I really appreciate this.
Phil: Well, don't get too used to it.
Kathy: I ain't.
Phil: 'Cause I ain't gonna be able to do this again for a while. Does er- Does Gavin suspect anything?
Kathy: Do you think I'd still be standing if he did?
Phil: I'm doing all I can.
Kathy: And I mean it, Phil, I really appreciate it.
Phil: And I can't do any more.
Kathy: So what you saying? It's down to me now?
Phil: I can't do this anymore.
Interesting. So now we know that "K" on Phil's phone is, indeed, Kathy. Plus, we get the first mention of Gavin. (Harken back to a line of dialogue Sharon said to Abi after getting the letters from Kris Hanley:- Gavin. My real dad's name was Gavin.
This isn't rocket science, really. What is rocket science is what the hell Phil is up to. When Kathy first made her appearance in February, she was called away by someone - Gavin, obviously - after pleading with Phil to be able to come home. Now, tonight, it appears that Phil is subsidising Kathy and Gavin in some way, keeping Gavin in the dark about something whilst, at the same time, keeping Kathy away from Walford.
We-he-he-he-he-hell, as Peggy used to intone, we can easily figure out the secret Phil has to keep away from Gavin - starts with an S and ends with an n, she's married to Phil, and she's the daughter Gavin's been trying to find since his family entrusted her care to Den and Angie Watts.
Something's down to Kathy to complete now - like maybe keeping Gavin off Sharon's scent? What? I have a feeling that the newly reincarnated gangster Phil has known that Kathy and Gavin weren't dead for quite sometime, and he's rattled that Sharon is searching for her dad. As much as Phil has said he'd help her find him, he'll throw a spanner in the works somehow. Pun intended.
I just wish we were done and dusted with the over-exposed Carters so we could concentrate on this storyline.
Finally, just a word about Gillian Taylforth: Her acting was fine.
She's good as Kathy, just as Letitia Dean is good as Sharon and Lacey Turner is good as Stacey. Kathy is Taylforth's comfort zone, and one in which she excels. Wil she ever be Oscar material? No, and I doubt she wants to be, but she's good as Kathy, and she's damned site better than Eeyore the Donkey or the Ice Queen who languidly raises her eyebrow for a commanding fee before skipping off to another commitment elsewhere, so leave her alone.
And now ... The Rest.
The Redemption of a Rapist. It's sheer brilliance that DTC has taken a chance name uttered to an original character at the beginning of the 1990s, realised that the same chance name was uttered in connection with another original character at the beginning of the Millennium, and created another, a positive link between these two characters by making two random names the same person.
And then there's the Dean factor.
I truly don't know what DTC is trying to achieve, but I get the distinct impression that somehow he, or his ineffectual writing room, is trying for Dean's redemption.
Making him Mr Sensitive, whining about how all he ever wanted was a child of his own so he wouldn't abandon it, and showing him and Shabnam, another prickly pear of a character, who is at times capable of being immensely unlikeable, bond weirdly over a child conceived in a drunken coupling in a toilet in an East End night club.
The only thing that will ever redeem Dean is for him to make a public apology to Linda, confess that he did, indeed, force himself upon her, and then take leave of his family and community.
Dean raped a woman. He raped his brother's wife, and then spread the word about that this was a clandestine affair, and that the victim was, in his version, a liar and a whore. He put that idea into his mother's head, and so desperate was she for his approval and so much did she dislike the victim, that she believed his tale in its entirety. His
But, the inference is, ne'mind ... Dean's over Linda. After all, the baby was Mick's, and he's caught the fag-end of something that might be something but may also be nothing.
Dean is street-suss clever, and Shabnam has book sense but little common sense. Dean realises that he was soliloquising about wanting to be a good parent, when Shabnam burst out with the cry of She told you! and cryptically ran away. Dean was savvy enough to put two and two together, and wonder if something happened the night which he and Shabnam got together and which she has previously mentioned, but he has not. Indeed, she even wondered if he remembered the incident.
Dean's pretty good at blending into the background and popping up when someone, usually a woman, least expects it. He's managed to shock such people as Shirley, Linda (whom he stalked and raped), and now he susses that the Masoods leave their back door unlocked - in London, nowadays, really? and makes a furtive entrance. (It probably wasn't his first furtive entrance either, where Shabnam was concerned).
When he's thwarted in his efforts to get Shabnam to explain the consequences of their coupling six years ago, he bides his time and waits until she's on her own. That's when we find out that our Shabs is just as adept a liar as Dean is. Oh, and notice that from the getgo in tonight's episode, Dean was stalking her - hanging outside the Minute Mart, lurking in shadows. This is something he does best. It's sinister and it's creepy.
Yes, Shabnam's an adept liar, but she's inept as well, forgetting from one moment to the next the lie she's seeking to establish - that their baby was premature and died after two days, which - within minutes - has elongated into having lived more than a week, a discrepancy that a seasoned liar like Dean picks up on immediately.
Dean knows that Shabnam is lying, but I have a distinct feeling that DTC put the sympathy feelers out for Dean tonight, and Matt di Angelo played to the galleries Dean's pain - poignantly asking Shabnam whom the baby resembled, if she looked like him, what was her name, almost melting at the thought of his child being a little girl, all of this played against the backdrop of his brother's celebrating the birth of a son, whom Dean thought was his.
Once again, this was an episode written by Rob Gittins, and it's foreshadowing was cack-handed and laid on with a lathe. Shabnam whines to Stacey about how Masood must never find out about her child, all the while Masood is hanging about, dancing attendance on Shabnam and thinking her problem is an inability to decide between Asim, whom she's known for about an hour, and Kush. You just know that Masood is going to find out about his secret grandchild. The very fact that Shabnam was adamant she had to speak to Dean again, against Stacey's caution, tells you that the information Masood will receive will most likely be channeled by Shirley. There's a Carter in most every storyline.
The Family Disunion. There's a party at the Vic, and everyone's invited. Well, almost everyone, except Shirley, Dean and Buster. Basically everyone and anyone who believed Dean didn't rape Linda. Buster is all for going for a drink in the pub. It's a public house, after all, and Mick couldn't stop them. Well, he could bar them, I suppose. Shirley thinks just to drop a baby gift and a card by for Mick, but when she sees how disconsolate poor widdle Dean is, she can't bring herself to do it; but Buster can.
How much do I like Mick? A lot. He's one of my favourite Carters. Yes, I know they're shoved in our faces, but I like when Mick is playing mein Host as landlord of the Vic and intermingling with the public. I thought he was very good with nosy Pam, who "only said what other people were thinking" when she less than subtly asked whom the baby resembled.
Does he look like Linda?
I'm not one to gossip.
Are they priming Pam to be this generation's Dot? Sounds like it, complete with errant grandson in tow.
Vincent.
A Misbegotten Moon.
The moment it was hinted that Alfie was leaving with "a dark secret", viewers guessed that the obstacle barring the Moons' total happiness would be an illness of some sort. Alfie had a cursory medical examination - blood pressure, possibly a heart exam, and maybe some bloods drawn. A lot can be found out in those, but I don't think Alfie will die. Too many people are hoping for that.
However, they have to have clean enough medicals to get the insurance they need for the bar they've bought in Spain. Without that, they're shot, so what's he going to do? Fast-talk the doctor into giving him the all clear to go ahead with the insurance? I don't think this is cancer. It comes too soon on the heels of Carol's and Stan's stories. Maybe a heart ailment of some sort. Shane Richie has said he will return to the show, but I'm not so sure either of the Moons will be back next year, after their spin-off. Sometime in the future, but not for awhile. People have to understand the ubiquity of the word "break" in EastEndersLand.
Maybe Kat's secret son will turn out to be a doctor.
From the getgo in their scenes, you knew that there would be a health letdown for one of them, and as worried as Kat was and however much Alfie tried to find out her results, you knew that the victim would be Alfie. This much was so contrived, right down to the scene of extreme happiness in the Vic loo, where Kat extolled having everything she'd ever wanted and how she was moving forward in happiness. You knew there had to be some kind of pain.
Lady MacBeth Beale.
The fact that whenever we see a scene in the Beales' front room, Jane is frantically hoovering the spot where Lucy died, as if trying to eradicate her guilt that she hides so well. I find myself feeling sorry for Cindy, a character I don't even like, because however much Jane and Ian want her baby, they also want their businesses as well, and - I suspect - Cindy as a free babysitting service. It's a means of manipulation that they keep her sweet, because if any bird is going to sing about the guilt the Beales are hiding, it's Cindy.
Kathy made that episode. And Linda Henry's brief spell. The rest was pretty meh.
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