This was a brilliant episode, owned by Lorna Fitzgerald, Mimi Keene and, of course, Letitia Dean. This one was one for the ladies, and one for Paul Coker als running theme throughout the episode was how one person, usually the weaker link in a relationship, turns a situation to their own advantage and makes the stronger party squirm.
The Bullying Beales. Believe me, there isn't a creepier household on the Square than the Beale household. The way Ian and the sociopathic control freak, Jane, and their beetle-browed psychopath of a son, Bobby, have put the controlling mockers on Cindy Williams, all for want of her baby, is beyond belief, sinister and with a strong undercurrent of cruelty.
I'm not a fan of Cindy's. I never have been,but in this instance, I admire her character greatly. She got pregnant and had her child for all the wrong reasons, and now she realises that she isn't ready to be a mother and wants her child adopted. For various reasons, the Beales seem to think they have a God-given right to this child - Jane, probably, because she was made infertile by an accident in which Lucy Beale played a significant part. Therefore, when she's presented with a baby in the Beale household, going up for adoption, it's hers by right - or so she thinks.
For Ian, Baby Beth is a second chance to redeem himself for all the parental mistakes he made with Lucy.
The worm turns when Jane confides to Ian that Carol told her Cindy wants someone other than the Beales to adopt her child, and the horror show on offer after that is purely disgusting. Between themselves, Ian and Jane plan an evening filled with a quiet meal and peaceful passive-aggressive bullying of Cindy into submission, but Ian just can't pull it off.
Cindy is onto their ubiquitous game of good-cop-bad-cop - Jane, being all nice and reasonable (and phonily so) and Ian belloweathering and threatening Cindy; but for all they go on and on at the girl, they aren't interested in anything she has to say or any opinion she might have on the subject of Beth,who is, after all Cindy's child.
Yeah, Cindy might whine about people not listening to her, but guess what? No one does. You cannot force someone to allow you to adopt their child. It's coercion, and, really, it's a form of abuse. Also, the Beales- apart from Bobby - don't give a rat's arse about Cindy; she's only at the dinner table because she's "gifted" them Beth. They pretend not to understand how difficult it would be for Cindy to remain a part of a household where she sees her child every day and is told to consider her her sister. They pretend not to understand that Cindy doesn't want that, and Cindy is of an age where she has a right to interject her own opinion over what should happen to her child.
By the way, Mimi Keene rose to that scene. Anyone who thinks that a youngster in those circumstances wouldn't raise their voice or flick their hair about, really isn't paying attention.
Ian orders Cindy about like a skivvy, and even after she flounces out of the house, the creepy couple are still plotting about how to bring Cindy around to their persuasion.
Enter psycho Bobby, wearing the same pyjamas in which he killed Lucy, glowering at Ian and intimating that Cindy and Beth had both better stay ... implying, or else. (Why else? Ian and Jane the Queen would be too big for psycho Bobby to batter about. Cindy and Beth are much easier targets for Bobby's murdering tendencies.) Bobby hates arguments. He reminds me of another sinister psychopath kid.
Years ago, there was a television programme in the US called The Twilight Zone. One episode stands out in particular, about a creepy little kid who was a lot like Bobby ...
The most sinister part of this entire portion of the programme came at the end of the Beales' lot, when Ian and a curiously dispassionate Bobby were rapt in playing a violent video game, and Jane returned from having scoured the streets looking for Cindy. She was still worried about what Cindy might say to the social worker scheduled to visit the next day, when Ian puts her mind at rest. Everything is under control. Why? Well, he leaves Bobby to reassure Jane.
Dad says nobody is going anywhere.
Run, Cindy, run ... and take Beth.
Abi. Abi is the new Sharon. That's Sharon as was twenty-odd years gone past, when she'd just got involved, neck-deep, in Mitchells. I'll say this for the writer of this episode. He's done his homework,because every one of Ben's lines he used on Abi were, almost word-for-word, sophomoric lines of false assurance uttered to Sharon by either Grant or Phil in years gone by.
Abi suspects something isn't right about Ben the moment she clocks that he "smells different." The smell is a soupcon of aftershave used by Paul Coker, which rubbed off on Ben from his close shave with Paul. Abi's been in total denial about Ben's sexuality from the getgo. She fell back into his arms after Jay dumped her for her atrocious behaviour at the time of Sharon's wedding and also when Lauren was having, first, a relationship with Dean and then Peter, Abi was jealous and felt left out. Yet there's always a lingering doubt at the back of her mind.
It's been amusing for the past few days, watching Abi play up cosy domesticity to the point of forcing Ben to her will, whilst Ben lamely protests and skulks around looking at Grindr. I can't believe that Abi actually brought Ben to her firm's do, the only significant other present, simply because she wanted to show him off. Line of the night goes to Abi's boss, assessing her strengths as receptionist at his veterinary practice:-
She's very good with dead pets.
Yep. Just ask poor Tramp.
You have to admit, Abi would have to be a fool not to have noticed Ben's overt behaviour - the way he refused to sit with her at the dinner, his constant eyeing of Paul Coker, the messages from Paul on his phone, and the way Ben was intent in his attention to his messages whilst everyone else was waiting for Sharon.
Very interesting scene when Abi finally confronted Ben and asked him if he'd kissed Paul, that Jay was earwigging, with a frown burrowed deeply on his forehead, as he listened to Ben feed her verbal placebos and promise her that she was, indeed, the one for him and had always been.
Abi hasn't always been the nicest character. At times, you've wanted to throttle her, but now that she's ingrained into the Mitchell dynamic, and at such a young age, she'll feel the full force of Ben's betrayal very deeply, and for that, I can feel sympathy for her.
Paul. Early doors, I like him. He's confident and seems like a nice lad. He also has the full measure of Les and hates to see him deceiving Pam. I don't like the Cokers much, and I think Les's hammyness makes June Brown's head-bobbing look divine.
Paul knows about Les and Claudette. Les knows that Paul knows and isn't too keen for him to stick around. So this has nothing at all to do with Laurie's death and Paul'sanger at Pam for having euthanised his father. Oh well, another backstory changed somewhat.
Paul's sticking around, and no doubt, we'll see his mother put in an appearance, probably about the time that Les and Pam are written out of the series.
And Finally ... Sharon. Ladies and gentleman, Walford's real Princess has come home. Finally. It's taken since 2012 and it's been torturous, but at last, a writer has finally got the measure of Sharon and her understanding of the Mitchells.
The very arrogance of Ronnie. thinking that Sharon should give up her business and her livelihood just to save Ronnie's worthless rawhide arse. The remark she made about Phil being unable to "control" his wife just tells you that Ronnie's understanding crux of what relationships are all about is simply control. She seeks to control not only Roxy, but her husband; and she thinks this should be the crux of Phil's relationship with Sharon.
And, actually, this isn't Phil's understanding of his marriage at all. What the Mitchells fear is someone shopping Ronnie to the police about her killing of Carl White, which would bring the entire dynamic down, considering that Phil, Roxy, Sharon and now Charlie are part and parcel of that secret.
It was good seeing Sharon back to her true self. She knows the Mitchells as well as she knows herself, and immediately she returns from Phil showing her her "father," she isn't swayed by his mollifying words about how she belongs with him, however sincere he may have been. Her first priority, however, is to see Vincent. Alone. Without Phil.
Actually, those scenes with Sharon made Vincent a tad likeable. Take him away from the awfulness that is Ronnie and Kim's preening and prancing, and he can be quite bearable. He's yet another one who was "Walford-born-and-bred" - still Walford's a sizeable place, but not so sizeable that Vincent hadn't heard of Den Watts. He seemed suitably impressed that Sharon was, indeed, Den's daughter, with Den's contacts.
A lot of people can't seem to fathom Kim's regression back to bad comic type tonight - Shirley's line This is The Albert, not Southfork when Kim overdressed in order to horn in on the business talks Sharon was having with Vincent was an example of how unfunny Kim can be. She's now not content to be just a nappy-changer, she wants an active part. Vincent, however, has other plans, but Sharon softens when she sees how much he thinks of Pearl.
However, we witnessed a bit of Vincent's true opinion of Kim as he starts to change Pearl's dirty nappy.
You're smelling a lot like your mother now.
Obviously, however, tonight's pièce de résistance was all about Sharon's "father." Gordon Cook, formerly Nick the Greek from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, just couldn't keep the pretence up. You knew the truth was out when he uttered the words I can't do this to Sharon, as she looked her most vulnerable, begging for his acknowledgement, not wanting anything other than to thank him and ask him how he knew Den. That killed it for Gordon, with the twist in the tale coming at the end. However, you felt that Sharon was playing Phil the moment she played sweet and pretty to Phil when she brought Gordon home as her dad.
If there were another deserving line of the night, it was Sharon's succinct and brilliantly honest barb to Ronnie, who was demanding her help in walking up the stairs.
You're lucky I don't kick that stick from under you. And that was before she left her standing, mouth agape, to run back to the kitchen to get Phil away from speaking to Gordon.
Sharon's playing the Mitchells at their own game, and this is what Sharon is really like. Of course, there's a reason Phil doesn't want Sharon to know about her father, GAVIN, but we're going to have to wait for that. In the meantime, Ronnie's due some major Karma.
The Bullying Beales. Believe me, there isn't a creepier household on the Square than the Beale household. The way Ian and the sociopathic control freak, Jane, and their beetle-browed psychopath of a son, Bobby, have put the controlling mockers on Cindy Williams, all for want of her baby, is beyond belief, sinister and with a strong undercurrent of cruelty.
I'm not a fan of Cindy's. I never have been,but in this instance, I admire her character greatly. She got pregnant and had her child for all the wrong reasons, and now she realises that she isn't ready to be a mother and wants her child adopted. For various reasons, the Beales seem to think they have a God-given right to this child - Jane, probably, because she was made infertile by an accident in which Lucy Beale played a significant part. Therefore, when she's presented with a baby in the Beale household, going up for adoption, it's hers by right - or so she thinks.
For Ian, Baby Beth is a second chance to redeem himself for all the parental mistakes he made with Lucy.
The worm turns when Jane confides to Ian that Carol told her Cindy wants someone other than the Beales to adopt her child, and the horror show on offer after that is purely disgusting. Between themselves, Ian and Jane plan an evening filled with a quiet meal and peaceful passive-aggressive bullying of Cindy into submission, but Ian just can't pull it off.
Cindy is onto their ubiquitous game of good-cop-bad-cop - Jane, being all nice and reasonable (and phonily so) and Ian belloweathering and threatening Cindy; but for all they go on and on at the girl, they aren't interested in anything she has to say or any opinion she might have on the subject of Beth,who is, after all Cindy's child.
Yeah, Cindy might whine about people not listening to her, but guess what? No one does. You cannot force someone to allow you to adopt their child. It's coercion, and, really, it's a form of abuse. Also, the Beales- apart from Bobby - don't give a rat's arse about Cindy; she's only at the dinner table because she's "gifted" them Beth. They pretend not to understand how difficult it would be for Cindy to remain a part of a household where she sees her child every day and is told to consider her her sister. They pretend not to understand that Cindy doesn't want that, and Cindy is of an age where she has a right to interject her own opinion over what should happen to her child.
By the way, Mimi Keene rose to that scene. Anyone who thinks that a youngster in those circumstances wouldn't raise their voice or flick their hair about, really isn't paying attention.
Ian orders Cindy about like a skivvy, and even after she flounces out of the house, the creepy couple are still plotting about how to bring Cindy around to their persuasion.
Enter psycho Bobby, wearing the same pyjamas in which he killed Lucy, glowering at Ian and intimating that Cindy and Beth had both better stay ... implying, or else. (Why else? Ian and Jane the Queen would be too big for psycho Bobby to batter about. Cindy and Beth are much easier targets for Bobby's murdering tendencies.) Bobby hates arguments. He reminds me of another sinister psychopath kid.
Years ago, there was a television programme in the US called The Twilight Zone. One episode stands out in particular, about a creepy little kid who was a lot like Bobby ...
The most sinister part of this entire portion of the programme came at the end of the Beales' lot, when Ian and a curiously dispassionate Bobby were rapt in playing a violent video game, and Jane returned from having scoured the streets looking for Cindy. She was still worried about what Cindy might say to the social worker scheduled to visit the next day, when Ian puts her mind at rest. Everything is under control. Why? Well, he leaves Bobby to reassure Jane.
Dad says nobody is going anywhere.
Run, Cindy, run ... and take Beth.
Abi. Abi is the new Sharon. That's Sharon as was twenty-odd years gone past, when she'd just got involved, neck-deep, in Mitchells. I'll say this for the writer of this episode. He's done his homework,because every one of Ben's lines he used on Abi were, almost word-for-word, sophomoric lines of false assurance uttered to Sharon by either Grant or Phil in years gone by.
Abi suspects something isn't right about Ben the moment she clocks that he "smells different." The smell is a soupcon of aftershave used by Paul Coker, which rubbed off on Ben from his close shave with Paul. Abi's been in total denial about Ben's sexuality from the getgo. She fell back into his arms after Jay dumped her for her atrocious behaviour at the time of Sharon's wedding and also when Lauren was having, first, a relationship with Dean and then Peter, Abi was jealous and felt left out. Yet there's always a lingering doubt at the back of her mind.
It's been amusing for the past few days, watching Abi play up cosy domesticity to the point of forcing Ben to her will, whilst Ben lamely protests and skulks around looking at Grindr. I can't believe that Abi actually brought Ben to her firm's do, the only significant other present, simply because she wanted to show him off. Line of the night goes to Abi's boss, assessing her strengths as receptionist at his veterinary practice:-
She's very good with dead pets.
Yep. Just ask poor Tramp.
You have to admit, Abi would have to be a fool not to have noticed Ben's overt behaviour - the way he refused to sit with her at the dinner, his constant eyeing of Paul Coker, the messages from Paul on his phone, and the way Ben was intent in his attention to his messages whilst everyone else was waiting for Sharon.
Very interesting scene when Abi finally confronted Ben and asked him if he'd kissed Paul, that Jay was earwigging, with a frown burrowed deeply on his forehead, as he listened to Ben feed her verbal placebos and promise her that she was, indeed, the one for him and had always been.
Abi hasn't always been the nicest character. At times, you've wanted to throttle her, but now that she's ingrained into the Mitchell dynamic, and at such a young age, she'll feel the full force of Ben's betrayal very deeply, and for that, I can feel sympathy for her.
Paul. Early doors, I like him. He's confident and seems like a nice lad. He also has the full measure of Les and hates to see him deceiving Pam. I don't like the Cokers much, and I think Les's hammyness makes June Brown's head-bobbing look divine.
Paul knows about Les and Claudette. Les knows that Paul knows and isn't too keen for him to stick around. So this has nothing at all to do with Laurie's death and Paul'sanger at Pam for having euthanised his father. Oh well, another backstory changed somewhat.
Paul's sticking around, and no doubt, we'll see his mother put in an appearance, probably about the time that Les and Pam are written out of the series.
And Finally ... Sharon. Ladies and gentleman, Walford's real Princess has come home. Finally. It's taken since 2012 and it's been torturous, but at last, a writer has finally got the measure of Sharon and her understanding of the Mitchells.
The very arrogance of Ronnie. thinking that Sharon should give up her business and her livelihood just to save Ronnie's worthless rawhide arse. The remark she made about Phil being unable to "control" his wife just tells you that Ronnie's understanding crux of what relationships are all about is simply control. She seeks to control not only Roxy, but her husband; and she thinks this should be the crux of Phil's relationship with Sharon.
And, actually, this isn't Phil's understanding of his marriage at all. What the Mitchells fear is someone shopping Ronnie to the police about her killing of Carl White, which would bring the entire dynamic down, considering that Phil, Roxy, Sharon and now Charlie are part and parcel of that secret.
It was good seeing Sharon back to her true self. She knows the Mitchells as well as she knows herself, and immediately she returns from Phil showing her her "father," she isn't swayed by his mollifying words about how she belongs with him, however sincere he may have been. Her first priority, however, is to see Vincent. Alone. Without Phil.
Actually, those scenes with Sharon made Vincent a tad likeable. Take him away from the awfulness that is Ronnie and Kim's preening and prancing, and he can be quite bearable. He's yet another one who was "Walford-born-and-bred" - still Walford's a sizeable place, but not so sizeable that Vincent hadn't heard of Den Watts. He seemed suitably impressed that Sharon was, indeed, Den's daughter, with Den's contacts.
A lot of people can't seem to fathom Kim's regression back to bad comic type tonight - Shirley's line This is The Albert, not Southfork when Kim overdressed in order to horn in on the business talks Sharon was having with Vincent was an example of how unfunny Kim can be. She's now not content to be just a nappy-changer, she wants an active part. Vincent, however, has other plans, but Sharon softens when she sees how much he thinks of Pearl.
However, we witnessed a bit of Vincent's true opinion of Kim as he starts to change Pearl's dirty nappy.
You're smelling a lot like your mother now.
Obviously, however, tonight's pièce de résistance was all about Sharon's "father." Gordon Cook, formerly Nick the Greek from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, just couldn't keep the pretence up. You knew the truth was out when he uttered the words I can't do this to Sharon, as she looked her most vulnerable, begging for his acknowledgement, not wanting anything other than to thank him and ask him how he knew Den. That killed it for Gordon, with the twist in the tale coming at the end. However, you felt that Sharon was playing Phil the moment she played sweet and pretty to Phil when she brought Gordon home as her dad.
If there were another deserving line of the night, it was Sharon's succinct and brilliantly honest barb to Ronnie, who was demanding her help in walking up the stairs.
You're lucky I don't kick that stick from under you. And that was before she left her standing, mouth agape, to run back to the kitchen to get Phil away from speaking to Gordon.
Sharon's playing the Mitchells at their own game, and this is what Sharon is really like. Of course, there's a reason Phil doesn't want Sharon to know about her father, GAVIN, but we're going to have to wait for that. In the meantime, Ronnie's due some major Karma.
No comments:
Post a Comment