I gave that an eight, for the brilliant Nancy duff-duff alone. Nancy and Cindy are the only two characters with any moral fibre or conscience about them.
Long may they reign.
The Piggy in the Middle.
Poor Jade. She's the piggy in the middle of Shirley's mission. Shirley is hellbent, not only on getting access to Jade, but actually getting custody of the child. Listen, this is a woman who has serious alcohol issues, is violent and has a raging temper, and who also has a long history of abandoning children, especially the son who has cystic fibrosis. Her partner has a long history of incarceration, and her son, the child's father, is an accused rapist, with anger issues and a police record.
They are also living off the charity of friends, a nice way of saying that they're homeless.
A few words from Patrick bring Buster onside, especially his verdict that Denise is fond of and believes in Dean, because Buster's main issue about the child is Dean, and his reasons for wanting her in his life. She's the replacement for Ollie, the baby which Dean thought he conceived in rape, Jade being his one chance to present himself as a warped equal of Mick. Yet Shirley's rationale behind wanting Jade is almost as pathetic. She's lost Mick and any chance she'll have of being a major force in Ollie's life as they're forbidding her to see him; she seems to have forgotten the existence of her daughter, Carly, and Carly's son. Instead, caring for Jade gives her time to atone for the abject way she abandoned Jimbo.
In many ways, as a result of her abuse at the hands of Sylvie, ever since she attempted to drown Mick and abandoned Jimbo to his fate, her life's been spent in a veritable but of alcohol abuse and veering from one failed relationship to another. It's all a manifestation, not only of Shirley's grand sense of entitlement, but also of her large sense of self-hatred.
There was certainly a large dose of self-hate milling about amongst some female characters tonight and a lot of substitution projection as well. Jade is no more a substitute for Jimbo than Stacey is a substitute for Kush's dead wife.
There was a good and brief scene in the cafe tonight, between Carol and Shirley, foreshadowing some big scenes between the pair of them next week, which was good and a subtle tip to the show's strongest actresses. Shirley reluctantly apologises, of her own accord, to Carol for having hit her. Carol accepts the apology, but with a caveat.
If you do it again, I'll hit you back.
And that's something that Shirley appreciated.
There's another secret weapon being handed by Buster to Masood, with the news that he and Shirley were going for custody of Jade. Masood, weirdly thinks that Jade's presence on the Square would bring Shabnam around to the idea of wanting her child back in her life again. What next? Set up housekeeping with Dean and do the school run every morning? Really, Masood? The fact that Jade has cystic fibrosis only strenghtens Masood's resolve that the child should be with her blood relations and not in care. Oh, and Shirley's altercation with Social Services was totally realistic.
Shirley and Buster, as grandparents of a child in care with two living parents, are, indeed, a low priority case for re-homing a child. They are strangers to her. She was abandoned by both her parents, and they will need the mother's consent now that she's been found, before Shirley and Buster can, indeed, have her. In short, for all the tax money "Shirley" pays to fund Social Services every year, Social Services reckon the child is best left where she is.
I don't know how Buster reckoned on fast-tracking a custody application, which, as Shirley said, would take months. Jade's foster father was more realistic about the situation. Go for access first, let Social Services see how well-equipped Shirley and Buster were to care for her, let them see their set-up, and then go through the proper channels, if the child wishes to do so, of course.
Buster is totally right in assessing and in admitting to the foster carer that Dean isn't ready to be a father yet, but somehow, I imagine that Shirley is about to do things her own way and involve Dean.
Self-Hatred, Bi-Polar and Prick.
Is Stacey having a bi-polar episode? Or is she subtly trying to use this and explain it to Martin in an effort to dump him without implicating her obsession with Kush? I recall her saying, when Jean was introduced and when she, herself, went through that period, that promiscuity was a sypmtom of an episode. Yet she's hiding her meds from Martin. As doltish as the writers are making him, I think he's made of sterner stuff. He's Pauline's son, after all.
I'm hoping this leads to a bi-polar storyline, because I can't think of any other way to explain Stacey's sulky, spoiled and rude behaviour, because that's exactly what she's acting like - a spoiled child, who's been denied the toy she wants to have.
I also think that maybe, just maybe Martin got a soupcon of the fact that Stacey might be using him when he caught her in the corner, still nattering away to Kush about having dumped Martin, on a whim, when she had stormed out to go home.
Shabnam, her supposed best friend, was the direct opposite of Stacey's hissy fit tonight, proving that she can be as understanding and compassionate as anyone by telling Kush he could go celebrate his birthday, even if it were Ramadan. He's made sacrifices for her, and she acknowledges this, and I do think he loves her. She's not without her demons as well, as she proved tonight in that scene with Masood, where she asked, in a frightened and small voice, if she were ever like her mother,because, she reckons, Zainab was an outcast in her own right as well, and that's how Shabnam viewed herself.
Like Shirley, she hates herself, and describes herself as a bad person. When the shit hits the fan about her deceptive fiancé, she'll probably think she deserved such treatment for having abandoned her daughter. Particularly poignant was her describing to Masood how when her abandonment of the child was her secret, she could deal with it, because it only meant that she could keep her self-hatred to herself; but now everyone knows, and everyone will know and acknowledge what she's acknowledged for years - that she perceives herself a bad, a terrible person.
I feel immensely sorry for Shabnam, opening her heart and her arms again, tonight, to the father who's still trying to betray her by forcing her hand in her past.
But how marvellous was Nancy!
She doesn't miss a trick, and more's the better. She knew, instinctively, from Stacey's and Kush's body language during their little conflab in the pub that something was up and it was probably something found between Kush's legs. Martin's confession that Stacey had dumped him sealed the matter for Nancy, and Lauren's baton was passed to our Nancy tonight when she witnessed the sexually-charged look and bit of banter between Stacey and Kush when he was handcuffed to the railings.
To Nancy, who deadpanned the scene where she presented Kush with his clothes, goes the line of the night:-
I think you'd better go home to your fiancée.
Was there a bigger look of shame on Kush's face? His confliction when he returned to the Masoods' to find Shabnam's birthday gift and Shabnam, emotionally spent, asleep on the couch was palpable. He knows he loves her, but he lusts for a fuck with Stacey.
On the other hand, for the first time in the history of Stacey on the show, she justifiably got handed her arse by Nancy, who spoke more than a mouthful of home truths. Stacey was in the wrong, and she knew it; but she also found out that you don't mess about with Nancy Carter if you're banking on her to hide your guilt.
I loved it when Nancy told her that Stacey more than admitted her guilt by making the effort to come seek Nancy out just to explain how there was nothing going on between Stacey and Kush. Nancy remarked that both Stacey and Kush had looked pretty guilty when she happened upon them - albeit not as guilty as Stacey looked at that moment having sought Nancy out in order to passive aggressively suggest that Nancy really saw nothing.
She then made Stacey more than uneasy when she asked her if that were why she broke up with Martin, because she was after Kush? When Stacey protests that why she broke up with Martin was none of Nancy's business, Nancy wins the prize for arse-handing moment:-
From what I've heard, this ain't the first time you've been after someone else's bloke.
(Max, Ryan)
When Stacey, again, protests that Nancy knows nothing about her, Nancy wisely observes that Stacey is only getting defensive because she knows she's done something wrong, and if she doesn't tell her best mate how she's trying to stiff her, Nancy will.
Brilliant! Bloody brilliant! Before Stax, Stacey had always been the high moral arbitre, demanding behaviour within her own moral code of others like this. Now she's getting a taste of her own medicine. I'll bet she was wishing that Kat could have been close by to shout the odds with Nancy, but I also would put my money on Nancy coming out the better.
The Stepford Wife of Walford. Cindy is the only other character in Walford at the moment who seems to have a conscience, and it's funny to watch Jane shit herself, following Cindy about the Square, almost in tears begging her to return to the Beale House of Horrors, only to have a refusal thrown into her face. Jane admits that Ian iswilling to allow her back in the house, and Jane is reduced to pathetically begging her to come for dinner. When Cindy reminds her that she no longer has a phone, then Jane cravenly buys her a pay-as-you-go Smartphone with tweny quid's worth of credit on it ... just so the Beales can stay in touch, you know. They have to keep tabs on Cindy - well, Jane does, as Ian's busy transferring any latent hatred he felt for her mother onto the child, herself.
Carol uses some of the money Jane gave her for Cindy[s upkeep so she could by a cheapo dress from the market stall to wear to the Leavers' Ball. I hope Cindy holds out and doesn't return to BealeLand.
Something Wicked This Way Comes. Oh, Patrick. Hold onto your original opinion of Vincent. Vincent has to hide behind vile Donna to worm his way into Patrick's good opinion. Back in gangster mode, Richard Blackwood goes into yuck mode. He's more the likeable Donkey when he's bantering with Kim and their child, but as the mean man about town, he's laughable.
Come on, Gavin. Smack him 'round the mouth, hopefully with your designer leather glove.
Long may they reign.
The Piggy in the Middle.
Poor Jade. She's the piggy in the middle of Shirley's mission. Shirley is hellbent, not only on getting access to Jade, but actually getting custody of the child. Listen, this is a woman who has serious alcohol issues, is violent and has a raging temper, and who also has a long history of abandoning children, especially the son who has cystic fibrosis. Her partner has a long history of incarceration, and her son, the child's father, is an accused rapist, with anger issues and a police record.
They are also living off the charity of friends, a nice way of saying that they're homeless.
A few words from Patrick bring Buster onside, especially his verdict that Denise is fond of and believes in Dean, because Buster's main issue about the child is Dean, and his reasons for wanting her in his life. She's the replacement for Ollie, the baby which Dean thought he conceived in rape, Jade being his one chance to present himself as a warped equal of Mick. Yet Shirley's rationale behind wanting Jade is almost as pathetic. She's lost Mick and any chance she'll have of being a major force in Ollie's life as they're forbidding her to see him; she seems to have forgotten the existence of her daughter, Carly, and Carly's son. Instead, caring for Jade gives her time to atone for the abject way she abandoned Jimbo.
In many ways, as a result of her abuse at the hands of Sylvie, ever since she attempted to drown Mick and abandoned Jimbo to his fate, her life's been spent in a veritable but of alcohol abuse and veering from one failed relationship to another. It's all a manifestation, not only of Shirley's grand sense of entitlement, but also of her large sense of self-hatred.
There was certainly a large dose of self-hate milling about amongst some female characters tonight and a lot of substitution projection as well. Jade is no more a substitute for Jimbo than Stacey is a substitute for Kush's dead wife.
There was a good and brief scene in the cafe tonight, between Carol and Shirley, foreshadowing some big scenes between the pair of them next week, which was good and a subtle tip to the show's strongest actresses. Shirley reluctantly apologises, of her own accord, to Carol for having hit her. Carol accepts the apology, but with a caveat.
If you do it again, I'll hit you back.
And that's something that Shirley appreciated.
There's another secret weapon being handed by Buster to Masood, with the news that he and Shirley were going for custody of Jade. Masood, weirdly thinks that Jade's presence on the Square would bring Shabnam around to the idea of wanting her child back in her life again. What next? Set up housekeeping with Dean and do the school run every morning? Really, Masood? The fact that Jade has cystic fibrosis only strenghtens Masood's resolve that the child should be with her blood relations and not in care. Oh, and Shirley's altercation with Social Services was totally realistic.
Shirley and Buster, as grandparents of a child in care with two living parents, are, indeed, a low priority case for re-homing a child. They are strangers to her. She was abandoned by both her parents, and they will need the mother's consent now that she's been found, before Shirley and Buster can, indeed, have her. In short, for all the tax money "Shirley" pays to fund Social Services every year, Social Services reckon the child is best left where she is.
I don't know how Buster reckoned on fast-tracking a custody application, which, as Shirley said, would take months. Jade's foster father was more realistic about the situation. Go for access first, let Social Services see how well-equipped Shirley and Buster were to care for her, let them see their set-up, and then go through the proper channels, if the child wishes to do so, of course.
Buster is totally right in assessing and in admitting to the foster carer that Dean isn't ready to be a father yet, but somehow, I imagine that Shirley is about to do things her own way and involve Dean.
Self-Hatred, Bi-Polar and Prick.
Is Stacey having a bi-polar episode? Or is she subtly trying to use this and explain it to Martin in an effort to dump him without implicating her obsession with Kush? I recall her saying, when Jean was introduced and when she, herself, went through that period, that promiscuity was a sypmtom of an episode. Yet she's hiding her meds from Martin. As doltish as the writers are making him, I think he's made of sterner stuff. He's Pauline's son, after all.
I'm hoping this leads to a bi-polar storyline, because I can't think of any other way to explain Stacey's sulky, spoiled and rude behaviour, because that's exactly what she's acting like - a spoiled child, who's been denied the toy she wants to have.
I also think that maybe, just maybe Martin got a soupcon of the fact that Stacey might be using him when he caught her in the corner, still nattering away to Kush about having dumped Martin, on a whim, when she had stormed out to go home.
Shabnam, her supposed best friend, was the direct opposite of Stacey's hissy fit tonight, proving that she can be as understanding and compassionate as anyone by telling Kush he could go celebrate his birthday, even if it were Ramadan. He's made sacrifices for her, and she acknowledges this, and I do think he loves her. She's not without her demons as well, as she proved tonight in that scene with Masood, where she asked, in a frightened and small voice, if she were ever like her mother,because, she reckons, Zainab was an outcast in her own right as well, and that's how Shabnam viewed herself.
Like Shirley, she hates herself, and describes herself as a bad person. When the shit hits the fan about her deceptive fiancé, she'll probably think she deserved such treatment for having abandoned her daughter. Particularly poignant was her describing to Masood how when her abandonment of the child was her secret, she could deal with it, because it only meant that she could keep her self-hatred to herself; but now everyone knows, and everyone will know and acknowledge what she's acknowledged for years - that she perceives herself a bad, a terrible person.
I feel immensely sorry for Shabnam, opening her heart and her arms again, tonight, to the father who's still trying to betray her by forcing her hand in her past.
But how marvellous was Nancy!
She doesn't miss a trick, and more's the better. She knew, instinctively, from Stacey's and Kush's body language during their little conflab in the pub that something was up and it was probably something found between Kush's legs. Martin's confession that Stacey had dumped him sealed the matter for Nancy, and Lauren's baton was passed to our Nancy tonight when she witnessed the sexually-charged look and bit of banter between Stacey and Kush when he was handcuffed to the railings.
To Nancy, who deadpanned the scene where she presented Kush with his clothes, goes the line of the night:-
I think you'd better go home to your fiancée.
Was there a bigger look of shame on Kush's face? His confliction when he returned to the Masoods' to find Shabnam's birthday gift and Shabnam, emotionally spent, asleep on the couch was palpable. He knows he loves her, but he lusts for a fuck with Stacey.
On the other hand, for the first time in the history of Stacey on the show, she justifiably got handed her arse by Nancy, who spoke more than a mouthful of home truths. Stacey was in the wrong, and she knew it; but she also found out that you don't mess about with Nancy Carter if you're banking on her to hide your guilt.
I loved it when Nancy told her that Stacey more than admitted her guilt by making the effort to come seek Nancy out just to explain how there was nothing going on between Stacey and Kush. Nancy remarked that both Stacey and Kush had looked pretty guilty when she happened upon them - albeit not as guilty as Stacey looked at that moment having sought Nancy out in order to passive aggressively suggest that Nancy really saw nothing.
She then made Stacey more than uneasy when she asked her if that were why she broke up with Martin, because she was after Kush? When Stacey protests that why she broke up with Martin was none of Nancy's business, Nancy wins the prize for arse-handing moment:-
From what I've heard, this ain't the first time you've been after someone else's bloke.
(Max, Ryan)
When Stacey, again, protests that Nancy knows nothing about her, Nancy wisely observes that Stacey is only getting defensive because she knows she's done something wrong, and if she doesn't tell her best mate how she's trying to stiff her, Nancy will.
Brilliant! Bloody brilliant! Before Stax, Stacey had always been the high moral arbitre, demanding behaviour within her own moral code of others like this. Now she's getting a taste of her own medicine. I'll bet she was wishing that Kat could have been close by to shout the odds with Nancy, but I also would put my money on Nancy coming out the better.
The Stepford Wife of Walford. Cindy is the only other character in Walford at the moment who seems to have a conscience, and it's funny to watch Jane shit herself, following Cindy about the Square, almost in tears begging her to return to the Beale House of Horrors, only to have a refusal thrown into her face. Jane admits that Ian iswilling to allow her back in the house, and Jane is reduced to pathetically begging her to come for dinner. When Cindy reminds her that she no longer has a phone, then Jane cravenly buys her a pay-as-you-go Smartphone with tweny quid's worth of credit on it ... just so the Beales can stay in touch, you know. They have to keep tabs on Cindy - well, Jane does, as Ian's busy transferring any latent hatred he felt for her mother onto the child, herself.
Carol uses some of the money Jane gave her for Cindy[s upkeep so she could by a cheapo dress from the market stall to wear to the Leavers' Ball. I hope Cindy holds out and doesn't return to BealeLand.
Something Wicked This Way Comes. Oh, Patrick. Hold onto your original opinion of Vincent. Vincent has to hide behind vile Donna to worm his way into Patrick's good opinion. Back in gangster mode, Richard Blackwood goes into yuck mode. He's more the likeable Donkey when he's bantering with Kim and their child, but as the mean man about town, he's laughable.
Come on, Gavin. Smack him 'round the mouth, hopefully with your designer leather glove.
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