Sunday, March 1, 2015

Days of Future Past - The Big Episodes - Review:- 19.02 and 20.02.2015

Because of the intensity of everything surrounding the 30th Anniversary episodes and everything they entailed, I decided to encompass the review into one big segment, itself, having watched the episodes again.

The episodes, themselves, produced a furore of reactions, not only from me but from other commentators as well, and I wanted to give myself a few days to cool down and contemplate the situations created by these episodes - because they were the culmination of some storylines and the beginning of others - before I attempted to analyse them.

In view of the latest monumental surprise heaped upon the viewers by this EP, I really, sincerely wanted to turn the programme off for good. I wanted to do so when Louise Berridge sprang a resurrected Den upon us back in October 2003, but, in truth, I couldn't then and I can't now - at least, not for the time being. I love the show too much that I need to watch it, but I don't want to feel as though I'm watching a horrible car crash about to happen which I can do nothing to prevent. In this respect, I hope I'm wrong, and if I am wrong, you know I will be the first person to put my hand up and admit as such.

I deplored Danny Dyer joining the cast, and now I can't imagine the show without him. I hated Stacey Slater's character, and now she's amongst my favourites. I may come to welcome Kathy, a character who was never a favourite of mine and even moreso when she was paired with Phil, as I would a dead sister returned from the hinterlands, but there's always a possibility that I won't. If the return storyline is plausible, emotive and remotely believeable, I'll be the first to praise it; but if it's in any way wanting, I'll be remorseless in my criticism. 

Just saying. That's fair.

The Wedding Party (19.02.2015)


Atmospherically and evocatively, this episode was pitch perfect. The direction and editing was so flawless that the shift from taped to live segments was seamless. The acting, needless to say, was superb.

I'm glad I went back and watched this again, before commenting, because on second viewing, so much was noticed that foreshadowed the eventual outcome of the week. On watching this the first time, however, before anyone knew anything of the killer's identity, anyone would have been forgiven believing Jane was the killer. Full kudos to Laurie Brett, and I'm talking about Thursday's episode, for a brilliant performance. 

From the beginning, Jane was cold, calm and calculated, but Jane was not without moral fibre in this instance. From the beginning, when Peter revealed to the assembled Beales and the one non-Beale, that Lauren had told him Lucy had been killed in the Beale home, Jane's first remark had been to point out that only Ian, Lucy and Cindy had living there at the time Lucy was killed - thereafter, this was followed by her strenuous denials that it couldn't have been any of them, that someone could have followed Lucy home or someone could have got in. 

Then Cindy hit upon a convenient scapegoat. Yes, Ian, Cindy and Lucy had been living there, but also Denise was living there at that time too. 

Denise. The help.

Automatically, Peter jumps to the conclusion that the killer must have been Denise because a Beale, or even a pseudo-Beale, couldn't have killed Lucy.

(Aside: Who's watching Beth? Where was she? In fact, where were all the children on Albert Square? The Mitchell house was empty of Denny, and Cindy was up to her eyeballs in wedding and murder paraphernalia, so where was her child? And although Mimi Keene handled the Beale scenes, the majority of which were live feed, very well, as an actress, she doesn't emote well. Cindy is not a likeable character. Whether she's supposed to be or not, I can't figure, but the actress doesn't impart any warmth of vulnerability to the character.)

Denise is a perfect scapegoat for the Beales. She's not a Beale, and even had she married Ian, both he and his sprogs made it abundantly clear she could never be a Beale. She was, for all intents and purposes, "the Help." (Who can forget the mildly racist oven glove Ian gave Denise for Christmas in 2013?)

Even with Peter demanding Ian force a showdown in the Vic with Denise, accusing her of Lucy's murder, Jane cautioned restraint. Calmly.

As much as Peter wanted to go with Ian, Ian went alone, but was waylaid by his cousin Martin.

Martin, as we saw, was involved in the initial scene of Thursday's episode, which was a factual re-creation of the very first scene shown on EastEnders back in 1985 - when Den Watts, Ali Osman and Arthur Fowler broke down the door of the very house which subsequently became the Slater/Moon house, to find Reg Cox, dying in his chair.

Fast-forward thirty years ... Arthur Fowler's son, Asian resident of the Square (Kush) and Stacey ... Stacey? Wait a minute ... shouldn't Mick Carter have been there? Or at the very least, Alfie? Same sound effects, same dialogue with a slight alteration ... Stacey put a wrinkled nose feminine affectation on Stinks in'ere, don't it? but we get the picture that this was a nod to 1985, and Stacey's involvement was that she wanted a gander at their old home to see how much work needed doing before it was habitable again ...

Except that the Slater/Moons were in arrears with the rent and were under orders of eviction. The council would no sooner allow them to regain residence than they would expiate the debt owed. No, indeed. Stacey, Kush and Martin would have been trespassing on council property. Still, that's dramatic licence.

Of course, Nick's body was discovered, and Stacey, thinking Dot didn't yet know about this, convinced Kush not to phone the police, instead to inform Dot first, except Dot and Charlie show up - ostensibly, for Dot to show Charlie that his father is well and truly dead this time - and discover the invading trio within.

I'm a bit surprised that Dot acknowledged Stacey, but failed to acknowledge Martin's presence. It would have been awhile since she'd seen him, but he was the son of one of her closest friends. Whilst Dot and co repair to Dot's house, Martin manages to run into Ian, en route to the Vic to confront Denise.

Ian's words upon seeing Martin struck a particular chord with me, as a long-term viewer:-

We grew up here. Normal kids, normal families.

Yes, except Martin's killed someone, Stacey's killed someone, Dot's killed someone, and now someone's killed Lucy in Ian's home too. But there's someone else picked up along the way as well.

Sharon.

Sharon's had a confrontation with Phil, who's come back from someplace with loadsamoney - woulda been double that, but I had expenses - Phil's been someplace. Did he go to Portugal to see Peggy or further afield? And here's the first of many plotholes.

If Phil did, indeed, go abroad, he couldn't possibly have done so. Phil is still on bail, and bail conditions require surrendering a passport and not going abroad.

I see he had to get in a little dig about Sharon ruining his businesses. I want to see the moment when he's handed his arse and he sees the signature on the paper Sharon holds, showing Ben did the transaction, and Sharon took the shot for it. Phil promises revenge on Max, and this doesn't involve the loadsa money Phil's come by, although that will be a part. Shirley taunts Phil, and I'd like to know why Shirley thinks Max has the capability of taking the rest of Phil's businesses off him, even his wife, if need be. The only reason Max got The Arches was by duping Ben. No money changed hands. Max is barely scraping a living selling four cars on a forecourt.

But Shirley's final dig was niggling. Was Shirley not worth fighting for, or was Sharon not worth fighting for? In view of the shitstorm about to occur, I hope Shirley and Sharon forge a friendship.

Dot, Sharon and Ian end up in Dot's kitchen for a scene which was enormously prescient for everything else which ensued. Dot confesses to Ian and Sharon, wanting only to see those two - and why not? They were budding adolescents this time 30 years ago. Martin was, as yet, unborn, and Stacey and Charlie, yet to arrive on the Square.

No one on EastEnders gives a better soliloquy than June Brown, and for the second time that week, she knocked it out of the park. In her mind, she killed Nick. She bought the drug for him, watched him take it, and let him die. (Although, we know she didn't know the heroin she bought was bad stuff). This wasn't an act of love the way her euthanising of Ethel was, this was, by Dot's own admission, a singular act of failure on her part, as a parent to Nick.

Despite all the protests from Ian and Sharon, encompassing mentions of Pauline and Lou, Angie and Pat, Dot wouldn't be convinced. Dot's speech about not being able to take anymore, snapping from anger at Nick causing all this suffering. She wanted him to suffer, and he did.

Something in that struck a chord with Ian, who wonders that Dot could keep something like that to herself for so long, but Dot said that she kept pretending as if nothing happened, and then said something particularly prescient for Ian's situation - people say be wary of strangers, but it's the people you love who hurt you the most, and you hurt the ones you love the most as well. 

I failed him in his life and I failed him in his death. I just needed to tell someone, and now I can do it ... make my peace.

The camera panned on Adam Woodyatt's face during that time, and the realisation of Lucy's killer's identity was practically palpable. Immediately, the camera then panned on Jane, and a phone ringing. Masood wants to know what's going on. Bobby wants to come home, and Masood thinks Ian's done something.

The Ubiquitous Brannings.


Lauren's in bits, and Max and Tanya are in the cafe. Lauren hadn't even known Tanya was on the Square, and Abi wonders if her parents would get together again.

All through her visit, Tanya's been reciting a litany of returning for Jane's and Adam's wedding, but that's not the real reason she's back. When we last saw Tanya, she was bidding Max farewell, saying she loved him, but couldn't go on living with him. Well, Thursday night, she was back, hoping to reconcile with Max. Odd, that I thought Tanya had moved on, considering that Jane had hastened to tell Max that Tanya had found a new wallet fella wherever she was living now, who was a "keeper."

Obviously not, and obviously, it's Max who's moved on, because he turned down the chance of reconciling with Tanya; so now Tanya's back on her tod, and her BFF Jane, is harbouring a particularly nasty little secret.

Le Pub.


Everything's happening at the Vic, even if the wedding party isn't a wedding party anymore. Kat's drunk - Jessie Wallace was the low point of this episode - and manages to slam Sonia's face into the wedding cake. (At least, she did one thing right). Kim gave birth in the loo to a daughter, Pearl - the 30th anniversary is traditionally the Pearl Anniversary - after rowing with Denise, and as they ferried Kim onto the ambulance, who should appear shiftily in the background, but Mr Mystery, himself, Richard Blackwood, AKA Vincent. As soon as he witnessed what was going down, he turned heel and went.

Wait ... could Vincent be the elusive Mr Fox-Hubbard? I wonder.

And there was a siege, of course. Dean is back, angry and filled with self-pity. He has a can of petrol, lets himself into the Vic cellar and douses the lot of booze, but not before Nancy finds out. Mick's out, mind you, looking for Dean, because he'd seen him skulking about. The net result is Nancy screaming, Mick coming to her rescue and felling Dean, stepping firmly on his throat to strangle him. Nancy thinks he's dead. Dean's not breathing.

I hope Mick hasn't killed Dean. I don't want another killer on the Square, and I want Dean to be recurrent. Now that Nick's dead, we're in need of another Nick, and I want Dean to be Nancy's Nick.

Back to Dot's. After the kitchen confessional, there was a weird scene contained in Dot's front room - Ian, Sharon, Charlie, Stacey, Martin and Kush. And eventually, Carol and Les Coker. The first group are worried about Nick's body being found and the fact that Dot will confess to having killed him or that she knew he was there. Instead of calling the police, which is what Kush wanted to do, someone came up with the idea that if there were no body, there'd be no crime. Dot could go on and on about this, but the authorities would think this was the rantings of an old woman.

They needed Les's help, obviously, to prep the body for burial and dispense with it, but Les was reluctant. The first time, they'd only pretended Nick was dead. They'd have got a slap on the wrist for that - well, no, not exactly Les, it's a crime to fake a death. It's also a crime to conceal a death, and that's exactly what that, otherwise sane, group of people were proposing to do.

I find it very hard to think that Ian, Sharon and Carol would adhere to something like that. Nick was a known junkie. They should have called the police.

All of this makes Ian wonder how people can conceal a crime, a death for so long and go on as if nothing happened.

Hello It's Me.

A lot of telephones were going off tonight. Phil kept getting messages. Bobby kept calling Jane. Phil trotted off to a wasteland against the East London skyline to meet Kathy ComeHome. And she does want to come home, but Phil forbids that ... until Kathy's phone rings, and she has to go.

I'm a sceptic. And a cynic. There was one thing that made me re-evaluate Kathy's return - the fact that her husband is named Gavin, the same name as Sharon's birth father. Then there was another ... when Kathy's phone rang and she had to go.

If you do not think this producer would link Sharon's birth father to Kathy, this is the man who's brought this character back into the fold, nine years after her so-called death. Think about Phil Mitchell's ex-wife becoming his step-mother-in-law.

There was a cheesy downside to this, and that was, immediately after that scene we had minute little scenes of Ben and Ian getting some sort of telepathic communication that Kathy was around. The last time we saw this bit of tripe as a plot device was when we had the Range Rover in the Lake sequence, and Lucy got telepathic vibes that Peter was in danger.

Odd, how Peter didn't get any such vibes when Lucy's head was being stoved in at home. You'd have thought he'd at least have got a headache.

Nights in White Satin.

Ian't beginning to piece it all together now. As he said to Mick, I don't have to find them. They'll come to me.

I loved the bit when the final telephone call of the evening occurred, Ian calling to tell whoever answered the phone, to get everyone out of the house, because Ian had to talk.

By that time, we knew this was nothing to do with Denise or Peter. Down to Cindy and Jane, it ended with Jane.

Oh, and the road to Startin is Startin. Martin has the socially gauche mannerisms of Bradley. See what happens when you change heads? You change personalities.

Questions and Answers (Flashback Episode)

Good and bad from the very start. Loved the sombre graphics - the darker-hued map - but hated the Hollyoak-ish beginning: the cacophany of voices in the background against flashed scenes from the Good Friday episode, played out against what was obviously dead Lucy in the foreground; but from thereafter, it was yet another brilliant episode. 

It answered a lot of questions, tied a few loose ends and posed two very interesting questions:-

1. The Involvement of Jay and Ben. This was the most perplexing part about the entire episode, indeed the mystery. I can't remember when Ben was released from prison, but the viewers weren't made aware of that fact until a few weeks after Lucy had been killed - but soon enough afterward for us to be able to calculate that he got out of jail on or about Good Friday. However, it appeared he'd been in contact with Lucy before because he was expecting Lucy to come up with a ticket to Miami for him that evening, and - surprise surprise - Lucy was supposed to go as well.

It was also obvious, from Lucy's interaction with Lee after the altercation with Billy, that Jay was waiting for her at the bus stop, although she wasn't aware of this from their surprise at the flats. What was the Miami trip all about? Someone pointed out that Michelle was in Miami. No, she's in Florida, but up on the panhandle in the northern part of the state. I had thought David Wicks, Lucy's uncle, was there, but then I'm reminded that this was the flashback episode, and David Wicks was still on the Square, as referenced by Liam near the end of the episode when he came outside to tell Whitney that "Grandad said to come inside."

So what was this mystery trip? Ben kept referencing "family" matters. If this were a trip to Florida to see Michelle, Michelle is no family to Ben. More than likely, it was Ben wanting to get away from Walford and Phil, and it was something Lucy had promised him as well, thinking to get away herself, as relations with Ian had been fraught for the previous few weeks.

Obviously now, however, she'd got involved in her new business venture, and hiking to Florida with Ben was a thing of the past. Still, we saw how Ben and Jay came to have Lucy's phone and purse in their possession. Ben mugged her.

2. Billy the Pervert. WTF? I didn't think Lucy gave a rat's arse about the chippie anymore, or any of Ian's businesses. She was too intent on LB Lettings and proving that she could do something apart from Ian's empire and just as successful to worry about checking the fish stocks at the chippy. Casting your mind back to Good Friday, and you'll recall Billy providing Big Mo with a consignment of fish and Mo trying to sell it to Carol.

But what was all of that near the end of the barny with Billy - Billy thinking maybe he and Lucy could come to an agreement over sex? Billy harbouring furtive photos of Lucy in his flat, which was, then, home to Peter as well. And speaking of Peter ...

3. Things Go Better with Coke. We saw the message Lucy made to Peter about 2 gms of coke. Did she send it? Because whilst Peter met the dealer, he was later contemplating taking the stuff, himself. That was a brilliant scene between him and Billy, as Peter expostulated on how difficult and wearing it was to be Lucy's twin - how she was the more difficult of the two, but always seemed to be more valued. For the first time, we are told how Peter dislikes working on the stall, but did it for Ian, and Lucy got the thanks and appreciation.

And then there were the answers:-

1. Now we know how Lucy's blood and her earring showed up in Jake's flat - Jake swatted her in a drunken attempt to hit Max, who made an inappropriate remark about him and Lauren. And now we know why Max was intent on framing Jake and why he grassed Summerhayes up on her own investigation, causing a disciplinary hearing, and also why he ripped up Emma's notes: He thought Abi had killed Lucy.

Line of the night for this episode went to Abi:-

I've just been battering Lucy Beale.

2. Now we know that, as much as Lucy had been pleasing various inhabitants of the Square - nice touch to mask the fact that Lee Carter's hair had grown by having him wear his hoodie up - she'd been annoying others. Whitney was always a red herring, as was Billy with his red herrings. But Abi's activities that night were amazing, and the smack she gave Lucy was resounding. It wasn't until months after this night that we even knew Abi had been aware of Max's and Lucy's liaison, but from the flashback we knew she'd been aware of it from the start.

3. Poor Denise. This was a revelation. We'd known for ages that Denise was unhappy. We'd seen Ian's mistreatment of her, especially since the arrival of Jane the Queen, but now we find that the rest of the children, possibly with the exception of Bobby, didn't want her as part of the family. It's tempting to wonder why and speculate. As this is a flashback, we'd do well to remember the way Denise, Patrick and Libby were horned out of accompanying the Beales as family in the funeral episode and Libby's correct assumption that mild racism was in play. EastEnders has never sufficiently addressed casual racism, and the Beales' treatment of and relationship with Denise is as close as it would ever come. It's easy to see why Denise wanted out, but why did Lucy, who didn't want her there in the first place, as she confided to the ever more smug Jane, want her out that evening when she eavesdropped on her phonecall? Calling her a money-grubbing tart was out of order, especially since Denise was planning an exit not pushing for nuptials. In fairness to that vignette, Lucy struck first, after pushing Denise and gave her a resounding smack. So Denise took her by surprise.

4. The Cheek of Jane. Remembering Ian's remark from Friday's episode, I'm beginning to wonder if Jane, herself, hasn't got psychopathic tendencies. She's pissed off at Masood because he's told her not to interfere in the Beale household and undermine Denise. Masood's rant in that episode was brilliant and precisely the most apt description of the Beale household ever - how everything appeared nice on the outside, but inside there was nothing but secrets, lies and people hating each other. Jane abused Masood's hospitality from day one, and her treatment of him in this episode was callous.

5. We now begin to see how Emma's notes tied up, with all the shots of Max looking at the Beale house and seeing it in darkness. What we missed, however, was Lauren's furtive knock at the door, but by then, Jane was long gone burying the body.

6. Ronnie Got Her Gun. Both literally and symbolically. Guns are phallic symbols in literature, and Ronnie put off CharlieBoy on the night of conception, because she had to run an errand. And whom do we see? None other than Mr Mystery, himself, Vincent, who, as he reminds Ronnie, is now newly single again. Was he taking a break from Kim? Kim's baby wasn't due until April, so maybe when Ronnie spurned his advances, he returned to Kim, because I do think he's Mr Fox-Hubbard, but we see he has a connection to the Mitchells as well. Maybe DTC is a student of American Southern folklore with Richard Blackwood's character. Later, she gets a different gun from Charlie, and the rest is history.

Brilliant episode. Brilliant ending.

The Resolution - Live Episode.

Well, the big question is: Did he realise what he'd done? That's a question people will debate hotly. My guess is that Bobby knew exactly what he'd done. The irony of the entire ordeal was summed up in Ian's remark to Jane:-

You kill my daughter, you dump her body and you marry me? What are you? Some kind of psychopath?

Bobby is a charmer. So are psychopaths (Archie, Michael). I clocked in that episode how quickly his face changed from a sweet smile to a cold demeanor with Masood. He kept the jewelry box and gave it to Beth as a present, as well as Lucy's last letter to Ian and newspaper clippings about Lucy's case. Psychopaths often keep trophies from their deeds and any sort of publicity that those deeds entail. He lives in the house and visited the place where her body was found.

In everything that happened in this episode, there was one inadvertantly funny scene - at the very beginning when Ian told Jane, in the kitchen, that he wanted to be alone. She went to say something and he roared at her, causing her to scurry from the room. It was inadvertantly hilarious.

But in all of this, I'm Team Peter. In this episode, Peter Beale and Nancy Carter stepped up as the moral arbitres of their families.

Peter is right. The police need to be involved. Even at the very end, when Bobby was asking if he did anything wrong, Ian was assuring him that he didn't. This puts a new spin on the phrase positive reinforcement, but as Peter told Ian - if Ian continued with this cover up, he is as bad as Jane, Cindy and Bobby; because it will come out, and they all will go down for this.

Ian is an extremely weak man, and now he and Jane are tied together forever in a marriage from hell. If there be any infidelity, the other can do nothing, at the risk of one person telling all. Jane is even more tied to Ian by guilt than she was via her dalliance with Grant.

Something about Jane doesn't ring true in this. The story about taking Lucy to the hospital. Even if you know the person you're taking to the hospital is dead, you don't bung them in the boot of your car. That's what the back seat is for. A body in the boot is for dumping, a body in the backseat is for death with dignity. I don't buy it that she carried Lucy to the woods either. Jane might be a strapping lass, and Lucy may have been slight (but tall), but the phrase "dead weight" means exactly that for a reason. An inert person or a dead body is heavy to move, even moreso for a woman whose body weight is normally distributed in the upper torso. Jane dragged her.

Masood's description of the Beale house rings even more sinister and true now, and one wonders how Ian will be able to cope with this secret. Peter couldn't, and he won't forgive Ian. So now Ian's left in a house with the child he originally didn't want, who killed his daughter, the daughter of the the woman who tried to kill him, and a wife he's tied to in eternity, who dumped his daughter's body on a common. This is almost as bizarre as Tanya burying Max.

At last, in this episode, Emma's notes came together. Max's uncertainty of times at which the lights were seen to be on in the Beale house, Lauren's appearance in Fatboy's video at the door, showing the lights off and - the clincher - Jane's car missing. It was the car, all along, which wasn't there. It was Jane who met with Summerhayes - Summerhayes and subsequently Lauren thought Jane was the killer. Jane told Summerhayes the truth, and a child doing the killing was beyond her remit. Jane and Ian needed to report this to the police and juvenile authorities. All those tied up, with a new mystery beginning in the Vic.

Dean's body has gone, but was Mick behind its disappearance? And is he dead? When Nancy approached Keeble, who was tending the Brannings about Nick's death, Keeble thought she was referring to Nick, but as Nancy left, Keeble turned to gaze at the Beale house, muttering It's strange to think what goes on behind closed doors.

Keeble knows something.

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