Another week in soap has passed but what has been happening?
EastEnders- The week’s BIG story
When the tabloids announced, or rather screamed, that Heather Trott was being axed, I was astounded. Firstly, there were far worse characters in the soap and secondly, Hev was a good character, ok she wasn’t at the centre of the show, but she was there in the background and was almost a comfort blanket to the viewers. They laughed with her and not at her (unlike Ian Beale and Janine Butcher), and cried with her when she inevitably met a bad ‘un (Kev ’68 anyone?). The news that she was going to be murdered in cold blood sent even more shockwaves around the viewing population. Characters like Hev don’t get murdered; they wander off into the sunset (usually in the back of a black cab). They retire somewhere happier and eat their own body weight in cheese (ok, not everyone does this.) But what was initially horror has slowly manifested itself into approval. Not approval of the murder of a young mum of course, but the approval of a fantastic storyline that has lasted since the murder and is continuing to grow in strength and complexity.
This week saw Hev’s baby faced killer Ben Mitchell finally confess to the murder of his ‘friend’ Heather Trott after thinking a drunk Phil had told Shirley the truth. It’s about time you might say. Ever since he barged into Heather’s flat like a wild animal (angry teeth and all) and bashed a photo frame on her head, the huge secret and the guilt that comes with it, has been eating away at him and this week he blurted out to a shocked Ian : “I killed Heather”. Refusing to believe his little brother, Ian insisted that Ben stop lying and making up stories as one day he will get into serious trouble for it. Erm Ian, it’s a bit too late for such a sensible warning…
Realising that Ben was telling the truth, a horrified Ian fled to the allotments (where else?!) and had what appeared to be a mini breakdown (a foreshadow of what is to come I think). A horrified Ben tried to reason with Ian and convince him not to go to the police. After realising that his words were falling on deaf ears, he cleverly tried to shift some of the blame onto his big brother, by forcing him to listen to what he had to say. (Don’t worry he didn’t use a heavy metal photo frame to do this)After all Ian didn’t give Ben enough attention and surely his beloved mother would want him out of prison? Ian rightly said that he should have thought about that before going and killing an innocent woman.
After getting his dad involved, Ben further tried to reason with Ian and Phil then said Ben’s guilt was punishment enough. An increasingly manic Ian was disgusted with his brother and long term enemy, but decided not to go to the police. I think that is a decision he will live to regret, especially as his increasingly manic demeanour becomes evident to the other members of the square.
In other news
Dodgy Derek’s daughter Alice arrived and with her arrival came a side to Derek we have never seen before. Instead of his dodgy dealings we saw the softer, more mature side to Derek intermixed with his illegal alcohol smuggling. Inviting his daughter Alice to a Branning family lunch, Derek promised her that she would be met by a lovely group of people all eager to meet her. Is Derek talking about the same people as us? Alice would be sharing a table with a two serial shaggers (Max and Jack), a teenage alcoholic (Lauren), an elderly alcoholic (Cora), a woman who buried her husband alive (Tanya), and a woman fond of referencing bible quotes even at the most awkward times (Dot.) The meeting proved as excruciating as was expected, as Derek failed to turn up due to an impromptu visit from the police, and Alice was asked to tell the rest of the Branning clan something about herself. Awkward. If we were Alice we would have ran screaming into the night, but she stayed long enough for Tanya to take her to own side and tell her the truth about what her dad is really like. Frustratingly, this happened off camera, but whatever Tan said had Alice fleeing into the nearest cab. Not surprising really.
Mo arrived back in the square after a visiting Jean was obviously cagey about what was happening back home. Firstly, Alfie telling Jean not to tell Kat and Mo that Roxy was now living at the Queen Vic was a huge mistake. If he wanted Roxy’s presence to be kept quiet, he had a better chance of achieving this if he had advertised it in the Walford Gazette, rather than asking Jean to ‘play it cool’. Mo turned up just as Roxy and Alfie were play fighting. Not quite the grand entrance we expected but then we had trouble remembering Mo had gone in the first place...
