Sunday 24 June 2012

EastEnders June 16th- June 22nd 2012


Another week in soap has passed but what has been happening?



EastEnders- The week’s BIG story

The big story in EastEnders this week was the marriage of Michael and Janine. They are clearly a match made in heaven- both are deceitful liars with evil streaks. We’ve seen this manifest itself in numerous ways with Janine ever since her arrival in 1999. She has wed for money but the marriage didn’t last very long as she pushed her husband Barry off a cliff after telling him he disgusted her. Then there was the very near marriage to an elderly Jewish man. Once again Janine was intending to marry for money but this time her plan was thwarted by Pat turning up and proclaiming that Janine was about as Jewish as a bacon sandwich. This classic line from Pat has gone down in EastEnders history but Janine wasn’t impressed seeing as her cash cow keeled over and died before the marriage could take place.

This week saw Janine say “I do” and this time it was for real as she married her partner in crime Michael Moon. Ok, they might not have committed a crime together (yet!), but their collective misdemeanours make this nickname oddly appropriate. It was a given that the majority of guests have an open dislike for the pair yet were still invited in order to make up the numbers. Well, a huge marquee would be no use with just the people there who actually like Janine. As the old cliché goes, their names could be written on the back of a postal stamp. As the guests took their seats a furious Jean looked on and Kat decided to find out once and for all if Michael had taken their money. After repeatedly denying that he was to blame, Michael finally confessed to a disgusted Kat after hearing that Jean was going to kill herself if she was sectioned. Kat had gradually worn down Michael’s defences by declaring that she truly loved him at one point and that she never thought the father of her child would feel nothing for their son together  (Tommy.)

After confessing to Kat that he took the money and that she was better ‘in the sack than Janine’ , Michael said that Janine truly loved him and that he was going to test just how much. A disgusted Kat left him alone and finally could face Jean with knowing the truth.

Whilst this was going on, Janine was left waiting at the altar with the dawning apprehension that something wasn’t right. This was very astute of her as Michael turned up but stopped the ceremony in order to drag Janine away and confront her about the prenuptial agreement. He said that he thought he was ok with it, but he wasn’t and that it meant she didn’t trust him. Janine tried to placate him, but he began to walk out of her and her baby’s lives for ever. Realising that she couldn’t lose him, Janine ripped up the agreement and said she fully trusted him, even though he had just minutes before confessed to conning Jean. Of course Janine being Janine meant that she wasn’t fazed and said that she would have done the same thing if it had been the other way around. She blamed herself for not treating him equally. At this point the entire nation was throwing something at the television in the vain hope that it would somehow inflict a bump to the head to Janine.  This bump would then bring her to her senses and she would put money before love. Obviously, household objects don’t have such powers when thrown at the TV and instead Janine went through with the wedding.

The happiness that both Janine and Michael felt was later snatched away from them as Janine’s waters suddenly broke and she collapsed in agony at the altar. It was now clear that both her and her unborn baby’s lives were in grave danger. As Janine arrived at the hospital and was told she needed an emergency caesarean, Michael looked on helplessly. As Janine’s tiny (and I mean tiny) baby was delivered it was clear that something was seriously wrong. There was no cry. Janine’s dream day was falling apart as her baby girl was being revived. A horror-struck Michael looked on and from the look on his face and his ramblings of ‘what have I done?’, it was clear that he blamed himself for his daughter’s battle for life. Now I have to admit here that I did feel sympathy for Michael at this point, despite the cruel trick he played on Jean earlier on in the week (he arranged for a funeral director to turn up at the Vic saying they were there to discuss the wishes of the deceased- a miss Stacey Slater in revenge for Jean flushing away his St Christopher cross- even though she didn’t actually flush it away but just pretended to. Phew!). The big question of the week is will Janine and Michael’s 11 week premature baby girl survive?

In other news

This week saw the arrival of another Branning. Yes you read that right- another Branning. As if there weren’t enough of them already…  Joey Branning arrived just as Derek was dragging a defiant Lucy Beale through the streets in revenge for answering Alice’s phone and saying that she was with Derek.  Joey was taking none of Derek’s bullshit and said that he wanted nothing to do with him. This was after Joey arrived and punched Derek full on in the face. I can assure you that the nation cheered as Derek got a taste of his own nasty medicine. I bet that was hard to swallow!

 A relieved Lucy thanked Joey but the main point of his arrival was to drag Alice back home. What is it with grown men controlling their adult siblings in soapland? Alice is a grown woman clearly capable of making her own decisions and mistakes.  Only time will tell whether Alice will stay in contact with Derek…

This week Derek spooked Tanya by informing her that he and Max were bad boys during Max’s absence. Tanya tried to put a brave face on but it was clear that she was paranoid and Derek’s words had scared her. So she asked Max who informed her that he did some things that he wasn’t proud of and that unfortunately, someone got hurt in the process.  Tanya was shocked and agreed with Max that it was better that she didn’t know what went on. I was shocked at her decision, if it was me I would want to know just what went on. However maybe Tanya wants a quiet life after all the stress of the past few years?

Jay’s ultimatum backfired on himself and he was left alone as Abi went on her eight week field trip to Costa Rica. He didn’t want to be alone and said to Abi that if she left him for eight weeks that was it- it was over between them. Although God only knows why he couldn’t go eight weeks without her. The split was unnecessary and clearly a plot device which will leave Jay more isolated than ever as he continues to cover up Heather’s murder…

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