Eastenders July 7th- July 13th 2012

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

EastEnders- The week’s BIG story

I know I have said this before, but when I learnt that Heather had been axed from EastEnders I was shocked and disappointed for reasons I have already discussed on this blog. This week saw the Heather murder plot take another fantastic turn.  The key to this week was the photo frame which Ben killed Heather with. Indeed, Ben said that he taken it down to the canal and disposed of it. Instead he had wrapped it in a tea towel and stuffed it under his bed. Why? Well apart from being an absolute psycho, the frame is a trophy and a reminder of what he has done. Indeed, it is wrapped in a tea towel stained with Heather’s blood.

The discovery by Jay of the weapon is quite ironic considering Ben and Jay have being getting on better than ever recently. It seemed like both had managed to put the ordeal behind them and move on. This may sound bad considering they are covering up a murder, but you can’t please everyone. In fact, their brotherly relationship was cemented by the stock car race down at the race track. Of course Jay was the better driver and the faster one, but Shirley and Jay, knowing that Ben needed a confidence boost, lied and declared him the winner. Phil was overjoyed at his families’ show of togetherness and gave Ben and Jay £200 each from the sale of the stock car. So far, so good. However this show of unity was shattered when Jay went upstairs to the boys’ bedroom in order to find a safe place for the money. Reaching under a bed, he felt his hand brush against something. This something just happened to be the murder weapon. Of course, the lad was horrified and later confronted Ben in the garage, but only after quizzing Ben on what he did with the murder weapon. After Ben confirmed his story of dumping it in the canal, Jay implored that he knew the truth. Ben being Ben continued to make excuses for his behaviour and insisted that it wasn’t his fault (!). Their very loud row about Ben killing Heather and keeping the murder weapon as a trophy was taking place in the Arches garage with the shutters wide open. Essentially they were rowing about the long kept secret in public. This was a stupid thing to do but it seemed like Jay didn’t care any more. Indeed, he headed down to the police station and said that he was going to tell the truth about what really happened on March 19. As he made his way down to the police station Ben appeared at the wheel of a car whilst revving the engine. For a second me (and most of the people I have spoken to) thought that Jay was going to become Ben’s next victim. Ben’s revving of the engine became louder as Jay pushed him to go on and run him over if he dared. Of course Ben being the coward he is braked at the last minute. Instead he persuaded Jay to give him the murder weapon and said that he was going straight to the police station to hand himself in. Did he stay true to his word? Does Kat ever keep her knickers on? You know the answer to that...

Instead Ben ran home and took the picture out of the frame. The picture in question showed Heather and Shirley at their happiest together. This was especially cruel considering his next action which was ripping the picture up after he had managed to persuade little Amy to give him it back.  Meanwhile, the picture frame was pushed under the coffee table in a bag of rubbish which had later disappeared whilst Ben went to find Jay, who in his absence had lost it and trashed Andrew’s burger stall and shoved a heavily pregnant Lola. After Ben persuaded Jay to come home, Ben was horrified to see that the bag of rubbish containing the murder weapon had gone.  Shirley had given it to Jean as Jean is a keen environmentalist apparently.  Ben and Jay invented a story about Ben’s hearing aid going missing so they could go over to the Vic to rifle through the bags in order to get it back. This was after a furious Phil demanded that they go and relieve Shirley who bought their lies and who had gone to the Vic in order to ask Jean if she could go through a bag of rubbish! Ben and Jay finding the picture frame before Shirley was of course paramount as if Shirley found the frame first she would recognise it as the murder weapon that killed her best friend. In true EastEnders style they got the Vic just as Shirley was about to discover the weapon. In fact she had the bloodied tea towel in her hand but wasn’t looking at it. After the two lads told Shirley that they had found the hearing aid and that they could clear the mess up, she cast it aside. Throughout this scene my heart, and no doubt every viewer’s, was beating in anticipation of Shirley finding out the truth. Ben and Jay’s ‘clean up’ was thwarted by Jean who seeing the mess, demand they leave. Ben gave Jean a killer stare on his way out, whilst Phil was furious to discover that they had failed to retrieve the weapon. After deciding to go do the dirty work himself, Phil, Ben and Jay saw Jean giving all the rubbish to the bin men. Relieved, they all thought the whole saga was over for good. Unfortunately for them, we next saw the picture frame on the floor of the charity shop with Cora about to discover it. Of course she won’t realise what it is, but how long before Shirley stumbles across it whilst doing her shopping?!

In other news

Kat’s affair with her mystery man continued this week as she received a mobile phone especially for their liaisons. Disgusted with herself, she hid it in her makeup box only to later discover that it was missing. As Jean informed her that Alfie was looking for her and that he was furious with her, Kat braced herself for the truth to come out. As it turned out it was Shenice (remember her?) who had taken the mobile phone to school and gotten into trouble for it. Kat was about to confess until Alfie informed her of this. Meanwhile for the rest of the week we had Kat giving all of the suspects shifty looks from behind the bar. Let’s hope Alfie finds out the truth soon and kicks her sorry arse out of the pub!

Masood’s brother AJ turned up and immediately caused trouble by unintentionally damaging Derek’s car. A punch in the face later and £200 down, AJ’s mini feud with Derek was resolved. AJ’s presence infuriated Zainab who clearly didn’t get along with her brother in law. God knows why as AJ seemed entirely harmless and instantly accepted Syed’s life with Christian.  If only everybody could be that tolerant.

Denise (rather meanly) informed AJ of Mas and Zee’s life on the square. This shocked AJ who later apologised to Zee for offending her. The week ended with AJ leaving to win back his estranged wife. Even Zainab looked quite sad to see the back of him but refused a goodbye hug- typical Zainab. Of course AJ will be back and I think he will be accompanied by the wife that he mentioned. Wait and see....