Another week in soap has passed but
what has been happening?
EastEnders- The week’s BIG story
This week mainly focused on the aftermath of the previous
week’s events. Everyone was in shellshock after learning that Ben Mitchell had
murdered Heather. While he was in police
custody it was left to Jay Mitchell to face the wrath of the angry residents
who wanted justice for Heather. This really bemused me as most of them never
gave Heather the time of day when she was alive. Jay emerged from the tube
station looking terrible and we later learnt that he had been sleeping rough
for a couple of nights as he did not want to go home. As he walked the streets of Walford he saw the
front page of the Walford Gazette which had two silhouettes and said that
youths had been questioned on suspicion of the murder of a ‘much loved resident’.
Obviously the residents had by now learnt the truth and Jay was given dirty
looks left, right and centre. What really annoyed me was Max Branning’s
criticism of Jay. In fact, Max had tried to con Heather back in 2010 when he
was desperate for money so clearly didn’t value her as a person. Max’s
hypocrisy was disgusting as this was the man who had slept with his son’s wife.
Of course Max never murdered anyone, but then neither did Jay! Andrew Cotton’s
anger was understandable though and as he chased Jay through the square it was
clear that he didn’t care what happened to him as long as he got his hands on
Jay.
Jay not actually being a murderer didn’t matter to the
residents of the square. Graffiti was sprayed on the Mitchell’s walls and Phil
was in no mood to clean it off. Phil’s main focus this week was getting through
to Ben in order for him to change his statement. He first needed to force Jay to
change his statement despite Ben urging Jay to tell the truth. Jay refused
meaning that Phil threw him out and told him that he wanted nothing more to do
with him.
I always knew Phil would drop Jay at any instant but I didn’t realise
how fast this would be. Jay’s situation then declined further as Billy went
back on his word and refused to let Jay stay with him as he thought he could be
a danger to Lola and Lexi. Jay was distraught as he hadn’t killed anybody and
was being treated as if he had. Billy Mitchell’s hypocrisy was astounding and
Jay rightly called him a coward. Billy had after all been in a similar
situation to Jay. He had stood by and done nothing when Jay’s dad was being
beaten to death. Billy had a chance to save Jase’s life but took the coward’s
way out. Jay was after all helpless as Ben’s actions were over in a second.
Thankfully, Patrick eventually took pity on Jay and took him
in; much to Denise’s dismay who reminded Patrick that she had already offered
Shirley a room should she ever need it. Patrick stood firm and Jay was to stay
in the B&B. Shirley was staying with Phil and as the week went on she
realised that she had to move out and leave Phil. This realisation came as she
was scrubbing the graffiti off the wall. We were treated to a fantastic scene
in which Shirley’s hands were covered in red graffiti which wouldn’t wash off. She
was reminiscent of Lady Macbeth of course who imagined her hands to be covered
with the blood of King Duncan. Shirley told Phil that now she had ‘blood’ on
her hands she couldn’t stay with him and that their love had turned twisted and
that it was now something nasty. Linda Henry was fantastic in this final confrontation
and really should be picking up some awards.
Phil was left alone after throwing Roxy out and his
isolation was evident as sat in the house alone. His isolation was compounded as
a distraught Shirley added that she still might tell the police that he knew
about Ben’s crime. Phil then realised that he had to declare his undying love
for Shirley in order to keep her sweet. The writer’s have been very clever here
as Phil’s love for Shirley is hanging in the balance- does he really love her?
Or he is just been stringing her along? Andrew Cotton implored to Shirley that
she must leave Phil for good as the trust had gone. Andrew was Shirley’s ally
after earlier questioning her over whether she knew about Ben’s guilt all along
but he couldn’t cope with the truth and decided to leave Walford for good.
As the week drew to a close it was Phil’s final chance to
persuade Ben to retract his statement. During a visit to Ben in prison, Phil
told him that he would never cope in prison and that he would be a punch bag
for the other prisoners. Ben didn’t care and told Phil that he wanted to pay
for what he had done. Ben also told Phil
and Ian that he didn’t want them to contact him or visit him while he was in
prison. This left Phil heartbroken as Ben walked out of his life for the foreseeable
future. This ended Ben’s time on the
show and his transformation from dance loving Ben to murderer was complete. The
change in actor helped this transformation along. I really can’t imagine Charlie
Jones (the old Ben) in this storyline. Joshua Pascoe, as the new Ben, has been
fantastic and I’m sure we will see him return as Ben Mitchell one day in the future.
In other news...
The teens had a game of spin the bottle. Yawn. Although this
was a reminder that Lauren Branning has a drink problem.
Fatboy got sacked from the chicken shop and was hired by
Alfie who took pity on him.
Sharon got a job as manageress at R&R’s.
Janine returned to work and her distrust of Michael was
evident as she questioned his movements.
Anthony asked Alice out- she said yes if you’re interested
(I’m not...)
