Cavan Clerkin's character Joel Reynolds made his full debut in this episode. To greet him was not only eye-rolling, lip-licking Janine, but the Walford Welcoming Committee too.
Firstly, his business meeting with Janine was cut short by the barmaid turning out to be his old girlfriend Ronnie Mitchell. She brought them Champagne, which she then smashed on the floor.
If that wasn't confusing enough for poor old Joel, his client was then quickly thrown out of the pub without warning.
In the back, Ronnie and sister Roxy tried to figure out who was playing what and indeed just what they were playing at.
Before they could come back out to the pub, Joel had already realised he was not welcome in The Vic. So much for the Walford Welcoming Committee. The door was kindly held open by Phil Mitchell, as the lunchtime drinkers of Walford watched with a sense of utter contempt for this poor accountant.
At The Foxes it was just as busy as The Vic. Lucas was dressed to impress for a managers position at the Community Centre and then came the "return" of Liz, again. You can hear the Foxes collectively shouting in their heads 'Oh for fucks sake, what now?' every time that mad red barnet comes looming around the door. Liz had come to tell Libby she was going back to Spain....because it's her home. I know, it's some kind of crazy logic only the people of Walford could understand.
More Walford Logic came from the constantly pleased with herself, Trina.
She'd come to drop son Jordan off for a few days. Yes, drop Jordan off with his father Lucas, so that she could go and put in motion her divorce from Lucas and sort out moving house to be nearer Lucas, so that she could then take Jordan back with her so that he can live closer to his father who his mother has just divorced, making things easier for everyone. If you say so. Apparently this won't be a problem for Lucas and Denise who now have a green light to start planning their own wedding.
With Lucas being pulled in different directions, it fell to straight talking Denise to point him in the direction of the Community Centre. The unusually quiet panel allowed Lucas to talk and talk, take a call on his phone, apologise and leave without uttering a word. We discovered later on that they were going to offer him the job anyway, which suggests they let him ramble on for their own amusement.
After drinking as much as possible during the lunchtime party at The Vic, Garry and Dawn returned to the flat. Dawn showcased her child rearing skills by clutching on to a baby monitor. She likes it because she can pretend it's a mobile phone.
Fed up with people knocking them and fed up with hearing Phil's name, Dawn suggests they move away from Walford once they're married.
Garry takes this idea to Minty at the Arches. "I can't do lunchtime drinking any more." says Garry the mechanic. Then don't. Garry asks Minty if he'd be interested in selling him his half of the boat for his half of the flat. "Get real, son." says Minty. "You won't get past Canvey Island." "You get real!" replies Garry.
I wish someone would get real.
The closest any one came was when Ronnie wonderfully put Janine on the spot and asked her just what her problem with her was. After all, if you did kill someones daughter, accidentally or not, the last thing you want to do is upset them any more. Unless you're the constantly pleased with herself Janine.
Janine, of course, struggled to come up with a reasonable reason. The best being that she was fed up with the Mitchell's. And they've certainly had enough of her as Archie gave her the chilling warning that "People have got hurt for doing a lot less than you've already done."
Someone who thought they had the right end of the stick was Tanya.
After being handed a stray earring by Lauren, which was found in Max's car, she was certain Max was cheating on her again. What Tanya didn't know was that out on the market, Lauren and boyfriend Pete Beale had found the earrings being sold on one of the stalls.
After giving Whitney fashion advice, the pair learned that she had dropped it after she took part in stealing Max's car for a little joyriding.
Realising her mistake, Lauren invented a story about Peter buying her the earrings as a present and dropping one in the car when he was cleaning it. This also means that Whitney's brother Ryan, who she referred to as a mate, can remain secret.
Tanya, feeling stupid but justified in her assumptions, reminded Max it was their wedding anniversary. Out of nowhere Max produced a gift wrapped box from his dressing gown, told Tanya she should have come upstairs when he told her, got dressed up and presented Tanya with "two tickets to that show". Has everything been resolved in under 5 minutes? Or does Tanya still worry about whether she truly trusts Max, even if he's done nothing wrong.
Elsewhere Ronnie and Roxy continue to work at The Queen Vic and do their best to ignore the fact they have a nightclub to run. And the final scene of the week was Owen, who I never believed had changed, just got a different type of crazy, telling his mother he will never rest until Denise and Libby forgive him. I look forward to his showdown with Lucas the Ninja Preacher.
If you would like to discuss this episode then please join the forum and post your comments in the episode thread. You can find the forum here EastEnders Alternative.
Great news. If you continue to add re-caps I will happily post about this on my blog. I have some followers who are from the frustrated BBCA viewership and haven't been able to keep up with the show since.
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