April 30, 2020 – The Soap Dish

(Monday 27^th and Tuesday 28^th April 2020)

Gray’s case and career are in big trouble when Whitney disappears and of course, thanks to Jean finding goodbye letters in the bin (the clue is that they have been thrown away, guys!!!), everyone assumes she has done a runner when actually, she has been abducted by Leo’s psychotic mother. On the plus side, at least she’s been locked up in a room with kitchen facilities. Not a lot of prisoners get that! Now I’m just worried about poor Chantelle bearing the brunt of Gray’s anger. She was clearly already irritating him early on in Monday’s episode when she was trying to big him up to his boss.

Max phoned Whitney on the burner phone he gave her (she didn’t think to call anyone for help on it, like um… the police?) but was caught out by crazy Michaela – not before Whitney hollered to Max that she had been abducted. After Max connected the dots for Gray and the family, Gray attempted to get hold of his wife for help. Unfortunately, she has become trapped in the new call centre with Kheerat. Well, that can only go one of three ways, can’t it? Positively, she could crack and open up to him about the abuse she suffers at home or negatively, she could suffer even more abuse when she gets home or of course there is always the third option which is a bit of both. We’ll see.

However, the big shock of Tuesday’s episode was when Michaela confessed that Tony didn’t leave her – she took Leo away from him when she discovered that he was abusing Whitney. She knew and she did nothing. She left him and kept her son safe but she did nothing to protect the vulnerable young girl that she was aware was in danger.

The girls went out for lunch time drinks for Sheree’s birthday, sending Linda to an AA meeting. The poor lamb has already changed locations so she doesn’t run into Stuart but who should show up to this one but Phil? She politely asked him to not come to the meeting she is attending but he turned her down flat, basically telling her that if she’s going to recover, she has to be able to deal with talking about her addiction in front of people she knows; she can’t control who walks through the door. Fair point.

While she told her family that she needs to find a new meeting, Shirley pointed out that she could do a lot worse than learning from someone who has successfully stayed sober for so many years (more or less). Also a fair point. When Phil wanted to buy the pub for himself and Sharon, Linda objected but Phil was certain that she was using his presence at meetings as an excuse. He then sat down with her at home, prepared to actually to talk to her about his own battle with addiction to try and help her with hers. I haven’t never been a Phil Mitchell fan but I do like this ‘nice Phil’ we’ve had over the past year or so.

While the girls enjoyed their drinks, Patrick and Isaac went for a drink themselves where Patrick accidently hinted that he is indeed Isaac’s father. While Isaac went off to confront his mother and Denise demanded answers from Patrick, I found myself wondering if anyone actually cares?

Callum passed his police exam/interview thing (I’ve lost track – it’s taking ever such a long time) and celebrated by telling Lola. Presumably his boyfriend doesn’t really care. She responded by confessing to have slept with Peter who is suddenly very pally-pally with Jay.

Speaking of Peter, things are getting a little awkward now that he clearly likes Dotty and his little brother, Bobby, with whom there is no love lost, also has a crush on her. Poor Bobby got all dressed up for Vinny and Dotty’s club night at Ruby’s but Dotty clearly only sees him as a friend. When she refused to sell him drugs, he got hold of some himself, collapsing in the middle of the dance floor. Oh, Bobby, didn’t you learn last time?