Gillian Wright is one of those not so secret weapons that Eastenders knows they are so very lucky to have. Jean is there to offer love and friendship and support to all who need her. She can swoop in and steal any scene with only one witty line that the other characters have been working so hard to build up.  The show’s light was dimmed years ago when she departed to live in Brighton and it brightened again when she returned.  I for one, hope that she stays forever!

The beauty of Jean is that as well as warming our hearts with her earnestness, her strength and her kindness, she can break them when we witness her constant battle with her mental health.  This recent spiral into a manic episode with her bipolar has been devastating to watch, particularly with Stacey, played by the incredible Lacey Turner, who has been desperately trying to get the right help for her mother but with no support.  As a bipolar sufferer herself and having lived with her Mum going through these episodes all her life, she knows exactly what the signs are and it has been so hard to see her being ignored by an understaffed and overstretched NHS.  Not to mention the ignorance of Jean’s boyfriend, Harvey, who has no concept of the ‘real’ Jean and has been completely unable to recognise that the Jean who jumped into bed with him on their first date, who has been baking like she’s on Bake Off, who tried to hook up with Rocky in the Vic toilets, who has lacked so much compassion for him and everyone around them, who was pushing for a rushed, not to mention expensive wedding and who doesn’t care about her family anymore and would call the police on her own daughter, who is still on probation, is not the Jean we know and love.  He has never met that Jean before.

I don’t know if we are meant to feel sorry for Harvey or not.  I don’t, really.  I don’t feel sorry for him over Aaron, whose views seem to only be a very exaggerated version of his father’s.  But because Harvey would never be physically violent, murderous or aggressive to non-white people, we are apparently not meant to consider him racist, just old fashioned.  On top of that, if you love someone, you care about their safety.  Even if he hadn’t met Jean outside of her manic symptoms, so many of the things she has been doing are unsafe and out of the ordinary of what most people would do.  And Stacey was telling him over and over again that there was a problem.  He had the warning and he ignored it.  Over and over again.  The ignorance has been so frustrating.  It didn’t need to come to this.  He could have helped sooner.  Or at all.  While Martin and Stacey were tracking Jean down in Southend, he was feeling sorry himself, getting drunk and eating wedding cake, talking about how embarrassed he is that it was Jean’s bipolar that was attracted to him, not Jean herself.  Well, that’s not helpful to the situation and yes, he should be embarrassed but not about that, specifically.  He doesn’t deserve Jean, quite frankly.  The only thing that makes me waver in my opinion was in Monday’s episode when he lent his support to Stacey, as he visited Jean in the hospital.  Afterwards, she begged him not to let her face the situation alone and he assured her that he would be there.

As for last week’s episodes… I hardly have the words.  They were incredible – particularly Thursday’s episode.  Even if you’re not a big Eastenders viewer, I defy you not to get something out of the beauty of this particular episode.  It was written so perfectly (by Lauren Klee) and directed so magically (by Karl Neilson).  Gillian Wright was at her absolute best and Lacey Turner was amazing.  The episode depicted Jean’s reality compared to what was really going on around her.  It made me genuinely emotional, as she charged around Southend in her wedding dress, people laughing at her and getting impatient and some feeling concerned while she flitted from the joy of getting married, apparently to Daniel to becoming confused and frightened and at times, euphoric as she rode rollercoasters and played on the beach.

There were so many little moments of genius in this episode, including the heightened confusion of Stacey trying to find Jean in the hall of mirrors.  Also, a hilarious little moment of Stacey walking into a mirror, which has become a delightful meme for all to enjoy!  And finally, the climax to the episode between mother and daughter, where Jean admitted she was ill and attempted suicide.

Jean has a long road ahead of her but I am confident she will be able to come back from this and that Stacey will be by her side throughout, as will the rest of the family because that’s what Slaters do.  I hope Eve will be included in this, as she has been notably absent during these episodes and up until this point, she has been so supportive of Stacey and she seems to care for Jean very much.  Presumably, we are supposed to assume she’s been in the background, helping out but we just haven’t seen her on screen.  She is a great character and isn’t used enough.  As for Harvey, time will tell, I suppose.  But I am so proud of Eastenders for the way in which they tell Jean’s story.  She is by far, one of the show’s most beautiful gems.