Tuesday’s ep gave us the details of this previous crime, and the fallout in the wake of Ben’s arrest.
We pick up where we left off out in the square, where Ben asks once again if this is some kind of sick joke. Again, he seems genuinely perplexed as he tells Kathy he doesn’t know what they mean by a crime committed in America. The cop pipes up that they need to take him away, and Ben tells him they’re scaring his daughter, who’s just sadly removed her party hat.
Phil turns to Callum and asks if he knows about whatever this is – a fair question, and got to love the plausibility of Callum knowing about it. However, Callum doesn’t have a clue and he tells Phil as much, before trying to use his DC status to find out more info – however he’s reminded that it’s an international warrant, so nothing he can do.
Kathy advises him to just go with them and get it sorted down at the station. And at this point Callum pulls him away. It is amusing just how much time the police are giving him to have a word with everyone there, when usually for drama purposes people are dragged into the police cars kicking and screaming.
Anyway, Ben already knows that Callum’s waiting for the truth but he tells him to stop with the big eyes and insists that he doesn’t know anything. Callum points out that they wouldn’t issue a warrant for nothing and asks for the truth, but Ben swears he hasn’t done anything, he doesn’t know what this is about. And Callum takes him at his word. I mean, it’s very convincing from Ben; instant and direct denial.
The cop pipes up with his name again, all polite, and Ben asks for another minute. He takes that time to go over to Lexi and assures her that he’ll be back before she knows it, and asks her to keep an eye on everyone else while he’s away, to which she says she will. So then Ben steps back, gives everyone a final look before he starts to walk back towards the police car. He passes Callum and they share a short handhold (remember our first Ballum handhold from 2019? A lifetime ago!) and Ben tells them all he’s sorry before getting into the car as the rest of them look on, still in shock. No Ben, I’m sorry.
Back at the flat tensions are high – Kathy argues with Jay over where Lexi should stay, Callum’s frustrated that no one at the station will tell him anything, and Kathy assumes Phil must have some idea over what Ben’s done but Phil insists whatever it is would just be a mistake.
Then Insufferable Jay comes out to play with his snide implications about Ben and how he isn’t so sure that Ben’s innocent. At least for most of this episode we get fierce protective Callum as he insists that Ben swore to him that he didn’t do this. Phil tries to get hold of Ritchie as he’s determined that Ben is coming home.
Cut to the interview room where Ben is telling the detective that it’s not even been a year since his daughter lost her mum; that she’s only eleven and has been through so much trauma already. And it’s not like Ben doesn’t know exactly what that kind of loss does to someone at that age.
When the detective mentions his brief, Ben uses that opportunity to insist that he hasn’t done anything and whatever this is, it isn’t him. Then he mentions with despair that it’s his husband’s birthday. Yeah, happy birthday to him.
They get the word that Ben’s brief is on her way and Ben puts on a brave face, warning the detective that she’d better have an apology ready, plus a cab to take him home so he can watch Callum blow out his candles – although I suspect that even if that was the case, no one would really be in the mood for it – especially Ben himself, who’s fronting it out but is also scared of the uncertainty of what’s going on.
Eventually Ben’s brief arrives – and it’s the Queen herself, Ritchie Scott. As usual, she means business, making her demand for a brew and for the interview room camera to be off. She takes her seat and Ben comments on her lateness, sarcastically asking if she was ironing her hair or buying a fancy handbag. Ritchie ignores the sarcasm and replies that she’s actually been looking over the paperwork for Ben’s arrest, and it’s not looking good. Ben doesn’t seem interested, just insisting that Ritchie get him out; until Ritchie asks him to tell her that he didn’t steal someone’s credit card and use it in America last May. And then, it seems, the penny drops for Ben and he realises that yes, actually, he did do that.
Back at the flat, those tensions are rising. Jay asks how Ben can do this to Lexi, Kathy also passing comment on Ben’s perceived lack of accountability. Callum rightly points out how he’s not the only one who messed up, and Jay takes that personally even though it’s a damn good point actually. How is he going to judge Ben for fraud when his own crimes even in the last few months have been a lot worse than that? And just to remind him, Callum points out how Ben was there for Lexi all last year while Jay was out chasing prostitutes. Although, not actually the worst thing Jay did, was it Callum. Bit strange to mention that over the ketamine but I guess with Nadine making a return at some point it was an opportunity to remind us of her.
Even though Kathy was sniping just seconds ago, now she advises that this isn’t helping, the bickering. Phil ignores her and bites back at Callum to point out that ‘his Mr Wonderful’ isn’t there for Lexi right now. To which Callum fires back that he was when Phil was off sleeping with her grandmother. Kathy tuts at him but Callum stands firm and tells her that he’s not having them slagging Ben off like he’s the only one who’s made a mistake. An energy I sorely wish he’d kept because ‘made a mistake’ implies that Ben has done something but everyone’s being hypocritical about it. Kathy tells Callum that Ben doesn’t deserve him and… it’s just boring. Boring backwards language about Ben as if he hasn’t shown incredible growth over the last year and become better. But turns out that just doesn’t matter because people – your own family – will hold their old outdated opinion of you forever. Plus Ben isn’t currently hiding a body under the cafe floorboards, Kathy, so there is also that.
Callum insists to them all again that Ben hasn’t done anything. Then Phil and Kathy start bickering about who shares the most blame for how Ben’s turned out. Truth is they’ve all failed him.
At this point Lexi turns up in the doorway, telling them to stop shouting. Honey stands behind her, explaining that Lexi wanted to come back. Lexi wants to know exactly what’s going on – although really, no one knows anything more than she does at the moment.
Back in custody, Ben says (mostly to himself) that he’s not going over there for a trial, to which Ritchie points out that they literally have an international warrant, this is serious. Ben suggests she tell the magistrate that they’ve got the wrong person. Ritchie doesn’t hold back as she tells Ben that he’s looking at prison in the states, anywhere from six months to six years. Ben mentions Lexi being eleven again, walls starting to come down as panic replaces them. He doesn’t want to hear a lecture from Ritchie on how he shouldn’t have done it and he bursts out that he was getting Lola treatment.
In response to this, Ritchie simply consults some of her paperwork and starts reading out the list of transactions: a hotel bill of $2,360 and car hire for $1,920. Which seem like ridiculous prices to me – too high to really be feasible purchases even if it was last minute, and also too low for this to be considered serious credit card fraud worth issuing an international warrant for. Ben explains that they wanted $27,000 for medical insurance and his card was blocked. Not totally sure what this means – that amount of money would have been the first thing Ritchie read off if he’s stolen that amount so I assume he paid that with the Arches money before he left and then they blocked the card when he was in the US, leaving him desperate. Look at me, trying to make this make sense!
Ritchie reads the rest of the list, small amounts that would have got Ben by in the few days he’d been out there – and then a business class flight back to London. I don’t even care, that’s fair enough. He’d got the credit card already, why not splash out on business class? Lest we forget that Ben was literally not well at the time and thinking all sorts of irrational things; he could have thought that business class was a speedier process, a guarantee that he would be back in London as quick as possible. Or maybe it was the only seat he could get.
But the tone of Ritchie’s voice as she says it, scolding him; it soon sends Ben into silent despair, the wordless acting that Max has always been able to do so well that tells us that Ben’s feeling overwhelmed. He can’t think of anything to say, but he pleads with Ritchie again to get him out of there. He begs for Ritchie to pull some strings to let him talk to Lexi face to face. He’s started to see the gravity of the situation and his instinct is to find a way to be with his daughter.
One more scene in the flat and Jay’s brought Lexi over what I assume is a hot chocolate, and he sits on one side of Lexi, Callum on the other. Callum tries to assure her that things aren’t always what they seem, they pull people in all the time, even innocent people to find out what’s going on. He suggests that maybe Ben’s been hanging around with someone who’s done a crime, or has the same name as someone who has done something wrong. And trust Jay to come in with the suggestion that maybe Ben has actually done something wrong. I’m sorry, I thought we were trying to make Lexi feel better. But why do that when there’s an opportunity to pass judgement on Ben to make yourself feel better. Because that’s really the issue. Ben makes them feel better about bad things they’ve done. He’s an easy scapegoat. He deserves so much better than this.
They’re interrupted by the buzzer, but still bickering over whether they should be saying that Ben’s going to get out of this when he might now. And conveniently, here’s Ritchie to tell them what the odds actually are.
Phil was expecting to see Ben out by now, but Ritchie asks if they can speak privately – leaving Callum and Jay to try and tell Lexi to go with Honey, only for her to remind Jay that she’s a Mitchell and demonstrating that by standing up and telling Ritchie that they aren’t paying her to be quiet. Well, alright then. Ritchie gets to the point quickly – it’s credit card fraud in America and the bail hearing is tomorrow. Jay begins to explain to Lexi what that means but Lexi seems to already know as she goes on to ask if he’ll get bail – and Ritchie admits that the evidence is stacked pretty strongly against him, indicating that maybe not.
Callum is still under the impression that Ben hasn’t done anything wrong, and Ritchie gives him a look that is apparently enough for Callum to realise that actually, he did do this, and he’d lied to Callum about it. It’s the lying that seems to have upset him, and I get that if he does think Ben was lying to him, then the sincere denial from Ben feels worse, as does the unwillingness to mention it all this time. I don’t think it occurs to him that Ben might have actually forgotten in all the grief and panic and stress; but he is well aware of the time frame and what Ben’s state of mind was in May last year; and it wasn’t good. He knows Ben had to sell the Arches anyway and he wouldn’t have done that unless he was still in debt even with the fraud. I’m fully assigning motives that I don’t think were intended because they’re never addressed, but I want to think that Callum feels guilt for letting Ben go and embarrassed that he didn’t know, so that’s feeding into the negative feeling as well.
At this point Phil gets a phone call and it’s Ben, asking him to do him a favour because he can’t be separated from Lexi.
It just gets worse from here I’m afraid. The last two blogs might take a bit longer but I promise they will be done!
In the meantime, you can book to see Max on tour! He’s joined the cast of Birdsong, a play he was in almost a decade ago but now is playing one of the leads in a UK tour starting 5th September. More info here.
And the Kudoboard and Justgiving page for Max is still open! I’ve put on a raffle to help raise a bit more, details here. Look after yourselves, as always.
Jenn's Ballum Blog 