1st August, I’ll sort this

It’s officially Callum and Whitney’s wedding month! I think, after a relatively quiet July, we’re in for a big month. It’s certainly kicking off for Ben already, but not from a Ballum perspective. Indeed, we were hoping for a surprise Callum appearance tonight (as we knew nothing about how Phil’s attack aftermath was going to play out), but no such luck. Ben had plenty to do though, so let’s get into it.

Screencaps for this episode can be found here.

In a direct continuation from the previous episode, Stacey, Martin and Kat hover over Phil in the pit with horror as they discuss what to do. Ben is on his way to the arches, gun under his jacket, prepared to confront Keanu, but instead walks right into the crime scene seconds after it’s happened.

Ben looks at his dad and his expression is blank. It’s only when the suggestion of an ambulance is brought up by the others that he snaps out of it, saying he’ll sort it. He then loses it when they don’t leave when asked and pulls the gun out (any excuse to hold that thing, eh Ben?) I think he’s putting together his plan in his mind and is desperate to put himself in control in order to put it into action, so he scares the Slaters off and takes it upon himself to orchestrate the cover up. A lot of people were excited to see Max working with Lacey Turner, Jessie Wallace and James Bye, characters he’s never really interacted with before, and it was a great scene.

The rest of the ep follows Ben as he puts his plan into action, and it’s just brilliant. I think most people could guess he was going to frame Keanu for it, as he’s the one he came to the Arches to confront in the first place, and the one he wants to get out of the way. I think when he found out he was cut out of the will, he was furious and upset, not because he wasn’t getting anything, but because he’d been replaced, once again. Walking into this situation presents a perfect opportunity for Ben to kill several birds with one stone – get rid of Keanu by setting him up, punish his dad by delaying help, and being seen as the one who rescued him. And better still, the Slater clan won’t say anything about him delaying the call for help or pulling the gun on them, because that would drop them (and Stacey) right in it. So it couldn’t really have gone any better for Ben. Anyway, he cleans the wrench and grabs an overall (Keanu’s, presumably) to put it in. Shirley comes knocking, and Ben clearly struggles a little over whether to make himself known or not, before deciding to keep quiet. He’s thinking on his feet but it’s going well so far.

Ben leaves the arches without being seen – another point to him! He closes the door behind him (love the little wince from Max when it makes a noise) and leaves Keanu’s overall outside. Then we get an evil mastermind smile – I love him, I really do. He knows Keanu will be on his way to meet him.

Ben comes back to the Beale house and is annoyed to see Ian and Bobby (his little jump when they came down the stairs though! Love it.) Ian asks him to check on Bobby later and he agrees, because “looking after family is what it’s all about” – said with a smile as Phil is still lying at the bottom of the arches, lol. He fakes that smile until they’re gone. Then he takes out the wrench he’s been hiding and ponders his next move. I had actually thought he’d put it in the overalls, so that’s an interesting move.

Next, he’s out on the square, seen by Shirley, who asks if he’s seen his dad. I think all these instances of people seeing Ben around this time are important for his alibi, and he probably knows that too. The irony of all this is he’s learnt a lot of his cover-up moves from Phil himself, who took it upon himself to help Ben after he killed Heather.

We’re at E20 next, and he’s cleaning the gun to put it back in the safe. He also checks the time – I guess that’s going to come into play later. Mel – yet another witness – sees him in the office, although she is a little suspicious about what he’s doing there. Still, it places him there and not at the Arches, at a time when Phil hasn’t been discovered yet. By someone who’d call an ambulance, that is, lol. Anyway, not only does Mel see him, he tells her he’s heading out of town for a hook-up, again, placing him away from the Arches and from the Square.

In the next scene, we have Ben watching on as Keanu bangs on the door of the Arches, expecting to meet him there. This is the main part of the set up – Keanu is on the phone to Louise, telling her he’s meeting Ben, and not only that, but Kush sees him losing patience with the door. It all seems to be running too smoothly for Ben, so the interesting thing will be finding out where he slips up, as he’s bound to – evil genius he may be, but no one gets away with stuff on EE – or if they do, they get punished for something else.

This next scene was a highlight for me. Ben carefully clearing away the floor, doing a slow survey of the scene, Phil still lying at the bottom of the pit (by the way, his open eyes were freaking me out. We know he’s not dead, at least not yet, but he certainly looked it.) Once satisfied, Ben then gets on the phone to the ambulance and puts on an Oscar-winning performance of a frantic son finding his dad unconscious. It was honestly amazing watching that shift – Ben is as good an actor as Max is! Then there’s a shot of him from above and a strange echo of his intake of breath – interesting direction choice. There were quite a few dramatic zooms of Ben’s reactions as well as the Slaters’.

Phil is taken out on the stretcher, and the detective asks Ben what he saw. Love the pretending to protect Keanu by saying it couldn’t have been him, watching the overalls being discovered, and then saying his name. A fully cold and calculated coverup from Mr Ben Mitchell. And the evil smirk at the end being the duff duff… simply iconic.