Okay, the now-famous car scene has aired. Bear in mind, we latched onto this because it was our only concrete evidence of upcoming Ballum content, so we may have put more stock in it than we would if we hadn’t seen it coming. But as it turns out, this episode was more about Ben’s relationship with Phil and him finally coming clean about everything. Their scene in the kitchen was done in one take according to Max, and was just a masterclass in acting between two legends. We also had more Ballum content to discuss. So here we go…
Screencaps for this episode can be found here.
The episode starts with Phil looking at a photo of young Ben. Charlie Jones era Ben! It was a nice touch of nostalgia. Phil is clearly thinking back to that time when things seemed easier-ish (or he could better control Ben.) Or perhaps he was looking at that sweet face and wondering where it went wrong. Well Phil, let me count the ways…
Anyway, Ben is pottering about in the kitchen preparing breakfast and fussing over Phil, which annoys him (and it would any other day, but now he thinks Ben’s involved in his attack he’s probably got less patience than usual.) Ben picks up the post, and sees a parcel addressed to Louise – turns out it’s her purse. On a completely unrelated note, why does Ben always fasten his polo shirts right up to the top button? Give yourself room to breathe, hun! Unless that’s some kind of symbolism. Hm..
After this scene, Phil goes round to see Kat again and while she’s saying she hit him over the head, she also came clean about Ben’s involvement, that he saw her do it and told them not to call an ambulance but to leave him to it. Obviously that’s not what Phil wanted to hear. So he knows Ben deliberately set Keanu up and that he was willing to risk Phil’s life to do it.
Round at the flat above the undertakers, Whit and Callum are wine-tasting for the wedding. Whitney’s sloshed and Callum’s not actually having a terrible time! I’m such a fan of their friendship and I think Callum is comfortable with Whitney when the dynamic is like this, just mucking about and having a laugh. Stuart comes round with his stag ring binder (that features a fetching pic of Callum on the front) and Callum is worried he hasn’t gotten the message. Stuart insists he’s just going to pass the baton to Mick, but Callum’s still not convinced. Whitney stops Stuart from throwing the binder away and, once he’s gone, tells Callum he’s still his big brother. She seems to be on Stuart’s side now, since he got her the wedding dress. Looks like Callum’s outnumbered, and even though he doesn’t want Stuart involved in the stag, he’s got no choice.
At the funeral parlour, Callum walks in on Ben and Jay discussing Louise’s purse, and when Jay leaves to make a call, Ben doesn’t leave the room, and neither does Callum. Ben makes a jibe, hands on hips, about wedding planning, but instead of huffing like he may have done a few months ago, Callum just puts his pen down and asks him if he’s alright – just as he did a month ago when Ben brushed him off. Ben doesn’t do that this time – in fact his shoulders drop and he actually tells him what’s up, that Louise’s purse was sent to the house from an address in Peckham. The fact that Callum is learning how to tell when something’s the matter with Ben is quite telling – we’re moving in the right direction! Callum tries to be optimistic about the situation, that Louise is with Keanu so must be fine, and Ben shoots him down with a reminder that (at least as far as Callum knows) Keanu hit his dad so isn’t the most trustworthy. Ben, of course, doesn’t want to find Louise because he thinks she’s in danger with Keanu – he wants Keanu back so he can go down for attacking Phil.
After Ben’s remark, Callum is still patient with him and suggests asking around in Peckham – and hell, he’ll come too!
We then get the most interesting of exchanges:
Ben: Thought you had a wedding to plan?
Callum: Whit does the sign-offs. I just say yes to everything.
Ben: I remember.
I will admit I didn’t get the innuendo until I saw it everywhere on Twitter afterwards (I initially thought it was a dig at Whitney bulldozing over Callum like with the police interview, lol), but what really makes it is the looks they share; a fondness. And that little coy look was not what I’d have expected from Callum, but he’s had that reaction to innuendo before – when Ben offered to scrub his back, way back in June before they kissed. So when his guard is down with Ben, he lets himself acknowledge his instinctual reaction to a flirtation, compared to when he’s on edge and freaking out that Ben’s going to say something – the innuendos wound him up and he also maybe saw it as Ben making fun of him. Here, though, it’s a shared inside joke between them that Ben doesn’t deliver with any spite, and Callum doesn’t bristle at. Ben agrees to the idea and less than one minute after sitting down, Callum stands up to follow him out the door. So much for a busy day – I love him but Callum is such a bad employee!
We were cruelly robbed of a Ben and Callum on-location roadtrip scene – we cut to them arriving back on the square after a fruitless search for Louise. Callum, ever the optimist, tells him everything always turns out fine in the end (in the softest voice might I add) – proving that Chris was spot on in his assessment of Callum. And perhaps Callum’s assertion is also a positive sign for their story, Callum perhaps not just referring to Louise. Ben picks up on it too – “you just keep telling yourself that.” Ben’s cynicism and Callum’s optimism make for a perfect balance. Ben turns serious and tells Callum that it means a lot he helped him. And look at Callum’s bashful little smile while Ben’s distracted! A text from Whitney comes through to Ben’s phone (presumably to warn him that she saw Phil buying alcohol in the minute mart) and Callum has a bit of a panic at seeing her name on Ben’s phone. However, Ben is panicking too over what his teetotal dad is planning to do and we cut from that to him arriving back at the Mitchell house.
Ben and Phil get a total of around ten minutes of screentime for their two scenes, and as I mentioned before, Max revealed that it was done in one take. He and Steve did a fab job with the material, which covered a lot of ground, starting with Ben’s fear that Phil is going to take a drink from the bottle of vodka. This really tells you everything you need to know; that Phil is aware this tactic will get Ben to talk, and despite knowing about Ben’s involvement in his attack, he seems to still be confident that Ben loves him enough to stop him drinking again. Which suggests he’s aware of the reason Ben’s been lashing out, that he heard the row in the hospital – and indeed, once Ben admits to everything and reveals his insecurities, he says he suspected as much but wanted to hear it from Ben. Man, the cruelty though.
Phil demands answers and Ben tells him he knows he put Keanu in the will. Seeing Ben is distraught, Phil replies, “is that it?” goddamn.
That’s not it, of course. Promoting Shirley, making him cover Sharon, it all makes him feel unworthy. And the fact that it’s his love for his dad that makes everything come out is just extra sad. He admits to wanting to rinse him of his money, because of how he treated Ben when he came out; leaving him naked on the side of the motorway (a nice bit of continuity there; this was from the Harry Reid era); and not telling him Kathy was still alive. Phil is still not getting it; here Ben is literally telling him how he’s made him feel and Phil is putting it down to jealousy. “Haven’t we been through this loads of times?” Maybe, Phil, but you never actually changed. He mentions the trophy as if that was proof he cares about Ben – but if you recall, that was to keep Ben sweet, to prepare him for the bombshell that he wasn’t being put in the will. He says it’s all just Ben’s own insecurities – but Phil, you gave him those!!
Ben concedes, perhaps remembering what Jay said about breaking the cycle. He says he wants to put everything right. And Phil’s reaction? To freak Ben out by taking the drink. From the glass and then from the bottle. He actually enjoys Ben’s reaction, and again when he tells him it’s just water. He seemed amused by most of Ben’s outburst – and then he tells him to get out, exiling him from the Mitchells. Ben doesn’t argue.
I had hoped when they had this conversation that Phil would at least acknowledge how he made Ben feel, or admit he could have done better. Even just tell Ben he loves him, because that’s really all Ben wants to hear. He did none of that, though. And it’s disappointing, but of course, they can’t tie up their relationship in a bow instantly when there’s so much scope. This leaves it open for revisiting, as it (realistically) has been all these years.
We have a short little scene with Callum, Stuart and Mick at the Vic, with Callum bringing round Stuart’s abandoned stag folder and saying there are some good ideas in it, having been guilt-tripped into making Stuart feel better. Handy, as Mick and Stuart are now partners in stag planning. That’s bound to go well!
I absolutely loved the shot of Ben standing outside between the Mitchell house and the Slater house. He looks ready to kill as he walks over to the Slater front door. And I can’t lie, I was a little scared for Kat when she opened the door! But Ben was calm and calculated, letting Kat know he has the wrench with Phil’s blood and Stacey’s fingerprints on it, as a warning.
So that’s what we have going into Thursday. I’m hoping for a heart to heart between Ben and Callum this week, as they both need someone to talk to – Ben about Phil, and Callum about Chris. I fear next week with the stag and then the wedding the week after, this week is really their last chance to bond before it all kicks off. And it’s going to kick off big time.
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