The week ahead (week 4)

This is it guys – it’s Proposal Week!!

There seems to be a fair bit going on on Monday, as Callum is asked to pick Lexi up from school as she’s unwell (again!) However, it turns out that he can’t do that because he’s not on the approved list of people who can take her. I guess we’ll have to assume he’s never had to do it on his own before – as we know for a fact he’s taken her to school, with Ben. It’s easy enough to put him on the approved list though; or so Ben thinks, as he asks Lola to do it. She refuses though, as Callum’s not family. Um, what?
I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who felt that sounded out of character for Lola to suddenly not see Callum as family – they live together in the Mitchell house and Lexi’s shown on multiple occasions that she sees him as part of the family. But on the other hand, she’s only recently split with Jay, and has discovered he’s got something with Honey. So perhaps her attitude is coming from a more cynical place than it normally would, a ‘nothing is permanent’ sort of thing.
Another idea is that maybe she’s saying it to egg Ben on, if she knows he’s been thinking about proposing like Jay does. Seems a bit mean to make Callum feel like an outsider just for that reason, but who knows. Hopefully during their argument Lola expresses why it’s such an issue for her.
Whether Ben comes to understand Lola’s point of view or not, he sees it as a good opportunity to make good on his vow to Jay, and decides to propose as perfunctorily as he possibly can, suggesting to Callum that they pop down to the registry office to do it as quickly as possible so he’s officially family and meet Lola’s criteria. We already have a preview for this scene, released earlier today, but it doesn’t tell us much we don’t already know – that Callum is severely unimpressed at the idea that they just pop down to the registry office, sign the paperwork and make things ‘official’ because it makes sense. Callum’s waiting for something a bit more romantic, or even a hint that Ben sees it as more than a business transaction, but it doesn’t come, and so he flounces off. And Ben’s visibly confused because he thought his plan was foolproof – he gets to propose and marry Callum without ever having to express that he actually wants to because he loves him so much. I’m not sure he’s realised that he’s done it because of the fear of being vulnerable, or that Callum might want a bit more romance and actually hear a declaration of love when Ben proposed. I don’t think Ben has much of a problem with that, but maybe voicing the fact that he wants to spend the rest of his life with Callum, or putting it out there as a question where he might get rejected, is really scary. He might think a casual suggestion solves his own problems, but Callum is a romantic and he wants a fairytale proposal, I’m sure of it. He wants to feel like Ben wants to marry him, not that he has to.
Looks like even Lola is horrified by Ben’s ‘proposal’, as he tells her what happened and she gives him some advice – which I’m assuming is along the lines of what I’ve just said – that he has to make Callum feel loved and wanted when he’s proposing.

• 

• 

• 

There’s no mention of them on Tuesday – and I guess Ben’s taking a few days out to come up with a new plan. Maybe getting a ring ordered, sorting out logistics, etc?

On Thursday we see these plans getting underway, with the help of Lexi and Lola; and apparently Billy, Honey and Jay as well, as their story overlaps slightly. There’s not much else to go on though – the actual proposal is very much embargoed – and I do hope it stays that way, because I think keeping it as a surprise would be a lovely treat for us! So place your bets now on where it’s going to take place and how exactly Ben is going to do it. Public or private? Candles or fairy lights? On one knee or not?
We do know though that Callum’s having doubts in the same episode, over his ‘recent betrayal of the Mitchells’. It’s a very vague spoiler though – firstly, what are the doubts actually about? Marrying Ben, even though he’s already turned down the suggestion and is presumably unaware Ben is planning a real proposal? Maybe doubts that he’s still seen as family because of what he did? It doesn’t really help that we still don’t know if the half-truth Callum told is important. Sometimes it feels important that Jack wasn’t involved from the start and Callum had actually been trying to find dirt on Phil at first; and sometimes it doesn’t because he never found anything on Phil anyway and Ben already seems to know he went through it on his own (even though he was supposed to think Jack was involved). I just don’t know if guilt is a factor in this or not, really.
Secondly; presumably he’s expressing these doubts to someone, so who could that be? Someone like Stuart, who knows everything (or Jack, god forbid), or someone more impartial like Frankie or maybe even Whitney (see below)? It’s hard to tell without knowing how these doubts manifest, but hopefully it doesn’t intrude massively on Ben’s grand gesture, which must really be grand if he’s roped in so many people to help. Could it be Ben he expresses his doubts to, after he pops the question, in a sort of ‘what about my betrayal’ type way? Then Ben can point out that he did that for him, and is the whole reason he started thinking about marriage in the first place – because he saw just how far Callum was willing to go for him. That would be a nice way of coming full circle and hopefully putting that story to rest.

We have no spoilers for Friday, although Shona’s given an interview where she talks about Whitney giving Callum her blessing – which I would assume is happening on Friday, after he’s said yes on Thursday and word has gotten out – but it’s been suggested maybe they have a chat on Thursday where he maybe tells her about the perfunctory first proposal. Callum and Whit work so well as friends, it will be nice to see them in a scene together either way!

Whether that happens on Thursday or Friday, all signs for me point to a yes from Callum with hopefully minimal angst, for a change. There’s been whispers of a possible close contact proposal, as they had one for Ian and Sharon on Friday, but I’ll not get my hopes up for that. I’m sure the storyliners maybe hoped the proposal would be non-socially distanced if they’ve planned it for a while, but nobody is certain of anything, including when things can go back to normal. And because of that, holding things off indefinitely is probably a lot more difficult than it sounds.

I find it quite cool though that Proposal Week comes just after the year anniversary of Ben and Callum’s reunion in the markets. It means they’ve now officially been together for a solid year, which I reckon is quite the achievement for a soap couple. Maybe Ben’s been thinking about it himself! I wrote about it at the time here, if you fancy some nostalgia. Here’s to a great week!