Guys… it’s here. Wedding week!!
Mon 10th May – Pete Lawson
It’s the day of the wedding and Callum still isn’t sure whether Ben will turn up. Kathy also fears that Ben could leave Callum waiting at the altar, so she encourages Phil to speak to him. Phil does so, but Ben still fails to get ready. Later, Phil storms into The Vic and informs the wedding guests that Ben is missing. The news is shared with Callum, Stuart and Vi, who are already at the registry office. Stuart rushes off to find Ben and get Callum’s wedding day back on track. When Phil finds Ben at The Arches, he seeks answers over what Callum has done. Ben keeps it to himself, but Stuart soon slips up by accidentally telling Phil that Callum went undercover to bring him down. Phil is furious.
Tues 11th May – Pete Lawson
Whitney takes matters into her own hands.
Thurs 13th May – Daran Little
Stuart is not pleased when Vi reveals that she intends on staying in Walford.
Fri 14th May – Daran Little
Gray sees red as his plan unravels.
As you can see, we’ve got quite a bit of detail about Monday, the day of the wedding, but after that? Very very little. Callum gets ready as planned and heads to the registry office; Ben mopes about in his dressing gown. With the spoiler of Kathy talking to Phil, and the picture of them in the Mitchell kitchen, I reckon Ben’s sitting on the stairs listening in on whatever they’re saying about him. He goes missing later, and everyone runs about trying to find him. The guests are gathered in the Vic – maybe waiting to head to the registry office en masse? – and Phil informs them that Ben’s gone missing. Not sure if this means they’re all out looking for him or it means they hold off on making their way to the registry office, helping those who are there out on the social distancing front. The news gets to Stuart, and he rushes off too, looking to find Ben while Callum waits nervously. Nice little parallel to when he was warning Ben off attending Whitney and Callum’s wedding; this time he’s off to drag him there.
Phil finds Ben at the Arches (his place of work, who knew?) and he’s working on a motorbike, trying to distract himself from the fact that he’s meant to be at his wedding. And like we saw in Friday’s ep, it’s healthy distraction; he hasn’t hit the bottle, he’s being productive instead – even wearing the overalls, completely immersed in the job. Phil tries to talk to him again, wondering what Callum’s done to make Ben so adamant that he’s not turning up to the wedding. And, showing his loyalty to Callum again, he keeps quiet. Like I said before – he’s already made the choice.
We don’t know where Ben goes after this, or if he is aware of what happens next – but Stuart turns up and lets slip the truth the Phil. Eep.
All this drama goes down as Callum waits at the registry office, with Vi possibly niggling in his ear. I’d love him to tell her to shut up – or maybe she’ll talk to him more about his granddad; I’ll take either scenario. From the pics we can see Callum putting on his boutonniere, like a symbol of his faith that Ben’s going to show up and he can put the other one onto his lapel. We’ve also got Stuart and Rainie’s celebrant there, which I love – the same guy who talked about being emotionally if not legally married back in September. But hopefully it’ll be legally too if Ben turns up. And that’s the big question that they want us to have – will Ben turn up? They’ve all turned to look at someone there in that last pic anyway…
What happens after Phil finds out about Callum is kept totally under wraps, aside from a little bit in the trailer that aired on Monday of Phil stamping on a framed photo of Callum in his uniform. He’s taking it really well then. I reckon Ben’s already on his way to the registry office when Phil finds out, and then Phil makes his way there and interrupts them – cue big showdown.
We also know from a spoiler posted on Friday night that Whitney finds out the wedding isn’t going to plan after Kathy charges in looking for Ben – meaning this must happen on Monday. And it’s a piece of information Whitney finds joy in. However, on Tuesday she ends up ‘taking matters into her own hands’. Is this because her joy is short lived and she finds out that Ben and Callum are happy again? What if the Phil stuff is sorted pre-wedding, and Whitney tries to cause real damage afterwards? Would be a big dollop of irony after Whitney and others have accused the Mitchells of being cold and unforgiving and ruthless.
Thursday sees Stuart learning his nan plans on sticking around and isn’t too pleased about it. A spoiler pic shows them still in their wedding gear, in the Mitchell house – strange place to be hanging out if Phil’s gone nuclear, isn’t it? Hmm.
And finally, on Friday, there’s a Gray spoiler that could be related to whatever plan Whitney’s got on Tuesday. As far as I’m aware, his plan is to keep Whitney close as he pretends to gather evidence on Ben and Phil for Kush’s death, and trying to stop anyone else finding out about this plan, especially the Mitchells as that would raise some questions. So I wonder what aspect of his plan has gone wrong? Has Whitney been taken away from him in some way, away from his influence? Or have the Mitchells found out he’s trying to frame them? I’m intrigued.
And look, for Wedding Week we got some lovely promo pics! It tickles me that Ben is in his overalls. And I so hope he gets married in them too, with the flowers pinned to the lapel. With Callum, Jay, Stuart and Phil all wearing the same thing, one can only assume Ben’s supposed to be in the same suit too. Which, you know, is fine, but it’s not particularly memorable. After Ben’s protests about wearing a matching suit, it looks like he got his way after all; he isn’t wearing one. And after the teasing about wearing something to remind everyone he’s way out of Callum’s league (which Callum didn’t hear anyway), he’s truly jinxed it. But it feels symbolic, Ben saying his vows in the simplest of outfits, a vulnerability to it almost. And of course, Callum’s just going to be glad he showed up. If he shows up, that is. Have to go along with the ‘will he won’t he’ shtick…
As for Callum’s outfit, there’s heaps of meaning in there. How utterly adorable is the rainbow around the boutonniere for starters? Callum fully embracing his sexuality, and it’s beautiful. And there’s so much to say about it in comparison with his 2019 wedding outfit, the light grey and pink. He suits the darker colours so much better, and visually it looks like that 2019 outfit with the contrast turned up. He picked this outfit, whereas he probably didn’t have much of a choice back in 2019, or much of an opinion anyway. The light grey and pink was like a washed out version of what he’s wearing now. A lot lighter, suggesting sort of purity, but not him. Symbolism, my favourite thing!! He’s in darker clothes, but it suits him and it’s who he really is.
And not only that, but the darker tie and waistcoat happen to be maroon, Ben’s favourite colour to wear. For the wedding to Whitney, Ben was in maroon all over – and, as we know, ended up lying on Callum’s lap in the Vic, bleeding onto that grey and pink suit. And now there’s Callum with bits of that maroon, about to marry Ben. Ben’s changed him, but not in the negative way Ben thinks. Because Callum looks great! But I wonder if it means something else as well – when Ben wore maroon, he stuck out like a sore thumb, and I wondered if the maroon was some kind of symbolism that he’d be the one to get shot – and lo, he was. And now Callum’s wearing bits of maroon, and Whitney was all stabby stab last month… I just wonder how dramatic this week is going to end up being.
In other news, we had a bit more Max and Tony content this week regarding the wedding and the fallout from Phil finding out the truth, which you can read here. They promise twists and turns, and hint that there will be a confrontation between Callum and Phil, which would be brilliant and overdue, I think! We’ve got Awesome Lawson writing the wedding, we can’t go wrong surely.
Tony’s up for an award!! He’s on the longlist of nominees for Best Soap Actor at the TV Choice Awards. You’ve got til Friday 21st May to vote, after which we’ll find out if he made the shortlist. I think he’s got every chance, so throw him a vote like Max suggests!
The weekend newspaper mags brought forth some more content – including Tony’s TV picks from the Daily Mail Weekend mag, and another interview in The Sun’s TV Mag that included Max and Tony talking about the original Ballum story, the difficulty in filming with Covid restrictions… and the revelation that they bubbled for the wedding to do some scenes without social distancing! Which is lovely news, that they decided to do that for the story. EE have done a great job with filming techniques, and my enjoyment of the wedding wasn’t dependent on Max and Tony getting to touch, but there’s no doubt it will be amazing to see it after so long without that tactility. And I’m sure filming close contact was lovely for them too, even if it was just for a couple of scenes.
In honour of Wedding Week, I thought it would be a cool idea to open up a fundraiser to coincide with the occasion – Ballum’s wedding present if you will. The charity is called Just Like Us, an LGBT+ youth charity that empowers young people to spread the word about LGBT+ equality and inclusion. You can find the JustGiving page with more info here – donate if you are so inclined!
And finally, I opened up Photopea and made a few wedding themed lockscreens. And I couldn’t resist putting a boutonniere onto Ben’s lapel as well. I hope you all enjoy wedding week!!!
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