Well I’m not sure what I expected from Friday’s episode but it wasn’t that! Start of a new era stuff, that was.
Screencaps for this episode can be found here.
It’s a new day, and Phil’s still at the hospital with Kat, as Ben and Callum sit in the waiting room. Ben comments to Callum that he’s been sat there all night – I’m assuming they realised he hadn’t come back to the house overnight and so they decided to go down in the morning to check on him and Kat; or at least Ben decided to. Callum is a little on edge considering the fact Phil was threatening to kill him the night before, even if he does think he was starting to come round. Sounds like Phil hasn’t seen them there if Callum’s anticipating a negative reaction.
Ben grumbles that they’re not on their honeymoon – which sounds to me like that was the plan for the morning. Callum suggests they go and never come back, and you get the feeling he’s only half joking. Ben gets that feeling too and tells him to relax, it’s fine – not least because Phil’s distracted with Kat at the moment to think about Callum.
Callum says again how he thinks Phil did stop himself from launching at Callum before the car hit – but even though he’s rationalising that Phil won’t be that angry when he sees him next, Ben can still tell he’s nervous and interrupts to tell him that it’s fine, to trust him. And I don’t think it’s about trusting him that Phil won’t be angry, but rather to trust him that it doesn’t matter how he reacts – they’re married now, and they’re a team. He smiles and raises his eyebrows at Callum to make him smile, and smile he does, grateful for Ben’s reassurance.
I don’t imagine they stayed for long after that, and were gone by the time Phil stepped out for a coffee. There wasn’t any mention of what was happening before the car hit from Phil or Kat when they were speaking to each other – it was all a bit of small talk, both of them shrugging off the fact that Phil stayed there all night, and Kat sends him off for breakfast so she can contemplate calling Whitney.
I’m not sure she did thought, because when Whitney turns up she pretends she only heard what happened, and is relieved to see Kat awake, telling her she’s been so worried. Kat lets her know pretty soon though that she knows Whitney was the one who was driving the car, and, unable to deny it, Whitney tries to explain that she just saw red hearing Phil and Ben arguing, and they were the target. Well, Ben was. She admits that she hated the thought of him being happy while she’s anything but. Kat can’t speak for Ben but apparently she can for Phil – she tells Whitney they’ve been seeing each other for months, and Phil wouldn’t have done anything to Kush because he knew that Kat was still fond of him and wouldn’t want to hurt her like that. Kat acknowledges her own role in Kush’s death, that she’s the one who insisted he go out on the job in the first place – but tells Whitney again after she asks that Phil had nothing to do with it – and to drop it. It looks like Whitney will rule Phil out because of that – but Ben could be a different story. Callum’s defence of Ben obviously wasn’t convincing enough for her, so I just wonder if her accepting Phil wasn’t involved means she’ll rule out Ben too. Guess it remains to be seen, but she has been finding it easier to use Ben as a scapegoat for everything that’s happened to her. Though if Callum finds out she tried to run his husband over… that could make for some interesting scenes.
Back at the Mitchell house, Callum waits as though he’s on death row, anticipating Phil’s return. He hears the door open and freezes as Phil comes in from the back, not looking too happy. He asks Callum if he’s got a deathwish, taken aback by the audacity of him still being in the house after everything that’s happened. Callum fiddles with his wedding ring as he tries to act normal, asking how Kat is, but Phil’s not interested in him trying to distract him and tells him it’s none of his business how Kat is (as if it’s Phil’s business to know either.)
Ben has heard his dad’s return and joins them from… wherever in the house he was. I’m going to guess the loo. Callum stands up as he does this so the pair of them are side by side facing Phil. Phil tells Ben he doesn’t want Callum there, shouting at Callum when he tries to placate him. Ben then calls his dad’s name in warning, and manages to shut him up. After a beat he tells Phil that Callum’s his husband now and that things have changed. He doesn’t say exactly what has changed but you can take a good guess – that he isn’t just going to roll over for Phil at the expense of his husband (especially as he loves calling Callum his husband so much.) Even when Phil tries to shrug it off, asking Ben if he thinks Callum putting a ring on his finger changes things – Ben says yes, he thinks it does. And it’s interesting to note that that’s the part of the ring exchange that we saw onscreen; Callum putting the ring on Ben’s finger rather than the other way round. I like to think they showed that on purpose so that they could reference it in this scene. It’s given Ben an amazing sense of security and surety within himself, and you can see it so clearly in this scene.
Phil replies with sarcasm about choosing your family, obviously bitter that Ben seems to have done just that. There’s a bit of progress as Phil admits that he’s not going to hurt Callum, or punish him – he just doesn’t want to look at him. Something’s gotten through to him then, but he’s still angry and it doesn’t appear to have clicked with him that Callum really did do it for Ben, to keep him out of prison (which is a goal that Phil himself shared back in September).
Ben simply sighs as Phil makes it clear that he doesn’t want Callum in the house, and he isn’t welcome now, or ever. And there’s no hesitation from Ben as he tells Phil that this whole thing is stupid, and what does he even say to that? I think he’s taken aback that Phil would think he’d be okay with kicking Callum out and not expect him to go too. So he makes sure Phil knows that he will go if he chucks Callum out. There’s a silence after that, like a stand off between Ben and Phil as Callum awkwardly stands to the side. I’m sure he knows Ben’s going to stand by him, but still doesn’t want it to be like this; he knows Ben would rather have both.
Ben thinks Phil doesn’t believe him, that he’s bluffing. Phil replies that he thinks Ben has crossed a line. And he’s expecting that to have an affect on Ben – for Ben to backtrack and appease him as he’s done so many times in the past. When Ben crosses a line, Phil expects him to fall back along it – just as Jack said. He knows about Phil’s influence on Ben; in fact, everyone does. But Ben’s got the confidence and independence now to tell his dad calmly: ‘fair enough’ and lead Callum out of the room so they can pack. Yep – Ballum are off!
EE have been building to that moment for a while – notably when Ben was content to go ahead with the Panesar deal with Stas even though Phil counted himself out. That was a decision Ben made that wasn’t about pleasing his dad, and I think that paved the way for Ben to start building independence away from Phil. He’s got business now that he doesn’t have to work with Phil on, and he and Callum can get by without him. Ben could take over the Arches too, since he owns it. We’ll have to see how that whole thing will work. But Ben’s maturity and calmness in this scene was striking; he didn’t beg for Phil to change his mind, or rage at him – he just… left. He believes Phil can be better but he’s not going to force it. Phil will have to try on his own.
So the question is, where will Ben and Callum go? Duncan confirmed they’re on honeymoon now – which is funny to me, as Phil paid for that. Ben clearly didn’t want to bring attention to that as he declared they were off to pack. Not that Phil can do much anyway – he’s paid for it already, and assuming it’s just the flight they missed that morning, the hotel is still there for them, and even if Phil wanted to cancel, there’s no point as he won’t get his money back. Maybe he could still cancel out of spite but who knows, maybe Phil won’t realise they’ve gone out there til it’s too late and they’ve checked in. Or Ben just uses some of his gold bar money to re-book. Then there’s the question of where they’re going to go once they return. Squeeze into Kathy’s til they find somewhere? Whatever happens, Ballum will make it work – they’re husbands now.
We have absolutely nothing next week spoiler or picture wise as we’re in for a dry spell, so I’m chucking in some pits and pieces here instead!
Firstly, it seems so long ago now but Max and Tony were featured on Good Morning Britain on Monday where we saw them sat together at the registry office and it caused all sorts of feels. We had a clip on telly, then another slight different clip posted on Twitter afterwards. And the standard bad lad pose with Richard Arnold on Instagram. The EE social media team really brought it to us with lots of wedding promo, but my favourites were the wedding invite, and then this absolutely gorgeous offering from the BBC iPlayer’s instagram account, a 5 minute video of Ballum’s journey. So lovely. And after the wedding, Max even marked the occasion on his insta too. ❤
Some new articles came out too post-wedding, about Max and Tony filming in a bubble (Metro, Digital Spy) and a little bit from Shona who talked about what a big Ballum fan she is (mood.)
And finally, the fundraiser I mentioned in the last Week Ahead has been doing alright. Over £3,000 raised for Just Like Us!! I’ve been completely overwhelmed and blown away by the response. Digital Spy, Metro and even Max drew attention to it and I’m incredibly grateful as that went a long way to bringing in those donations. At the time of writing we’re £250 away from £3,500, and it would be amazing if we could hit that. Thanks to all of you who have made a donation – it’s such a good cause.
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