Hello and welcome to the week ahead, and it’s a weird one this week because it’s our first binge week!
Tues 15th June Part 1 – Lauren Klee
No Ballum spoilers
Tues 15th June Part 2 – Lauren Klee
No Ballum spoilers
Wed 16th June Part 1 – Madeleine Clifford
Ash has refused to give Callum any information on how Fitzy is doing. However, when she sees that Callum’s family are going through a lot, she tells him that Fitzy is stable but swears Callum to secrecy. Callum promises Whitney that he’ll tell Ben everything, once he has spoken to Fitzy.
Wed 16th June Part 2 – Sophie Woolley
Ben is confused to spot Callum getting into a taxi with Whitney. The two of them are visiting Fitzy together, but Ben gets completely the wrong idea over what’s going on. He’s also surprised to see that Phil is moving on with his life.
Callum confides in Whitney about how he’s plagued by the stabbing and can’t face going home. Whitney realises that Callum is struggling with his PTSD.
I’ve laid the spoilers out as they’ll air on BBC One – but to be honest, most of us will have seen the entire week by the time we get to the first episode on Tuesday. All four eps are going up on iPlayer at 6am on Monday morning, for us to watch whenever we want while the TV schedule is moved around for the football. Although seeing the entire week at once has its plus points, it interferes a bit with that community feel of watching the episodes together at the same time and following live commentary. And then there is the spoiler issue – if you wait til it airs on TV you haven’t a hope of avoiding spoilers online before then!
But anyway – I’ll be sticking to the TV schedule in terms of the blog posts, so nothing will go up discussing the eps before the TV broadcast of that ep, just in case anyone is waiting!
Anyway, there aren’t any spoilers in the first two eps, written by Lauren Klee – but she’s a good Ballum writer so it would be nice if they popped up anyway! In our third ep of the week, aka Wednesday Part 1, Callum’s asking Ash for an update on Fitzy. He seemed to know how Fitzy was doing in Thursday’s ep when Whitney asked how he was, so it’s a little unclear why he’s now apparently in the dark – unless he’s pressing Ash for details. Because naturally Ash is the only doctor in Walford General, so of course she’s treating Fitzy. Due to what I assume is patient confidentiality and all that, she refuses to give him any info, but changes her mind when she sees Callum’s family going through it. And by that, I assume it’s referring to the fact that Max has ran off somewhere with baby Abi leaving Rainie and Stuart distraught. She takes pity on him and reveals that Fitzy is stable, swearing Callum to secrecy.
Whitney manages to overhear the conversation though and presumably approaches Callum about it, who tells her he’ll tell Ben everything once he sees Fitzy for himself. Unclear if that’s Whitney asking Callum to make that promise or Callum wanting to show he and Ben do have honesty, but guess we’ll see.
Callum’s plan to tell Ben goes a bit wrong as before he has the chance to, Ben spots him getting into a cab with Whitney to visit Fitzy. It’s one thing Callum not mentioning that he’s meeting up with Whitney, but meeting up with her to go somewhere away from the Square has Ben wondering what the heck is going on. I can see how it wouldn’t make sense to Ben why Callum’s hiding it, especially as Callum’s probably said that he’s at work. And if Ben’s found out about that engagement ring as well…
A lot of outlets have suggested that Ben thinks Callum’s cheating on him with Whitney (I know, completely bonkers, not to mention a bit insulting considering the history), but I’m hoping for more nuance than that. Because, you know, Callum’s gay, and whatever insecurities Ben has (and he has a lot), that’s one thing I imagine he’d know for sure after everything. But without knowing what’s going on with Callum, he has nothing else to go on. He doesn’t know that they’re meeting up for another reason – to him, the secret literally is just that he’s meeting up with Whitney. And why would Callum be lying about that? I think it’ll be a case of Ben knowing it makes no sense, but also wondering what else it can literally be apart from either cheating, or Callum regressing to the closet because being married to Ben is so awful. It probably doesn’t help that Ben also spots Phil and Kat excited over their new joint business venture (the launderette) and sees that he’s moving on – and specifically moving on without giving Ben a second thought. Which might have been fine without this layer of feeling distant from Callum, the man he moved out of Mitchell Manor for.
Meanwhile, Callum does some more confiding in Whitney, including the fact that he keeps reliving the stabbing and how much it’s affecting him, which leads Whitney to realise she’s struggling with ‘his’ PTSD. I note the ‘his’ because this is obviously being portrayed as not his first experience with it. We’ve seen signs, but it’s never been explicitly said until now. The first time, when he was seen to be struggling in the wake of his shrapnel injury, he had nightmares and omitted parts of the story to hide the guilt he felt over what happened to his comrade and the mother of the kids he saved. And he was with Whitney during this period, so she might be using this to inform her opinion that this is what Callum is suffering from. And, depending on how they’re playing this, it might give her a sense of purpose – or dare I say it, sense of ownership – over Callum’s experience because it’s something she’s been in the know about while Ben hasn’t. I’m just not sure I can write off Whitney’s feelings about Ben and how that might influence her judgement in how she helps Callum, however genuinely she wants to help him. But we’ll see.
In other news, Max has started a GoFundMe for his friend Luke, who took his own life, in order to raise funds for his funeral – and any left over to the mental health charity Mind. Donate if you can!
EE have also announced on social media that Boot The Bell is returning to mark the Euros. They held this tournament between some of the cast on Twitter in 2019, if you remember, and Tony and Max came joint top of the leaderboard with 3 kicks. If you don’t remember, or want to see it again, you can watch Max’s here and Tony’s here!
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