2nd September, pull the right strings

Well, I expected a tiny bit of Ben this week – but what we got was actually a bit more substantial in terms of content and resolved a bit of story that had been hanging for quite a long time. 

Screencaps for this episode can be found here.

So on Thursday, Phil returns from his trip to see Louise, and can’t believe his eyes when he looks up at the Arches and sees that Mitchell’s Autos is now Mitchell and Panesar Autos. With a website now and everything! Ben must have made peace with Kheerat not being a silent partner – it certainly seems like there’s no backing out now.
Phil, of course, is not happy and is straight on the phone to Ben (or rather, Ben’s voicemail), demanding he come round to the house right now.

Cut to Ben at Mitchell Manor, walking into the front room (Phil following behind) as he points out that he went to Phil for help, but he wasn’t interested. What was he supposed to do? Phil’s still incredulous at the idea that he sold away half of the Arches, a business he gave to Ben because he thought he could be trusted with it. As we’ve said before though, he hasn’t got a leg to stand on – he took away all investments in the Arches, including the dodgy business that was most likely the thing keeping it afloat, and then didn’t fancy sticking around to help Ben when he asked, so – as Ben points out – he didn’t leave Ben with many options. Ben dealt with it the only way he could. He tried to keep it a family business by asking his parents to invest, but the only person coming to him with a solution was Kheerat. But I love that Ben points this out so calmly to Phil, that Phil told him to deal with it so he dealt with it. It’s a bit like when he made the Stas deal with Kheerat and Phil wasn’t happy – but Ben just said he could sit back and watch. He’s not rising to meet his dad’s expectations like he once did, and it’s nice to see. I definitely think there’s a strength and an independence there that wasn’t before.
They’re interrupted by Shirley storming in, as Phil warns Ben that this isn’t over. When Ben tries to make his excuses, thinking this argument between Phil and Shirley doesn’t involve him, Phil insists he’s not going anywhere and it’s Shirley that’s going. He wants to be in control, and continue raging at Ben instead of having Shirley raging at him.
However, Shirley’s not having it and it comes out then – she demands he go down to the station and tell them that he’s the one who bashed Ian’s head in, not Tina (bless her, she still thinks Tina is on the run because she’s the prime suspect for the attack.) Which is news to Ben, who can’t believe what he’s hearing as Phil scoffs that that’s never going to happen. Shirley leaves quite quickly after that, and Phil turns back to Ben, who’s still trying to process what he’s just heard, wondering in vain/desperation if it’s some kind of joke.

Unfortunately it’s not a joke; and Ben tries to figure it out in his head – that his dad knew how much trouble Ben was in for leaving Ian for dead, including being hauled in by the police after Ian remembered him standing over him – and did nothing to help him. Phil tries to reason that they had nothing on him anyway (and he’d know because he’s the one that did it) but Ben points out, with some anger, that it’s never stopped them throwing the book at a Mitchell. And there’s also the fact that they could have had something on him, had Suki turned in the CCTV footage of him leaving the Vic – something Ben ended up having to sort himself. So, understandably, Ben’s a little angry that Phil was behind the attack in the first place, causing all this grief for him while there wasn’t so much as a sniff in Phil’s direction.
Phil insists that he knew what he was doing when Ben accuses him of protecting himself, but Ben isn’t convinced, scoffing in response.
Phil tells him that Ian killed Dennis and he had to pay, and that leads to an outburst from Ben, telling Phil that no, Dennis died because Phil caused the boat crash. It’s the first we’ve seen someone mention to Ben what Ian did – it’s basically been public knowledge since Max announced it in front of the whole pub back in February, so I think he already knew; we just never got to see his reaction to it. And we don’t get much of it here either, as he deflects away from Ian to point out that Phil is the reason Dennis is dead. He might not want Phil to go to prison for it – saving him when Phil handed himself in last year – but I think his point is that Ian doesn’t deserve to die for Dennis’ death any more than Phil.
One must assume that Phil told Ben about Sharon’s involvement and the fact it was her idea during the break in scenes, because Ben points out that he risked going back inside for Sharon despite what she’s done to him and them as a family (no, he’s still not over it.) But Phil brings it back to Dennis, how Sharon brought him into their lives – I guess he’s saying that he thought he was avenging Dennis’ death (because that’s how Sharon sold it to him). And I think that’s how Ben is interpreting it as well – as he points out that Sharon wanted Ian dead, and knew how to pull the right strings to bring Phil onboard. And he’s not wrong.

Denny’s death is a complicated one, for sure. Not just how it happened but everything that’s happened since. Debates over whose fault it was, and who deserves to be punished for it. Ian locked Dennis in the boat and let Sharon think he was a hero; Phil caused the crash and handed himself in to try and offset his guilt. I think once he found out about what Ian did though, he projected his own guilt onto Ian and was happy to carry out a hit on him. And I feel like that’s how Ben is maybe seeing it as well – that Ian’s been turned into a scapegoat to make Phil and Sharon feel like they’re getting justice.

Anyway, Friday’s episode ended with Phil getting arrested for Ian’s assault after Sharon went to the police station to clear Tina’s name, with the fallout of that yet to be revealed – although (going into the week ahead now!) we know that Phil is out of custody in time to get a smack around the head of his own, from a baseball bat wielding Shirley. There’s no Ben or Callum mentions at all for the week ahead, but since Phil’s arrest was embargoed, I’d guess some of that aftermath is embargoed as well, and maybe Ben is involved in that somewhere. We can hope!

Not much in the way of other news either this week, so here’s the HQ version of the EastEnders promo that features Ben, posted by the EastEnders social media accounts!