The week ahead (week 13)

Well guys, it’s hard to believe but this is most likely the last time I’ll ever do a Week Ahead post! It’s Ben’s exit week and there’s no hiding the hastiness of it all.

Monday is Callum’s birthday and they’ve set up a situation where Ben needs encouragement to make a fuss of him. I actually don’t mind that too much if it’s more along the lines of Ben not thinking Callum wants a fuss made of his birthday and bases it off that. Ben’s also made no secret of the fact that he thinks he’s no good at that sort of sincere gesture, emotional stuntedness he gets from Phil; which is why it’s hilarious that Phil’s one of the people trying to encourage him to make the effort. And Jay, who’s never made a fuss of anyone or anything in his life. Would love to know what sort of fuss Ben got for his own birthday which was on Thursday…
At least we get some sweetness of Callum being touched by the surprise party before the police turn up out of the blue and arrest Ben for something – what exactly is not clear.

There’s a lot of things we don’t know about this week. Ben’s apparently being done for ‘a previous crime which has resurfaced.’ He’s brought to the station in front of everyone, and they’re all confused. What exactly is Ben supposed to have done? It looks like he’s protesting his innocence to them all.

He continues to do that down at the station. The tabloids suggested it was a crime he’d done in America while trying to help Lola, meaning he’d be sent back there to do his time – which seems extra cruel and a worst of both worlds situation where he’s locked up and can’t see his family. My assumption if this is the case is that he did something in haste to get the money for the cancer trial, for Lola. He was so single minded during that period that there just wouldn’t have been time or headspace for anything else. He was unwell, basically. And if he’d done anything out there he may well have not even considered it a possibility that he’d get in trouble for it once he’d left the country and come back home.
I’m not totally sure if this America thing is true though, so maybe it’s something else – a previous crime could mean anything, even predating Max!Ben’s time on the Square.

It’s chaos back at the flat apparently, with arguing breaking out and no one really sure what to do as this has come as a shock for everyone. It’s been 18 months since Ben’s done anything resembling a crime. I’m guessing Richie’s update for Phil isn’t good; and Ben later makes a request to Phil, and that’s another mystery. Whatever he’s asked Phil to do is, I assume, what makes Kathy suspicious in Wednesday’s episode. Is Phil able to do anything to get Ben out of this? Or is it something Ben’s asked with the assumption that he’s not getting out of this?

A visit from Lexi on Wednesday goes badly and she leaves on bad terms. Which is suspicious to me as that’s not a proper goodbye. I suppose at this point the show won’t care but I can’t help but wonder if that’s not their last scene together. Or maybe that’s just incredible wishful thinking on my part because the idea of Jay becoming her primary parent completely unearned, after the show killed off her mum and is now getting rid of Ben after having him feel pressured into sharing parental duties in the first place, is a really depressing thought. You all know my thoughts anyway on Jay being seen as above Callum in the hierarchy even though they are both married to one of Lexi’s parents, and Ben is alive while Lola is not.

Then we have Callum refusing to see Ben, which is the thing that makes the least sense to me out of all of it, even though I just know that it’s purely to set up a ‘will he see/help Ben before it’s too late’ situation. But we all know Callum and we know he just wouldn’t put anything before seeing if Ben was okay, especially after the last few years. He knows how much prison terrifies Ben and how fragile Ben is, so for me it seems very uncharacteristic for Callum to let anger overtake those instincts.
On the plus side (and we have to take those where we can), it gives us a Phallum scene, and once more Phil is giving advice, truly being the Ballum mediator this week. Phil tells him to give Ben another chance; and I’m assuming Phil is giving this advice as the only one who knows a) how much trouble Ben is in and b) what the plan is to help him per Ben’s request. Is his insistence that Callum doesn’t give up on him a clue? Kathy confronts him over his behaviour and I assume at this point we’ll hear what’s going on. I can’t really think what the plan could be – has Phil set up somewhere for Ben to go on the run? Are they relying on Callum to use his job to his advantage or is that something Callum’s come up with on his own?

How exactly Callum uses his job to his advantage will presumably be revealed on Thursday. Callum has always said that Ben comes before the job and it’s not even a question. I wonder if whatever he does means he loses both – he breaks Ben out but Ben has to go into hiding, and he also loses the job. My other thought was he’s left it too late to visit Ben and so has to use his job to see him before he’s sent back to America (that is, if that’s what the ending is.) I can’t think of many other uses Callum’s job as a detective would have. It’s obviously not enough to get Ben out of being charged because Ben would then not be leaving. I guess we’ll see (or some of us will – can’t blame anyone for not being able to watch this week!)

Prison seems like such a cruel exit for Ben after everything so I’m holding onto a little bit of hope that he can at least have his freedom even if he can’t have his family. But regardless, our most powerful tool (after our fundraising power) is our imagination, so however Ben leaves, I’m determined to make it fit in my mind – and that Callum and Lexi can soon be with him again.

And speak of our fundraising power – I’m asking for a little of that once more in order to give Max a little send off from us as fans. I’ve set up a Justgiving page for Brain Tumour Research Campaign, a charity that we know is close to Max’s heart, and a Kudoboard (which works as a virtual message board) for us to send our wellwishes to Max and to thank him for everything. He deserves so much more than this, but I hope we can at least show him that he and Ben are so loved and appreciated.

The Justgiving page will be open indefinitely and we’re aiming for £1k, the link is here: https://www.justgiving.com/page/thankyoumax

And the kudoboard we’ll leave open for a few more weeks after Max’s last episode, up until around the 12th April. Leave a positive message for him here: https://www.kudoboard.com/boards/SpWXfEWB

We’ll finish with a little bit of separate Max and Tony news from the last few weeks:

First, Max did a lovely reading of Hussain Manawer’s poem about grief last month, just in case you missed it. And for Women In Sports, he starred in a satirical video aimed at tackling gender stereotyping – you can watch that here.

As for Tony, he did a 10k a few weeks ago and apparently was on set the next day, seen in a few behind the scenes pictures with Perry aka Billy. And still wearing the wedding ring at least…

Look after yourselves this week everyone!