Summary[]
Ben and Phil make final plans for the job. But when Ben produces a gun, Phil decides his son is off the gang. Angry, he storms off into a confrontation with Jay and Lola, where he learns the truth about the abortion.
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Ben wakes up late and is asked to take Lexi to school, delaying his meeting with Phil. Whilst walking Lexi through the Square, Ben notices Lola talking to Peter and gets suspicious. He starts walking over to them but is almost hit by a car as he steps out into the road, oblivious to his surroundings. After dropping his daughter off at school, Ben meets Phil and is taken to Number 55 to evaluate the floor plan of the warehouse. Ben frustrates Phil with his inability to hear properly, and when he then pulls a gun from his coat pocket with the intention of taking it to the heist, Phil decides he cannot be involved in the job at all. Devastated by the turn of events, Ben rampages and decides to turn his attention to Peter, but he cannot find him as he is at an auction. Jay then catches up with Ben and demands to know what he has been saying to Lola, as she was crying earlier after talking to him. Ben appears disinterested so Jay tells him that Lola cares about him more than anyone else and aborted his baby so that she could focus on him. Ben is speechless at Jay's confession and hunts Lola down, taking her into the Arches and extracting truths from her. Lola admits she had a one-night stand with Peter and aborted Jay's baby, citing him as the reason. Ben rages at Lola for her stupidity and then proceed to the Prince Albert to drink whisky. Afterwards, he walks back into the Square where he spots Phil and Danny getting into a car. Deciding he cannot stay out of the heist, Ben changes the number plates on a car in the Arches and drives to warehouse himself. Upon entering the warehouse, he warily makes his way through with the gun clenched in his hand. He identifies a blood splatter on the wall and prepares the gun for firing, but whilst his back is turned, one of Danny's heavies sneak up on him and lead him into the main room where Phil, Danny, the other heavies and an unconscious body are. Phil insists Ben invited himself along but will not say anything, but Danny does not want to take any risks. He torments Ben before firing a gun next to his good ear, agonising Ben and deafening him completely. Ben begs for his life but Danny refuses to listen, so Ben jumps him before beating off the other heavies with Phil and making a run for it. Phil spots the van with the money in it as he and Ben make their way through the warehouse and, determined not to leave empty-handed, knocks the worker with the money unconscious before taking the van. Danny and his heavies trace Phil and as he and Ben drive off, they fire shots at the van. The pair manage to escape and lose the police at the same time. Phil is thrilled with the outcome of the heist while Ben struggles to hold back the tears as he is unable to hear a thing. |
Credits[]
Main cast[]
- Ben Mitchell - Max Bowden
- Phil Mitchell - Steve McFadden
- Lola Pearce - Danielle Harold
- Jay Brown - Jamie Borthwick
- Callum 'Halfway' Highway - Tony Clay
- Kathy Beale - Gillian Taylforth
- Ian Beale - Adam Woodyatt
- Peter Beale - Dayle Hudson
- Shirley Carter - Linda Henry
- Jean Slater - Gillian Wright
- Denise Fox - Diane Parish
- Billy Mitchell - Perry Fenwick
- Lexi Pearce - Isabella Brown
- Janet Mitchell - Grace
- Will Mitchell - Freddie Phillips
Recurring cast[]
Guest cast[]
Locations[]
- Albert Square
- Bridge Street Market
- Kathy's Café
- Turpin Road
- Fox & Hair
- The Prince Albert
- 53A Turpin Road - Living room/kitchen and bedroom
- Turpin Way
- Mitchell's Autos
- 55 Victoria Road - Living/dining room
- Unknown warehouse
- Unknown roads
Notes[]
- This episode would've originally been broadcast on Thursday 23rd April, but due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and postponing of filming, episodic output was reduced to twice weekly to allow pre-recorded episodes to be broadcast on BBC One over a longer period of time.
- This episode aired at the slightly later time of 8:10pm to make way for a special episode of Panorama beforehand. The episode was also transmitted with the intention of being 25-minutes in length, as opposed to the usual 30-minutes.
- In a break from EastEnders traditional format, this episode focused entirely on Ben Mitchell and the struggles the character faces as a result of his deafness. To highlight deafness, the episode used muffled sound effects and subtitles on-screen to allow viewers to understand what each character was saying, whilst appreciating the difficulty deaf people face daily when engaging in conversations. Furthermore, the show hired Charlie Swinbourne, a deaf writer, to help with the construction of scripts and the episode itself.
- Julian Spencer is the credited stunt co-ordinator for this episode.
- Aidan Brindle, Renars Latkovskis, Nathan Whatton and Martin Pemberton are the credited stunt performers for this episode.
- Viewing Figures: First UK broadcast - 4,681,870 viewers (chart placing unknown).