Eastenders [News, Spoilers and Discussion - from Jan 2018]

I have mixed views on the episode.

On one hand, it was excellent acting, great casting of the mother and father.

However, I have several issues:

• I was left with question marks over if Eddie killed the man because he was black. It seemed to be building up for that to be the case, but it ended with the reason being the mother asked him to do it to prevent George being taken away. If George's father was white, then the same thing would have happened. Therefore, he wasn't murdered because he was black and racism had no part to play.
• The whole storyline was building up to Eddie being racist, attitudes towards Gina, no black people at the party etc. However, this ends up being a sidestory. Eddie is a racist, but it's not proven that he was hostile to George as a baby because he was black. He said he did it to make the wife happy, but again, him being unhappy with George could have been because he was adopted and not his own flesh and blood. Not everyone is for adoption.
• The two girls scene had many problems. First of all, Molly Rainfords acting was atrocious. Secondly, I know they were going for the whole "people are still racist today" angle but the examples Gina gave showed more that Gina had a victim complex, rather than suffering from racism. What did she say, something like, "people feel they can touch my body". I don't know how this relates to racism. Most women and many men will have been victims of unwanted physical contact, be they black or white. "I bet you're wild in bed" - again, nothing racist in that. "I don't usually go for girls like you" - nothing racist about that either. Some men might have a type like tall and blonde. They might say that to someone who's short and red haired. Doesn't mean it's racist. I think these writers and society forget that you can be different but equal with someone. Go to any Irish school and be different, be it body shape, wearing glasses, hair colour and they'll stand out. Someone with a mohican is going to stand out and attract attention. Gina also has some cheek to be lecturing others on morality seeing as she got into bed with her step mothers daughters (step sister?) rapist.
• Final issue I had is the timeline. I think I saw in the article that the man got killed in 1984. George remembered being there and was training in a gym so you have to think he was at least 11 or 12. However, the reason the mother wanted the man killed is because she said fostering was supposed to be temporary and was afraid she'd lose George. BUT George was 11 or 12 at that time so seems it would have been quite a long 'temporary' foster arrangement as they had him since he was a baby.