Well this is it, the week that will end in
the death of Lucy Beale.
It had been officially announced in
February that EastEnders will take a dark turn as Lucy Beale, daughter of Ian
Beale, would be killed off. Which will lead to a 10-month murder mystery that
will be revealed in 30th Anniversary episode.
The question is - Why? Lucy is a great character – why does
she need to die? Why not kill Peter?
EastEnders is well known for it’s murders,
the very first episode opened with a death … remember Reg Cox? If not then you
sure remember the murder of Archie Mitchell and the big revelation that it was
Stacey Slater who killed him in the 25th Anniversary episode.
It makes sense now to do a big whodunit for
the 30th Anniversary. Considering Ian Beale is the longest serving
character on the show and by killing off one his children, especially not long
after his mental breakdown arc, it brings the murder plot closer to home and
bound to make the soap even more dramatic than was it ever before.
Lucy is a complex character, her whole life
has been portrayed on-screen since birth and it has been unusual – Her mother
tried to kill Ian; Ian married Mel under the false pretense that Lucy had
cancer; 3 stepmothers. Over the past decade we’ve seen Lucy show signs of
teenage rebellion – shoplifting, drinking alcohol, dressing inappropriately,
which leads to her attempting to have underage sex with an older boy. Things go
from bad to worse – advertising a large house party on the internet; running
away; abortion. A lot of Lucy’s problems stem from her relationship to her
father – he’s often treated Peter as a favourite and treats her like 2nd
fiddle to most other things – none of that is more obvious than when he chose
Mandy over her before his breakdown.
For a complex character with a lot of
baggage it seems to strange have her die. I personally am not a big fan of
Peter and killing him off seems more like a better option. However that’s the
thing about is – I wouldn’t care. I’d be interested in who’d kill him but I
wouldn’t think he’d be a big loss to the show because I don’t think he’s that
interesting- most of you may disagree with me. But I feel Lucy’s death will
give us not only a stronger sense of big loss but also a more fascinating
opportunity to study her character, that I don’t think would be achieved if
Peter dies.
One of the things I noticed about the
Archie Mitchell murder plot, is that we know a lot of things about him but then
at the 11th hour before his death we find out something else (he
raped Stacey), which led to more revelations about his character after his
death (he had a son and he raped Ronnie as a child). It got me thinking about
murder mystery stories in general, the most interesting ones are the one where
we get a bit of a character study about the victim even though they don’t
physically take part in the story.
That is what we shall get with this story,
we’ll get a twist and turn over Lucy this week but after she dies we will get
to learn more about her. As Ian and other characters will be questioning about the
circumstances of Lucy’s death and what she was up to. It has been mentioned Ian
will question how well he knew his daughter, I’m sure we’ll follow him in
solving the mystery of his Lucy’s character. That’s why I don’t think Peter
dying would work, I can’t imagine a character study on him that will be nearly
as elaborate or engaging as a character study on Lucy.
Then there adds to the tragedy when we get
Ian learn about his daughter for better or worse, it doesn’t change the fact
that she’s dead. It’s not like when she ran away and he could make amends with
her, he can’t go back and reconcile whatever he finds out. Whatever the status
of their father and daughter relationship is before her death will stay with
her death.
Now the big question – Who kills Lucy?
I’m willing to bet it will be Peter. Don’t
me wrong I don’t think he’s evil or sick, I just think it will be a great twist
and make the story even darker. I reckon it will be an accident, he probably
won’t even know she’s dead until after her body is found. He’s already
responsible for an accidental death while he was in Devon. It will make an
excellent arc for his character and make much him more interesting and he’d
carry on the complexities of his twin sister with him. However I’m not the best
at murder mysteries – on the Archie Mitchell I was suspecting every character
(I was even at one thought it was Danielle from beyond the grave) except
Stacey.
Her exit storyline seems to be centered
around her setting up an estate agent business with best friend Lauren
Branning, while have an affair with Lauren’s father Max. There’s also an
upcoming love triangle between Lucy and Whitney Dean over Lee Carter. All of
this just seems like red herrings to me, I’d be amazed if I’m wrong I just can’t
imagine any of these characters being involved in her death. Well except Lauren,
after all she almost killed Max running him over but I think she’s too
predictable. I really hope the revelation is grounded in the Beale family, it
will keep it more dark and personal.
