EE: Max spoiler

Skylace · Admin Joined: 29 Apr 2006 Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Fun looking preview.

SpursFan1902 · Pitch Queen Joined: 24 May 2007 Location: Sunshine State

I think that I have to go with Bradley as well. His life has just been hell lately and every bad thing that has happened to him can be traced directly back to Max. A conference in Stockholm?? I think not...

faceless · admin Joined: 25 Apr 2006

Looks bad for Bradley in the great Max 'oodunnit
By Jim Shelley 10/11/2008

In EastEnders, DI Keeble has spent the week trying to work out who tried to kill Max Branning. At first, the case didn't seem that difficult. "Abbey saw everything," gushed Mrs Masood. "She knows who the killer is" - an exciting development which ignored the minor detail that he wasn't dead.

The obvious candidate was Bradley. Every time anyone mentions Max, Bradley goes red. Admittedly, Bradley goes red any time anyone mentions anything. But, as they like to say in cop shows, he's got motive. His dad had a long, distinctly unappetising affair with Bradley's wife Stacey. (Thanks Dad!) Max (Jimmy Somerville) also ruined Bradley's chances of reconciliation by writing out ostentatiously large cheques to Bradley and Callum. One day, who knows, we may even find out what he does for a living.

Even though Max is meant to be an all-round dodgy geezer/ swine, all of DI Keeble's suspects were Max's relatives. By coincidence, none of the Branning family had an alibi, which meant that they were all in the frame - even his teenage daughter Lauren (who can't even drive). Jack, his bruvver, is sleeping with Max's wife and trying to make his kids live in France.

(Which of these hurt Max most is debatable.) Tanya wants rid of Max and revenge for Stacey. "Yeah but I wouldn't try and kill him!" she protested to DI Keeble. Bury him alive in the woods, yes. But not kill him. Any further down the family tree and DI Keeble will be fingering Jim (as it were). Or accusing the bay-bay. And what about Dot, whose resemblance to Count Dracula I always find faintly sinister?

Still, Bradley is the prime suspect - possibly on the grounds that he has watched a lot of Bond films. "I need to know if Bradley's the sort who would try and kill his father," DI Keeble asked. Er, no, not really. She could always try looking at him.

Logically, it would be Jack - if it weren't for the fact that Jack had just beaten up Max, cuffed and kidnapped him and driven him to a warehouse and threatened him at gunpoint. Then, as soon as Max got back to Walford, Max got run over. How unlucky can you get? Still, Max's travails were a welcome diversion from the other relationships in the series.

EastEnders is obsessed with variations on the theme of incest: Max and his daughter-in-law Stacey, Jack and his sister-in-law Tanya, Tony and his girlfriend's adoptive "daughter" Whitney, Archie Mitchell and Peggy, er, Mitchell. Bianca and her gormless, feckless jug-eared jailbird paedophile Tony, Phil and Whispering Susie Branning (who don't care less about each other), Roxy and Sean Slater (ditto) are just as unsavoury.

Realistic, decent couples - like Denise and Kevin, the Truemans or the Masoods - are doomed to mundanity or failure. Jane and Ian are fairly convincing, although Ian once confessed to Auntie Pauline that he only married Jane to spite Phil. He had planned on humiliating Jane by jilting her at the altar only to be jilted there himself. (And they say romance is dead.) While Ian has long been a running joke, Jane has now become a stand-up comedian. Truly comical.

No wonder Bradley told Count Dot-ula: "I hate this place Grandma. I've had enough." Personally I think it was Phil who ran Max down. Admittedly, he hasn't got a motive for wanting to kill him. And he is actually as close to a friend as Max has got. But, hey, that doesn't mean it's not Phil. Let's face it, it usually is.

Skylace · Admin Joined: 29 Apr 2006 Location: Pittsburgh, PA

I think Aja may be right about Lauren. She obviously knows something that happened or did it. I don't think that Tanya did it. I think Tanya is saying that to protect Lauren. If it wasn't Lauren maybe it was Peter?

eefanincan · Admin Joined: 29 Apr 2006 Location: Canada

SpursFan1902 · Pitch Queen Joined: 24 May 2007 Location: Sunshine State

I really love the character of Dot, but I also love "Count Dot-ula"! I don't think Tanya did it either. I think she is covering for whom ever did it. Lauren, Peter and Bradley are all really good candidates...I usually don't try to figure it out ahead of time, I like to watch things unfold.