Oh yes, I suppose that's a possibility that Ben might have seen Johnny in a gay club but Johnny didn't notice Ben. Hopefully we'll get a conversation between them at some point which should immediately clear up whether they know each other or not. Maybe we'll even get one tonight?

My head has already exploded with possible storyline ideas for these two. Why do I think they may take them down a Romeo & Juliet path? (Just hopefully without the dying at the end!)

And yay for Leo writing the 30th September episode. Hopefully we'll get some nice Johnny scenes.

Note what I'm about to say I don't want to say and I am saying it begrudgingly.

There seem to be parallels in terms of Sharon's relationship with Ben and Sharon's relationship with Johnny. Like Sharon's scenes with Ben last night paralleled her scenes with Johnny when Johnny was trying to get his job back after breaking in for Lauren's birthday party. I kinda fear if we get more Sharon/Johnny scenes that Sharon might intentionally or unintentionally play cupid *if* Johnny/Ben get together. And thats a BIG if.

Already they are trying to put Johnny and Ben in the same boat, even though they are nothing alike.

I can definitely see the writers take them down a Romeo & Juliet path- and no dying/killing. Just an adventure with them with lots of angst (i'm a sucker for good angst), romantic settings etc. Mick has already said he should stay clear of Ben

Tptb is fools for only limit Ben to the Mitchell family/Abi/Jay, he should be developed alot more without them, and I can see having a friend/romantic interest in Johnny is just what Ben needs. What Johnny needs imo, is to be able to see Bens point of view and not judge a person for what others say about him, but to make his own opinion on him. Wether they'd be good or bad. In short, I want lots of scenes with them, lol.

I can definitely see Sharon encouraging a relationship between Ben and Johnny if her and Phil stay together, and even if they don't stay together I could imagine that both Ben and Johnny will still be quite close to her so she'll probably encourage it anyway. I bet my bottom dollar that Ben will start working in The Albert at some point (not that Johnny seems to work there anymore... or maybe that's just because no recent storylines have required him to be there.)

It may also cause tension between Linda and Sharon, who are very on/off as best friends; I could see Linda not approving of the relationship and Sharon reminding Linda that she had originally encouraged Sharon to forgive Ben. Linda is meant to be a fairly hypocritical character so I can see this winding Sharon up.

If Sharon does support them, I think she'll be the only one close to the boys who do. I think pretty much Johnny's whole family would be horrified by the thought of Johnny falling for Ben, especially Shirley for obvious reasons. And Phil would obviously hate it because he hates everything. Maybe Roxy and Ronnie wouldn't care too much, in fact I could see Roxy thinking it was really sweet. But I have a feeling Sharon will be their main supporter.

Fantastic post, _elly001! I agree, though some speculate that it'll be Mick who's against them *if* they do hook up, and not Linda, but I guess we'll see
I'm loving Sharon with both Johnny & Ben, and I absolute miss seeing her & Johnny have scenes together. Hopefully we'll see The Albert much more soon with Johnny behind the bar with Sharon

LMAO! That was my theory like a page back:

Weirdly enough a lot of my fantasies about meeting befriending and potentially going into an intimate relationship with Johnny have involved us both working behind a bar. Maybe that was a foresight.

I can see it now; Sharon behind the bar wearing a black frock, Johnny comes in for his shift in his cute trousers, tight white shirt and suspenders (and possibly one of his black jackets he wears) and Sharon introduces Ben (dressed in shirt and tie) as a new bar staff member.

I can see Linda either taking the Johnny/Ben *potential* coupling well or being indecisive, partly because of how the other family members would react. Also maybe her ordeal with being raped by Dean might affect her judgement should Johnny and Ben happen.

If Johnny and Ben do happen, I'd imagine Sharon would be one of the first to find out.

An added dynamic that would amplify this is if Shirley shoots Sharon or visa versa next Thursday/Friday.

Maybe I'll have to......accept the inevitable.

Usually we see Mick and Linda having completely different approaches to Johnny's love life so maybe they'll be united in this and both try to stop it from happening? It would further strengthen the whole R&J theme. I do really want to see Mick putting his foot down and getting ultra protective of Johnny, there's some potential for some brilliant angst here (and I'm also a massive fan of angst, like you. )

Also, I gather that Linda doesn't tell her family about the rape right away, so I think we'll see a lot of tension within the family over the upcoming weeks where they're not sure why she is acting that way. With Johnny being so close to Linda (did anybody notice that little exchange between him and Nancy the other day during the fire episode where he was wanting to get back to The Vic to help her with the hen party and Nancy told him she could look after herself?) I think he'll be particularly affected by Linda maybe being very withdrawn and cold, and he may be vulnerable as a result which would possibly allow the Ben thing to develop.

And yeah, it would be really nice to see some more Sharon/Johnny scenes. They work so well together, it's such a shame we haven't had any interaction from them since the hospital.


Ha, it's a great theory. I could actually imagine the two of them running away at some point if things got bad enough. We already know from Gianluca that Johnny tends to get swept up in the moment, like how he wanted to move to Italy with him; luckily Luca was too sensible to let that happen, but Ben is much more on edge and may not want to stick around in Walford. So I could imagine the two of them hopelessly falling for each other, their families being at war, and the two of them deciding to leave (not permanently, but maybe long enough to stop their families fighting.)

There are a lot of possibilities with this relationship, should it happen. I just hope it's written well.

Yes, I'd imagine that due to what Linda goes through, she'll either not really take any notice of her children for a while as she's so distraught about what's happened, or she'll go into ultra protective mode with them. We all know that she sees Johnny as the most vulnerable of her children, and there are similarities between Dean and Ben in that they've both been in jail and they've both arguably got mental health problems. So I could see Linda worrying about what Ben might do to Johnny, and being desperate for it not to happen.

The gun thing may definitely confuse things further if it's a Mitchell shooting a Carter or vice versa.

And yes, I think we're just going to have to all get on board with this as I imagine it's going to be the main topic of discussion on here for a while.

Agreed about the Linda thing. She might see Ben as equivalent to Dean and coupled with how the family would react she might not be so keen on the Ben/Johnny possibility. This especially would be the case if Linda was to find out before the other Carters.

Whoever shoots who tbh will make the circumstance for the potential of this storyline more complicated.

And Ben......if you're planning to get with my Johnny.....you better treat him like the beautiful sweet prince that he is.

Yup, Ben better treat Johnny right. Although I can imagine him being horrible to Johnny over the next few weeks to disguise the fact that he fancies him. That whole thing Harry said in the interview about him not trusting someone enough to be in a relationship could be true in the sense that he's interested in Johnny but doesn't actually want to be in a relationship with him. I'm sure he won't be all that nice to him initially.

I can see a real slow burning story here for Ben and Jonny. It is all too perfect - Ben is a Mitchell, Johnny is a Carter and this leads me to think Sharon and Phil will get married, and Shirley will be left in the cold hating the Mitchells once more. This will of course make any Ben/ Johnny relationship incredibly difficult!

This is what im thinking will happen....Shirley will find sharons gun. Go around to Phils and pull it out on Ben to get revenge for hev. Phil is there and is shocked. This makes him push Shirley away more (Especially if Ben is the one who gets shot). And then Phil goes through with his marriage to sharon to get back at Shirley. This obviously causes a rift between the carters and mitchells to some extent. It is all to perfect if you ask me.

I could definitely see this happening. I don't think Phil and Shirley are destined for a happily ever after, not just yet, and really any situation now where they don't get together, for whatever reason, is going to leave Shirley extremely bitter and resentful of Phil, and the Mitchells in general.

And if Shirley was to shoot Ben, I would imagine that even the Carters would find it difficult to defend her, so that could be another factor that would push Ben and Johnny closer together.

Hahahaha! Whatever way you look at it Ben and Johnny are written in the stars!

Also i wouldnt be suprised if Sharon changes her tune about Phil too about taking his money etc.

Hopefully both wearing nothing but the nice tight black boxer shorts that Ben favours Or miss out the last ten words of that sentence.

Lots of cute Johnny scenes tonight! And he looked rather cute too.

I don't know whether I prefer DJ Johnny or Vicar Johnny. Heck I'll have both, I love him

Johnny pretending to be the vicar was too cute.

Also it was really nice that Sharon mentioned to Phil that if Johnny hadn't been there on the night that she was attacked, it could have been a lot worse for her.

I'm so enjoying all this wedding drama!

exactly what I thought as well. Loved her mentioning Johnny

Yes! Hopefully someone somewhere does a vicar Johnny gif from tonight. I just wanted to be there to kiss his cute face after that whilst Nancy and Tina were kissing that balloon.

Also is it bad that I expected Nancy and Tina to jump from Phil's sudden presence and pop the balloon from the kissing?

Yes glad there has been some form of recognition from Johnny's involvement in the Albert events back in June. For Johnny it seemed and still to a degree seems forgotten. Maybe with more Sharon/Johnny scenes that might be cleared up somewhat.

Its been good! Hopefully more cute Johnny scenes next week surrounding the wedding.

I'm sure we'll get some, even if it's just Ben checking him out at the reception party.

You watch i wouldnt be suprised if DTC give us another shock and it is Ben and Johnny hooking up at the reception! haha

Replying to this mega late, sorry!

Thanks for explaining to me about the pink shirt, I was wondering what it was about! Look forward to seeing Johnny in his pink shirt, whenever these scenes air!

I agree, Peter would be a lot more interesting if he decided he fancied Johnny. I would give that relationship a massive thumbs up! Though now it's looking like it might be Ben and Johnny who pair off (I saw that look they gave one another, definitely some mutual attraction going on there!) I'm not a massive fan of that pairing tbh.

And yes, Johnny was gorgeous in that suit at Nancy's wedding. Seems like so long ago now (was it around New Year's!) Hopefully we will get to see him all dressed up at Sharon and Phil's wedding next week Hope he remembers to wear a tie! *swoons* Oh my, he is extremely kissable (if that's a word)!

And yes, Johnny was hilarious as the "Vicar" tonight (Tina and Nancy were a scream too pretending to kiss - LOVED the angry-faced balloon! And the angry-faced Phil when he came in!) Ah, I fall in love with him a little more and more each day (Johnny that is, not Phil).

I didn't see mutual attraction tbh - Johnny looked uncomfortable and unnerved. Ben just sees what we all see - the gorgeous cutie that is Johnny. In reality he'd have no chance. And I'm not a fan either, but I'm growing to begrudgingly accept them potentially getting together - if Johnny ends up liking Ben that is. If they do get together I hope its a true love story and not with violence or anything criminal, just two people who want to be together despite the circumstances with their families. At the end of the day the only way I'd accept this relationship is if Ben treated Johnny like a prince and as if every day with Johnny was his last.

Sam/Johnny in a suit........

Don't worry, kissable is a word! In my book anyways. Johnny definitely was kissable tonight when he was being the vicar. He's so cute.

Looks like the first episode w/c 6th October is a Carter only episode. Should be good but also haunting considering what the doof doof is going to be that episode.