I'm so glad I'm not on Twitter.

I meant he hasn't raped anyone else. True, he did try to set fire to the pub and held Nancy captive but he didn't go through with it and it's pretty rubbish writing imo. They should have had him disappear after the showdown with Mick and then arrive back with Buster.

Obviously nothing can justify Dean raping Linda but the fact that he is capable of caring about certain people does differentiate him from Finn and Frank Foster who imo didn't care about anyone. It's easier to hate those types.

Besides, hating or not hating a fictional character is purely subjective. why do we get people who hate a certain character criticising those who don't hate that character. why not just agree to differ. All we can really agree on is that Dean committed a horrific crime which he should have been punished for.

You can't disagree with common sense. Common sense dictates that reporting an attack straight away makes the chance of prosecution and conviction higher due to more evidence. That most emphatically does not mean that the person who was attacked was to blame for the attack.

Mick is in the wrong. He is making the bad situation worse and made it all about him. It's disgusting and not what Linda needs.
Linda can even see Shirley's side in this and even said they would do the same if it was one of their own kids but mock again is being selfish and being all me,
Me, me.

Dean was int the wrong but clearly wasn't in the right mind state at the time.
He needs his mental health looking at but regardless his intiality act was wrong.

What Dean did to Linda was completely wrong and he should be punished for it. That being said, I agree that Dean has mental health issues that should be addressed and sorted but I don't think these mental health problems should be used to excuse or justify his actions as nothing can excuse or justify what he did.

I agree that Mick's continual anger and resentment isn't helping anyone though.

I wouldn't go as far to say that Mick is in the wrong, but his constant angry fits are making everything even worse for Linda.

Linda said she was comfortable with Dean and Shirley being present at Stan's funeral. Mick should've respected his partner's decision and let them be present, but instead went off on one YET again, which caused Linda even more unneeded stress.

Despite this, I still dislike Dean A LOT more than I dislike Mick, for obvious reasons

I would imagine that this is stupid little girls who fancy Matt and have an awful lot of growing up to do.

At least I would hope so! The thought that they might not be silly little girls fills me with horror


I agree. The only way could have got off with this was if they didn't actually tell us if Linda had been raped or not and it was she said/he said.

Personally when he showed his bruises to Shirley I felt nothing. I didn't care. But then again I'm a middle aged woman who isn't swayed by his pretty face or 'feel sorry for me' facial expressions. But it's also because I keep first and foremost in my mind that he bent Linda over that table and took her even though she was saying no as if she was nothing then played mind games with her the next day as if it was consensual.


Exactly. I honestly don't know why this is so difficult to comprehend. Even if someone loves the character now they're going to have to face that many viewers are NEVER going to forget what he did. That he assaulted and violated someone in the worst way you can without actually killing them. He's a rapist, as simple as that. Doesn't matter if he loves his granddad and has other 'good' qualities, the bad thing he's done by far outweighs them.


I never quite get what you mean when you say this. Are you talking about previous stereotypical soap portrayals of 'bad guys'? That they're generally nasty all the time so we know it and don't forget that they're the bad things they've done but in this case it's different?

Because in the real world loving family men have been exposed as rapists, even serial ones and their families had no idea. Hell, even Hitler loved his dog! People are complex beings and it's quite possible to love your granddad and go off it if anyone did anything to him yet still commit rape, violating and brutalising a person and barely give it a second thought. Some people are strange.

Exactly my point. He barred Shirley and Dean from their own father/grandfathers funeral in spite. His selfish me me me act is disgusting and getting to the point where j want Dean tl kill him and go to prison for that.

Linda/Shirley/Tina don't need this stress on top of their grief.

hopefully the key message of this storyline should be that rape needs to be reported asap. But it also must be very hard if there is no concrete evidence, so it is just the victim's versus rapists word, and unfortunately there are instances in real life where the "victim" makes accusations up so often more evidence is required than mere accusation

Says it all. Excuses come out for favourite characters while others are labelled disgusting. This is an example of how the people defending Dean are viewing the story.

I do hope the show knows what they're doing with this plot. It's turned rape into an almost accident that can be understood and reasoned.

BIB: I agree, and would call Mick's recent actions to be more misguided than anything. His behavior comes from a place of concern for Linda rather than a concern for himself, so I guess I don't see this as selfish behavior on his part. In fact, I think this is staying pretty true to Mick's character as he often defends Linda or speaks for her without first listening to what she has to say. That said, Mick is going in circles at this point and we really don't need to see him go off on Dean or Shirley again unless something new happens.

I agree. The only way a victim can be blamed is them being blamed for not reporting it asap. Therefore leading to no prosecution

Dean never was a favorite but I still liked him and if you watch the episode how can it be said he was in the right mind? He is clearly unstable when it comes to being abandoned by his mum.

exactly this, with poor mental state being held accountable for rape but Mick's mental state (which must be that of disappointment, anger, failure and so much more) completely disregarded.

This is exactly the point I was making, one that a lot of Matt's adoring fans seem utterly incapable of understanding. I think Jake Wood is a fantastic actor, I loved him on Strictly. Right now I can see Max on a slippery slope to being an utterly odious character. But I am capable of separating the two. And had Max raped Kat this week, I wouldn't be feeling sympathy for him because "he was sad as Emma got killed which shows he isn't a bad person as he has emotions", which is the sort of nonsense you get from the Dean apologists.

I think Matt is a very limited actor but he seems very articulate when interviewed and has gone into this fully expecting his character to be hated. It's a fantastic opportunity for an actor to take what has been a bland pretty boy and turn him into something sinister and repellant. Personally I think a lot of the problem with the Dean storyline is that Matt isn't a good actor, but that's a subjective view. Others may well feel it's down to the writing. But whatever is "to blame", nobody should be liking and feeling sympathy for the character.

It's absolutely disgusting. Classic victim blaming. In no way did Linda ever 'lead him on'. She was just nice to him as a member of her extended family that she felt sorry for due to his relationship with his mother. Even if she had 'lead him on' re flirting (which she didn't but hypothetically) she still had a right to say no and have that respected when he made a move on her.

Sadly, i think it is because he is young, attractive and does sad eyes well. These silly little girls (I'm assuming they are mostly young) want him to stay in the show.

I just pray to God they never find themselves in a similar situation to Linda where they have 'lead an attractive man on' who thinks he has a right to take whatever he wants regardless of their feelings.

not this again. Caring for his Granddad does not make his crime any less repugnant than any of those you have mentioned. I am sure Frank Foster loved his Mum and Dad too, just like I am sure Jack the Ripper loved someone.

so true. Pity they're not portraying Shirley as being at least a bit aware of the consequences her actions have had on Dean

Perhaps he knows his wife and knows that she was just saying that to keep the peace (which is very Linda and probably why she didn't speak up about the rape for so long) so he didn't want her to have to be in the same room/vicinity as her rapist? Let's not forget he didn't ban Shirley, just Dean but Shirley decided to take a stand and not attend altogether. Perhaps he's also pissed off with his family that they've pretty much called Linda a liar, even old Stan, so he has the right to be bloody angry even if it's a pain to watch?

And let's not forget his own guilty conscience which is probably making him even more protective of Linda. He actually asked Linda to look after Dean while (as per) he was chasing after Shirley. He's also got them into a right pickle now financially by being guilt tripped by Shirley and then guilt tripping his wife into giving Shirley a part of the business etc so I don't think we can discount Mick's own guilt at leaving Linda vulnerable both psychically and even in their business which will be accounting for a lot of his behaviour.

Hitler had a mother he probably loved that died. Perhaps we should absolve him of all his sins too?

In the case of Twitter I admit people have taken things too far by denying Dean did wrong and blaming Linda which is not on, but Twitter is not a very good invention anyway imo.

A monster like Hitler who was bigoted and committed mass murder cannot really be compared to a fictional rapist. I know making Dean a rapist was supposed to try and show that all rapists are not necessarily ugly and it's not always "a stranger in an alleyway at night" scenario but I still think if they wanted him to be hated, they should have written him as a stereotypical bad villain like Fin O Connor, Will Savage etc who are easy to hate. By having him genuinely love Stan, Denise etc and showing moments when he is genuinely nice, they have shown there is more to the character than just being a rapist - that he is not a monster and that he could responds to psychiatric treatment/rehabilitation and show guilt and remorse once he has acknowledged to himself what he did.

While what Dean did to Linda was horrific, him being beaten up in prison doesn't make it any better. What right do the other prisoners have to judge him when they may be inside or equally violent crimes. Violence cannot be fought with violence. Things just get out of control then - that's partly why Dean had such a massive personality change after his first stint in prison and that was for a non violent crime. I can still be sorry that he was attacked in prison without condoning what he did to Linda. I can still be sorry that he lost his granddad whom he was close to without excusing his crime (which he should have been punished for. I'm not Christian but I do agree that an eye for an eye makes the world go blind.

In Dean's case luckily he only did what he did once and his misogynistic views may have been shaped by his prison experience the first time and his numerous rejections from women - obviously his misogynstic views are not right but I do understand why he may feel resentment towards women -I it's completely different from someone like Finn who was homophobic just because he could be and went on to beat up blessing, try and attack Nancy etc. I'm sorry but I can't hate Dean. I accept that he has mental health problems that need sorting and that he is capable of love - he should have been punished for the crime and rehabilitated but the way he is acted and written just doesn't evoke the same kind of anger I would have for someone like Finn O Connor or Frank Foster.

Excuse me but Frank Foster clearly did not love his parents. He allowed his dad to fall ill and die rather than admit the truth. He used his parents. when his mother discovered the truth he pushed her and called her a "silly old woman". He taunted Carla and threatened to attack her again whereas Dean is in denial because he can't face what he did.

I would much rather have seen the truth come to light earlier and seen Shirley dealing with the fact that her son raped her other sons wife - to see how that would feel for a mother knowing that - rather than just seeing her blindly defending Dean and shouting the odds. It would have given Linda Henry better material also.

I agree.

I think Dean does know what he's done, that was made very clear during his confrontation with Linda at Stan's funeral.

But I don't think he realises what an evil thing rape is, and the true severities of it. Not that it makes it any better, of course.