Denise discovered she was having Phil's baby last night.

All I got from that post is that it's good that Phil is dad because they hate each other. Not a good enough reason for me.

To be fair I think you had a vision of Kush and Denise playing happy families which wouldn't be the case as this is EE. No doubt he would have left her anyway when someone younger comes along and catches his eye - cue affair. The classic EE way.

Not at all.

I thought that it would have been better if Kush was the dad for the following reasons:
-Denise really cares about Kush, but does she really want to have his baby?
-Kush may have saw this as his chance to be a dad again because of loosing Zaair
-Carmel's reaction to the fact that her best friend was having her son's baby.
-Where would it leave Denise and Kush? Would they get together or just co-parent? How would they work together as parents?
-The square's reaction to the news. If Denise was having Kush's baby, I don't think that she would be as eagar to hide the news. She wouldn't shout it from the rooftops but I think that she would eventually say or Kush would convince her to.
-How would Denise's family feel about it?

This thread is already onto page 4, so apologies if this point has been made before, but ...

At 47 Denise could of course go to a full term pregnancy, but would it really be in her best interests or that of the unborn child?

We don't really know what's in her mind at the moment, but common sense should have led her to keep the secret and quietly gone off to a clinic and got rid of it. Yes, I know it's further on than she thought, but there are still ways.

I don't really care who the father is because so many of the females in this soap sleep with any unsuitable male to hand. Nobody ever seems to take any precautions any more, so basically they shouldn't be surprised at the outcome.

The trouble with keeping secrets in EastEnders is the existence of blabbermouth interfering characters like Carmel, who just can't stop sticking her nose in other people's business when it doesn't concern her, neither is she empathetic enough to notice when someone doesn't want to 'spill'.

Hopefully Denise will lose the baby one way or another and eventually Carmel will find another country to inhabit (you've got it in one .. I can't stand the woman!).

No more than jack fathering every woman he sleeps with and fathers their children...... EE scriptwriters like their sperminator men

I hope to god its not an ovarian cancer storyline, im sick to death of everything on tv been cancer related you cant get away from the word.

EE is the most depressing soap out of them all, I'm actually routing for Kush's baby and him and Denise actually falling for each other and a happy storyline for an older pregnancy storyline....... a healthy baby at the end of it all (It does actually happen in real life !!) ...... no disabilitiys no miserable faces..... no crying like most storylines go, ..... just a nice happy simple 'we know who the daddy is pregnancy storyline' now that would be unique (EE have a habit of mum ringing up dad and we have 5 guys all on their mobiles in scenes..... its beyond ridiculous.

Just stop with the miserable storylines EE you may attract more viewers .........

The dad has already been revealed.

Oh yes? Where, when and who is it? Most of the EastEnders audience are currently working their memories back through sixteen to eighteen weeks' worth of episodes and coming up with a big fat question mark!

phils? Thats how i read it but after reading this thread people seem certain its still kushes........ i honestly cant remember when her and kush first got together i can still picture her with Ian

Well phils baby certainly pans out for interesting future storylines........ i do wish EE would go moderatly happy though. For me Coronation St is beyond ricidulous with its comedy..... EE is the total opposite with its miserabe s/l Emmerdale has the happy medium for me.

Phil. They had a drunken one night stand in April. Phil doesn't remember it.

Denise and Kush first slept together 3 weeks ago.

crikey seems longer than that. oh well another little mitchell

lisa/kathy denise as another mum in the mix will be interesting

Phil won't be happy.

Just to clarify, the post I did (quoted above) was not about hate. It was responding to the fact you stated Phil's parentage didn't have drama and storyline potential.

"Soaps", as I'm sure we all know, are a colloquial term for serial drama aka continuing drama. In order to keep a soap running for years and develop longer term characters, like Denise, it's great to build on history and progress early contentions between characters into larger ones or build on former personality clashes into larger ones or build on former issues into larger ones, etc etc to create continuing drama.
- I.e. with Stacey's bipolar in 2009-2010 is progressed or furthered 6 years by pregnancy into the larger issue of post-partum psychosis.
- and in this case, the contentions stemming from Denise's 2011 revelation of Phil being involved in Kevin's death now being progressed by Denise being impregnated by Phil (her lover's killer)

Now. I'm not saying that new characters should never be developed and remain as newer characters, indeed Kush is a fantastic character - who I LOVE as well as Denise - and should have gritty material and I think everyone's completely missing the fact that Phil being the father gives Kush even more material to do! Making Kush the father would have been easy as we know (from his initial reactions in the hospital scene) that he desperately wants to be the father to Denise's child...but with Phil being the biological father, Kush will have to fight and prove to Denise and albeit Phil (when/if he finds out) that he loves the child and is the best father for the child, that he can and will protect and guard the child with his life. He will have to Prove his love for Denise and her child despite Carmel's disapproval, Phil's ego-denting which is far more dramatic than him simply being the father and choosing to accept his responsibility (which he would automatically want to do since longing to be a father again since losing Zaair to stillbirth and Arthur to Martin).

And just on a general note, in terms of dramatic effect:
She's carrying the child of the man who killed her one true love. (the killing occurring nearly 10 years ago and ending a relationship which cemented Denise as a character on the square)
has a wider effect than
she's carrying the child of her best friend's son (who she's developed feelings for over a period of weeks and been friends with for a year).

Summary: Phil being the father doesn't cut Kush out or limit his storylines, it actually opens the door to more meaty storylines for Kush to prove himself to Denise and her child

Phil's never happy. The last time he smiled was in 1991.

You make some good points. I know that Phil being the dad has drama, but it isn't drama that I want to see. I guess we have to wait and see how it plays out. I still would have preferred Kush to be the dad. I just don't want Phil's involvement. Denise has had so much misery in her life, did they REALLY need to make her pregnant by the man she hates?! Even soaps need some happy storylines.

Indeed. I just hope by going down this route there'll be light at the end of the tunnel for Denise by finding happiness with Kush. It's very rare to see a couple with a 10/15 year age gap together and Kush and Denise work really well together, Denise has been treated badly by so many men she deserves a man who loves her truly and let's hope Kush is the guy in whom she finds happiness.

Denise and Kush are a match made in soap heaven. Hopefully this storyline will lead to happiness for Denise and Kush.

What do we think Denise will do about the baby?

EE did a STD story a few weeks ago but in reality almost 50% of characters across all soaps should be disease ridden considering the number of times they have one night stands with different partners and have unprotected sex!!

Is there a condom shortage in soap land?

Denise used a condom with Kush. I'm assuming that she used one with Phil because Sharon found a condom wrapper.

They were both pretty wasted, I'd be surprised if the condom ended up in the right place.

I hate pregnancy storylines. It brings the women down and saddles them with uninteresting children. As soon as they have kids they become dull just look at Lauren.
Denise doesn't need to be stuck with a baby at her age. I wish they would have the courage to let her have a termination but that never seems to happen.

That's true.

I can't believe that they have made her pregnant with Phil's baby.

We are of course assuming she hasn't been with anyone else. Soaps are notorious for bringing up past events that we, as the home audience, didn't see, and it's added in after the fact to fascilitate a plot line. Look at Lucy's murder, for example. We had just about everyone on the Square as a suspect, and we didn't actually "see" Jane or Bobby do what they did until much, much later.