Les and Linda spoke for ages tonight and never even mentioned it


Even if she pays it back it will not be a punishment. She should be in the Ladies Chokey

It did seem rather odd that Linda got affronted at Les refusing the food. Surely she could see how inappropriate it was to offer Babe's cooking to him after everything she did. A more significant gesture would probably have been to tell him that that they hadn't forgotten or forgiven what she did and that they were making her get the money together to pay him and Pam back.

Even if it didn't occur to her before she offered the food, she shouldn't have got the hump after he rejected it, acting like he had been. Horrible to her.

She should be made to pay it all back with interest, and then told once and for all that she is not welcome at the Vic any longer - that would hurt her more than anything.

Can't believe the whole thing is not being taken far more seriously. Babe would still be blackmailing them if Claudette had not blown it all open.

I think its clear this is SOC doing, all the subtle change to episodes and scenes.

Someone kept saying on here that he doesn't like people going unpunished.

And that is effectively has what has happen so far.

Linda is really starting to get on my nerves. She's unbelievably selfish. Her attitude to Lee and Whitney wanting a place of their own was nasty and totally wrong. They are adults about to be married, with a baby on the way. Course they want their own place.

I'm sure it's the start of her leaving storyline, but even so....

It felt strange that even after Les refused the food Linda still did not bring up the issue of Babe's blackmail or tell Les that she and Mick would insist on the money being paid back. By not doing so the inference is that she thinks it's ok.

I know they seem to do a u-turn on it next week but the whole thing has been handled very strangely imo.

A good ending to this would be Babe handing the money back to Pam and Les (maybe dressed as Christine} and apologising for what she did to them in the Vic packed with customers, she certainly shouldn't be allowed to run off without giving them the money back at least.

Linda's attitude wasn't 'nasty', though, was it? She wasn't being mean or spiteful, she is simply concerned about how Lee and Whitney would cope on their own in a place some distance away from Walford, with no real support network, no jobs at this point (and let's be brutally honest here, no real prospect for any sort of high or even average paying job) and with a young baby AND Lee's potential depression to deal with.

Yes, she was being overbearing and too protective, because Lee and Whitney are adults and they should be able to make their own decisions, but everything Linda said was from a place of love for them.

Would definitely be a good ending

You will be surprised, very soon.

Yes and not just about this!

The baby farm
Abi and lee
Stan
Sylvie
And all the other stunts she's pulled!

How they can't see how evil and nasty she is, is astounding!

Then she should have acted like that was the case. The impression I got was that it was just about her. I understand she didn't want them to move far away but her selfish attitude started when she thought they were only moving across the square. They are adults about to start a life together. Maybe she should have treated them like adults instead of yelling at them.
I liked Linda when she first arrived, I don't any more.

Sorry but how could they afford to move across the square on a barmaid and fishmonger's salary? The two of them have barely got two pennies to rub together and Linda, although smothering them, does have a very valid point about them moving out.

I'm not pretending Linda is perfect because she clearly isn't, but everything she does is coming from a place of wanting to protect her children. She is definitely selfish in a lot of what she does but she isn't doing it in a consciously nasty way, she's just very strong-minded.

The thing is with Babe is that there are no redeeming features in the character, or reason for her to be so nasty, other than always playing second fiddle to the better looking Sylvie, which does not give her the right to blackmail anyone. Let alone to carry it on after the Cokers lost Paul. They should have gone to the police about her baby farming in the sixties.

Then they should have sat down and gone over the practicalities of it instead of Linda acting like a hard done by fishwife.
She certainly isn't the only selfish Carter, as pointed out on this thread.
Maybe we can just agree to disagree.

She could have done that but that isn't very 'Linda', is it? She reacts in the moment, particularly when it comes to her kids. Her conversation with Les does show she's capable of sitting down and talking like an adult but then she's more removed from him so it's easier to be objective.

I'm not really trying to argue, I just think there's more than one way to look at her behaviour. I don't personally agree with it a lot of the time but I can at least see where she's coming from with this one, even if she isn't going about it in the right way.

I'm almost certain I've read in a magazine that Babe

If true the new EP isn't wasting anytime in getting rid of those he axed.

Doesnt sound like it.

That's interesting. Sonia, Masood and Babe all gone within a week, and the Cokers' exit imminent. He's certainly wasting no time.

Next weeks episode spoilers say she is ordered to pay back the cokerss

Then it says she tries to

It's all fine. I think we're just coming at it from different angles rather than arguing.

She is a gobby mare though, as Mick would say.

I can't disagree with that. I remember her driving me loopy when she was trying to force Johnny back in the closet but over the last couple of years I have grown more sympathetic to her.