EastEnders viewers were delighted during last night’s episode (Thursday, July 14) after the soap revisited an iconic past storyline when Ben Mitchell (Max Bowden) dunked Peter Beale’s (Dayle Hudson) head in the sink.
Eagle-eyed EastEnders fans quickly pointed out the parallel between Ben putting Peter’s head in the sink to Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) flushing Ian Beale’s (Adam Woodyatt) head down the toilet, attempting to drown him.
In recent episodes, Peter has been fuming with his grandmother, Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth) for protecting Ben after he attacked Peter in a case of mistaken identity.
Peter wanted to call the police, however Kathy threatened to disown him if he did as she has been secretly supporting a traumatised Ben after he was raped.
During Rocky’s (Brian Conley) birthday party, Ben and Peter had an explosive showdown, which triggered Peter to call the police and arrest Ben.
In last night’s episode, Ben had managed to get bail after Kathy lied to the police and sought to get his revenge on Peter at the restaurant.
Ben armed himself with a mallet and a scathing Peter threw insults at Ben.
He fumed: “You’re a nobody. You’re nothing. My gran realised pretty quick what a loser your old man was, and sooner or later she’ll realise you are exactly the same.”
Ben soon exploded and the pair got into a vicious brawl in the restaurant’s kitchen, which led to Ben furiously dunking Peter’s head in the sink, trying to drown his own nephew.
Later on, Peter returned home where he found out that Kathy had lied to the police to cover for Ben.
Peter had finally had enough of his family and decided to leave the Square, before saying some nasty words to Bobby (Clay Milner Russell), Rocky and Kathy.
Fans noticed that Ben’s actions mirrored Phil’s back in 2005 when he attempted to drown Ian by flushing his head down the toilet, which stemmed from their ongoing rivalry when Phil was married to Kathy.
Viewers took to social media to voice their enjoyment of remembering the parallels between the storylines involving the same family…
@bbceastenders I loved the parallel of Ben putting peters head down a sink, to Phil putting Ian’s head down a toilet.#eastendersJuly 14, 2022
ben dunking peters head in the sink like phil dunked ian’s head in the toilet. like father like son i love it #EastEndersJuly 15, 2022
Nice throwback to the time Phil flushed Ian's head down the toilet! #EastendersJuly 14, 2022
Throwbacks to Ian and Phil and the toilet#EastEndersJuly 14, 2022
EastEnders continues on Monday, July 18 at 7:30pm on BBC One.
