Oh, Yasmeen! What now?

Oh Yasmeen, I fear for you. Your hitting Geoff with a bottle and then again with the broken bottle stabbing him in the neck, was not a premeditated act but one born of months of coercion, extreme humiliation and cruelty. Who can blame you? Who could bear such an attempt to annihilate a person’s very being? Continually, for months, you have been the victim of a man who relishes in meting out such control, cruelty and coercion that you have to beg him to see your own grandson’s wedding photos.

Is Geoff dead? I’m not sure anyone could have survived the stabbing in the neck, so I’ll presume he is. But before I speculate as to what may happen to you, Yasmeen, I’m going to talk about the absolute horrors that beset you in Friday’s episode. To bear what you have borne, would have tested a saint. Is it any wonder that you retaliated?

Recently we have seen Geoff using his spy system to catch Yasmeen placing her carefully packed suitcase of best clothes in a cupboard and locking them in. Geoff, the all-seeing, omniscient one, forces Yasmeen to open the cupboard, then proceeds to burn her valued items. He has forced her onto her knees, he has presented her with the same meal for breakfast and lunch – cold, rich food, which in Yasmeen’s difficult state of mind and body just caused her to feel nauseous. Not missing a chance to humiliate Yasmeen further, he asks if it’s not up to standard for ‘Lady Muck’.   He has also given her chlamydia which, understandably, makes her feel unclean, knowing for certain in her own mind that she has slept with nobody besides Sharif, her first husband and, of course, Geoff. Again, he arrows in on his chance of telling her that she is diseased in body and mind  

Geoff and Yasmeen are invited by Tim and Sally to the bistro for a special tasting evening. Yasmeen gets changed and is immediately insulted by Geoff on her choice of outfit.

‘You’re not going like that are you? In your shabbiest sack!’ He unlocks a cupboard and brings out a red dress, unceremoniously forcing Yasmeen to undress and wear the new red dress, as Yasmeen literally shakes. He must know that the dress is overstated for the occasion, thus another chance to ridicule and mock her.

In the pub Yasmeen discovers that Geoff has gifted Sally and Tim the money for their wedding. There is of course, cunning here. What a great guy Geoff is! So generous, paid for our wedding! When the truth is that he has taken the money without consulting the 2 other shareholders, Yasmeen and Alya. When Yasmeen questions him, he resorts to the wedding vows of for richer or poorer, but that’s not the point here.

Yasmeen seems to have lost Cathy’s friendship, which is a bitter blow for both women but especially Yasmeen. Yasmeen calls out to her and Brian to sit with them but Cathy snubs her old friend.

He bundles her out of the pub, but not before Carla delivers her line, ‘Killer dress Yasmeen.’

Little does Geoff know that he has just a short while to live. He locks Yasmeen in the house and goes out again. Eileen sees this. Geoff is in the café, being as nice as pie. Will people believe just how cruel he was to Yasmeen?

In the pub we hear Sally, not at her best, commenting on Yasmeen’s dress, ‘What was she thinking?’ And that’s the point, as poor Yasmeen hasn’t been thinking at all. She’s been living in terror and isolation with a man whose express purpose it is to ruin her.

On his return home, Geoff launches several attacks on Yasmeen, who is still in her red (blood?) killer dress. He preposterously invents a story about Peter Barlow, who, Geoff claims has been saying that Yasmeen has been throwing herself at him. Her denial is heart  breaking -  a series of no, no, no, with real fear detectable in her eyes. How much further will this man go? A long way is the incredible answer.

He asks if she honestly thinks that he bought the dress for her. ‘Do you? That sassy little number screams Yasmeen!’ I bought it for someone who would fill it in all the right places. Firm thighs, full cups, hips you can hold, creamy young skin, glossy red lips.’

He calls her a bony old bore, he tells her she makes his skin crawl, he asks her why she can't grow a spine, that she has a wheedling voice, that she makes his skin crawl, that she is a shell of a woman, a husk, scrabbling on the floor like a dog as he throws chips at her, laughing and shouting, ‘Fetch!’

This must be one of the most disturbing scenes in the history of soap opera.

  ‘Till death do us part? God spare me. Maybe I should kill you – do the world a favour. Would anyone really notice if you were gone? If only you could look at yourself - dead behind the eyes and from the waist down. And here’s me thinking of all the long years ahead.'

Being unable to take anymore, Yasmeen picks up the bottle next to her and whacks him over the head, then with the broken part of the bottle, the jagged glass, she plunges into his neck. He falls to the floor. Yasmeen looks on, horror-struck by her actions.

By Ruth Owen, twitter: @ruth1722

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