Summary: It is without a doubt that the Mitchell family are one of the most dysfunctional families this side of the Thames. While suffering through a turbulent childhood, Sophie finds it difficult to find her place in a family of hard men, criminals, matriarchs and the like. Being sixteen is difficult, but being a Mitchell is harder, and Sophie Mitchell is in for a lot more trouble than what she has already faced.
Disclaimer: I do not own Eastenders.
Prologue
Sophie Mitchell was born in fortuitous circumstances.
Since 1998, her parents, Phil and Kathy Mitchell, were going through the process of a divorce and Kathy had since moved to South Africa with the couples young son, Ben. After having had a fling with Phil's brother, Grant, upon her last visit to London, Kathy visits again in December 1999 for her older son, Ian's wedding to Melanie Healy. Amidst talk that they might get back together, Kathy and Phil share a tryst before deciding that their relationship was over and Kathy returned to South Africa not knowing she was pregnant. On 16th October 2000, Kathy gave birth to a healthy baby girl named Sophie Margaret Mitchell. Kathy had not previously let Phil know of her pregnancy, but at Christmas of that year, Kathy wrote him a letter telling him of his new child and attached a photograph of the newborn. Phil, furious that he didn't know of his now ex-wife's pregnancy and the birth of his daughter for so long, lashed out at Kathy's son, Ian, who had known the truth. Ian informs him that Kathy intends to stay in South Africa as she was now seeing a new man. A year later in 2001, Kathy marries Gavin Sullivan in Cape Town. Gavin, Kathy and her two children, Ben and Sophie, lived happily in South Africa for some time.
However, tragedy struck in 2006. Gavin and Kathy were supposedly killed in a accident. Ian was the first to hear of the news and traveled to South Africa to bring his siblings back to London. Nine year old Ben and five year old Sophie live at their brothers house with his wife, Jane, and children, Lucy, Peter and Bobby for a short while. After celebrating Ben's tenth birthday, Phil arrives at the house shortly after discovering the children's return to the U.K. and demands they live with him. A bitter custody battle ensues between Phil and Ian over the children, who eventually go to live with their father. After hostile beginnings, both Ben and Sophie begin to bond with their father.
Both children share a dislike of their fathers girlfriend, Stella Crawford. Stella, equal in his dislike, feels like they are intruding on her and Phil's relationship. Stella begins to abuse the children physically and psychologically. When teachers at school discover bruises on Sophie's arms, she blames them on Ben. Stella further tortures Sophie, telling her that her father doesn't love her and "you should have died with your mummy". On the day of Phil and Stella's wedding, Stella physically threatens Ben and Sophie into silence or else she'd kill them. Before the ceremony could go any further, Ben interrupts and reveals the abuse Stella was inflicting upon them. Phil, in a rage, chases Stella to a nearby abandoned warehouse where she commits suicide by jumping from its roof. Phil, a recovering alcoholic, briefly relapses from the experience, but goes sober again for Ben and Sophie.
Overtime, Sophie develops close relationships with her grandmother, Peggy Mitchell, and her cousin, Ronnie Mitchell. Sophie developed an instant dislike of her great-uncle, Archie Mitchell upon his arrival in Walford. After his engagement to her grandmother, Sophie, now seven, becomes more troublesome and tries to separate the couple. However, she doesn't succeed and Peggy and Archie marry in February 2009. During the wedding, it is revealed that Danielle Jones is Ronnie's daughter that Archie secretly gave up for adoption, telling his daughter she died. Danielle is later killed that day after being hit by a car. Sophie tries to console an upset Ronnie, but to little avail. However, she is happy after Peggy leaves Archie after the secret is revealed. Archie is later murdered on Christmas Day 2009 with a lot of her family as suspects. It is later assumed posthumously that it was Bradley Branning that killed Archie.
In March 2010, Phil's estranged daughter, Louise, from a brief relationship with Lisa Fowler, comes to stay with the Mitchell's. Sophie and Louise, being nine and eight respectively, get on like a house on fire and are inseparable. Ben, Sophie and Louise also gain a new mother figure in their fathers new girlfriend, Shirley Carter and they all move into a house on Albert Square, as Social Services won't allow Phil custody of Louise while they were living at the Queen Victoria pub. Louise and Sophie get up to all sorts of trouble, mostly under the influence of Louise, mainly teasing and being a nuisance to Ben. This all backfires after Louise steals Ben's diary, writing in passages and reading it to their friends at school and Ben lashes out at his two sisters, burning their hands with hot spoons the same way Stella hurt him. Phil suspects something is happening and later finds Ben attempting to do it again, punishing him.
After Peggy returns Louise to her mother and Ben is sent to juvenile detention for seriously attacking Jordan Johnson with a spanner, Phil relapses back into alcoholism and begins an affair with drug addict, Rainie Cross. When Phil develops a crack cocaine addiction in this relationship, Peggy takes Sophie to live with her in the Queen Vic pub. Peggy attempts to get Phil sober by locking him in a room in the pub to make him go cold turkey. Sophie, now ten, is upstairs in her room whenever Phil breaks out and sets the pub ablaze from downstairs while the wedding of Ryan Malloy and Janine Butcher is in full swing. Everyone is quickly evacuated except Phil, Sophie, Stacey Branning, who was hiding in the toilets, and her daughter, Lily, who was asleep upstairs. Scared, Stacey locks her, Lily and Sophie in the living room and grabs attention from those outside. The three of them are quickly rescued, however Sophie develops a lifelong fear of fire as a result.
Peggy leaves Walford as a result and Sophie moves in with her pregnant cousin, Ronnie, and her husband, Jack, while Phil attempts to recover. Sophie returns to Phil and Shirley's house after her father suffers a heart attack. Phil also welcomes Billy's foster son into the Mitchell family, becoming Phil's surrogate son. Ben turns up after being released from juvenile detention and doesn't take too nicely to Jay. However, Jay, Ben and Sophie soon grow a sibling like bond. Phil reacts badly to Ben's confession that he is gay, while Sophie and the rest of her family are accepting of him. Sophie soon starts to grow worried when someone beings to target Phil and the Mitchell family. Sophie, now eleven, discovers that it was Ben who was behind the letters being sent to their father. Ben threatens Sophie when she indicates that she's going to tell their dad. Forcing her into silence, Phil is soon arrest for the murder of Stella Crawford.
Sophie distanced herself from Ben after the revelation that it was him. However, Sophie tells the police that Ben is lying and Phil is released. After the mysterious death of Heather Trott, Sophie notices that her dad, Ben and Jay are acting suspiciously. After Ian goes missing, she starts to suspect that they had something to do with the murder and runs away from Walford. However, having nowhere to go in London, Sophie is soon found and brought home. Phil reassures her that he had nothing to do with killing Heather. Ian is soon found in a homeless shelter after having a mental breakdown.
Phil and Shirley become engaged in August 2012. At their engagement party, Sharon Rickman arrives looking for Phil's help. Sharon, decked out in a wedding dress, walking out on her wedding, but her fiancee still had her son, Dennis. Phil leaves to help her and during this time Shirley finds the photo frame used to kill Heather. Shirley goes back to house, assuming it was Phil and was going to wait for him. Sophie and Ben try to comfort her, but Ben reveals it was him that killed Heather. When Shirley attempts to drown Ben, Phil arrives back and stops her. While convincing Shirley and Sophie not to say anything to the police, Ben hands himself in. After being charged with Heathers murder, Ben faces up to ten years in prison and tells his family not to visit. Phil and Shirley separate.
When Sophie started secondary school, news of her brothers imprisonment had already reached Walford High School. A few girls from the year above start to tease twelve year old Sophie for her family history, calling her derogatory names and making fun of her weight. Along with her father entering into a custody battle with Lola Pearce for her daughter, Lexi, who turns out to be Ben's daughter, Sophie begins to feel isolated both at home and at school. Sophie develops an eating disorder in order to try and cope and begins to loose weight dramatically. Jay notices her change in behavior, but Sophie brushes off his attempts to help her by putting it down to her growing up. Thirteen year old Sophie eventually collapses at school in April 2013 and is taken to hospital where she is found to weigh very little and formally diagnosed with bulimia. Phil decides to send Sophie to a treatment centre for a number of months so that she can recover.
Sophie returns to Walford in August 2013 in order to go back to school. Healthy again, Sophie readjusts to life in Albert Square again and celebrates her thirteenth birthday. Sophie is delighted when Ronnie returns to Walford in September, however this is soon thwarted when her father is seriously injured in a car accident and has to receive life saving surgery. Sophie also bonds with her niece Lexi and in turn develops a close relationship with Lola. There is tension in the square after Phil unknowingly sells the Queen Vic to Shirley's younger brother, Mick. When Sophie's niece Lucy is murdered at Easter 2014 a lot of her family members subsequently become suspects. It is also discovered that Ben had been released from prison early and hasn't made contact with the Mitchell family for months. As Phil attempts to track down his son, Sophie, Jay and Sharon convince him that Ben will come home when he is ready.
Phil and Sharon become engaged, but Sophie soon discovers her fathers illicit activity with Shirley in the run up to the wedding. Distrustful of her dad, Sophie attempts to tell Sharon who reveals she knows Phil was behind the burglary at her bar, the Albert, and that she intends to fleece Phil of all that he's worth. This tension is increased when Ben returns to the square, attempting to reconcile Phil and Shirley before the wedding. In September 2014, the wedding day arrives and Phil and Sharon eventually do marry despite the obstacles in their way. However, it all blows up at the wedding reception and the family bitterly argue. Sophie blames her dad for everything that had gone wrong and storms off. Sophie attempts to run away to her grandmother in Portugal, but she gets word at the airport that Shirley had shot Phil and Sophie comes racing back. Sophie apologies for what she said to her dad after he regains consciousness.
Sophie faced a hard new year after her cousin Ronnie was involved in serious car accident on the day of her wedding. Finding that the cars brakes were purposely cut, the police arrest Phil on charges of attempted murder. Max operates a hostile takeover of the Arches and the Mitchell's vow revenge for the loss of business. While attempting to prove that Phil was being framed by Nick Cotton, he is released on bail and disappears for a short time, but returns. Sophie's worries about her family is not subsided as Ben is arrested in the Lucy Beale case. Ben's girlfriend, Abi gives evidence against her father, Max Branning, and he is arrested. However, Sophie soon figures out with wasn't either of them that killed Lucy and it was, in fact, her nephew, Bobby, who committed the heinous crime. She confronts Ian and Jane on their wedding day.
Fearing that she is falling into a relapse of her eating disorder, Sharon takes a now fourteen year old Sophie away on a girly weekend where they bond immensely, with Sophie finally accepting Sharon as a mother figure in her life. Sophie discovers Ben's on-again-off-again relationship with Paul Coker and tells him she likes Paul more than Abi. Sophie also enters into a relationship of her own with a boy from the year above, Tony Keating. However, he breaks up with her shortly after because she wouldn't sleep with him. In September 2015, Sophie is frantic after her father goes missing. Sophie then finds out that her mum, Kathy, whom she thought was dead for the past ten years, was actually alive and in hiding. They believe that is was Gavin, Kathy's husband, who kidnapped Phil because Kathy left him. Phil is returned and hospitalized, but relapses back into alcoholism after his ordeal.
At Christmas, Phil's enemy, Vincent Hubbard, takes Sophie hostage at gunpoint. Vincent, under the idea that Phil's father, Eric Mitchell, killed his father, Henry Hubbard, wanted to enact revenge on the Mitchell family. When Phil and more of the Mitchell family return to the house, Phil appears one step ahead, having taken Vincent's daughter, Pearl, and hiding her at the creche. Sophie gets out unscathed, but is shaken up by the ordeal. Over New Years 2016, Phil, Ian and Sharon's son, Dennis, are involved in a car accident and Dennis is left severely injured. Phil, who was drunk at the time, is found to have cirrhosis of the liver. Sharon finds out that he is responsible and leaves him. Sophie and Ben, although upset at the knowledge their father only has twelve months to live unless he has a liver transplant, refuse to see him, as he continues to drink. Sophie isn't overjoyed when Abi reveals that she is pregnant with Ben's baby. However, she overhears a conversation between Abi and Babe Smith, where she finds out Abi is faking the pregnancy to maintain her relationship with Ben. Sophie blackmails Abi in order to keep her secret for her. Abi later fakes a miscarriage.