Five massive BBC EastEnders theories: explosive exits and vengeful resident exposes murđť••er secret
One mistreated favourite could bring comeuppance to her pals.
MARTIN Fowler returns to Walford this week after an impromptu trip to Australia with Sharon Watts – and romance may be on the horizon.
Meanwhile, a handful of EastEnders legends remain desperate to keep a secret under wraps – but one of them could ruin their plans.
1. Triangle in the Square
Secrets are coming to light this week as Martin Fowler finally makes his way back to Albert Square with Sharon Watts in tow.
Change is coming to the beloved market trader portrayed by James Bye as he catches the eye of Priya Nandra-Hart (played by Sophie Khan Levy).
In recent months, Martin was keen to rekindle his relationship with former wife Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner) but things got out of hand due to Theo Hawthorne’s meddling and her choice to resort to online sex work.
This left Martin feeling insecure as he caught Stacey flirting with other men for cash and, after a few moments of bliss, both him and his ex-wife agreed to leave things be.
In more recent scenes of the BBC One soap, Martin left Albert Square to head to Australia with an overwhelmed Sharon Watts.
The blonde bombshell portrayed by Letitia Dean fled Walford in the aftermath of Keanu Taylor’s murder to see Michelle Fowler.
This week, Martin is thrown back into drama as he arrives in Walford just in time to catch Stacey kiss her married lover Jack Branning (Scott Maslen), just as they decide to end their affair for the benefit of Denise Fox’s mental health.
Terrified to face consequences, Jack and Stacey insist to Martin that the kiss was a moment of madness and beg him not to tell Denise.
The hairstylist’s daughter Chelsea Fox (Zaraah Abrahams) interrupts and is suspicious when Stacey rushes after Martin.
When alone, Stacey admits to the affair with Jack and tells Martin it’s over and the whole thing is none of his business.
In other scenes, Martin confides about what’s happened to Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth), who desperately tries to persuade him to keep the secret.
Kathy is desperately trying to keep Keanu Taylor’s death under wraps and she fears the consequences of Denise finding out about Jack’s affair for the rest of the Six.
Meanwhile, Will Mitchell (Freddie Phillips) is encountering the dangers of peer pressure again as he spends time with Avani Nandra-Hart (Aaliyah James).
Avani pressures the lad into vaping this week, oblivious to the potential consequences ahead.
It doesn’t take long for Will’s mother Honey (Emma Barton) to catch him red-handed with a vape and, horrified, she demands to know who sold it to him.
Honey eventually finds out Avani is to blame which prompts her to charge into The Queen Vic, where she has it out with the teen’s mother, Priya.
An unrepentant Priya further angers Honey and, soon enough, Ravi Gulati (Aaron Thiara) arrives before profusely apologising.
Unfortunately, Priya doesn’t back down and makes the situation ten times worse.
A harsh conversation transpires between Ravi and Avani as he confronts her about selling vapes.
But much like her mother Priya, the teen fails to show any remorse, particularly when her father criticises her parenting skills.
An explosive row then ensues as Ravi rails at Priya over how she raised Avani.
Following their argument, Priya decides to turn her focus to fresh beginnings as she flirts with Martin.
Priya takes things up a notch and invites him to buy her a drink at Peggy’s that same night.
Ravi soon comes to find her and apologises, leading Priya to tell him she’ll deal with Avani.
Whatever the case may be, tension rises again later on when Ravi finds Priya at Peggy’s.
The pair share a warm moment as they discuss their daughter but when he asks if he can join Priya for a drink, she sends him packing in favour of Martin.
Ravi and Priya, as regular viewers of the London-based program will know, share two children – Avani and her older brother Davinder aka “Nugget.”
When Priya resurfaced alongside Avani, it seemed clear that the pair wouldn’t rekindle their relationship, particularly as the young mother showed clear interest towards Ravi’s father Nish Panesar.
But when Nish’s violent tendencies were exposed, Priya decided she wanted nothing to do with him.
As tensions remain between him and Priya, could Ravi decide to put them aside and live as a family with her and their two teens?
Could Martin be the wake-up call Ravi needs to realise he harbours feelings for Priya?
Could a rivalry between both men – and therefore, a love triangle – stem from Ravi’s realisation?
2. Villain gets the boot
Dean Wicks (Matt Di Angelo) continues to wreak havoc in the Square and terrified Linda Carter (Kellie Bright) in the process.
To top it all off, huge tensions appear and escalate at the speed of light between Dean and Jean Slater (Gillian Wright) as the beloved cleaner continues to look out for his daughter Jade (Elizabeth Green).
Jean figures out how villainous Dean can truly be and he runs the risk of being kicked out of Walford a second time.
It all begins with Jean picking out a venue for Jade’s fundraiser and she settles on The Queen Vic.
She is then surprised when Linda agrees to welcome Jade’s event in her pub but there’s one condition Jean needs to keep in mind – Dean isn’t allowed to attend.
Back at Dean’s place, Jean is terrified when Jade has a bad coughing fit and she calls the doctor, much to his horror.
Things only get worse when Jade takes a look at his phone.
Regular viewers will recall that Dean has been fiddling with Jade’s meds for her cystic fibrosis in a horrific bid to make her too ill to leave the Square for Pakistan with her mother Shabnam.
But will what Jade find on his phone be in relation to his plan?
Dean has a lot of explaining to do as Jade and Jean confront him about dodging Shabnam’s calls and texts.
He manages to persuade them that he’s been putting his head in the sand and avoiding Shabnam.
Jade wonders why as she points out that her mother knows she’s still too ill to go to Pakistan.
In later scenes, Jade asks Dean if she can go to the fundraiser at The Vic, but he insists that he’ll only let her if she’s well enough.
Jade remains completely unaware that Dean is tampering with her antibiotics to keep her by his side.
Johnny Carter (Charlie Suff) taunts Dean about being banned from Jade’s fundraiser, making him determined to find a way to get there.
After resorting to his devious tricks and successfully manipulating Jean and Harvey Monroe (Ross Boatman), Dean arrives at The Vic.
All hell is about to break loose when Jade begs Elaine Peacock (Harriet Thorpe) just to let him see her speech.
As they wait for her big moment, Dean begs Jade to stay with him in London, but she insists she needs to go to Pakistan and be with Shabnam.
Things go from bad to worse as Linda is furious to see Dean in her bar and she rushes upstairs, with Jean right behind her.
While there, an emotional Linda makes Jean see that Dean is playing her, prompting the cleaner to return downstairs to order him to leave.
How will Dean react?
While this remains to be seen, this wouldn’t be the first time Dean is given the boot as his second exit was brought on by his biological father Buster Briggs.
In 2016, after Dean managed to get away with Linda’s rape and his attempt to sexually assault Roxy Mitchell, Buster paid him off and warned him to never return to Walford – which he obviously didn’t stick to.
Dean was almost paid off to leave again in recent months when his business partner Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins) handed him cash to leave her daughter Gina and the Square.
Could history repeat itself, leading Jade’s mother Shabnam to make her own comeback for her daughter?
3. Tear-jerking exit
Elsewhere in the Square, George Knight continues to struggle with the knowledge his life was based on a lie… and a murder.
George (Colin Salmon) has been reeling after finding out that his adoptive father Eddie (Christopher Fairbank) murdered a man named Henry Kofi Asare – his biological father.
But just as he realised that the man who raised was a murderer, George also had a reality check on Eddie’s micro-aggressions, which have all had a racist undertone.
To top it all off, Eddie was keen to get into George’s good books as he needed a glowing character reference for his murder trial, decades after Henry’s death.
Eddie’s wife and George’s adoptive mother Gloria Knight (Elizabeth Counsell) has been caught up in the middle of everything as she was also revealed to be the main reason why Henry was killed.
Gloria explained to her son Henry had tried to take a teen George back to his biological family and she refused to let him go, thus prompting Eddie to take action for her.
Secrets have been weighing heavy on George’s conscience, particularly as he has had to tell his daughters Anna (Molly Rainford) and Gina (Francesca Henry) the truth about his African parentage.
This week, George is due to celebrate his birthday and his fiancée Elaine Peacock (Harriet Thorpe) and daughters are making a big fuss on him on the big day.
The joy is short-lived as Gloria arrives back in Walford, in the hopes of reconnecting with George following Eddie’s explosive murder trial.
Although she gets a frosty reception, George agrees to talk to his mother, despite previously making it clear he wanted nothing to do with his adoptive family.
Unfortunately, tensions boil up again as Gloria insists that George had a happy childhood and he’s infuriated.
George begins to lose his temper, leaving Elaine to escort a shaken Gloria out.
Horrified by his own outburst, George rushes off.
But he later returns and confides his fears to Elaine, before breaking down in her arms.
In recent soap scenes, George met a woman named Angela, who revealed she was a close friend of his biological family.
She not only updated George on his mother’s death but she also let him know that he had siblings in Ghana.
One could theorise that George may decide to leave Walford to reconnect with his relatives in Ghana, in an effort to finally put the past to rest
Could it be the solution to appease his inner torment?
4. Murder weapon exposed
Speaking of Jade and her fundraiser, one viewer of the long-running show has speculated there could be a huge twist ahead for the Six.
Suki Panesar (Balvinder Sopal), Sharon Watts, Stacey Slater, Kathy Beale, Denise Fox (Diane Parish) and Linda Carter have all been desperate to keep Keanu Taylor’s death a secret since Christmas Day.
But when the weapon used by Linda Carter went missing, fear arose among the Six as they struggled to trust one another.
Johnny Carter, Linda’s son, has been suspected of concealing the murder weapon himself to potentially throw one resident under the bus, thus protecting his mother from prison.
However, as mentioned above, a soap fan suspects the murder weapon used against Keanu Taylor may resurface this week for all to see.
“Just had a thought…..what if the murder weapon shows up at Jade’s Donation thingy?!?!?!”, the viewer commented on X, formerly known as Twitter.
But how would it reappear?
5. Fan favourite gets her revenge
Could the Six be betrayed by one of their own?
Denise Fox recently discharged herself from a mental health facility after she’d been sectioned following a psychotic breakdown.
Viewers have been amazed by her changed behaviour as she came back to Walford determined to assert herself.
Soap fans swarmed over to X last week, praising the hairstylist’s return and new attitude.
“This is why I loved when Denise told them to stay away from her”, one soap watcher commented, referring to Denise confronting the rest of the Six over their poor treatment of her.
“Then she went around & told them to live their lives the best way they could w/joy while living w/hiding Linda’s murder. Her words took their power & ability to treat her badly away”, they added.
Another jumped in: “Denise ATE with that ultimatum to Jack”, while a third viewer agreed: “the new and improved no fecks given Denise is awesome. I need to know which meds she’s on.”
This week, Denise shocks her husband Jack Branning with an ultimatum.
Walking on eggshells around Denise prompts Jack to turn to his mistress, Stacey Slater for advice but she recommends to do whatever his other half asks.
Later on, as she grows more desperate to keep Keanu Taylor’s murder a secret to avoid repercussions on herself and the rest of the Six, Stacey pays Denise a visit to persuade her to get her marriage back on track.
The two women put their best foot forward as they arrange a family barbecue to bring both sides of baby Charli’s family together.
At the barbecue things are awkward and Stacey talks with a fragile Denise, feeling terrible.
Out in the backyard, Stacey tells Jack that she wishes she could be selfish, but he needs to be there for Denise, thus putting an end to their affair.
Jack holds his arms out for a hug in agreement but tension escalates and they share a tender goodbye kiss – but they’re caught by Martin, as mentioned above.
In other scenes, Jack breaks down to Denise about how scared he’s been about her, leading to a breakthrough for them as a couple as they pledge to fix things.
But could Denise be playing the long game before getting revenge on everybody who has wronged her?
This could hint at trouble for Jack, Stacey and the rest of the Six as Denise may be tempted to throw her partners in crime under the bus for failing to support her before her breakdown.
According to this theory, Denise may be the one to be hiding the murder weapon before unveiling it during Jade’s fundraiser.
What will Sharon, who is also due to return this week, have to say about how the other women handled themselves in the aftermath of Keanu’s death?
Can the Six ever find a way to get along?
