Denise Fox loses her grips on reality in mur𝕕er aftermath in EastEnders
The hairstylist tells someone the truth - will it backfire?
KEANU Taylor’s murder has left six of Walford’s most beloved women struggling with a guilty conscience.
Sadly, while some EastEnders icons have managed to find a balance, the secrecy takes a toll on Denise Fox’s mental health.
Linda Carter (portrayed by Kellie Bright) killed Keanu Taylor in an attempt to save her pal Sharon Watts from being strangled to death as he was trying to run away from the Vic with her son Albie Watts.
Since then, Linda, Sharon, Kathy Beale, Stacey Slater, Suki Panesar and Denise Fox (Diane Parish) have teamed up and buried Keanu’s body underneath the local café, which was destroyed in a fire caused by Rocky Cotton.
In recent scenes of the BBC One soap, Denise has been overwhelmed with panic due to the possibility of being found out after her necklace fell on to Keanu’s corpse before he was buried away.
And things will only be getting worse next week.
Coming up, it’s Denise’s birthday, but she’s forgotten her own big day, which is usually celebrated on January 27.
When her family excitedly greet her with birthday celebrations, Denise’s emotions gets the best of her and she rushes out, unable to face anybody.
Denise’s husband Jack Branning (Scott Maslen) follows and tries to find out what’s wrong, but she knows she can’t open up to him, which drives an even bigger wedge between them.
Jack and Denise’s marriage has been hanging by a thread for several weeks and they are struggling to get things back on track.
The family are all upset and confused, and later, after scared Raymond begs her to go back to being his mummy again, Denise decides to tell Jack everything – how will he react?
While this remains to be seen, in other scenes, it’s the day of baby Charli’s guardianship hearing.
Lily Slater and Ricky Branning are both nervous while Denise is surprised to hear from Nish Panesar (Navin Chowdhry) that he had an altercation with Jack and Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner).
Denise immediately collars her to find out what happened and Stacey convinces her it was over Suki Panesar.
However, Denise is so rattled that she rushes off as both families walk into the courtroom.
Later, at No.27, a worried Chelsea Fox (Zaraah Abrahams) finds Denise and begs her to seek help from medical professionals.
Meanwhile, Jack joins a party at the Slaters, and Stacey takes him aside to ask about Denise.
At the Branning house, Amy Mitchell (Ellie Dadd) soothes Denise as she cries out in her sleep but Jack isn’t there.
When he finally gets home, Jack is short with Denise over missing the court hearing.
She asks where he’s been all night, and he makes an excuse about work.
Paranoid Denise fears that the case might be connected to the Christmas Day death, so she steals his phone to find out.
At Fox and Hair, Denise overreacts when Penny Branning (Kitty Castledine) says she’s ringing Jack and the mobile rings on her desk.
Jack arrives, and a row breaks out, where he reveals he slept with someone else to a disgusted Penny.
Following this Denise seeks out an unlikely confidante but her mental health continues to go south.
In later scenes, Denise wanders into The Vic for psychic Madame Tellerina’s night and immediately sparks concern from the others as she looks terrible.
They are shocked when she volunteers to go on stage, hoping to get some answers to her despair.
But at home, Denise’s grip on reality slips even further.
Who will help her?
Could she end up unable to get her act together?
Mental breakdowns have often taken place in Albert Square and, like any other resident, Denise has occasionally fallen apart before her family eventually managed to help her pick up the pieces.
But with Jack growing closer to Stacey and her sister Kim out of Walford, could Denise be in danger?
EastEnders airs from Monday to Thursday at 7.30pm on BBC One.
