Spoiler warning for Friday 22nd December 2023.

By Lewis Knight

Published: Friday, 22 December 2023 at 06:30 AM


Spoiler warning for Friday 22nd December’s episode of EastEnders, released at 6am on BBC iPlayer and airing at 7:30pm on BBC One.

EastEnders has aired some dramatic scenes for The Six in the last episode ahead of the big Christmas Day episode.

The BBC One soap is building towards the scene of the six Walford matriarchs – Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner), Suki Panesar (Balvinder Sopal), Linda Carter (Kellie Bright), Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean), Denise Fox (Diane Parish), and Kathy Cotton (Gillian Taylforth) – standing over a mystery male body on Christmas Day in the Queen Vic pub.

On Friday, the action continued following detective Jack Branning (Scott Maslen) discovering that Eve Unwin (Heather Peace) is alive and planning to run away with lover Suki after framing evil Nish Panesar (Navin Chowdhry) and his bad boy son Ravi Gulati (Aaron Thiara) for her murder.

Jack then agreed to lover Stacey’s request to hide this secret until Eve and Suki got away from Walford, but we later saw Jack furious to still find Suki on the Square – having delayed her and Eve’s departure to make Christmas arrangements for step-grandson Davinder “Nugget” Gulati (Juhaim Rasul Choudhury). Suki threatened to expose Jack’s tryst with Stacey to Denise and his children, buying her and Eve another 24 hours.

Jack Branning shouting as Denise Fox in EastEnders
Jack tries to blackmail Denise.
BBC

Meanwhile, Jack’s love life got even worse after a furious row with lover Stacey, while his wife Denise refused to forgive him for emotionally blackmailing her into staying for the sake of his daughter Amy Mitchell (Ellie Dadd).

As Stacey interjected amid a row between Jack and Denise, the detective was left out in the cold and acted out – calling the police to let them know that Eve was alive – securing the release of villainous Nish and Ravi.

Elsewhere, Linda was still reeling following her text apparently from her presumed dead husband Mick Carter (Danny Dyer), prompting her mum Elaine Peacock (Harriet Thorpe) to reason that it was someone playing a game with her – Dean Wicks (played by actor Matt Di Angelo), the man who raped her in 2014.

Asked to meet the message sender at the location where she married Mick in 2016, Linda travelled there and found Dean, who asked her for forgiveness for his actions amid the worrying prognosis for daughter Jade Masood (Elizabeth Green), blaming his actions.

Kellie Bright as Linda Carter stands across from Matt Di Angelo as Dean Wicks in a woodland area in EastEnders.
Linda Carter (Kellie Bright) faced a dramatic confrontation with evil Dean Wicks (Matt Di Angelo).
BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron

Linda reminded Dean that she never did anything to deserve his monstrous actions, arguing with him and finally getting him to admit that he raped her. Once this happened, Linda went to leave and he was angry she wouldn’t react more positively to his apology. Linda accused his apology of being about him and not her, with Linda calling Dean a coward.

Dean tried to stop Linda from leaving by grabbing her, prompting her to hit him in the face and then she kicked him while he was on the ground before finally leaving.

Back at the Queen Vic, Sharon comforted her best friend Linda who continued to eye the alcohol in close vicinity following her recent relapse.

Unbeknownst to Sharon, her fiancé Keanu Taylor (Danny Walters) ignored his sister Bernadette Taylor (Clair Norris) who asked him for financial help and a home in light of the consequences of his staged kidnapping attempt of Sharon’s son Albie. Keanu later rejects giving Bernie a place to live, fearing it will cost him his new life with Sharon.

Natalie Cassidy as Sonia Fowler, Harriet Thorpe as Elaine Peacock, Delroy Atkinson as Howie Danes. Emma Barton as Honey Mitchell, and Rudolph Walker as Patrick Trueman singing carols in front of a Christmas tree in EastEnders.
The Walford carol concert masked some dark stories in Albert Square.
BBC

However, Sharon herself continues to hide that Keanu is not Albie’s dad – instead, it is her ex-husband, Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden).

Finally, Kathy Cotton (Gillian Taylforth) continued to resist the attempts by her estranged ‘husband’ Tom “Rocky” Cotton (Brian Conley) to reconcile, full of heartache over his fiery insurance scam that claimed her cafe and almost killed her grandsons.

As the episode closed, the residents of Walford gathered at the carol concert which featured lead vocals from Howie Danes (Delroy Atkins).

Amidst this, Jay Brown (Jamie Borthwick) finally listened to an emotional Christmas video message left by his late wife Lola Pearce-Brown (Danielle Harold) in the car lot.

Balvinder Sopal as Suki Kaur Panesar, Gillian Taylforth as Kathy Beale, Lacey Turner as Stacey Slater, Diane Parish as Denise Fox, Letitia Dean as Sharon Watts and Kellie Bright as Linda Carter in EastEnders.
The EastEnders Six stand over a dead body at the Queen Vic on Christmas Day.
BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron

A final montage showed The Six all looking angry and haunted by their various situations before the episode ended with a moody final shot of an empty Queen Vic at Christmas – where the body of a mystery man will soon be lying dead.

This is the last early BBC iPlayer release before Christmas Day as fans will have to tune in live at 9.45pm on Christmas Day on BBC One and BBC iPlayer if they want to see the truth.

However, fans will be able to catch the Boxing Day instalment from 6am on BBC iPlayer.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can visit Refuge for more information and contact 0808 2000 247 for support. Help can also be found at The Hideout and Rape Crisis.

Read more:

EastEnders airs Mondays to Thursdays at 7:30pm on BBC One and from 6am on BBC iPlayer.

Visit our dedicated EastEnders page for all the latest news, interviews and spoilers. If you’re looking for more to watch, check out our TV Guide and Streaming Guide.

Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.