Janine Butcher (Charlie Brooks) emerged victorious from her battle with Linda Carter (Kellie Bright) on tonight’s EastEnders (5th April), as Mick Carter (Danny Dyer) ultimately sided with her over his estranged wife.
Linda returned in last night’s episode to attend Tina’s (Luisa Bradshaw-White) funeral, but caused a scene when she recognised Janine as Judith Bernstein, the woman she met at Christmas who convinced her to split from Mick and tempted her back to alcohol.
The chaos truly began when Linda witnessed Janine comforting Mick during the emotional service, and she stormed out. But even Shirley (Linda Henry) was (sort of) on Team Janine this time, as she defended her for her sensitivity.
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Seeking her own comfort from a bottle, a drunk Linda was later spotted by pal Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) and persuaded to skip the wake and stay at her house for the night.
Sharon then filled Linda in on devious Janine’s track record, and Linda kicked herself as she had thought the woman looked familiar during her encounter with Janine. To be fair to Linda, though, she had only previously met Janine once before, several years ago now. Rather than playing the long game, as Sharon was keen to suggest, Linda slipped away and headed back to the Queen Vic for the confrontation she craved.
As she tried and failed to get Mick to understand Janine’s hand in their impending divorce, he maintained that Janine was his friend, and a furious Linda lashed out at the manipulative woman. With the Carters and their punters looking on, Linda and Janine were caught up in a brawl, but Linda was horrified when Mick stepped in to help Janine, and she was left feeling more isolated than ever.
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While Mick and Linda’s daughter Nancy (Maddy Hill) struggled to cope with her mum’s outburst and leant on boyfriend Zack Hudson (James Farrar) for support, Janine approached Mick in the aftermath of the dramatic day.
He thanked her for everything she had done for him, totally oblivious to the fact that Linda was telling the truth about Janine’s antics. Janine was then thrilled when Mick kissed her, before he pulled away and promised to finalise his divorce to Linda so they could be together officially.
Janine responded with a grin, while on the other side of the Square, a drunken Linda was being put to bed by Sharon. Can Linda get her life back on track and destroy Janine, or has Janine had the last laugh?
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