Walford sees new characters arrive in next week’s episodes that will leave Linda and Suki rocked to the core. But an affair is in danger as the couple potentially gets caught out
EastEnders welcomes a string of new dilemmas in next week’s episodes as two new characters arrive in Albert Square.
Linda Carter (played by Kellie Bright) is left in shock when a contact of Dean Wicks (Matt Di Angelo) turns up at The Queen Vic to offer her a deal.
As fans of the BBC One soap will know, Dean is in prison awaiting trial for the murder of Keanu Taylor (Danny Walters). His surprise arrest came after Keanu’s true killer Linda told the police how she saw Dean at the murder scene on Christmas Day 2023.
As Fraser (Greg Esplin) accosts vulnerable Linda, Elaine Peacock (Harriet Thorpe), intervenes and orders him to leave the pub.
But once Linda is alone with her son Johnny (Charlie Suff), it becomes clear she is tempted to accept Dean’s deal. Lawyer Johnny tries desperately to get his mum to see sense but she turns to the bottle once more.
The next day, Linda wakes up with a hangover at The Vic and realises she forgot Annie’s dentist appointment leaving Elaine concerned.
When Elaine offers to take Annie, suffering Linda becomes defensive, but she’s later horrified when the dentist reveals that Annie’s dental care has slipped.
Linda then turns to Jack Branning (Scott Maslen) for advice. But later in the week, Linda makes a shock discovery while bottling up.
The landlady is left terrified after receiving a blackmail letter as she and Johnny try to determine who might have sent it.
Johnny summons Denise Fox (Diane Parish) and Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) to reveal all, but Linda arrives home to a second letter.
She loses control and causes a scene when she starts accusing individuals in The Vic. Johnny consoles her upstairs whilst unbeknownst to them, the culprit sending the letters is visiting Dean, but who is it?
Across the Square, Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins) is upset when her love interest Junior Knight (Micah Balfour) is distracted with work, and decides to make him jealous by agreeing to an innocent drink with Harry Mitchell (Elijah Holloway) in The Vic.
Later, Junior heads to No.45 and the pair sleep together behind Ian Beale’s (Adam Woodyatt) back.
Cindy and Junior arrange another afternoon delight at No.45 but their plans are set to be scuppered when Peter Beale (Thomas Law) has to attend a meeting and can’t manage Beale’s Eels.
She soon enlists Bobby (Clay Milner Russell) to help by promoting him to manager, but it’s clear Bobby is not up to the job. Back at No.45, Cindy and Junior rip each other’s clothes off.
Later in the week, Bobby continues to try and prove his managerial skills at Beale’s Eels but he grows suspicious when Cindy heads home with a migraine.
At No.45, Cindy meets with Junior as the pair make to head upstairs as Bobby arrives. Will he catch Cindy and Junior in the act?
Elsewhere, Suki (Balvinder Sopal) and Vinny Panesar (Shiv Jalota) have lunch at Walford East to discuss their plans for dying Nish (Navin Chowdhry).
But the mum and son duo are interrupted when Nish arrives with a guest in tow– Ayesha, the widow of Hardeep who Nish killed 20 years ago.
Suki is stunned to see Ayesha (Laila Rouass) after all this time, but it’s not a happy reunion as Ayesha riles at Nish for his crime before fleeing.
Suki follows Ayesha and the pair head back to No.41. Later, the pair go to The Vic for a drink with Eve Unwin (Heather Peace) where Nish spies an opportunity to meddle as he plants a seed of doubt in Eve’s head about their close bond.
After a run-in in the café with Nish, Eve makes a decision and heads to The Vic to propose to Suki in front of Ayesha, Stacey and the Panesars.
But during a heart to heart with Nugget (Juhaim Rasul Choudhury), terminally ill Nish reveals that his only wish is to have Suki by his side when he dies.
EastEnders airs Monday – Thursday on BBC1 and iPlayer
