This week on EastEnders, Nicola and Harry get their revenge on Ravi, the search for a care home for Nigel begins, Max tries to prove himself, and a new character arrives with a connection to Linda.

1) Nigel gets distressed on his first care home visit
After giving Nigel (Paul Bradley) the perfect Christmas, next week sees Phil (Steve McFadden) and Julie (Karen Henthorn) resume the difficult task of searching for a care home for him.

 

 

After the events on the days surrounding Nigel’s film premiere, which saw Nigel accidentally knock Julie while searching for his cufflinks, then get transported back in time as he saw visions of Pat (Pam St Clement), Barry (Shaun Williamson) and late wife Debbie (Nicola Duffett) in The Vic, Phil came around to Julie’s idea that they needed help with Nigel’s care.

Tomorrow, the pair take Nigel to visit a care home, where the nurses show them around and explain how they care for people living with dementia.

Phil and Julie quickly decide to take Nigel home, agreeing that they’ll continue their search for a suitable home without the pressure of needing to make an immediate decision.

The following day, Julie starts looking for alternative options, but Phil makes it clear that Nigel needs to have a say in where he ends up.

Later on, as Phil and Nigel share a warm moment together, Nigel talks about how much he’d love to go to the beach.

Meanwhile, Julie prepares to head out of Albert Square, returning to Scotland where she’s organising to put her and Nigel’s family house up for sale to pay for his new care residence.

Will the pair manage to find Nigel somewhere suitable to live?

2) Jean’s mental health continues to worsen
Nigel isn’t the only EastEnders favourite suffering at the moment – Stacey’s (Lacey Turner) departure, the ordeal with Zoe (Michelle Ryan) and Jasmine (Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness), and Freddie’s (Bobby Brazier) trip around the world has led to some concerning behaviour from Jean (Gillian Wright).

Recently, she’s continued to refuse to see a doctor despite Lily’s (Lillia Turner) previous efforts to get her to speak to the new deceased Anthony (Nicholas Bailey).

Next week, the consequences of the dramatic Christmas Day episodes continue to impact on the Slaters – and with Zoe having been charged with Anthony’s murder, Kat sets out on a mission to help her daughter.

With some help from Sam’s (Kim Medcalf) connections, will she be able to find Chrissie Watts (Tracy-Ann Oberman) before it’s too late?

Meanwhile, Jean’s loved ones continue to be concerned for her ever-worsening mental health, as she puts together an incident board in a personal effort to work out who killed Anthony, determined to help crack the case and free Zoe, “regardless of what I might think of her!”

Eve (Heather Peace) joins Lily in supporting Jean, but the pair fear that she needs professional help.

Later, Yolande (Angela Wynter) becomes the next resident to express her concerns, as she tells Alfie that she’s worried about Jean’s behaviour.

He tries to talk to Jean about what’s going on with her, but it doesn’t seem like he’s able to get through to her either, as it’s not long before her behaviour causes even more concern.

3) Nicola plots her revenge on Ravi
Last week’s episodes saw Harry (Elijah Holloway) return to Albert Square, but while he seemed much better after his stint in rehab, it didn’t take long for his good mood to turn when he spotted that Ravi (Aaron Thiara) had also returned to a warm welcome from Priya (Sophie Khan Levy) and the kids.

A chat with Phil saw Walford’s hard man imply to Harry that the only way to solve his problems was to deal with the root cause, prompting Harry to take a wrench from Mitchell’s Autos and prepare to jump Ravi in an effort to take his revenge.

Thankfully, Nicola (Laura Doddington) spotted Harry just in the knick of time and stopped him from doing something stupid, but next week Harry continues to insist that he wants to take revenge.

Nicola agrees, but tells him that he needs to wait for the right time – but when Harry sees Ravi living the perfect family life soon after, he decides he can’t wait.

Nicola once again steps in to stop him doing something he might come to regret, and explains that she’s already got a plan to make sure that Ravi pays for what he did. And it’s not long until we find out exactly what that plan is!

4) Ravi gets a taste of his own medicine.
In Wednesday’s episode, Ravi feels left out when the rest of the family head for an interview with Suki (Balvinder Sopal) and Eve’s adoption assessors, and as he heads to Harry’s Barn (or all places!) for a drink, Nicola takes the opportunity to spike his drink with drugs.

As Ravi staggers outside, clearly having been badly affected by the drugs, it’s Harry’s turn to play his part in Nicola’s evil plan.

He approaches a woozy Ravi and steers him towards The Arches, before putting him in the pit.

It’s not long before Harry is interrupted as Billy (Perry Fenwick) arrives at the garage, and Harry has to quickly leave with him so that he doesn’t find Ravi there.

Back on the square, Priya begins to worry when she can’t find her partner, with no idea that Ravi is struggling in the pit as his hallucinations get more intense!

In Thursday’s episode, a distressed Ravi manages to climb out of the pit as the effects of the drugs get even more intense.

Meanwhile, Priya has enlisted Vinny (Shiv Jalota) and Nugget (Juhaim Rasul Choudhury) to help search for Ravi, but as he becomes increasingly frightened by his hallucinations, he lashes out!

Plus, why is Nicola talking to Nugget alone in McLunky’s?

Is Nicola and Harry’s revenge going to come back to bite them?

5) Max tries to prove himself
What a couple of weeks for Max Branning (Jake Wood). He spent New Year’s Eve alone after being kicked out of Harry’s Barn by his family, who were all seeing in the new year together – just days after Max discovered that Annie (Lois Hawkins) is actually his child, and after inadvertently sleeping with Cindy (Michelle Collins) at the end of an equally eventful Christmas Day.

We took a brief trip into 2027 in EastEnders‘ New Year’s Day episode, where we discovered that a year from now, Max will be waking up in bed with a pregnant woman on his wedding day, but it seems that the pregnant woman isn’t his wife.

(Kellie Bright), Denise (Diane Parish), Chelsea (Zaraah Abrahams) or Cindy!

Frustratingly, we didn’t get to learn the identity of Max’s wife-to-be or his mistress, and we could have a long wait on our hands to find out exactly who it is.

Then there was the small issue of Max’s arrest, having been caught up in some as-yet-undisclosed drama with some bad men! It’s set to be an explosive year for Max as we put together the pieces before returning to the scene on New Year’s Day 2027.

Next week, we return to Max’s current life in 2026. He’s busy trying to spend time with Lauren (Jacqueline Jossa) and Oscar (Pierre Moullier), having promised them that he’s going to be a good father from now on, but the pair of them rebuff his efforts.

Determined to prove he wants to stick around and be a good father to both them and Annie, Max begins searching for a job.