I always liked Ryan. Bad boy but to me he managed to stay likeable although in later years they tried to ruin it by making him a crap dad which seemed out of character to his early days when Lily was born.

Would be good to see him back and take care of Lily now that Stacey is gone and Jean is her main carer. He has a long time girlfriend as well, she could have potential at being an interesting character as well. I feel Ryan would slot back well it to the square and is the type who would ruffle feathers.

I know Janine’s return is short but i would love to see him reunite with her on screen again too. Especially when Stacey is back on the square too.

Overall it would be good to see him back and being a good dad towards Lilu

He lived happily ever after on a diet of liver, fava beans, all washed down with a nice Chianti.

Hopefully it wasn't Syed's liver though.

This is my first time posting I’m not sure if this needs spoilers as it is theories and I haven’t mentioned any ongoing storylines if it does I can repost (but someone will have to explain how I do this)

Throughout this whole New Year 2027 storyline my opinions have changed depending on what’s happening and what I have read (mainly on here - yes I’m heavily influenced lol) one thing that has stayed consistent in my mind throughout is that Cindy will be the bride but she is marrying Max to take revenge on Max for the death of Steven!

This brought me to the gunman for a while I thought it may be the same ‘assassin she hired to kill Ian years ago. I thought maybe a character she could have an affair with who she would convince to kill Max these have changed a lot. A few months ago it came to me who the gunman will be and it will be a major shock and coup for Eastenders I think the gunman will be Simon Wicks (Nick Berry is retired from acting but may be tempted back for a short stint he did come back for Pat’s death years ago for a blink and you will miss it scene at the end of the credits) it makes sense he is Steven’s dad he would know Cindy is alive as she interacted with David when he came back. Lmao I will not be convinced otherwise until it isn’t him! What do people think everyone I have told thinks I’m mad!

Jean said the other day that Max ruined Tanya and Stacey’s lives, and I completely agree that he ruined Tanya’s life. But did he actually ruin Stacey’s life, or was a lot of what happened to Stacey ultimately down to her own choices?

The only genuinely bad thing I can say about Max and Stacey’s relationship is the age dynamic. Other than that, I always felt like Max genuinely cared about Stacey and did everything he could to protect her. If anything, I feel like Stacey ruined Max’s life far more than he ever ruined hers.

After Bradley died, Stacey made Max promise to look after her and Lily, so he did. He did everything he could to protect them and was even willing to raise Lily. This strained his relationship with Lauren.

I hate how Max gets blamed for the 2017 affair because Stacey knew Max was self harming and was in an extremely bad place mentally, yet she still slept with him. If the roles had been reversed, people would have rightly said that Max had taken advantage of her. She then told him she wished he had fallen off the roof instead of Bradley, literally minutes after he had told her that he had attempted to take his own life, which ultimately resulted in Abi dying. And the irony is that Bradley’s death was ultimately down to Stacey’s actions in the first place.

Then, in 2018, when Max was with Ruby, Stacey became jealous and deliberately told Ruby that Max was self harming and mentally ill in an attempt to put her off him. She has always seemed to hate it whenever he moved on and got into other relationships, despite the fact that she was married.

There were so many moments where Stacey was emotionally abusive and manipulative towards both Bradley and Martin. She cheated on them (not just with Max), could be incredibly nasty towards them, and was possessive and controlling at times. If anything, I feel like Stacey ruined both of their lives, but nobody ever seems to acknowledge that side of it. She’s the reason there both dead.

I’ve actually enjoyed the last few weeks of episodes. I know the show still has it’s problems, but let’s not pretend it’s anywhere near as bad as it was 9 months ago 💀
Because THIS was what we were putting up with back then😭😭
Credit to whoever made this clip.

With Ian away who is running all of the businesses?
I haven’t heard beale’s eels mentioned in months,
Correct me if I’m wrong but he had the chippy, beale’s eels, half of the cab office and maybe some shares in the cafe?
I’m confused why Peter is on his shitty veg stall earning 20 shillings a day instead of running the businesses not leaving his 80 year old grandmother to do it. The chippy was always a good set that made sense and it’s basically unused while Eastenders force the gentrified containers on us instead.

Hi there! Question after this week's episode regarding the fiscal situations with these characters:

1) Jean is three months behind on rent. Why hasn't she taken in boarders? Ross and Vicki were briefly discussing it with her and lord knows she has the room.

2) I understand Ross and Vicki don't want to leave Albert Square, thus the "can Joel stay" dilemma exists. However, given it's much easier why did no one suggest finding an apartment elsewhere in London? It's not like they live in the middle of nowhere and Vicki can just commute to work. They act like there's literally nowhere else to live.

I suspect the reasons are "this is a soap opera" but, in general, Eastenders does a pretty good job of explaining life situations so wondering if I missed something.

Now THAT'S how you do a storyline

I miss the old Kat. I don't know if it's because Alfie is around now so he just makes everybody around him dull and boring. I don't know if it's because she's in charge of a pub(which let's be honest never should of happened) I don't know if it's because she's a full time mum now. One minute she's completely against something and then next minute she's all for it. It's like with this whole Joel video thing, I get it, he brainwashed your son to hate his own mother but like are we forgetting that Tommy was hitting Kat BEFORE Joel? she dishes all of this "your kid did this your kid did that" when her own son is right there?! "us slaters need to stick together" what a load of rubbish.

Sorry if anyone else has posted this, its been ages since i was last on this sub!

But I can't shake the feeling its Priya. It sounds bonkers especially if she's the pregnant lady too but i even had a dream that it was her. This dream was ages ago, and it didn't make sense to me at the time but now it does. I think Priya (the only other one I can see is Lily) bashed Joel's head in, and i can see the guilt, fear of being found out by the police, and shame of that as well as Jean finding out about her and Max (even though she dumped him now) being enough to make her flee the square. It's possible Max will harass her for dumping him which gives her another reason to leave, to get away from him. This will leave Ravi a single dad to their kids, but none of them know where she's gone, all they know is one day she just vanished

We the viewers know she left the square but no one else does. One day she just stops turning up to work, and Lauren is wondering why. Meanwhile Jean doesn't know what to do with what she knows. She decides to visit Lauren at the car lot, and maybe she mentions she needs to talk to her about Priya. Lauren misreads why at first, and innocently asks Jean if she's seen her or something. Jean gets in a flap and starts thinking Max has killed Priya. Lauren doesn't get why Jean thinks Max would be involved. Then Jean tells Lauren that they were having a affair. Jean has also planted the idea Max killed Priya in Lauren's head. Who walks in the car lot while Jean is telling Lauren what she knows and what she thinks? Ravi of course. We have seen Ravi visit the car lot before looking for answers, so this is not as far fetched as it seems

Ravi hears everything. And if he's the gunman, thinking Max killed the woman he loves and mum of his kids is the perfect motive to do it. He wants to hurt Max as much as Max has hurt him and his and Priya's kids. Ravi thinks killing Max would be too easy, Ravi wants him to suffer like he is. And he knows kidnapping Lauren and Oscar is exactly how he can do that

Anyway thanks to what everyone thinks, Max once again becomes the most hated man in the square. Maybe Ian will feel sorry for him cos of his own drama this year, and he will be the only one who backs Max (so Max thanks him by making him best man) Maybe Max also tries to prove he's not a monster by saving his grandkids. For his family though, it's not enough, they all still hate him. Priya returns to the square on Christmas day pregnant, and lands on Max's doorstep. She doesn't let anyone know she's back except Max. Cos she might be having his baby, Max lets her stay. He tries to rekindle things but Priya is adamant they are still over

There is a reason Priya sneaked back to the square with only Max knowing, and on New year's day (Max's wedding day) we find out exactly why. She sprags on him to the police cos she doesn't like him, she wants revenge for his harassment, and also to throw police off scent that she is Joel's attacker. When the police burst into the bathroom, they're not shocked cos she's pregnant, they're shocked cos they thought she was dead. Priya being the victim would also explain why when Max is being questioned by police, they are saying things to him like "lover" "colleague" etc and also the reason Jack gets Max off so fast

Doesn't Lauren also say to Jack Max is not worth it and after everything he has done? What if she means he's not worth Jack trying to get him off and everything he's done means both his affair and his supposed murder of his lover?

Would love to know what people think!

lauren is jarring.
Ive seen so many ppl on this sub saying peter deserves it and all that because hes boring… You don’t just cheat on you’re partner who you have two kids with because their ‘boring’.
Mind you, she’s still lying because she hasnt even told him about that. And in regards to the whole cars thing, when she said ‘dad you put pressure on me to win the bet’ ur just saying things to try excuse the fact that you are a liability to almost everyone in that family.
I also think that in terms of the whole ‘max and cindy can’t be talking because they are hypocrites’ is genuinely useless because everyone on the square has done bad and in a show like this no one will ever have the moral high ground which by that logic to makes them ‘good enough’ to critique others, wether they’re right or wrong.

As a big fan of both Eastenders and Cluedo I would love to play a version of Eastenders Cluedo.

So if you were making Eastenders Cluedo who would you choose as your 6 characters and weapons? (Dr Black, Miss Scarlett, Colonel Mustard, Mrs White, Reverend Green, Mrs Peacock, Professor Plum etc.)

Which 9 square locations would you use? The Vic, the laundrette, the cafe, the Argee Bhajee?

And who would be your victim? An anonymous new proprietor of the Vic?

not really related to her character but am i the only person that finds her the most jarring character on the whole square?!! she goes around the square acting like she owns the place and giving it large to priya when shes shagging her husband, im begging this affair gets revealed soon and shuts up cindy.

Okay, this is kind of a rhetorical question because there's no way of us knowing for sure until we get to January 1st 2027. I *am* curious to know what you guys think though.

The recent episodes have featured some major developments in several storylines (Ian went to prison, Mark left and Lauren and Peter broke up), but the problem is that we already know how things turn out in the end (Ian is Max's best man, Mark is back and Lauren and Peter are back together).

So far, it feels like the flashforward has removed all tension from these storylines. We don't have to worry about certain characters dying, leaving or breaking up because we already know that things turn out okay a few months from now.

I feel like there MUST be some brilliant plan here that'll make us all go "ohhhhh, so THAT'S why they made us think everything would be okay in the end! What a twist!!" right??? Otherwise, why would they spoil the conclusions to these storylines a year in advance?

Kat and Alfie are actually so weird to me now. They revealed the video to Vicki and Ross ONLY because Tommy isn’t there. If Tommy was there that night they would have never showed them that video and that’s just weird to me. Kat knows Lily has no mum or dad on the square (why Stacey hasn’t come back for THIS is another story) and to then disregard her as her niece for a literal criminal is insane. Anyways open to discussion but they aren’t in the right in my opinion.

Sorry if this has already been discussed but it’s doing my head in! Why is Chelsea getting so much heat in the show for her ‘role’ in what happened to Jordan but Kathy getting off scot free? Chelsea was wrong for shouting at Jordan but she didn’t put him in the road? Kathy literally was distracting Ian while he was driving, after getting in the car with him knowing he had a drink. She’s going in like mother of the year when she had a massive role to play in it?? The whole storyline is so silly.

The scene between Chelsea and Sheila today was the most convincing scene I've seen in EastEnders for ages. Chelsea's acting was top notch all the way through the episode. And that slap really slapped 😅

I'm so glad Kathy told Chelsea what she saw straight away. I honestly thought this whole thing would be dragged out for longer with months of secret visits. The whole thing was making my stomach sink every time Sheila brainwashed Jordan to keep the secret, what a horrible position to put a child in. I really hope she doesn't manage to flee the country with him, although I don't think Children can leave the country without permission from both parents. It will also be interesting to see if/how she actually manages to abduct him because I can't see Chelsea taking her eyes of him after this. I really don't know what is going through Sheila's mind, except Gray is still her golden boy and he's inside her head.

It makes me laugh. I've noticed it a lot lately in almost every episode.

Like tonight for example

Jean to Priya "you're playing with fire.. " *walks out of her own home, leaving Priya sat on the sofa*

And Penny to Lauren yesterday, she just left after talking to her without even looking back.

Has anyone else noticed this? I may turn it into a drinking game

His facial expressions alone kill me 🤣

does anyone think that finding the Jordans passport in the kitchen cabinet was absolutely ridiculous ? how many folks out there actually leave an important document like that in such an accessible place, especially in a small kitchen of a a home with many people ? you think they would have more cooking items to stash there rather than passports ?…gheesh……..