WALFORD residents are getting ready to bid a final farewell to beloved hairstylist Lola Pearce who succumbed to her brain tumour.
But after an emotional funeral, explosive drama continues to unfold in EastEnders as the Knights recover from a bombshell.
George Knight was told his wife wasn’t who she said she was
Walford residents get ready to say goodbye to Lola Pearce
The hairstylist succumbed to a terminal brain tumour
But there’s some heavy drama ahead for the Knights
1. Gina and Anna look for the truth
Francesca Henry is thrown in her own storyline, weeks following her arrival in the BBC One soap, as her character Gina Knight struggles with the knowledge her mother Rose may not have even existed in the first place.
Rose Knight walked out on her own family nine years ago, leaving her then-husband George Knight (portrayed by Colin Salmon) to raise their two daughters Anna and Gina.
However, in soap-history-making scenes, George was told by Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) that his wife wasn’t who she said she was.
Coming up, George decides to seek answers and covers when questioned by his fiancée Elaine Peacock (Harriet Thorpe) but his lies are quickly rumbled.
Elaine confronts George and he is forced to reveal all but the pair are interrupted by an unsuspecting Anna (Molly Rainford) who demands to know the truth.
George shares the news about Rose to a shocked Anna but he insists she must keep it a secret from her sister Gina for fear of history repeating itself.
The Knights and Elaine busily prepare for Lola Pearce’s wake while a guilty Anna struggles to stay quiet about her mother.
Awash with guilt, she decides to reveal all to Gina… who insists she doesn’t want to know, unaware of the bombshell hidden from her.
But before long, Gina backtracks, saying she wants to hear the truth about her mum after all.
However, a worried Anna covers and insists it’s nothing.
Sensing her sister’s deception, Gina finally learns the truth from Elaine who believes she also deserves to know the truth like her sister.
Shaken by the truth, a broken Gina heads to local wine bar Peggy’s to drink her sorrows.
Back at The Vic, George panics when he learns that Gina knows the truth about Rose.
Later on at home, George consoles his two daughters but things go from bad to worse as he reveals what really happened all those years ago.
Gina and Anna are left heartbroken by their dad’s actions and the family could be broken by the deception.
Could this push both daughter to look for the truth about their mother?
Could they leave the Square to look for her?
Could Cindy aka Rose try to steal George back from Elaine?
2. New betrayal ahead
But if the Knights were to find out the truth about Rose, they wouldn’t be the only ones in shock.
Viewers of the London-based drama were shown that Rose was in fact former Walford villainess Cindy Beale.
After being thrown into the witness protection scheme to escape her former cellmate and gangster Jackie Ford, Cindy (played by the iconic Michelle Collins) took on the name of Rose and married George Knight.
But nine years ago – perhaps due to the shock of her daughter Lucy’s murder – Cindy aka Rose walked out on her new family and found comfort in France.
She since reconnected with former husband Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt), despite their deeply troubled past.
To top it all off, their son Peter (returning actor Thomas Law) joined them with his own son Louie, thus finding out his mother had never been dead after all.
In Thursday’s instalment of the long-running program, Lauren Branning (Jacqueline Jossa) found out that Cindy Beale was alive and left the family’s home in disgust.
Over on Twitter, one fan was over the moon to realise they’d been right all along as they’d predicted Cindy hadn’t died in prison and had been hiding all along.
This led them to theorise that Cindy may be playing a game with Ian Beale.
“Sorry but to go from George Knight straight back to Ian Beale of all people really?”, they penned.
“Cindy’s totally got to be playing the long game with him right?”
Could Cindy betray Ian and find her way back to George as she struggled with the guilt from abandoning her two daughters?
Is Ian right to trust Cindy?
Could Linda be reunited with her husband Mick?
3. Mick Carter return?
With Cindy Beale’s shocking return from the dead, EastEnders bosses proved that anything is possible – as long as no body is found.
Does this imply that Mick Carter could make a dramatic return of his own after being lost at sea?
Many soap viewers are convinced of it with one coming up with their own theory about the former Vic landlord.
“I’m also predicting that Mick Carter is currently recovering in France after having a bump on the head at sea”, they wrote.
According to this theory, “he has no idea who he is or where he’s from, but on the 40th Anniversary of Eastenders somebody will spot him with a new girl outside a French café.”
Will bosses opt for a similar storyline to bring Mick back to the Square?
EastEnders airs from Monday to Thursday at 7.30pm on BBC One.
