The Top Ten Most EXPLOSIVE Moments in Eastenders This Week

As the first week of the New Year comes to a close, resolutions come into full swing. One of mine is a weekly run down of the ten biggest moments in Albert Square.  And what a great week to start off on with the episodes mainly taken up by plans for a heist and the arrival of a whole set of new characters. It goes without saying that if you’ve not watched this week’s antics and you don’t want to be spoiled then it’s probably best that you leave now.

10. Max is a changed man.

We find Max at the start of the week not at the bedside of Lauren or Abbie but sleeping rough in the backseat of a car. Bit random. He sets about doing a weird ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ parody as he tries to sell back all the properties that Weylands acquired. It didn’t really make sense. All you need to take from this is that the storyline about destroying Albert Square is over. Hurrah.

9. ‘It’s a lot of nonsense. Forget about it’

Staying on that note, we’re treated to an excellently brutal end of a storyline that just wasn’t meant to be. Do you remember that apeshit episode in August when Phil told Jay that Jase wasn’t actually his Dad and that he had in fact killed the biological father in the car lot fire? Well it doesn’t matter because it was all swept under the carpet in approximately ten seconds as Max told Jay that he’d dreamt the whole story up and it should be forgotten. It doesn’t make any sense but my advice is the fewer questions the better and we should all just be happy that everything in the world of Jay and Phil has been restored to normal.

8. Jack and Max are friends again.

Again, in a series of ‘We’re rewriting everything’, they’ve decided to make Max and Jack brothers in arms once more. It was probably for the best since in the coming weeks, Max is going to need all the support he can get. In fairness, it was a good scene and it made sense that Max would reach out to his brother on the first anniversary of Roxy and Ronnie dying. What was slightly strange but no one else remembered but hey, if you began poking holes in the realism of the square this week then we’d probably be here until the end of time.

7. Kathy has a tea party that is girls only.

Another feature of the New Year Episode was a party hosted in the café by Kathy. It was quite nice to have a reason to get all the female characters together. They laughed and bickered together showing that they could be a powerful unit on their own. It did annoy the feminist in me that whilst all the men were getting ready to have a heist, the girls were sat gossiping whilst drinking alcohol-infused tea. That’s probably a little harsh though as it was really an excuse to increase Kathy’s reputation as the matriarch of the Square and that can only be a good thing.

6. Kim emotionally comes clean about her miscarriage.

So basically ‘The Daily Express’ ran a stupid story about how people thought it was discussing that Kim, Denise and Carmel all sat on the floor of the pub toilet to talk about Kim’s loss. That was entirely missing the point though. Kim is forced to confess as Denise finds a pregnancy test and for once adds two and two together to get four. She is understanding and compassionate giving the Kim the closure she needed. Not only that but given the fact she came birth to one child in the same spot, it seemed quite fitting that she’d also find acceptance in the same spot.

5. The heist goes completely wrong.

I mean you didn’t need to be a psychic to work out this one was going to happen, did you? Aidan gives the boys the full plan and everything seems to be going smoothly until Shirley decides to try and lock Mick away so that he can’t be part of the team. Eventually he gets out and I honestly thought they’d done that thing where you put the conflict in the middle so you can end with it all going swimmingly. LOL NO.

4. Mick gets SHOT.

Aye so I was totes wrong. The New Year’s Day special ends with someone getting shot. That person turns out to be Mick. It’s not really that serious an issue though and whilst the next episode was dedicated to getting him treatment without going to the hospital, we soon work out that he’s going to be totally fine. Got to hand it to the writers though, it was a very fun way to introduce two new characters and got the balance of fun but also jeopardy just about right.

3.  Masood is back and he’s brought some incredible family members with him!

So we already new Masood was coming back but isn’t it absolutely incredible to have him back for good? It was a joke – basically criminal, really – which the old governor gave Masood the boot and it’s brilliant to see him returned to the Square. He brings with him an Aunt and Uncle we’ve never seen before. It was nice for the soap to have some meta dialogue that basically bemoaned the lack of diversity in Walford. Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of that. I’m hoping that along with more BAME diversity we might also see the Square become more queer as well. But that’s a chat for another time. Back to these new characters. Whilst I’m sure the Uncle will in time become a familiar face, the Aunt – Mariam - basically became an instant classic. Tough talking and also a one time nurse that’s able to help Mick, she was unbelievably incredible and loveable within the first twenty minutes of airtime.

2. The guy that shot Mick ends up working in the pub.

Alright, so this was random but in a brilliant way. Before the heist begins, Mick gets a text from an old friend of Lee’s saying he’ll be in town. His name is Halfway and it turns out that he’s one of the armed guards that is travelling with the van Aidan is planning to rob. Halfway is obviously out of his depth and is mortified to have shot Mick. He apologises and ends up working in the Queen Vic before the week is out. You couldn’t make this up!!!

1.  Aidan’s true intentions are revealed.

Well it turns out that Aidan had a reason for coming back to the Square and it’s all to do with Vincent. Basically, Aidan was planning on killing Vincent in a revenge act. When Vincent was a police informant he gave information that ended up getting Aidan’s brother, Conor, behind bars. Conor ended up killing himself so Aidan blames Vincent and decides to seek vengeance by murdering Vincent. Have no fear though because Phil steps in, saving Vincent.

I did say that it was a mammoth week in Eastenders and I wasn’t lying. I’ve not even been able to fit in that Lauren is on the mend but that Abby is brain dead. Max is refusing to let them turn the machines off though and has sought out a court order. Also, it turns out Aidan was robbing off his ex wife who is now on the Square looking for her money. She can’t find the money but it turns out that Aidan got Billy to hide it who has now lost it so no one knows where it is. We’ll have to tune in next week to work out what’s going on. I’m proper excited because Mel Owen is returning. Whoop, Whoop.