EastEnders spoilers follow for Friday’s (December 22) episode which is now available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
With just days to go until Christmas, Linda Carter (Kellie Bright) confronted rapist Dean Wicks (Matt Di Angelo) in a heated showdown over his latest cruel act, with things taking an unexpected turn.
The landlady of the Queen Vic has been through hell this past year after losing her beloved Mick (Danny Dyer), who disappeared at sea while trying to rescue her from the treacherous waves.
Dean, who raped her nine years ago, then staged a comeback at Halloween and proceeded make Linda’s life a living hell, with his twisted actions resulting in her falling off the wagon.
But Linda’s attention was elsewhere earlier this week when she received a text message, with the sender claiming to be Mick. Elaine Peacock (Harriet Thorpe) was adamant that it was a scam and even suggested that Dean was responsible.
Linda, however, dared to believe that her beloved Mick was still alive and thus agreed to meet the sender in the place where she and her soulmate got married and, lo and behold, Dean reared his ugly head, confirming that it was he who sent the text message.
Horrified by the depths of his depravity, Linda proceeded to berate him. Dean, however, stated that he wanted to do the right thing and therefore he pretended to be Mick in order to get her attention.
Confused, Linda asked him to elaborate, with Dean doing just that, revealing that he wonders if daughter Jade, who needs a lung transplant, is suffering so much because of his sins.
As a result, he finally admitted that he raped Linda. Linda urged him to say the words aloud and, after some resistance, he finally did so.
Linda, however, bravely stood up to him and refused to forgive him, reiterating that what he’s just done wasn’t for her benefit but rather it was for his own and that of his family’s, branding him a ‘coward’.
Dean went to grab Linda, who retaliated by smacking him across the face, knocking him straight to the ground, where she proceeded to kick him. Afterwards, she returned to the Square and broke down in Sharon Watts’ (Letitia Dean) arms, finally accepting that Mick is gone for good.
But as the episode came to a close, Linda’s eyes brushed past the bottle of alcohol in the kitchen and, as she stood watching the Christmas choir, she seemed to be somewhat inebriated, staring at Dean.
Has Linda fallen off the wagon again? What’s more, will her anger towards Dean result in the rapist winding up dead on Christmas Day? Or will it be one of the other six men that perishes?
EastEnders airs Mondays to Thursdays at 7:30pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
