It was written by Daran Little, directed by Sophie Lifschutz, and executively produced by Dominic Treadwell-Collins.

The episode features the only appearance of the character Alison Slater, played by Denise Welch.

Alison insists she thought Brian was single when she met him and found out only four months after he died.

Sonia Fowler (Natalie Cassidy) prepares to visit a doctor after finding a lump in her breast.

She is accompanied by her girlfriend Tina Carter (Luisa Bradshaw-White), and the doctor refers Sonia for further tests.

Masood Ahmed (Nitin Ganatra) admits to Carmel Kazemi (Bonnie Langford) that the date he had the night before was a scam and he was mugged.

Masood later buys her chocolates but she tells Denise Fox (Diane Parish) in front of Masood that her son Shakil Kazemi (Shaheen Jafargholi) has told her that he overheard her former husband Umar (Selva Rasalingam) saying he regrets leaving her and wants to reunite.

The episode was written by Daran Little, directed by Sophie Lifschutz, and executively produced by Dominic Treadwell-Collins.

[6] An EastEnders source said, "Alison is finding it difficult to accept her daughter is now her son and the storyline will follow her meeting Kyle for the first time.

"[15] She added that the meeting is "awkward" for everyone involved, due to Kyle's transition and Alison being the woman that Stacey's father was bigamously married to, but explained that "Alison is straight to the point and jumps right in and talks to Stacey about it.

"[6] David Brown from Radio Times said that Kyle "will be thrown into a tailspin" by Alison's arrival, and that "tensions are running high" between them.

[21][22] The scenes involving Sonia, Tina and Dot are part of a wider storyline in which Sonia discovers she is carrying a mutated BRCA2 gene, inherited from her mother, Carol Jackson (Lindsey Coulson), putting her at a higher risk of breast cancer, and follow on from scenes in the previous episode where Sonia discovers Tina has cheated on her with Kyle's friend, Sophie Dodd (Poppy Rush).

"[23][24] Carl Greenwood from the Daily Mirror said that "Although [Carol] beat the disease, Sonia is understandably at her wits' end with worry about her own fate and turns to Dot Branning (June Brown) to help her through it.

"[26] An EastEnders source said that Carmel "found it hard to let him go, even as Umar didn't seem to give her a second thought.

[31] Digital Spy polled its readers on what they thought would be the best soap storyline in the upcoming week of 2 May 2016 out of a choice of five.

Welch's guest appearance as Alison was voted first with 37%, compared to storylines from Hollyoaks (29%), Emmerdale (18%), Coronation Street (11%) and Doctors (5%).

[35] Daniel Kilkelly from Digital Spy said the scenes of Alison rejecting Kyle were "heartbreaking" and "tear-jerking", and "packed a real emotional punch".

"[30] Laura-Jayne Tyler from the same publication praised Welch's performance, writing "This wasn't just your run-of-the-mill EastEnders guest appearance.