Episode 6994

The episode revolved around the aftermath of David Wicks (Michael French) finding out about Cindy Beale's (Michelle Collins) affair with Junior Knight (Micah Balfour).

The episode also sees Junior ask his father, George Knight (Colin Salmon), for relationship advice.

The episode ends on a Cliffhanger where it is revealed that Cindy's admission that she is having an affair with Junior and that she is still in love with George has been recorded.

Cindy takes David to Beale's Eels, Walford's Pie and Mash shop, where her daughter Anna Knight (Molly Rainford) and Freddie Slater (Bobby Brazier) are working their recording of the birds they have been watching.

She tells David that she fell in love with him and then he cast her aside, and how he also broke the hearts of other women and abandoned his children Joe Wicks (Paul Nicholls) and Bianca Jackson (Patsy Palmer), accusing him of Double standard and ruining people's lives.

Cindy slaps David when he accuses her of not caring about the deaths of two of her children, Lucy (Hetti Bywater) and Steven Beale (Aaron Sidwell), when she was in witness protection.

Following Cindy's encouragement to not leave Bianca, David then offers his daughter to join him in his trip to Northern England so that he can look after her and introduce her to someone.

[1] Spoilers for this episode from Digital Spy reported that Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins) would face a "difficult time" and be forced to "juggle several tricky situations".

[3] An EastEnders insider explained that George would be "absolutely horrified" if he knew that Junior was involved with Cindy as she used to be his stepmother and is the mother of his half-sisters, as well as being "supposedly committed" to Ian, making the situation "icky".

[5] Collins revealed that prior to their reunion, Cindy had hated David as he let "utterly" her down in 1996 by breaking up with her at Waterloo Station instead of supporting her like he had promised.

[5] Collins believed that Cindy and David were "doomed" as they were "two lonely people craving danger", calling them "exciting" and having "amazing chemistry" back in the 1990s.

[5] Collins enjoyed working with French again, calling him a "great actor" and "wickedly funny" who loves "experimenting" in scenes.

[4] The end of the episode featured a cameo return of Paul Nicholls as Joe Wicks, who had previously appeared as a regular character from 1996 to 1997.

[13] David is then seeing leaving Albert Square to travel to Joe and Holly, marking French's departure from the soap.

[14][2] "Just when we thought EastEnders couldn't make [David's] return any more iconic, the BBC soap aired a last-minute cameo that long-term viewers are sure to love".

[8] His colleague, Harriet Mitchell, called the episode's cliffhanger "huge" and she questioned whether Freddie would hear Cindy's admission and reveal her secret.

"[14] Denby called the recording of the Cindy's "twisted" admission of her affair and being in love with George "a ticking timebomb" that could worsen the situation.

[11][12] Daniel Bird from the Daily Mirror wrote how fans were "stunned" over Joe's surprise cameo, calling it an "on-screen bombshell", a "major" cliffhanger and the "shocking" return of an "iconic" character.

[5] Ellis also noted how David's returned resulted in an other love interest in Cindy's life, in addition to Ian, Junior and George.

[10] She also wrote that Freddie would be in for "quite a shock" when he listens to the microphone recorded and believed that Cindy's affair would not be kept a secret for much longer.