EastEnders airs shock confrontations for The Six in early BBC iPlayer release

The BBC One soap is building towards the scene of the six Walford matriarchs - Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner), Suki Panesar (Balvinder Sopal), Linda Carter (Kellie Bright), Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean), Denise Fox (Diane Parish), and Kathy Cotton (Gillian Taylforth) - standing over a mystery male body on Christmas Day in the Queen Vic pub.

On Friday, the action continued following detective Jack Branning (Scott Maslen) discovering that Eve Unwin (Heather Peace) is alive and planning to run away with lover Suki after framing evil Nish Panesar (Navin Chowdhry) and his bad boy son Ravi Gulati (Aaron Thiara) for her murder.

Jack then agreed to lover Stacey's request to hide this secret until Eve and Suki got away from Walford, but we later saw Jack furious to still find Suki on the Square - having delayed her and Eve's departure to make Christmas arrangements for step-grandson Davinder "Nugget" Gulati (Juhaim Rasul Choudhury). Suki threatened to expose Jack's tryst with Stacey to Denise and his children, buying her and Eve another 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Jack's love life got even worse after a furious row with lover Stacey, while his wife Denise refused to forgive him for emotionally blackmailing her into staying for the sake of his daughter Amy Mitchell (Ellie Dadd).

As Stacey interjected amid a row between Jack and Denise, the detective was left out in the cold and acted out - calling the police to let them know that Eve was alive - securing the release of villainous Nish and Ravi.

Elsewhere, Linda was still reeling following her text apparently from her presumed dead husband Mick Carter (Danny Dyer), prompting her mum Elaine Peacock (Harriet Thorpe) to reason that it was someone playing a game with her - Dean Wicks (played by actor Matt Di Angelo), the man who raped her in 2014.

Asked to meet the message sender at the location where she married Mick in 2016, Linda travelled there and found Dean, who asked her for forgiveness for his actions amid the worrying prognosis for daughter Jade Masood (Elizabeth Green), blaming his actions.

Linda reminded Dean that she never did anything to deserve his monstrous actions, arguing with him and finally getting him to admit that he raped her. Once this happened, Linda went to leave and he was angry she wouldn't react more positively to his apology. Linda accused his apology of being about him and not her, with Linda calling Dean a coward.

Dean tried to stop Linda from leaving by grabbing her, prompting her to hit him in the face and then she kicked him while he was on the ground before finally leaving.

Back at the Queen Vic, Sharon comforted her best friend Linda who continued to eye the alcohol in close vicinity following her recent relapse.

Unbeknownst to Sharon, her fiancé Keanu Taylor (Danny Walters) ignored his sister Bernadette Taylor (Clair Norris) who asked him for financial help and a home in light of the consequences of his staged kidnapping attempt of Sharon's son Albie. Keanu later rejects giving Bernie a place to live, fearing it will cost him his new life with Sharon.

However, Sharon herself continues to hide that Keanu is not Albie's dad - instead, it is her ex-husband, Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden).

Finally, Kathy Cotton (Gillian Taylforth) continued to resist the attempts by her estranged 'husband' Tom "Rocky" Cotton (Brian Conley) to reconcile, full of heartache over his fiery insurance scam that claimed her cafe and almost killed her grandsons.

As the episode closed, the residents of Walford gathered at the carol concert which featured lead vocals from Howie Danes (Delroy Atkins).

Amidst this, Jay Brown (Jamie Borthwick) finally listened to an emotional Christmas video message left by his late wife Lola Pearce-Brown (Danielle Harold) in the car lot.

A final montage showed The Six all looking angry and haunted by their various situations before the episode ended with a moody final shot of an empty Queen Vic at Christmas - where the body of a mystery man will soon be lying dead.

This is the last early BBC iPlayer release before Christmas Day as fans will have to tune in live at 9.45pm on Christmas Day on BBC One and BBC iPlayer if they want to see the truth.

However, fans will be able to catch the Boxing Day instalment from 6am on BBC iPlayer.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can visit Refuge for more information and contact 0808 2000 247 for support. Help can also be found at The Hideout and Rape Crisis.

Read more:

• Who do you think dies and kills in the EastEnders Christmas special?
• EastEnders spoilers: Whitney Dean heartache in tragic fostering story
• EastEnders must give tragic heroine Whitney the happy ever after she deserves
• EastEnders boss Chris Clenshaw previews Christmas 2023 and The Six aftermath
• EastEnders' Letitia Dean on whether Sharon can forgive Keanu for kidnap secret
• EastEnders' Gillian Taylforth on Kathy and Rocky: "She can’t live with the constant lies"
• EastEnders' Diane Parish teases "heartbreak" in Christmas episode
• EastEnders' Lacey Turner on whether Stacey will kill again: "She will do whatever it takes to protect Eve"
• EastEnders' Balvinder Sopal: "People will be on the edge of their seats"
• EastEnders' Kellie Bright: "The body wasn't who I thought it would be"

EastEnders airs Mondays to Thursdays at 7:30pm on BBC One and from 6am on BBC iPlayer.

Visit our dedicated EastEnders page for all the latest news, interviews and spoilers. If you're looking for more to watch, check out our TV Guide and Streaming Guide.

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