EastEnders spoilers follow for Monday's (May 18) episode, which can now be streamed on BBC iPlayer. The episode in question will air at 7:30pm.
Vile, racist murderer Eddie Knight (Christopher Fairbank) has hardly been welcomed back to Albert Square with open arms. In fact, the only reason he is in Walford at all is due to Nicola Mitchell (Laura Doddington) wanting to get her hands on his cash. With his health in serious decline and not long left to live, Eddie reached out to his adoptive son, George Knight (Colin Salmon), attempting to build bridges and wanting to spend his last days in the bosom of his family. The only problem? Said family are utterly repulsed by him.
The first time Eddie and his wife, Gloria (Elizabeth Counsell), appeared in Walford, George was completely shaken to learn the manner in which he had been adopted by them, a hideous process known as 'child farming'. While George believed that his parents had finally revealed all to him, it was painfully apparent to audiences that there was more – and worse – to come.
Eddie's next appearance saw him receive an award for championing diversity in boxing, and he dedicated a large portion of his acceptance speech to buttering George up, who was heartened at his dad's show of emotion. As George came to discover, though, the affectionate performance was purely to secure him as a witness in an upcoming trial: Eddie had been charged with racially motivated murder. Eddie and his friends had brutally beaten George's biological father to death, before dismembering the corpse and disposing of it in a suitcase, leaving it to be found by a dog walker later down the line. George remembered the attack taking place, but until then, lacked context.
While Eddie and Gloria were determined to ensure that George take to the stand in defence of his dad, George was torn. His daughter, Gina Knight (Francesca Henry), who had been the victim of a torrent of microaggressions from Eddie, pleaded with him to extricate himself from the proceedings. George ultimately did the right thing, telling the court that his dad was guilty of the hideous crime, ensuring he receive a substantial prison sentence. Though George managed to make peace with his mum, her passing saw Eddie able to deliver a final, cruel blow to him when he banned George from attending her funeral.
When Eddie resurfaced in hospital, his attempts to contact George were intercepted by his new girlfriend Nicola, who had not long given birth to their baby, Ivy. Locating him, Nicola told him in no uncertain terms that George wanted nothing to do with him. When she discovered, though, that her nightclub, Harry's Barn, was deep in debt and struggling to survive, she was prime for a bribe from Eddie to allow him to move into her basement flat.
On the day of Ivy's traditional Ghanaian naming ceremony, Nicola came clean to George that she had arranged for Eddie to move in, though conveniently left out the part where she had been paid off. Though George agreed, the rest of their families were horrified when Eddie turned up. The basement flat wasn't enough for Eddie, though, and despite Harry Mitchell's (Elijah Holloway) pleading on behalf of girlfriend Gina to end the scheme, Nicola doubled down on ensuring Eddie was allowed to live upstairs and fully become a member of the family again to earn her pay-off.
Today's episode saw George remain deeply uncomfortable with Eddie's presence. Despite needing to attend a meeting, he refused his dad's offer of taking care of Ivy while Nicola expressed milk, instead opting to take the crying baby with him. When Gina found him actively avoiding his own home, she told her dad of her concerns, but harried George was unable to focus and left Gina bereft.
Later, at Harry's Barn, Gina lamented her situation to Penny Branning (Kitty Castledine), desperate to help her dad out of the rotten circumstances he has found himself in. With Eddie unable to legally live with George and Nicola having launched a deceptive campaign to allow him to stay, she pondered the idea of reporting the scam to the police. Penny pointed out that Nigel Bates' (Paul Bradley) funeral was mere days away, and causing such an explosion would make things ten times harder. Heeding her warning, Gina promised to wait until after the funeral, but committed to removing Eddie from the equation once and for all.
Will Gina – and the police – get Eddie before his illness does? The exit story appears confirmed, but in a twist, it may not be the straightforward death we expected. With Gina planning to expose Nicola's scheme, Eddie's fate hangs in the balance.
