Four explosive BBC EastEnders theories: fan favourite leaves Walford and soap legend becomes a murderer

GEORGE Knight is growing desperate for answers about his parentage and struggles to cope without them.

The EastEnders favourite could be pushed over the edge while, elsewhere, two new murders could be on the cards.

1. Devastating exit

George Knight's world was turned upside down when he found out his father Eddie had been accused of murder and needed his presence at the trial for a glowing character reference.

Recent scenes of the BBC One soap have led to the Knight family secrets to come undone and George (portrayed by Colin Salmon) not only found out Eddie (Christopher Fairbank) was a murderer but that he had also killed his biological father Henry.

Eddie slowly showed his true colours and his racist micro-aggressions culminated into him having an outburst against George in The Vic.

This prompted Gloria Knight (Elizabeth Counsell) to reveal to George why Eddie killed Henry.

According to her, Henry wanted to take a teen George back with him to their family in Africa and Gloria refused to let go of her adopted child, thus begging Eddie to take action.

Coming up in Walford, Eddie's murder trial begins as George continues to come to terms with his African heritage... but an unexpected visit may take him aback even further.

It's Mother's Day in Walford, and Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins) is excited about celebrating with her children Gina (Francesca Henry), Anna (Molly Rainford) and Peter Beale (Thomas Law) together for the first time.

However, at The Vic, George is struggling to cope, having been informed that no DNA matches have been found for him and there's no trace of his birth family.

His fiancée Elaine Peacock (Harriet Thorpe) and Cindy insist that the time has come for George to tell the girls the truth about his heritage before they head to Jamaica, and he reluctantly agrees.

Gina and Anna are horrified when George shares his story and are furious to discover the truth about Eddie and the trial.

Gloria later rings the pub after being coerced by Eddie into begging George to give a defence statement in court.

Later, George goes to see them and tells them to never contact him or the girls again.

But Eddie throws a spanner in the works and tells him that he's got information about George's birth mother.

There's a catch - Eddie blackmails George and lets him know he will only hand it over if he gives him a character witness in court the following day.

George is in turmoil as he mulls over Eddie's ultimatum, leaving Elaine and the Knight girls desperately worried for him.

There's a catch - Eddie blackmails George and lets him know he will only hand it over if he gives him a character witness in court the following day.

George is in turmoil as he mulls over Eddie's ultimatum, leaving Elaine and the Knight girls desperately worried for him.

As mentioned above, George has been left beside himself by revelations around his biological family and his father Eddie.

While he has yet to tell his daughters the truth this week, one could expect he may be tempted to leave Walford to seek the answers he craves in Africa.

Could George take some time out of the Square until his inner turmoil blows over?

2. Downward spiral for one of the Six

Stacey Slater (portrayed by Lacey Turner) shocked viewers as she bedded another Branning man, who also happens to be married.

Since their first tryst, Jack Branning (Scott Maslen) neglected his wife Denise Fox (Diane Parish) for the benefit of his new mistress.

But when the hairstylist spiralled and her mental health reached an all-time low, Jack was crushed to realise how much she was struggling, particularly with their marriage hanging by a fragile thread.

Denise was sectioned as the symptoms of her psychosis became overwhelming and a potential cause of danger for her and everybody else in her close circle.

This week, Jack tries to be present for Denise while his affair with Stacey seems to be going south as he begins to wonder why she is also paying a visit to his wife.

It all begins when Stacey and Jack are thrown together as Lily Slater and Ricky Branning celebrate Mother's Day at Walford East with their baby daughter Charli.

Later on, Amy Mitchell and her half-brother Ricky beg Jack to let them see Denise, and he promises to speak to the latter's own daughter Chelsea (Zaraah Abrahams) to try to make it happen.

However, Denise is refusing to see anyone, which causes a preoccupied Johnny Carter (Charlie Suff) to insist that Stacey needs to get to Denise before Jack or the kids do in an attempt to avoid their big murder secret from being thrown out into the open.

Regular viewers of the London-based program will remember that Charlie found out about Keanu's death when his mother Linda - the killer - confessed everything to him.

In later scenes, Johnny piles on the pressure to get Stacey to sort the issue of Denise for all the women's sakes, so she asks Denise to let her visit.

Once at the hospital, Denise tells Stacey she's no longer seeing Keanu but intends to stay put.

Stacey then argues that Denise needs her loved ones around her, just as Jack walks in and demands to know why his mistress is there.

Mortified, Stacey thinks on her feet to give Jack a convincing cover story as to why she's with Denise, despite her refusing all other visits.

Jack is hurt when Denise turns him away and, during a talk with Dr Abe later, she explains that she feels safe in the hospital and wants to stay.

Will her request be accepted?

Meanwhile, Jack is still rattled by Stacey and Denise's closeness and starts to do some digging.

A fan recently took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to share a theory according to which Stacey Slater may suffer from her own downward spiral in upcoming weeks after Denise as Jack tries to rumble the truth.

"She’s the only one of The Six so far who’s been unscathed in the aftermath but if Eve moves in with Suki it’s gonna put her under financial pressure again not to mention a Freddie return might coincide with Theo’s sentencing- we may see Stacey spiralling soon", the viewer predicted.

So far, Stacey has managed to keep it all together, despite an explosive argument with Suki Panesar (Balvinder Sopal) which leaves her pal Eve Unwin in a tricky position this week.

Could that all change?

3. Fan favourite turns killer

Speaking of the Slaters, Stacey's mother Jean (Gillian Wright) takes a big stand for Jade Green in upcoming scenes of the long-running show.

Jade Green (portrayed by Elizabeth Green) rocked back up Walford in late 2023 and has slowly been reconnecting with her father, Dean Wicks (Matt Di Angelo).

Linda Carter's rapist made an unexpected return to the Square in October, 2023, determined to help his young daughter in her battle against cystic fibrosis.

During her time in Albert Square, Jade has found a source of support in the form of Jean and Dean believed he finally had an ally.

However, Jean made it clear she was hellbent on supporting Jade for her pals Shirley Carter and the teen's mother Shabnam Masood.

Coming up, Jean steps in to save the day when Jade is about to cancel her charity auction but there's an awful lot to do and very little time.

The cleaner struggles with a lack of donations for the auction but, thankfully for her, Pastor Clayton (Howard Saddler) and Yolande Trueman (Angela Wynter) approach her and agree to help. 

Later on, Yolande addresses the prayer group to ask for donations to the charity auction.

Yolande and Pastor Clayton make an outstanding team and she gives a thrilled Jean tons of great items, becoming elated in doing so.

But over on social media, one viewer suggested that Jean may "take one for the team" and get rid of a major villain.

"Why is Jean getting involved in Dean stuff?", they initially fumed before adding: "hopefully she takes one for the team and [kills] him. I am so disgusted."

Could Jean be plotting something big?

4. Brutal revenge

Meanwhile, there could be trouble in paradise for Suki Panesar and her partner Eve Unwin (Heather Peace) after the businesswoman was booted out of No.31.

This week, Vinny Panesar (Shiv Jalota) tells his mother Suki to make it up with Eve, who is smarting from her moving out of the Slater house.

Suki apologises and invites Eve to move into No.41 but doesn't get the response she wanted.

In later scenes, Eve finds an unexpected support in the form of Penny Branning (Kitty Castledine) who becomes an unlikely confidante.

Eve opens up to Penny and admits she is worried that living with Suki's family would be a recipe for disaster.

Later on, Eve finally talks to Suki about her fears.

But how will Suki react?

The pair of women aren't exempted from another attempt by Nish Panesar (Navin Chowdhry) to wreak havoc.

However, another Walford tough man, Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) could be powerful enough to teach him a lesson, particularly since Nish attacked the latter's soon-to-be ex-wife, Kat Slater (Jessie Wallace).

"Might have survived Christmas but his time is definitely running out especially after last week", one viewer theorised.

"When Phil finds out Nish is a dead man", another warned.

Nish actor Navin Chowdhry spoke exclusively to The Sun earlier this year and revealed what was ahead for his on-screen alter ego.

Viewers definitely haven't seen the last of Nish, meaning it could be a while before Phil could take action.

"We've been speaking with the execs and the writers about the journey over the next six months", Navin said.

"Genuinely we are on the same page and it sounds really exciting."

"We all have our chats about what's going on and when I had my chat about what's going to be happening with Nish, it's really what I wanted to hear."

What will Nish be up to, particularly as he strives to settle his unfinished business with Suki, who managed to get him kicked out of the family home?

EastEnders airs from Monday to Thursday at 7.30pm on BBC One.