As EastEnders Lauren Branning faces her grief for fiance Steven Beale, she turns back to the bottle to cope.
With a history of alcohol addiction, that caused a serious liver problem back in 2013, is Lauren on a path to self-destruction?
Read more: EastEnders Max Branning to silence Jane for good?
The young mum can’t believe Steven is dead after he succumbed to his injuries following the fire at Beales.
Lauren believes he rushed in to save her and she’s the reason he’s dead. But what she doesn’t know is that Steven started the fire in the first place (on Max’s orders), and his injuries were just as likely to be caused by Max’s brutal treatment of him inside the restaurant.
The fact that Lauren didn’t really love him and wanted to leave him, but was really only sticking by him as she believed he had a brain tumour, is also weighing heavily on her mind.
The brain tumour secret remains in tact, as does Max’s part in Steven’s demise, and Abi’s affair with her sister’s fiance.
So that’s lots of secrets bubbling away that are set to be revealed in the coming weeks.
But Lauren doesn’t know any of these things yet and just can’t cope with the reality as she knows it.
She ends up turning to drink to help her through, and when Abi realises her sister has been boozing again, she quickly starts to worry.
Abs calls Max to keep his eye on Lauren, but he’s got his own concerns – he needs to make sure Jane never wakes up.
Jane knows all of Max’s sordid little secrets and he left her to die in the blaze.
While Ian and the Beales wait for news of Jane’s condition, Max is trying to find a way to keep her quiet for good.
Read more: EastEnders will air two character exits this Christmas
With Max plotting murder and Lauren back on the booze, the Brannings are in desperate times. Can anything pull them back from the brink, put them back together and redeem them?
We think it’s high time Tanya returned. Just saying…