As Linda Carter makes her dramatic return to Walford we’re expecting all sorts of fireworks between her and husband Mick when he confesses his affair with daughter-in-law Whitney.
The revelation descends into a three-hander episode between Mick, Linda and Whitney, but can Mick and Linda come through this?
“Yes, 100 percent,” actress Kellie Bright, who is returning as Linda after her maternity leave, told Metro.co.uk. “I think it is interesting giving them something to fracture their relationship to watch the journey back from there.
“You don’t walk away from someone after 27 years over a kiss – and even if there are feelings involved you don’t either – she would be a fool and she knows it.
“But it’s just how to get past it.
“The difficult thing for Linda is that she wants to get past it but I don’t think she has a clue how she is going to get back to where Mick and Linda were before any of this happened.”
Read more: EastEnders Linda and Johnny Carter involved in a horror motorway smash
Well, that’s a relief at least, that it’s not the end for everyone’s favourite Albert Square couple.
It has been a worrying time for their relationship, with Linda off caring for her ‘sick’ mother, Elaine after her stroke, while Mick was left to run the pub and look after the family on his own.
As The Vic crumbled under financial strain, Shirley called Linda and together they did the unthinkable: sold the freehold from under Mick without telling him a thing.
He’s tried so hard to play nice with new boss, Fi, but it’s been a struggle and his resentment towards Linda has been building – which is what led to the kiss with Whitney in the first place.
Read more: EastEnders Mick confesses everything – how will Linda react?
But all-the-while, Linda’s been hiding a secret of her own: Elaine has made a full recovery and Linda has been staying away for another reason. But what?
“She never gets the opportunity to voice it as she finds out about Mick and Whitney before she even has chance,” Kellie admitted. Oh how frustrating, we’ve been dying to know for ages what she’s been hiding. Looks like we’ll have to wait a little longer to find out then.
Many have been speculating she’s been having an affair with Woody, but now he’s engaged to Whitney, it doesn’t look like that’s it. So what else could she be hiding? An affair with someone else? A secret illness? A love child? We want to know!
Although Kellie wasn’t giving anything away on that score, the actress also opened up about her return to work following the birth of her second son, Gene.
“I did miss her!” she revealed. “I became the most obsessive watcher of EastEnders when I was off and it was like being a voyeur on my other life. I honestly couldn’t miss an episode.
“Also in my time off, I did come back a couple of times and that actually really helped it not feel completely removed from me I think when I came back fully.”
She continued: “It was really lovely coming back and working with my friends. Coming back and getting to do these episodes with Danny was so great and it really reminded me of why I have loved it so much so far.”
The drama for Linda and Mick is set to unfold on screen over the next few nights.