# Episode 6994

Episode 6994 of the British soap opera EastEnders aired on 10 October 2024. It was originally released on BBC iPlayer and released on BBC One later that day. The episode revolved around the aftermath of David Wicks (Michael French) finding out about Cindy Beale's (Michelle Collins) affair with Junior Knight (Micah Balfour). The episode also sees Junior ask his father, George Knight (Colin Salmon), for relationship advice. This was the final episode in French's week-long guest stint as David, with the episode further exploring David's relationships with Cindy and his daughter Bianca Jackson (Patsy Palmer). Both Collins and Palmer were happy to work with French again. In addition to David's departure, the episode also marked the cameo return of David's son Joe Wicks (Paul Nicholls), which was not announced prior to the broadcast, and the brief appearance of Joe's daughter Holly (Chloe Marshall). The episode ends on a Cliffhanger where it is revealed that Cindy's admission that she is having an affair with Junior and that she is still in love with George has been recorded. Joe's surprise return was well-received by viewers and critics.

## Plot

After catching Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins) cheat on her fiancé Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt) with Junior Knight (Micah Balfour), David Wicks (Michael French), Ian's half-brother and Cindy's former lover, intends to tell Ian. Cindy begs him not to, not wanting to lose her family and security, so David agrees to hear Cindy out. Cindy takes David to Beale's Eels, Walford's Pie and Mash shop, where her daughter Anna Knight (Molly Rainford) and Freddie Slater (Bobby Brazier) are working their recording of the birds they have been watching. Cindy asks them to leave so she can speak to David alone and they leave the bird recorder in the shop. Cindy tells David that she has gotten engaged to Ian as she wants their relationship to work, and she hits out at David for having sex with her, despite being married to Ian, and then leaving her in the 1990s. She tells David that she fell in love with him and then he cast her aside, and how he also broke the hearts of other women and abandoned his children Joe Wicks (Paul Nicholls) and Bianca Jackson (Patsy Palmer), accusing him of Double standard and ruining people's lives. Cindy slaps David when he accuses her of not caring about the deaths of two of her children, Lucy (Hetti Bywater) and Steven Beale (Aaron Sidwell), when she was in witness protection.
Meanwhile, Junior confides in his dad confides to his father and Cindy's ex-husband, George Knight (Colin Salmon), about his feelings for Cindy, though he does not reveal her identity. Junior explains that he now really cares for this woman and believes that she feels the same way. Whilst George does not want Junior to hurt anyone, he believes that he should go for it if they both share the same feelings. Ian's mother, Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth) urges Ian to move on from his grudge towards David due to the pair being half-brothers and to show Cindy that he has moved on. Cindy tells David that she does not love Junior but needs passion in her life. She tells David that she wants real romantic love in her life, which she does not receive from Junior or Ian. Cindy and David talk about their past romance and Cindy reveals that it was painful for her as she was in love with David. She also tells off David for abandoning her and not being there for her. David and Cindy wonder if they could have had a future together, and David suggests that they try again, which Cindy dismisses as ridiculous. David then receives a message from someone called Holly, who has been trying to contact him for the past week. Cindy then admits that she is still in love with George.
David tells Cindy that she needs to make a decision between Junior and Ian and goes to tell Ian, despite Cindy begging him not. However, before he can say anything, Ian tells David that he wants to move on and forgive him. Surprised by the warm welcome, David decides to not tell Ian and wishes him well. Cindy tells David that she once loved him, and the pair share a kiss. Cindy then tells Junior that their affair can no longer continue, which upsets him. Following Cindy's encouragement to not leave Bianca, David then offers his daughter to join him in his trip to Northern England so that he can look after her and introduce her to someone. Bianca rejects the offer, wanting to stay in Walford to support her incarcerated half-sister Sonia Fowler (Natalie Cassidy), but the pair promise to stay in touch. Just as David is about to leave Walford, he answers a video call request from Holly (Chloe Marshall), who is happy that David is coming to see her graduate. Holly's father and David's son, Joe Wicks, then joins the call, revealing Holly as David's granddaughter to the audience. The three express their excitement to see each other and David then leaves to join them. The final scene reveals that the recorder is still switched on, suggesting that it has recorded David and Cindy's conversation.

## Production and release

The episode was released at 6am on BBC iPlayer on 10 October 2024, and aired on BBC One at 7:30pm that same day. Spoilers for this episode from Digital Spy reported that Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins) would face a "difficult time" and be forced to "juggle several tricky situations". It was also reported that Cindy's fiancé, Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt), would look to the "future". The episode is set during Cindy and Ian's engagement party, which had started the prior episode. Spoilers also indicated that Junior Knight (Micah Balfour) confides to his father, George Knight (Colin Salmon), about his feelings for his "mystery woman". Inside Soap reported that George would become "intrigued" when Junior opens up about his feelings for the woman, admitting that it started out as a fling but he now has genuine feelings for her, leading to George giving his son advice. However, George has no idea that the woman in question is Cindy, his ex-wife. An EastEnders insider explained that George would be "absolutely horrified" if he knew that Junior was involved with Cindy as she used to be his stepmother and is the mother of his half-sisters, as well as being "supposedly committed" to Ian, making the situation "icky".
The episode also marked the final episode of the guest stint of Michael French as David Wicks, who had returned to the show for a guest stint a week prior. This episode, alongside the previous other episodes that had aired that week, revisited Cindy and David's affair from the 1990s, as the pair had come face-to-face after 27 years two episodes previously. David's return led to a situation where four of Cindy's love interests were in the episode: her fiancé Ian, her ex-husband George, her lover Junior and her ex-lover David. Collins revealed that prior to their reunion, Cindy had hated David as he let "utterly" her down in 1996 by breaking up with her at Waterloo Station instead of supporting her like he had promised. She added, "David was one of the few people that Cindy was truly in love with, and he really hurt her". Collins believed that Cindy and David were "doomed" as they were "two lonely people craving danger", calling them "exciting" and having "amazing chemistry" back in the 1990s. Speaking about the present, Collins revealed that Cindy feels that she will have the security that she has always wanted if she stays with Ian, who she calls a "security blanket", but she also wants "danger and adventure", which David can provide. Collins enjoyed working with French again, calling him a "great actor" and "wickedly funny" who loves "experimenting" in scenes. She told Inside Soap, "We had some very intense stuff to do together, and I enjoyed it all. It was really great to work together again".
The episode also further explored the dynamic between David and his daughter, Bianca Jackson (Patsy Palmer), which had also been a key aspect of David's return stint. Palmer told Inside Soap that she was happy that the soap was exploring a "new era" of their father-daughter relationship, calling it an "amazing chance" to see how a "woman in her 40s and a man in his 60s navigate the situation that they are in". Palmer believed that David and Bianca could relate to each other better now as they are not far apart in age, and she hoped that David would "swoop in" and help Bianca with her struggles. Palmer added that whilst David has a "very different life" from the one he used to have in original stints, Bianca is still "stuck where she is". Palmer thought that the "history" between Bianca and David is "golden" to work with, adding that she liked how the characters could quickly go from doing a comedic scene one minute and an emotional scene the next. Palmer was grateful to work with French again, calling it a "dream" and adding that the pair bring out the "best" in each other. She revealed that she knew French had wanted to return to EastEnders so that they could work together again. The end of the episode featured David offering for Bianca to join him in his travel and although she rejects the offer, the pair part on good terms.
The end of the episode featured a cameo return of Paul Nicholls as Joe Wicks, who had previously appeared as a regular character from 1996 to 1997. His brief return was kept a surprise until the transmission of the episode. In the episode, David answers a video call from Holly (Chloe Marshall), Joe's daughter, and David speaks to the pair of them, who are excited to see David again. David had been seen receiving phone calls from Holly during his return stint that he was appearing to ignore, with Holly asking David via text if he was still coming to see her, but their connection and her identify were not revealed until that scene, and David had previously not told other characters who Holly was. The scene also revealed that David and Joe had reconciled, as David had mentioned in his last stint that they were no longer in contact. Joe also appeared to be experiencing "happier times" than in his original stint, and David appeared emotional as he made plans to see his son and granddaughter. Prior to the Joe's return, he had been mentioned several times in the preceding episodes. David and Bianca had also referenced Joe's Schizophrenia storyline from his previous stint when David compared it to Bianca's mental health struggles, particularly when David noted how Bianca struggled to let things go, which Joe as struggled to do in his original stint. Viewers had been speculating on Twitter over Holly's identity during David's return, with some theorising that she could be linked to Joe. The mystery regarding David's connection to Holly had been built up earlier in the episode, with David telling Cindy that he had only met Holly once and telling Bianca that he had someone that he wanted her to meet. David is then seeing leaving Albert Square to travel to Joe and Holly, marking French's departure from the soap.
The end of the episode also featured a cliffhanger teasing that Cindy and Junior's affair could be exposed. During the episode, David confronted Cindy about her affair with Junior and she revealed that she was still in love with Junior's father, George, and that she sometimes pictured him in bed when she has sex with his son. The end of the episode featured the camera panning down to Freddie Slater (Bobby Brazier)'s bird microphone recorder that he had left behind, which appeared to have recorded Cindy and David's conversation.

## Reception

   "Just when we thought EastEnders couldn't make [David's] return any more iconic, the BBC soap aired a last-minute cameo that long-term viewers are sure to love".
Laura-Jayne Tyler from Inside Soap named David's return as the highlight of British soap operas in that week, praising how he had "slotted back" into the soap so "seamlessly". Tyler also praised Joe's return, writing, "The name Joe Wicks will mean something else entirely to today's audience. But for those of us who grew up watching 90s EastEnders, our cup runneth over!" Daniel Kilkelly from Digital Spy called David's phone call with Holly and Joe "heartwarming" and called Joe's return a "surprise". His colleague, Harriet Mitchell, called the episode's cliffhanger "huge" and she questioned whether Freddie would hear Cindy's admission and reveal her secret.
Laura Denby from Radio Times called Joe's "brief" but "shock" return a "joyous twist" that she was "still recovering from". She added that "it looks like David has another chance to bond with Joe. With all the chaos and drama in EastEnders, this was a very welcome sprinkling of delight for soap fans". Commenting further on the "epic cameo", she called it "a heartwarming twist to end another action-packed week in EastEnders". Denby also believed that Cindy and David's "revealing conversation" was a "ticking timebomb" just "waiting to be rumbled!" Denby called the recording of the Cindy's "twisted" admission of her affair and being in love with George "a ticking timebomb" that could worsen the situation.
Charlotte Tutton from the Daily Mirror and Dan Laurie from Manchester Evening News had previously speculated that EastEnders were "teasing" a return for Joe due to David mentioning him and due to viewers speculating that Holly's identity could be linked to him. Daniel Bird from the Daily Mirror wrote how fans were "stunned" over Joe's surprise cameo, calling it an "on-screen bombshell", a "major" cliffhanger and the "shocking" return of an "iconic" character. Bird also noted how viewers were "glued" when David introduced them to Holly. He also added that David's return had seen "some feathers rattled" when "passionately" kissed Cindy.
Sarah Ellis from Inside Soap took pity on Junior regarding his situation with Cindy. She added that if she had been told 18 months prior that David and Cindy come face-to-face again in Albert Square, she would have not believed that it would be possible. Ellis also noted how David's returned resulted in an other love interest in Cindy's life, in addition to Ian, Junior and George. Prior to the broadcast of the episode, Ellis teased whether Cindy and David could rekindle their remoance. Ellis had also suggested that David's return would make Junior "unnerved" due to his history with Cindy, and suggested that Junior could be in for a "rude awakening" if Cindy got back together with David. Calli Kitson from Metro believed that episode had shocked "everyone" by the "huge twist" of bringing back 1990s "legend" Joe, writing that she could not "quite believe it". She also wrote that she was "not even surprised" that David and Cindy shared a kiss in the episode. She also wrote that Freddie would be in for "quite a shock" when he listens to the microphone recorded and believed that Cindy's affair would not be kept a secret for much longer.