EastEnders’ Nicola endures two big shocks in very dramatic week

Considering she’s one of EastEnders’ fiercest femme fatales, Nicola Mitchell (Laura Doddington) has certainly been more vulnerable than usual recently.

Immediately upon her introduction, it was clear that Nicola was not one to trifle with. With a blade-edged tongue and a gangster-flavoured history that seems to be integral for every limb of the Mitchell family tree, it wasn’t long before we learned that Nicola is actually a killer.

Still, besides a taste for organised crime, the other key ingredient in the Mitchell recipe is family loyalty, and the ice queen certainly becomes far less cold when it comes to her family, and they’ve certainly been through it recently.

After learning that her son, Harry Mitchell (Elijah Holloway), had killed Tobias ‘Okie’ Okyere (Aayan Ibikunle Shoderu), the man who’d trapped and tortured him within Ravi Gulati’s (Aaron Thiara) drug enterprise, she worked alongside her ex and Harry’s dad Teddy (Roland Manookian) to keep him out of prison, with Teddy even copping a life sentence to protect his son.

She later took a cruel revenge on Ravi, though her demeanour softened somewhat when she learned she’d fallen pregnant by her former fling, George Knight (Colin Salmon).

The birth was tumultuous, coming prematurely in Nicola’s pregnancy, and an illness meaning she had to be isolated from her daughter, who she named Ivy. Here, Nicola shed her hard-as-nails front and showed a true vulnerability, endearing her former lover even further.

George proved to be a tower of strength, standing strong and offering support and care throughout the traumatic time, though difficulties arose when he declared his love for Nicola, and she told him they had to focus on their daughter, rather than their relationship.

After a talking to from her son, though, she later confessed her own love, and she and George decided to give things a go as a proper couple.

Next week sees the couple prepared to bring baby Ivy home for the first time, though Nicola is completely overwhelmed when she walks into surprise welcome home party. Unable to cope with everything, she orders everybody to leave. Later, though, a conversation with Gina Knight (Francesca Henry) manages to help her feel more settled.

That feeling doesn’t last for long, however. While initially warmed by George’s ‘all-in’ approach to parenting, she’s infuriated to learn he’s got a number of missed calls on his phone, which she presumes are from the hospital about Ivy, leaving them at odds again.

When she discovers the true identity of the caller, though, she thunders over to the hospital ready for a confrontation, and comes face to face with George’s evil adoptive father, Eddie Knight (Christopher Fairbank), who reveals that he’s dying.

Eddie and his wife, Gloria (Elizabeth Counsell) adopted George through a process known as baby farming, and George recounted seeing his vicious, racist dad beat a Black man to death as a child, a man who it turned out was George’s biological father.

Eddie had come back into George’s life to use him as a witness in his impending murder trial, though George eventually testified against him, ensuring that Eddie would pay for his hideous crime.

Though Nicola endeavours to keep her discovery a secret, she’s felled by a parking ticket and is forced to come clean to George, who heads to the hospital to face off with his ailing dad.

What does Eddie want? Will his return damage the fledgling families relationship?