EASTENDERS viewers were left gobsmacked after Cindy Beale unleashed her rage at fellow Walford resident Nish Panesar in the middle of the Queen Vic tonight.
Cindy (played by Michelle Collins) returned to Walford with Ian (Adam Woodyatt) and Peter (Thomas Law) earlier this year. Since then, she’s been working hard to plant roots in Walford by opening a new business.
She came up with her latest idea — a pie and mash shop — in tonight’s episode, but she needed to secure funding from the Panesars to make it happen.
They were obviously wary after Ian’s last attempt to collaborate with Nish (Navin Chowdhry) ended in disaster, but Cathy is willing to do whatever it takes. Not even her son Peter can make her back down when he reveals that alongside dating Nish’s daughter Ash Panesar (Gurlaine Kaur Garcha), he also slept with his wife, Suki Panesar (Balvinder Sopal).
Peter admits that Nish’s son Vinny (Shiv Jalota) is blackmailing him with this information, but Cindy even manages to turn the table on him.
Vinny helped get his dad on board before they all headed down to the Queen Vic to sign the contract. However, just as Nish is about to put pen to paper, Ravi Gulati’s (Aaron Thiara) comes running, concerned about his missing son Nugget (Juhaim Rasul Choudhury).
Cindy tries to offer the worried grandad some reassurance, explaining that her kids used to run away all the time when they were little, but he quickly snapped back at the blonde bombshell.
“I’m not going to take parenting advice from either of you two,” Nish fired at Cindy and Ian.
“Two of your kids are dead, aren’t they? And two of them won’t even talk to you because you abandoned them for half their lives. I went to prison for 20 years and I’m still a better parent than you.”
But Cindy wasn’t having it.
“Do you know what? You can forget this,” she yelled, waving their unsigned contract in the air before ripping it up.
Standing up, Cindy unleashed her fury at Nish as everyone in the Vic watched on, including her daughters Anna (Molly Rainford) and Gina Knight (Francesca Henry).
“I will not be judged by anyone, not anymore, especially by you,” Cindy proclaimed.
“I love my kids with all my heart. The ones I’ve lost and the ones I’ve had to walk away from and I will not do business with someone as insignificant as you,” she raged on.
Meanwhile, Vinny held his dad back from responding as the Duff Duffs sounded at the end of the episode.
After watching, gobsmacked viewers were quick to take to X – formerly Twitter – to discuss the dramatic scene.
One wrote: “Cindy is on one tonight isn’t she?”
Another added: “Why did she come in all guns blazing?”
A third tweeted: “Someone tell Cindy to calm down, please!!”
EastEnders airs on BBC One and is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
