CINDY Beale has been brutally attacked and left for dead in a dramatic Christmas Day EastEnders cliffhanger.
The scheming cheater – who is played by actress Michelle Collins in the BBC soap – found herself bashed over the head with a shovel after a dramatic episode saw her affair with Junior Knight exposed and her lose everything.
In the Queen Vic as the recording of Cindy admitting everything played ruining the festivities, Cindy was humiliated.
Elaine Knight told her: “You are poison Cindy. Toxic from top to bottom. Someone should deal with you permanently, put you down.”
“And you’re going to be the one to do that are you?” asked Cindy.
“I’m just going to join the queue darling,” quipped Elaine and it sent Cindy into a rage against her family.
She tore into them all saying: “So it’s all on me, is it? George has the hots so you say, Junior gets me into bed and won’t take no for an answer, yet it’s all my fault.
“You lot, you make me sick. Look at you all, look at your faces. Butter wouldn’t melt.”
Turning to Elaine she said: “You and your stupid mind games, holding onto some bloke who’s too good for you. Clinging on with your withered hand.”
“And you,” she said to Junior. “Daddy issues and you used me to sort it. How sick, how twisted is that?”
It was then Lauren’s turn as Cindy raged: “And you, alcoholic junkie. Messed up daughter from a messed up family, lying to Peter and he’s too stupid to see it.”
Taking aim at her daughters Gina and Anna she said: “And you two, moaning about mummy going to France. You are pathetic the pair of you.
“I have had it with the lot of you. I am not an evil bitch. I am a woman, a wife and a mother trying to find my way and getting lost again, again and again. And I don’t care if I never see any of you again. The only person I care about is Ian and I am going to get him back.”
Storming out, Cindy went and left the rest of them to turn on Lauren for causing it all, leaving her holding the bag of pills alone.
Over at the Beales, Cindy warned Kathy that she’d rip her throat out if she tried to stop her from getting to Ian.
Upstairs Cindy tried to talk Ian around – but he wasn’t having any of it.
He told her: “I don’t want you anywhere near me. You have destroyed me.”
Walking away from her, he bagged her bags and threw her out onto the streets, telling her she didn’t deserve to live.
The Sun’s Soaps editor Carl Greenwood gives his verdict on the explosive Christmas drama
EASTENDERS has done it again and pulled a Christmas cracker out of their hats – if you’ll excuse my mixed metaphors.
I’ll be honest – the Cindy and Junior affair has left me utterly cold.
There have been a few good moments but for the most part it’s been a bit weird more than anything else.
Cindy’s at her best when she’s a villain – and they’ve barely scratched the surface with her ability to put herself first above all else.
The simpering mouse wanting the love of her drip daughters (justice for Cindy jr please – though at least Gina has a spark of Cindy about her) was perfect.
But tonight she was back to her best and Michelle Collins was finally allowed to shine.
Turning her fury onto her family and calling them all out for their nonsense and hypocrisy was sublime.
And the fallout – destroying every relationship in the Vic was so good.
The episode came together brilliantly with Christmas cheer turning into Christmas chaos.
Suspects were laid out perfectly and a shovel – hinted at in the Christmas teaser picture if you look closely enough – was the star of the show.
And the thing about whodunnits is the aftermath – and let’s face it, it’ll take more than a snow shovel to kill Cindy Beale.
The drama’s only just getting started and all of them should be very scared of hurricane Cindy.
Cindy went flying into the snow as Ian turfed her out, leaving her banging on the door.
“You can’t get rid of me, I’ll come back, I’ll come back,” she screamed but she was ignored.
Wrapping herself up, Cindy went to the tube but found it closed and headed back to the Square to call a taxi to take her to Kings Cross.
But as she waited in the cold and snow alone, it turned out she wasn’t alone.
A mystery person picked up a snow shovel from outside the Viv and brutally attacked Cindy, leaving her for dead in the snow under the Christmas tree.
But who did it? Let’s look at the suspects…
Shall we just rule Anna out straight away?
The woman’s barely got enough about her to kill a fly, so the chances of her finally becoming worthy of being Cindy Beale’s daughter and bashing her over the head with a shovel are slim to none.
But she was watching out of the Queen Vic window so she may well know who did attack her mother.
Fiery, recovering drug addict Gina is a good shout for shovel-ing her mother this Christmas.
She’s got the boxing skills of George and the temper of Cindy – so she definitely has the ability and will to take her mother down.
And she was seen sneaking out of the Vic just before Cindy was attacked.
This Peter is a bit of a drip – he’s more Anna, than Gina, shall we say.
It’s hard to imagine him being able to pick up a shovel without mummy’s approval.
But having said that he was seen drowning his sorrows in tears shortly before the attack, so maybe he finally embraced his mum’s side?
Never before has a character failed to learn from her past mistakes more than Lauren.
Except Cindy obviously who appears doomed to repeat the affair cycle until the day she dies.
But Lauren’s ability to ruin Christmas is unrivalled – and it provoked explosive drama.
And it left her with a bag of pills in the car lot having lost her relationship, her family and her son – and it’s all Cindy’s fault.
So could Lauren be the one responsible?
For a man whose Christmases have included the time he was nearly murdered by his wife with a killer carbonara, you’d think he’d have quite low threshold for bad days but this was something else.
Humiliated in public by a recording of Cindy saying he couldn’t satisfy her so much so she was sleeping with her former stepson, Ian didn’t have a happy Christmas.
He threw a drink over and then punched Junior, before rejecting Cindy and throwing her out onto the streets.
Last seen smashing up his own living room and storming out into the Square, he was certainly in the mood for killing Cindy.
But could he? Really?
There’s been no love lost between Kathy and Cindy since they both returned from the dead and a full-on brawl is well overdue.
But after everything that happened last Christmas, would Kathy really want to go through that again?
It’s a miracle she managed to get back into the Vic.
The Queen Vic landlady’s scheme to get rid of Cindy once and for all backfired quite spectacularly.
She began Christmas Day convinced she was about to be rid of Cindy forever – but ended it single and alone.
Hearing George rage about Junior taking what was his pushed her over the edge and she kicked George out.
But did it push her enough to grab a shovel and try to kill Cindy?
Cindy cost him everything.
He’s now homeless, job-less and son-less after Cindy’s affair was exposed and as a former professional boxer he’s capable of explosive rage.
He was seen working out his emotions on a punching bag, but maybe it didn’t work and maybe he needed Cindy to pay for what she’d done?
The spurned lover, unwanted son, humiliated man… things aren’t looking good for Junior.
He fell for Cindy, hook, line and sinker, and worse, he fell for her lies.
Last seen trying to call Cindy after everything went down – did he want to find her to kill her or to seduce her again?
