As Phil hides a huge secret from Julie, it all kicks off when he crashes the vow renewal tomorrow
There's huge drama ahead...
Phil and Julie saw their feud reach an all-time high in today’s EastEnders (Tuesday, February 3) when Linda tried – and failed – to get them talking again. But things are only set to get worse when Phil turns up at the vow renewal tomorrow and causes havoc.
Ever since Julie found out Phil was planning to take Nigel to Portugal, there has been a frosty atmosphere between the pair.
Believing Phil might whisk her husband off abroad the moment she had her back turned, Julie moved her and Nigel into Peacock Palace. However, Nigel has struggled to settle there without his familiar surroundings and his oldest friend by his side.
Phil has clearly missed Nigel, and his grumpy demeanor (well, more grumpy than usual!) has had Linda worried. But it was when Linda clocked the bruises on Julie’s arms in yesterday’s EastEnders that she decided to step in.
Linda made amends with Julie
Today’s episode saw Linda try to make peace between Julie and Phil… all for the sake of Nigel. However, Julie revealed the real reason she moved Nigel out of the Mitchell house and Linda was shocked.
While Phil tried to reason that he thought the sunshine and change of scenery would do his friend good, Julie didn’t agree.
Soon the pair were fighting again, and Linda realised her plan had failed.
Later, when a struggling Julie had another run-in with an agitated Nigel, Linda wanted to help. She suggested to Julie that she organised her and Nigel’s vow renewal for them, hoping it might give Julie something nice to remember.
Julie was hesitant at first, but eventually agreed that Linda could put together a special event for the following day. However, Julie had one rule… Phil was not to be invited.
EastEnders: Phil does the unthinkable to Julie
Meanwhile, Phil was at home on the phone with a care home. They had called to say a space had become available for Nigel and he agreed to let Julie know and call them back in the morning.
Fully planning to finally let Nigel get the care that he needed, Phil made all the notes he needed. However, when Linda arrived and told him that she was organising Julie and Nigel’s vow renewal but that he wasn’t to come… Phil saw red.
Fuming at Julie once again, Phil screwed up the notebook page with the care home details, clearly intending to hide the fact they’d called from Julie.
The drama continues tomorrow
Tomorrow sees the day of Nigel and Julie’s vow renewal arrive, and Phil still hasn’t told Julie about the care home place.
Knowing that he and Julie need to accept it in 24 hours to ensure his place, Phil is keeping the news from her after their fallout the previous day.
As the ceromoney approacheds, Nigel wanders over to Phil’s and presumes he’s the best man, which angers Phil.
Phil agrees to take Nigel to the wedding and then leave. What will Julie say when she sees he has crashed the service?
The Walsh Sisters ending: What happens to Rachel, Anna and the family as they gather for a funeral
Taking centre stage throughout the series is Rachel and Anna, whose lives collapsed in the blink-of-an-eye. When a trip to pick up a drunk (again) Rachel from a bar resulted in a car crash that kills Anna’s fiancé Aidan, things needed to change. With Rachel packed up and sent to rehab (or ‘a holiday’ if anyone asks), Anna navigated loss of her husband-to-be – who she discovers she didn’t know as well as she thought.
That’s before we even get to Claire, Maggie and Helen, the other three siblings. While doing their best to support their sisters, they have their own big stuff to deal with. Mammy Mary and Daddy Jack aren’t proving as useful as they’d hoped, either. In fact, sometimes, they actively make things worse.
As Anna and Aidan's fancy wedding is turned into a memorial, here’s how the Walsh Sisters ending plays out, and whether we’ll see them again in a second series.
***Warning: spoilers from The Walsh Sisters ending ahead***
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The Walsh Sisters ending is a somber affair for everyone (Credit: BBC)[/caption]
What happens ahead of The Walsh Sisters' final episode?
Before we reach the finale, things are bleak for the five sisters. Anna's been inconsolable over Aidan's death, but the arrival of his old friend and former hook-up, Janie (oh, and Aidan's newborn baby son) makes it worse. The shock is at least enough to get her to see Rachel, who she's been avoiding while she's in rehab. But it's far from a happy reunion.
In their frank chat, Anna admits she is co-dependant on her sister, unable to know how to react about Aidan's son without consulting her. With resentment is still high over his death, Anna says she wants Rachel at the upcoming memorial, but at the same time doesn't. It's hard for Rachel to hear but she promises she'll be there.
If that's not depressing enough, the memorial is taking place on what should have been Aidan and Anna’s wedding day. Unable to bring herself to cancel the venue, Anna took Claire's advice to change it to a somber affair to celebrate her fiancé's life. Except now she's not sure if she even wants to.
Meanwhile, Maggie is desperate for a baby and on a rigorous sex schedule with husband Garv to make that happen. On the opposite side of that coin is Claire, who is navigating dating while being a single mum after her divorce from James. Even Helen, the baby of the family, has her own drama, falling out with Mammy who caught her kissing a girl in the street.
Going into The Walsh Sisters ending, there's a lot to wrap up. Here's how they did it.
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Rachel faces up to everything as the Walsh Sisters reaches its finale (Credit: BBC)[/caption]
The Walsh Sisters ending explained: What happens in the finale?
Tensions are running high the morning of the memorial. Rachel is allowed to leave rehab, albeit with a chaperone, but knows it’s going to be hard. She admits craving a joint, but unfortunately there's no luck with that in a rehab facility. At least roommate Chaquie gives her the perfect outfit to look sensible.
Claire takes daughter Kate to the airport to hand her over to James for the weekend, but they quickly row. When he threatens to take her to court for custody, she snaps and tells him he can take Kate permanently. She can have her on weekends, but she's exhausted and doesn't want to get swallowed up by motherhood. While Claire feels like a bad mum, she reckons she'd be an amazing 'weekend dad'.
At Mammy and Daddy’s, Mary is on the warpath. She scoffs at Rachel for needing a minder, and is still not talking to Helen. She spots one ray of light though – and clocks that Maggie's pregnant. Mary encourages her to tell the others, but Maggie’s more cautious, not wanting to make the day about her. It's also still early days into the pregnancy and doesn't want to jinx it.
Meanwhile, Anna is having a full-on meltdown in a shop. When Helen calls, she admits she’s panicking over getting the right shoes. Rachel figures out where she is and goes to get her, but notices Anna’s wearing a tiny black party dress with a plunging neckline (her only black dress, as Rachel vomited on the other one).
Rachel switches outfits with Anna so she's more presentable, willing to take on the wrath of her mother for the inappropriate dress by doing so, and together they head to the venue.
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Anna is forced to face a nightmare situation at Aidan's memorial (Credit: BBC)[/caption]
What happens to Anna as she faces Aidan's memorial?
Aidan’s memorial goes about as well as you’d expect it to. Turns out Anna’s meltdown was a bit of a blessing. On arrival, Maggie and Claire enter crisis mode as they discover the room is decked out to be a wedding. The organiser had not got the memo about the event change. The Walsh sisters end up wrangling anyone they can to make the room look “less happy” ASAP.
Stripping the room of almost everything, Anna quickly bursts into tears when she sees a slideshow of photographs of her and Aidan in happier times. Catching a breather outside, she spots a staff member smoking, and asks him to take a sip of whiskey and blow smoke into her face. He's confused but he does it for her, and for a second Anna's reminded of Aidan drinking whiskey with a cigarette. She hugs the man in gratitude, feeling closer to Aidan for a brief moment.
Soon she gets another unexpected visitor: Janie and her son. Helen unknowingly looks after the tot when Janie needs the loo, and all the family are quickly cooing over him – including Anna, who melts at the sight of the baby.
She invites Janie to stay for the memorial, aware how much Aidan meant to her, and Janie later asks her to stay in touch. Anna happily agrees, seeing Aidan in the little boy.
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The memorial ends in complete disaster (Credit: BBC)[/caption]
Does Rachel manage to stay sober?
Rachel holds strong throughout the event, to her sisters’ pride. But Mammy tests her resolve, mocking Rachel for 'looking like a prostitute' in her now tiny dress, and failing to tell her she'd invited her ex-boyfriend, Luke.
After Mammy trades passive-aggressive barbs with her neighbour Ms Kilfeather, her obsession with keeping up appearances goes into overdrive. Deciding a sister should make a speech about Aidan, she brands them all useless when they refuse. Despite Anna’s pleas for no speeches, Mary decides to do one anyway.
It is a painfully awkward disaster. Failing to know him in life, Mary has nothing to say, so makes things up. Eventually Anna steps in, berates the family for dismissing Aidan so quickly, and shares how much she loved him.
Trying to regain control, Mammy raises a toast. When Rachel doesn’t do it, Mary mocks her for “not having enough self-control to hold a glass of wine”, leaving everyone horrified.
Rachel later confronts her mother for choosing appearances over Anna's feelings. Mary hits back, says she’s too "absorbed by emotions" and storms off.
But it’s the Walsh Sisters ending up in a row that finally breaks Rachel. She ignores chaperone Celine's pleas to wait it out, and declares she can't be part of her family sober. As Celine walks away, she downs a drink at the bar.
Later, Luke finds Rachel outside, admits he loves her and they kiss. But tasting gin on her upsets him, and he realises he can't trust her to not drink. He leaves, telling her there's nothing anyone can do when she hates herself.
Heartbroken, she sneaks into the suite her dad bought for the night, and raids the mini bar.
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The future for all the sisters remains uncertain (Credit: BBC)[/caption]
Are Rachel and Anna able to make up?
In the row that made Rachel tip over, Claire shares her decision to give up custody of Kate. All of them are furious she would abandon her daughter. When she protests "being a mum is hard", they note between the five of them, they did most of the heavy lifting. In a bid to make Claire see sense, Helen brings their mum into the fray, disrupting her night watching Strictly Come Dancing in peace in the suite.
Mary tells her it gets easier, but they all remind her that she hates them. She denies it, but decides to go home, leaving the girls to fight over the now-empty suite. As the argument over Kate continues, Anna slips away to be alone.
Instead, she finds a half-cut Rachel, but is too drunk herself to care. Anna scares Rachel by pulling dodgy-looking pills out of her bag, which she claims she's been given to sleep. When Rachel tries to flush them, Anna begs her not to. Eventually she hands over one, and offers to stay with her as she drifts off.
Anna declares she hates Rachel, and blames her for Aidan's death. But she also hates herself for not hating her more. Heartbroken and defeated, Rachel looks at the remaining pills in her hand, contemplating what to do with them.
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Claire makes a huge decision that leaves her siblings reeling (Credit: BBC)[/caption]
How does The Walsh Sisters end?
Before Rachel can decide, the rest of the sisters turn up. Rachel confesses she drank, and that she can't cope being sad and sober, knowing Luke and Anna hate her. She questions how any of the sisters remain sober, given their own problems. Worried, Helen sits in front of the minibar to stop Rachel from drinking again.
As the family sit in sadness, Maggie decides to lift the mood – and tells them all that she's pregnant. While Claire says they should order champagne, the girls mock her for ignoring what Rachel just said. Instead, Helen orders every dessert available for room service so they can stuff their faces.
As they hug on the bed, Rachel curls into a half-passed out Anna, who lovingly leans her head on hers. Although they are far from OK, we find the Walsh Sisters ending up a little more hopeful for the future.
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There's plenty of room for more catch-ups with the sisters (Credit: BBC)[/caption]
Will The Walsh Sisters return for series 2?
Currently, there is no news on whether The Walsh Sisters will return for a second series. There is definitely scope for it though.
Marian Keyes has seven novels to date about The Walsh Family. Elements from each are present in the series, but the second novel, Rachel's Holiday, and the fourth, Anybody Out There? are the main two used.
Also, the series is only loosely based on the stories anyway. With author Marian Keyes being a writer on the show, she might decide to add more into the mix.
With Maggie now expecting a baby, and Helen preparing to go to college, there's certainly plenty to dig into.
Keep your fingers crossed the Walsh Sisters end up back on our screens!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNqwp_1RYxE
