BBC Share By Kerry Barrett Jul 26 2025 By Kerry Barrett Jul 26 2025 EastEnders review: Kat's back where she belongs, Avani's expecting, and Zoe's in trouble, but who cares? Kat's the perfect person to take over as landlady of The Queen Vic! Features Kat Slater Stacey Slater Share By Kerry Barrett Jul 26 2025 By Kerry Barrett Jul 26 2025 Our EastEnders review this week is all about EastEnders’ iconic Slater family. Because after last week’s Branning bonanza, this week’s episodes were all about the Slaters as Kat planned to take over as landlady of The Queen Vic. Sometimes in soaps when things happen, it’s like they were meant to be. Cindy taking over The Albert, for example. And as soon as Kat thought about moving back into the pub, we were all in. But while the new Vic landlady is absolutely perfect, not everything about this week’s EastEnders was so right. Here’s what we thought in our EastEnders review. Stacey’s been keeping a lot of secrets from Kat (Credit: BBC) All the Zoe nonsense As Kat prepared her finances ready to buy The Queen Vic, Stacey was keeping another massive secret from her cousin. Alfie was on the phone, begging poor Stace to send him €50,000 so he could bail Zoe out of another mess. And quite honestly, this whole Zoe debacle has got us scratching our heads. It makes no sense for Alfie and Stacey to be lying to Kat – a woman they both love – and protecting Zoe, who’s flaky, unreliable, and old enough to make her own mistakes. Article continues below Read all the latest spoilers In fact, even though Jean was talking about Hayley and Cherry, everything she said made total sense. Of course Stacey should have been prioritising Kat, who’s been by her side through thick and thin, over bratty, overgrown teenager Zoe. We’re just pleased Stacey saw sense in the end. And as for Alfie. Well, if he wants to stay in Spain, we’d be fine with that. Kat’s so much better without him. It’s a new era at the Queen Vic (Credit: BBC) Kat taking on the pub Kat Slater belongs behind the bar of The Queen Vic. There was no better person in the whole of Albert Square for Linda to hand over the reins to. How stressful was the auction when it looked like the evil property developer was going to win, though? Blimey! And yes, we’re not sure everything about the sale was well, strictly legal, but it matters not. We’re just looking forward to the new leopard-print wallpaper. Anyway, we love Kat’s new role. Though we weren’t entirely sure she’d have been able to open up immediately. Did she even have a licence? The very strange police officers who turned up didn’t seem to think so – they called her Mrs Peacock – but they also didn’t seem to mind. Ah well, what’s a bit of paperwork between friends, eh? Linda’s moved on (Credit: BBC) EastEnders review: The Carters’ new home One thing that no one seemed to have thought about – including Linda and Elaine – was where they were going to go when the pub was sold. Luckily that’s been dealt with, thanks to Elaine taking over Kat’s flat and Linda heading off on her – ahem – singles cruise – with her grown-up son and two small children in tow. It’s best not to ask too many questions about plots like this. Just trust the process and all will be well! Phil and Julie clashed over Nigel and Phil was being a bit mean about it all (Credit: BBC) Let’s talk about Nigel Away from the Carter/Peacocks, Nigel came back to Walford this week, having gone back to Edinburgh with his wife, Julie. As everyone looked for him frantically, he managed to make it all the way to Albert Square without encountering a ticket inspector until he got to Walford. Amazing stuff. Phil, though, is being really unfair about the whole thing. At least he was. He’s redeemed himself a bit by asking Julie to move in. This whole storyline though is a little muddled and odd, and makes us feel a little uncomfortable. EastEnders review: Move on, Jean Another thing that’s been making us feel uncomfortable this week is Jean continuing to snipe at Harvey and Kathy. We know they did a bad thing. There’s no question about that. But Jean was HORRIBLE to Harvey before their split. She treated him in such a dismissive, nasty way that was actually very out of character for her. She shut him out of the family, belittled him, and ignored him. We wish someone would point that out to her. Nicola is proving excellent at sticking her nose into Harry’s business (Credit: BBC) Queen Nicola We know we’ve mentioned this before but our love for Nicola just keeps growing. She’s awful, isn’t she? Immoral – or maybe amoral – and ruthless and prepared to do anything to get what she wants. Even nick her son’s phone and set Ravi up to be arrested. And we love her for it. Avani is pregnant with Joel’s baby (Credit: BBC) EastEnders review: Avani’s up the doof-doof So bright, funny, clever, sassy, just-turned-16 Avani is pregnant. We are disappointed. Teen pregnancy storylines are a bit of a bore and often sugar-coated into the bargain. And now Suki’s got involved and we were like “WHAT IS HAPPENING”? Of course we love Suki, but she is not a good mum. Not by anyone’s standards (and let’s face it, the standards of parenting in Walford are pretty low). And her taking on Avani’s baby – a baby, by the way, that Avani does not want to carry and give birth to – is a very, very bad idea. We’re looking forward to what will happen when Eve gets to hear about this. Because surely she’s the person who can talk some sense into her wife?! Where is Baby Abi? (Credit: BBC) Baby Abi Speaking of babies, we suddenly remembered Baby Abi this week, when Oscar and Lauren were discussing telling their dad Max that he has another daughter. Baby Abi left Walford with Max – her grandfather – and no one has really mentioned her since. We can’t really get our heads round Lauren giving up on her niece, or Tanya letting her toxic ex-husband raise her only grand-daughter. It’s a bit of a plot complication that will hopefully be resolved when Max returns. Read more: Who’s leaving, joining and returning to EastEnders? Complete list of cast exits, arrivals and returns. Share Good to Know Share By Kerry Barrett Jul 26 2025 By Kerry Barrett Jul 26 2025
