Dotty Cotton in catfishing twist ahead of explosive EastEnders exit

The double bill on Monday night saw Dotty's uncle Rocky Cotton (Brian Conley) keen to get to the bottom of Sophia's motives after learning that Harvey had sent her money.

Recruiting help from Freddie Slater (Bobby Brazier) and Bobby, the group managed to get screenshots of photos and details about Sophia from Harvey's phone.

As a result, the trio learned that the photos of Sophia are from an online catalogue, proving she was not genuine.

Later, Rocky contemplated when he should break the bad news to Harvey about the con from Sophia, during which time he and the group were interrupted by Dotty herself who appeared to discover what had happened.

This apparent discovery prompted Rocky to resolve to come clean to Harvey, and was convinced of the need to do so as he found his friend sending Sophia more money.

In an effort to stop Harvey being swindled even further, Rocky and allies Freddie and Bobby explained the truth about the "catfishing" (online impersonation) to Harvey.

However, in a sad surprise, Harvey refused to believe that his new romance was a lie.

Thankfully, Harvey eventually came to realise the truth that the person behind the online Sophia persona was actually a con artist.

Back at the Beale house, Dotty returned home and Bobby got a message from his former girlfriend Dana. He was contemplating what to tell her, but Dotty advised him against informing her about the Sophia situation to avoid Dana quitting university to pay off her course fees herself, as Harvey had been helping her before.

Later, Bobby sat and did further research on Dana's course fees at university, realising the costs matched the money that Harvey had lost.

It was then that the penny dropped for Bobby, as he realised no one had told Dotty how much money Harvey had been scammed out of - and he realised that Dotty was actually behind the scam in the first place.

What will the consequences be?

Fans will be aware that actress Milly Zero will be bowing out as Dotty Cotton before the end of the year and has already filmed her final scenes.

Could Dotty's crimes be exposed and lead to her exit from the Square?

Zero penned on Instagram in November: "After 3 & a half years – I have decided my journey with the icon that is Dotty Cotton has come to an end.

"I can't tell you how life changing my time at EastEnders has been, and how much I am going to miss it, but I am ready for new challenges now.

"Thank you to everyone that made it so special – I have made friends for life, learnt huge amounts and made memories to last a lifetime. I can't wait for you all to watch her exit, she goes out with a bang!"

We do know that Zero filmed scenes for Dot's funeral in December, so we'll have to wait and see how things pan out for Ms Cotton.

In the meantime, Dot's great-nephew Reiss Colwell has been confirmed to be joining the soap in time for Dot's funeral in December.

Read more:

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• EastEnders cast: Who is joining, leaving and returning to the soap?
• EastEnders biggest reveals since Sharongate

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