6 EastEnders spoilers for next week: Carters back in the Queen Vic and Stacey faces prison

Here are all your EastEnders spoilers for 22nd - 26th March 2021.

Mick's secret is out

Hurrah! The Carters are back in the Queen Vic. Having Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) run the iconic pub again for a while was fine for a bit of nostalgia, but Mick and L felt rudderless away from the bar and belong in that boozer. Unfortunately, some news derails their triumphant return when Mick learns abuser Katy has been arrested, and more survivors are expected to come forward.

Mick fears his childhood trauma will become common knowledge, as does his and Katy's daughter Frankie Lewis (Rose Ayling-Ellis), and sure enough Stuart Highway (Ricky Champ) figures it out and plans to avenge his former best friend. Not that Mick asks him to, of course. Stuart collars a terrified Frankie and threatens her, until Mick shows up to calm things down. Stuart's got form for dealing out his own brand of justice to sexual predators, so can Mick stop him from doing something drastic?

Will Stacey go to prison?

It's not looking good for Stacey as the possibility of being banged up for 'attacking' Ruby looms over her. Jean lays into Rube and Martin Fowler (James Bye) for pursuing the case against her daughter, and later breaks into Ruby's house and forces her to drop the charges.

As Stacey's lawyer tells her she'll probably get six months if she pleads guilty, an excited Jean announces she's got Ruby to withdraw the allegation. Stacey reckons it's too good to be true - and she might be right as there's another twist around the corner. Meanwhile, Ruby gets heartbreaking news from the doctor which could affect her efforts to try for another baby after the miscarriage.

Jealous Gray fumes at Whitney

We're all rooting for Whitney and Kush Kazemi (Davood Ghadami), right? Apart from Gray of course, who's seething that his crush has moved on to the muscly market stall holder before he could mould her into dead wife Chantelle's replacement.

This week his jealousy intensifies as he subtly pours poison in Whit's ear about Kush's suitability as a partner, considering he could end up behind bars soon after that botched heist business with the Mitchells. But true love finds a way, and when Whitney can't spend time with her fella because she's babysitting for Gray, resourceful Kush arrives at the Atkins house ready to have a date night there instead. As you can imagine, Gray is more than a little aggrieved when he gets home to find the pair canoodling in his lounge…

Pain for the Panesars

We get an insight into the Panesars' backstory this week when the family are shaken by racist graffiti daubed over the Minute Mart. Steely Suki Panesar (Balvinder Sopal) lets her guard down and shares her memories with eldest son Kheerat Panesar (Jaz Deol) about how the clan have faced awful abuse like this in the past, leading to a rare mention of the Panesar dad who is languishing in prison. Have we ever found out why he's there?

Elsewhere, Vinny Panesar (Shiv Jalota) is keen to prove himself as a player and not the runt of the litter and is pleased when Kheerat trusts him with what he hopes is a big, important job, but actually turns out to be driving some gangster contact around. But when said contact drops dead in the car, Vin must do some very quick thinking…

Elsewhere on EastEnders

• The 'hostess with the mostess' storyline in which Tiff Butcher-Baker (Maisie Smith) and Dotty Cotton (Milly Zero) bat their eyes and fleece rich male club customers continues, and frankly gets even more icky. Maybe that's the point? When Tiff overcharges a punter by accident, Dotty decides to sneakily start adding tips to bar tabs and make more cash without anyone realising it. She's obviously watched Hustle too many times.
• Callum Highway (Tony Clay) celebrates his 30th birthday, with boyfriend Ben Mitchell (Max Bowden) and Lexi Pearce (Isabella Brown) making it an occasion to remember. But the copper is soon distracted by a shocking event that derails his big three-oh somewhat…

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