EastEnders fans are raging—and not in the good, soap-scandal way. Monday night’s episode sent shockwaves through the fandom as viewers took to social media in droves to brand the latest storyline not just “controversial,” but the worst episode ever.
At the center of the storm? Suki Panesar.
Known for her manipulative edge and steely control, Suki (played by Balvinder Sopal) has always lived in the moral grey—but her latest scheme has crossed a line even long-time fans didn’t see coming. In a jaw-dropping twist, Suki was revealed to be orchestrating a deeply unsettling plan: convincing teenage Avani (Aaliyah James) to keep her baby, not for the girl’s future—but for Suki’s.
Yes, Suki wants to raise Avani’s baby as her own, manipulating the frightened teen with promises of support and maternal affection. And the internet is not having it.
“Abysmal,” one viewer wrote. “I genuinely don’t know what I just watched. Have the writers forgotten what emotional coercion is?”
The episode saw Suki’s wife, Eve Unwin (Heather Peace), discovering the disturbing truth. In an explosive confrontation, Eve accused Suki of gaslighting and emotionally manipulating Avani—a moment that should have marked a moral reckoning. But what came next left fans speechless.
In the very same episode, Avani—clearly shaken and vulnerable—has a sudden, unexplained change of heart. After a brief, almost surreal heart-to-heart with Eve, she agrees to go along with the plan. The new arrangement? Suki and Eve will raise the baby together.
The about-face left many viewers calling the plot “garbage,” “inappropriate,” and “dangerously unrealistic.” One fan wrote, “Avani seems to have had a personality transplant overnight. This storyline should be about coercion and trauma—not some twisted domestic fantasy.”
The backlash has been especially fierce because the storyline touches on sensitive themes of teen pregnancy, emotional manipulation, and queer family dynamics—topics that fans believe deserve nuanced treatment, not rushed plot twists and bizarre U-turns.
The fury didn’t stop with Suki’s arc. In a bizarre subplot dropped into the same episode, beloved Walford legend Patrick Trueman suddenly revealed… a gambling problem? With zero build-up or context, the unexpected turn added fuel to the chaos. “Now Patrick has a gambling addiction?” another viewer asked. “They’re just throwing darts at the script at this point.”
For a soap that has prided itself on tackling tough issues with depth and realism, fans are demanding better. The emotional manipulation of a pregnant teen shouldn’t be rebranded as a touching family moment, they argue—and the characters deserve more consistency and respect.
