Eve Panesar-Unwin (Heather Peace) may have just jeopardised her plans to adopt a child with wife Suki (Balvinder Sopal) in EastEnders.
The couple have been pursuing an adoption for months, which was sparked following difficult conversations over Eve’s desire to be a parent. She explained that her mother had always made it seem like she wouldn’t be capable of raising a child, and so the idea terrified her.
Suki had made a troubling attempt to get teenage step-granddaughter Avani Nandra-Hart (Aaliyah James) to carry a child for them, something which divided the Panesar-Gulati clan.
In the aftermath, they decided to go down the more legal (and ethical) route, and had a number of meetings with agency representative Robin Dawson (Alistair Cope). He brought some good news in November, by saying that their application had been approved.
In today’s episode, the couple were a bag of nerves before driving off to face the adoption panel. To make matters worse, it was the fifth anniversary of Suki’s son Jags’ (Amar Adatia) death.
As long term viewers will recall, he was framed for a robbery and assault on Martin Fowler (James Bye) by his own mother, and was later stabbed to death in his prison cell.
Priya and Avani Nandra-Hart (Sophie Khan Levy and Aaliyah James), alongside Davinder “Nugget” Gulati (Juhaim Rasul Choudhury) approached Sukeve with some baby balloons and were keen to get them into a celebratory mood.
However, Nicola Mitchell (Laura Doddington) then approached and immediately soured the mood. She said that Suki was already a bad mother, so had no idea how she’d be able to content with having another child.
Eve had to hold Suki back, and asserted that she must have some control and ignore Nicola’s vile words.
Tensions were still rising at the Walford Council offices, when Suki’s parking space was stolen. Eve then made matters worse when, in front of the panel, she mentioned how they were perfectly capable of dealing with loss should a youngster in their care have to return to their birth family.
Eve said that she’d lost her sister, while Suki had lost Jags. The mention of him was too much to bear, and Suki leapt out of her seat and rushed off.
For a moment, it seemed like everything had been ruined. Eve headed to Harry’s Barn to drown her sorrows, but upon hearing Nicola bad mouthing her wife, smacked her across the face.
Nicola reminded her that the incident had been captured on CCTV and she’d be reporting it to the police. With Eve’s previous convictions, it’s likely she’d be sent down.
Returning home, Suki broke the happy news that they’d been approved for adoption. However, Eve couldn’t help but feel that there was a dark cloud about to loom over their family.
Will Nicola act on her words?
Read more:
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- EastEnders legend teases “dangerous” dynamic between Max Branning and Cindy Beale
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