{"id":353962,"date":"2025-12-17T13:29:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T13:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/353962\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T13:29:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T13:29:10","slug":"eastenders-promises-another-branning-return-tonight-but-theres-a-big-twist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/353962\/","title":{"rendered":"EastEnders promises another Branning return tonight \u2013 but there’s a big twist"},"content":{"rendered":"

EastEnders<\/a> spoilers follow for Wednesday\u2019s episode (17 December), which is available to watch now on streaming service BBC iPlayer and hasn\u2019t yet aired on TV.<\/p>\n

EastEnders\u2019 Max Branning returns to Walford<\/a> tonight, in the wake of his son Oscar being rushed to hospital. He promises to bring another missing member of his family back to Albert Square, but it\u2019s soon revealed that all is not as it seems\u2026<\/p>\n

This week, Zoe\u2019s life was in danger<\/a> when she was trapped in a room inside No.25 which had been set on fire. Oscar found Zoe and rescued her, but he put himself in peril and was rushed to hospital.<\/p>\n

As his family waited for news, Jasmine was told to leave him alone \u2013 and Max then made a surprise arrival<\/a> to reinforce this message. <\/p>\n

He stayed and slept by Oscar\u2019s bedside, waiting for him to wake up. Lauren and Ian watched on, still concerned about the missing charity money that Lauren was scammed out of<\/a>, and Peter now believes to have been stolen.<\/p>\n

\"lauren<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

Related: Best streaming services<\/a><\/p>\n

In today’s episode<\/a>, Max demanded answers about why the fire started, who took the charity money and why his former flame Zoe was staying with them. Zoe arrived at the hospital at that moment, and when she explained her stalker ordeal to Max, he pledged to support her.<\/p>\n

Oscar then regained consciousness, to the delight of his family. Max explained that he was going to bring his granddaughter AJ (Abi Jr), but she was staying with Tanya while he was here.<\/p>\n

With Oscar discharging himself from hospital, he and Max returned to Walford. Max wasted no time reuniting with another of his former lovers<\/a>, asking Linda for a place to stay at newly opened Peacock Palace. But what Max still doesn\u2019t know that he is the dad of Linda\u2019s daughter Annie\u2026<\/p>\n

\"max<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

Related: EastEnders reveals mystery visitor in terrifying Christmas Day trailer<\/a><\/p>\n

He told Linda that he would be sticking around and had plans to bring AJ to Walford. However, Lauren later exposed she\u2019d spoken to Tanya and she knows that AJ hasn\u2019t actually been living with him.<\/p>\n

At The Vic, Max interrogated Jack about Ian, suspicious that he\u2019d got so close to his family and Lauren was fighting his corner. He came up with a theory and later told the whole pub that Ian had both stolen the charity money and set the house on fire as an insurance scam.<\/p>\n

Ian was understandably furious and as things turned violent between the pair, Lauren couldn\u2019t deal with the guilt any longer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"lauren<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

Related: EastEnders confirms surprise appearance in huge New Year flashforward episode<\/a><\/p>\n

“It was me,” she said, standing up and stopping the fight. “I stole the money.”<\/p>\n

How will Max and the Beales react to Lauren\u2019s shocking admission?<\/p>\n

EastEnders airs on Mondays – Thursdays at 7.30pm on BBC One. The show also streams on BBC iPlayer, where most episodes drop early at 6am ahead of their TV broadcast.<\/p>\n

Read more EastEnders spoilers on our dedicated homepage<\/a><\/p>\n

Love TV? Get your Christmas viewing sorted with the Good Housekeeping Christmas TV Guide<\/a>, featuring 14 days of Christmas TV listings, plus everything you need for the ultimate festive viewing experience! Just \u00a34.75 \u2013 available at Morrisons, TG Jones and all other good magazine retailers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EastEnders spoilers follow for Wednesday\u2019s episode (17 December), which is available to watch now on streaming service BBC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,428,194240,430,134,429,194239,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-353962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-content-type-news","11":"tag-contentid-6fba7342-29f0-4ae1-ad9a-76608fa1096c","12":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-locale-gb","15":"tag-shorttitle-eastenders-teases-another-branning-return-tonight","16":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}