{"id":365390,"date":"2025-12-23T11:03:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T11:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/365390\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T11:03:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T11:03:08","slug":"eastenders-airs-devastating-nigel-and-phil-conclusion-in-early-iplayer-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/365390\/","title":{"rendered":"EastEnders airs devastating Nigel and Phil conclusion in early iPlayer release"},"content":{"rendered":"

EastEnders<\/a> spoilers follow for Tuesday\u2019s episode (23 December), which is available to watch now on streaming service BBC iPlayer and hasn\u2019t yet aired on TV.<\/p>\n

EastEnders has aired a very special episode about Nigel Bates\u2019 dementia<\/a>, concluding with a devastating scene between him and best friend Phil Mitchell. This week, Nigel got overwhelmed at his film screening, and even more so when he overheard Phil and Julie talking about care homes.<\/p>\n

Nigel walked off and got confused, and when he wandered into The Vic, his altered memories took him back to the 1990s<\/a> \u2013 and he soon bumped into Pat Evans.<\/p>\n

In today’s episode<\/a>, the pair were joined by Barry, who sang a song on the karaoke machine, with Nigel\u2019s confusion bringing these two characters back to life.<\/p>\n

Both Pat and Barry<\/a> believed that Nigel was still married to his late wife Debbie, and Nigel explained that he had bought a present for her and had given it to Phil to look after.<\/p>\n

\"nigel<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

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

Nigel then spotted Phil and Grant in the pub \u2013 but as their younger selves, with Daniel Delaney and Teddy Jay reprising their roles as the Mitchell brothers<\/a> for the third time.<\/p>\n

Young Phil obviously didn\u2019t know anything about Nigel\u2019s present which made him more distressed. In an emotional scene, Nigel then came face to face with Debbie<\/a> and slow danced with his beloved first wife.<\/p>\n

But Debbie then morphed into Julie, who alongside Phil, had found him in the pub. Nigel mistook her for Debbie then turned violent and angry, kicking Julie and Phil out and locking himself in The Vic.<\/p>\n

\"barry<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

Related: EastEnders scraps early iPlayer release for two huge Christmas episodes<\/a><\/p>\n

Outside, Julie told Phil about the present, and Phil gave it to her \u2013 as Nigel did in fact leave it with him. Back in the community centre, Phil asked Kat and Alfie to unlock the barrel store in the pub, but he asked everyone to leave when they were laughing at a funny part of the film.<\/p>\n

In the pub, Nigel continued to have visions of Pat, Barry and Debbie, but was brought back to the present by Julie. He continued to mistake her for Debbie, but Julie discovered that he\u2019d written her own name on the gift tag of an engraved necklace to remember him by.<\/p>\n

Phil came to a sad realisation while watching the film alone, and back at home, he apologised to Julie and admitted that it is in fact time to start looking at care options for Nigel.<\/p>\n

\"nigel<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

Related: EastEnders boss confirms more Christmas twists and turns in final festive teasers<\/a><\/p>\n

As he previously pledged to look after Nigel until the end, Phil thought it best to speak to his friend himself. The pair sat outside in the Square, and Phil broke the news to Nigel that their current care arrangement wasn\u2019t working any longer.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve run out of road, you and me,” Nigel responded, in one of the most poignant moments of this story so far. “I know that now. But it\u2019s okay. You need to let me go, Phil.”<\/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

The new edition of Living Legends, celebrating music icon Dolly Parton, is here! Buy Dolly at 80 in newsagents or online<\/a> , priced at just \u00a38.99.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EastEnders spoilers follow for Tuesday\u2019s episode (23 December), which is available to watch now on streaming service BBC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[872,179744,874,88,2245,179743,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-365390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-content-type-news","9":"tag-contentid-94df6b87-8194-4d93-b155-7c5377d4c73f","10":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-locale-gb","13":"tag-shorttitle-eastenders-airs-devastating-nigel-and-phil-ending","14":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}