The culprit is finally revealed…
ARNING: This article contains spoilers for today’s episode of EastEnders, currently streaming on BBC iPlayer and yet to air on BBC One and sees Vicki’s blackmailer unmasked.
It has been the question on everyone’s lips this week, and now EastEnders fans finally have their answer. After days of stress, suspicion and a fair bit of finger-pointing, Vicki’s secret tormentor has been unmasked and it is not who anyone expected.
Vicki has been spiralling all week after someone used a photo of her and Zack kissing to blackmail her. Determined to get to the bottom of it, she worked her way through a long list of suspects, even putting Zoe and Cindy under pressure to see if they were behind it.
Yesterday’s episode saw Vicki, Zack and Mark convinced they had cracked the case as they confronted Ian. But their theory quickly fell apart. Not only was Ian innocent, but the confrontation also exposed Vicki’s fling with Zack.
The blackmailer is unmasked in EastEnders
Today’s EastEnders sees Vicki realise she has run out of options and needs to tell Ross the truth. Knowing she doesn’t have the £20k to pay off her blackmailer, she decides she needs to come clean.
But before she can tell Ross what has been going on, he is called away to work. He promises to make time to talk at lunch, oblivious that Vicki is about to shatter his world.
However, as Vicki later sits down with Ross and prepares to confess everything, there is drama unfolding at Nigel’s care home when it is revealed that Louie is the culprit!
Kathy and Ian are suspicious when Louie is acting shifty with his phone, and they demand to see who he is messaging. They read his texts, and the horrific realisation hits that he is the one who has been blackmailing Vicki.
They march him back to Sharon’s, and Zack manages to let Vicki know just in the nick of time before she confesses to Ross.
Vicki confronts Louie, and he seems genuinely sorry for the trouble he has caused. He explains that he was trying to get money to help pay for Jimmy’s nursery fees, and everyone softens.
Louie is the blackmailer, but there’s more
In a lighter moment, Vicki questions how a 10-year-old even knows about blackmail. Louie admits he learned about it from Granny Cindy, prompting a collective realisation about where the idea came from.
While Cindy is completely unaware of what her grandson has been up to, her connection to the situation raises a few eyebrows among the group.
Desperate, Louie pleads with them not to tell his parents. Vicki agrees on one condition, that he deletes the photo and keeps quiet about what he saw.
Of course, this is Walford, and secrets rarely stay buried for long. With so much at stake, it feels like only a matter of time before everything comes out, and it could not come at a worse moment for Vicki and Ross.
