EastEnders‘ Phil Mitchell has been acting out after Nigel Bates left the Square earlier this week, taking his anger out on all of Walford’s residents and threatening to take his granddaughter Lexi away.

In today’s episode, Phil made sure everyone knew how upset he was over Nigel leaving. Phil’s anger was aimed particularly at Jay Brown, who had called Nigel’s wife Julie to let her know about his early onset dementia diagnosis.

Now Nigel has left for Scotland with Julie, Phil has been having a hard time coping with losing his friend. While Kat Slater, Kathy Beale and Jay tried to comfort Phil only to receive snappy retorts, Linda Carter seemed to be the one cutting through his tough façade.

At The Vic, Linda invited Phil upstairs to have a quiet chat away from prying patrons, but the situation escalated when they bumped into Callum Highway and Johnny Carter.

Phil immediately realised Callum had been cheating on his son, Callum’s husband Ben, who’s currently behind bars in the US for credit card fraud. He first attacked Callum, then moved onto Johnny, nearly strangling him.

“That’s my son’s husband you’re messing with!” he yelled at Johnny as Linda and Jay rushed to break the fight.

A disappointed Phil stormed out, leaving Callum worried he might tell Ben or Lexi about his new romance.

Later on, the policeman pleaded with Phil not to hurt Ben by spilling the secret. “Your son turned my life upside down, and that’s amazing, Phil,” Callum began, but added that Ben, who had promised to stand by him, wasn’t there.

“Johnny knew the old me, all right? And he understands who I am now,” he added, hinting Ben could be “doing worse” in prison.

Phil seemed unimpressed with Callum, despite his promises not to see Johnny, or anyone else, so he could keep taking care of Lexi.

“I can’t lose my family over this,” Callum said, but Phil was adamant to tell Ben.

At the cafe, Callum vented his frustration in a chat with Jay, who decided to head over to Phil to make him see reason.

“Come on, Phil. You’ve learned a lot about mental health, why would you do that?” Jay asked, convinced that Ben knowing the truth would do him more harm than good.

Jay then suggested Phil was acting out as a consequence of Nigel going away. “You’re lashing out, Phil. I can read you like a book!” Jay said. But Phil insisted he and Callum had “nothing to do” with him.

“You ain’t even Lexi’s real dad, not really,” he turned to Callum.

“I think it’s about time Lexi went to live with her real family, you know,” Phil said. “Someone who’s got his own place, who’s a blood relative, who’s willing and able to take on his granddaughter,” he continued.

Jay reminded Phil he was Lexi’s guardian, as per her mum Lola’s dying wish.

“But Lola ain’t here, is she?” Phil provoked him.

Callum had to physically restrain Jay before he could jump Phil. After threatening Phil, a furious Jay left.

“You can’t do this,” Callum begged Phil, who coldly said: “Watch me.”