Tuesday’s (November 12) episode continued the fallout of Nicola’s arrival in Walford following a period of estrangement from her two sons,
Harry and Barney.
Harry was recently arrested in connection with the disappearance of his missing girlfriend, as part of his ongoing feud with Walford detective
Jack Branning.
Nicola turned her attention to figuring out what role Penny Branning may have played in Harry’s arrest since the two had been dating in recent weeks. Penny partnered with Harry in a plot to blackmail Jack, though she was given reason for doubt when her father discovered Harry’s girlfriend was missing.
Jack was equally paranoid about which side his daughter was on, demanding to know exactly what Penny had told the Mitchells about him.
Nicola went to work trying to free Harry by meeting with a detective to claim that the “star witness” had a longstanding grudge against the family. She was able to provide a false alibi to get Henry temporarily released under caution.
Meanwhile, Teddy sprung into action to make sure Nicola wouldn’t look like a hero to her sons for getting Harry out of jail.
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Teddy revealed that Nicola hadn’t been in Bali all these months like she’d claimed — she’d been behind bars serving a sentence for ABH (assault occasioning actual bodily harm).
Not only that, Teddy shattered his son Barney by announcing he’d originally kicked Nicola out of the house for stealing from the family.
“It’s not what it sounds like,” she swore to a tearful Barney.
Harry angrily snapped: “That’s our mum, mate. That’s why I want her to go. It’s going to take a lot more than a couple of fake alibis to make up for what she’s done.”
Even Barney turned against his mum as he ordered her to “just go home”. As she grabbed her coat, Nicola revealed that Penny had been the one to convince the Walford PD’s “star witness” to come forward.
“Now, I know I haven’t always been the best mum, but I will never stop trying because you are my boys and it is my job to protect you all from harm,” she vowed. “You may not want me here right now, but you need me!”
Ahead of her on-screen arrival, Nicola actor Laura Doddington teased that the road ahead for her character and Teddy would be a rocky one.
“Nicola loves Teddy, and she wants him back,” she said. “But they were definitely not what we would call a functioning couple. Nicola is quite manipulative with most people, but she can’t manipulate Teddy as well as she used to, and that infuriates her.
“They got together when they were young and went from being kids to being adults together and finding out who they were while in a relationship with each other. From that comes this ability to press each other’s buttons very quickly and know before they press them what’s going to happen.”
