ANGER ERUPTS! Furious Lauren confronts Mark in EastEnders as his dark secrets explode
Mark Fowler Jr’s (Stephen Aaron-Sipple) entire tenure since returning to EastEnders has been nothing short of chaotic.
Re-emerging with a brand new attitude – and a brand new face – as an ill-prepared gangster who’d clearly gotten in way over his head, Mark was sent to Walford to locate a mole within his gang, the mole in question being Ravi Gulati (Aaron Thiara).
While he clearly relished being reunited with his sister, Vicki Fowler (Alice Haig), her safety soon came under threat when the gang promised to kill her should Mark fail to deal with the mole, and when she discovered what Mark had gotten involved with, she headed straight for his uncle, Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) for help.
Phil, and his many underworld connections, came up trumps, freeing Mark from the group and from having to assassinate Ravi, but he was left with an enormous debt to pay, and he tried to use Lauren Branning (Jacqueline Jossa) and the car lot to raise the cash.
Concocting a complex scheme in which he rescued her from a mugging, he used her new found trust in him to attempt to flog stolen cars through her legitimate business, something she only discovered when the police, via Callum Highway (Tony Clay), came knocking. When Lauren headed off to confront Mark, she found him making nice with the scruff who mugged her.
With his back against the wall, Mark admitted everything, and even attempted to use Lauren’s desire to send her deaf son, Jimmy, to an expensive nursery to seduce her into joining him in his dodgy car scam.
Lauren was undoubtedly tempted, but her morality won out in the end and, when Peter Beale (Thomas Law) announced his intention to get a third job to help pay the nursery fees, Lauren told Mark, in no uncertain terms, to stick his offer.
He managed to smooth things over later, when a deal brokered by Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) between her and a car supplier went incredibly awry. The vehicle was a heap of junk, to put it politely, though Mark ensured she got a replacement.
Next week sees Mark start to sweat over the debt he owes his former boss, leading aunty Sam Mitchell (Kim Medcalf) to suggest he ask her brother and his dad, Grant (Ross Kemp) for help.
When he later seeks counsel from Lauren, she echoes Sam’s suggestion and he relents, though when he witnesses Grant flirting with Linda Carter (Kellie Bright), the two end up locking horns. With Lauren unable to sell any more cars on Mark’s behalf, he finally turns to Vicki for help.
Vicki, true to form, suggests asking Phil, who offers Mark a £30,000 loan to help him buy some time. Meanwhile, Sam has filled Grant in and, despite Mark and Phil’s protestations, decides to take matters into his own hands.
This only serves to drive father and son further apart, and Mark demands that Grant stay out of his business, and the conflict doesn’t stop there when Lauren collars him about the legitimacy of the cars he’s recently supplied her, with Vicki and her dad, Max (Jake Wood) having stirred up her worries.
Mark, of course, insists everything is above board, but when he’s given food for thought later by Sam, he comes up with a scheme to solve his problems once and for all.