When Patrick Trueman’s (Rudolph Walker) son Anthony (Nicholas Bailey) was murdered on Christmas Day, he found himself inducted into an awful group by fellow member Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins); a club for those who’ve lost two children.

Prior to Anthony’s death, father and son exchanged brutal words over Christmas dinner. Having learned that Anthony had lied to Kat Moon (Jessie Wallace) that his and Zoe’s twins had both died at birth, Patrick was disgusted and questioned whether he even knew his son, particularly after having learned that his ex-wife had filed a restraining order on him, banning him from coming near her or their kids.

As things got more heated, Patrick announced that he wished Anthony had died in place of his other son, Paul (Gary Beadle).

With those words ringing in his ears, Anthony headed to the Vic for the final confrontation that would lead to his own demise.

Initially, Patrick believed that Zoe Slater (Michelle Ryan) was responsible for Anthony’s death. Zoe had handed herself over the police in order to protect her daughter, Jasmine Fisher (Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness). from who she believed to be the real culprit: Chrissie Watts (Tracy-Ann Oberman), unaware that Jasmine herself had actually struck the killing blow.

With Zoe in prison, Jasmine bonded with Patrick, who’s discovery of a granddaughter proved to be a light in the dark he’d found himself trapped in, though her appearance at her dad’s funeral ended with the revelation that his son was murdered by his granddaughter.

Plunged back into a deep depression and seemingly incapable of reconciling who his son truly was with who he thought he was, Denzel Danes (Jaden Ladega), struck by an idea of Tommy Moon’s (Sonny Kendall), created an AI recreation of Anthony to help Patrick grieve.

Since then, Patrick’s over-reliance on the app has deeply worried his beloved wife, Yolande (Angela Wynter), with Kim Fox (Tameka Empson) intervening next week in an attempt to get through to him.

Her intervention fails, however, and she turns to her ex, the recently returned Howie Danes (Delroy Atkinson), for comfort.

The following day, Howie sees a downcast Kim and decides to step in himself and visits Patrick. While the Trueman patriarch does give Howie some food for thought which springs him into action, it remains to be seen if anyone can drag him away from AI Anthony.