Max takes decisive action in new EastEnders pictures

Newly-released pictures show Max talking to Mick about his affair with Mick’s wife Linda.

EastEnders’ Linda Carter (Kellie Bright) is currently wrestling with her conscience after taking her affair with Max Branning (Jake Wood) to the next level.

Linda of course has always been a one man woman, however her husband Mick (Danny Dyer) has been pushing her away recently. Linda is unaware that Mick is trying to make sense of his time in a children’s home and the relationship he had with his then carer, manipulative Katy (Simone Lahbib).

With Mick refusing to open up to her and rebuffing her romantic advances, Linda has allowed herself to be wooed by the more attentive Max, who viewers saw her decide to spend the night with last week.

In tomorrow’s episode (22nd December), Max – spurred on by a new development in the Ian Beale case – puts it to Linda that they go away together to New Zealand, however when Linda tells him she needs time to think about it, Max decides to take matters into his own hands and swipes her keys from her bag.

Newly-released pictures from the Christmas Eve episode of the soap show Max raising the subject of his and Linda’s affair with Mick, however when Linda returns home to find Max there, she doesn’t thank him for it.

“I think Linda is furious with Max, but she is equally as furious with Mick for not doing anything, for not reacting,” says Kellie Bright. “All she needs is for him to just do something, even if he calls her all the names under the sun. He’s not even doing that. She feels angry, but I don’t think she wanted to have that conversation. This is all a bit of a rollercoaster for Linda. She wants to put the brakes on but she doesn’t know how.”

Bright added of Mick and Linda’s relationship reaching breaking point: “[It’s] because of the breakdown of communication, and such deep trauma in Mick that has completely changed him as a human being, and for Linda she has betrayed the man she loves. Those things are massive.”

This episode of EastEnders airs at 8.15pm on Christmas Eve.