EastEnders has revealed that Stacey Slater and Jack Branning have begun a steamy affair, just days before a shocking death rocks the Square.
After weeks of sexual tension, Stacey and Jack finally gave into their desires and shared a kiss in Thursday’s episode, leaving viewers gasping in horror.
The twist comes as fans count down the days until they discover the identity of the man who is set to meet his maker on Christmas Day, in the epic conclusion to the long-running storyline involving The Six.
As Jack’s marriage to wife Denise Fox appeared to be over, Stacey turned to the detective for help following the disappearance of her best friend Eve.
Jack also attempted to reassure Stacey that she wasn’t being targeted by her stalker Theo, insisting he’d left Walford for good.
EastEnders has revealed that Stacey Slater and Jack Branning have begun a steamy affair, just days before a shocking death rocks the Square
Later, Stacey tried to cheer Jack up with a night of pizza and wine, but things took a turn when the pair shared a kiss.
The steamy scenes left many viewers stunned, with some fearing for Jack’s future with just days to go until the festive death.
Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, one posted: ‘Stacey and Jack, oh god no.’
Another added: ‘Welp, I guess today is the beginning for #Jacey (or #Stack). IMO Denise deserves better, so not on the losing side of this turn of events. Stacey trying it on with her third Branning.’
‘I don’t even watch EastEnders properly anymore but Stacey collection Branning men like infinity stones is my favourite thing ever,’ a third posted.
After the scenes aired, actor Scott Maslen hinted that this is far from a steamy one-off for Jack and Stacey.
He said: ‘There’s genuinely got to be some feelings there because you don’t do things like that without their being feelings.
‘All roads point towards this as well, so there’s been a lot of tension, a lot of stress, a lot of contributing factors that have led to this point and miscommunications. Reading between the lines and thinking something is something when it isn’t, and it gets to the point where the you-know-what hits the fan. [Laughs]
After weeks of sexual tension, Stacey and Jack finally gave into their desires and shared a kiss in Thursday’s episode, leaving viewers gasping in horror
The steamy scenes left many viewers stunned, with some fearing for Jack’s future with just days to go until the festive death
‘Is it expected? Is it something that was going to happen in Jack’s eyes? Definitely not, but that’s EastEnders.’
Asked whether Jack could be the mystery man who meets his maker on Christmas Day, Scott added: ‘He could well be. All the journeys of everyone involved in this story go all different ways. That’s what’s exciting.
‘What you expect characters to be, they break their character traits. There’s things going on where you go ”hang on a minute what’s going on here?” and ”why are they behaving like that?”
‘You’re going to see a lot of characters that you think you know and recognise, do things that you don’t.
‘The complexities of the storyline brings out traits in the characters that aren’t common to the audience. They’re going to see people going to new places.’
EastEnders continues on Monday at 7:30pm on BBC One. Episodes are released at 6am that day on BBC iPlayer.
