Linda Carter lashes out as she’s left bleeding after a fight with rapist Dean Wicks in EastEnders

OVERWHELMED by recent events, Linda Carter has been drowning her sorrows and spiralling out of control.

The EastEnders favourite gets into an altercation with her rapist Dean Wicks next week and the brawl leaves her bloodied.

Keeping a secret is no easy feat for the Six but while Denise Fox's mental health is on the decline, Linda Carter has had a relapse as she turned to booze once again.

The Queen Vic landlady portrayed by Kellie Bright has been struggling to cope with the memory of Keanu Taylor's death and guilt has been gnawing at her ever since.

To make matters worse, Linda is unable to roam freely around Albert Square without bumping into her rapist, Dean Wicks (Matt Di Angelo).

However, in scenes airing on BBC One next week, she receives the unwavering support of her son Johnny Carter, who is finally returning to Walford after living in Manchester.

Throughout his six years away, the second youngest of the Carter siblings was held at arm's length from the chaos that unfolded in Walford, from his parents' tumultuous relationship to his father's disappearance at sea.

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Upon his return to the Square, Johnny helps a drunk Linda up and in later scenes, at The Vic, he quizzes the family to find out why she’s got so bad.

This prompts Elaine Peacock (Harriet Thorpe) to reveal that Dean is back.

Johnny rushes to confront Dean and is spotted by Ben Mitchell (Max Bowden), who follows him into Beale's Eels.

Ben has to drag Johnny away from Dean, and, with Callum Highway (Tony Clay) they talk over a drink.

Later, at closing time, Johnny punches Dean and warns him to leave Linda alone.

In other scenes, Johnny is determined to stop Linda from drinking by not letting her out of his sight, but it soon becomes too much for her.

After secretly boozing, Linda makes a show of herself by dropping Gina Knight’s (Francesca Henry) birthday cake in front of everyone in The Vic.

Johnny, who has found out Gina dated Dean, lashes out at her for laughing.

Gina hasn't been the most supportive of Linda and she, in fact, received a huge backlash from viewers when she decided to believe Dean over her stepsister.

But once the villain showed his true colours, Gina did what every EastEnders fan was wishing they could and brutally punched Dean before he could attack her.

Dean recently pushed Linda into falsely admitting she had lied about her 2014 attack to help George avoid legal repercussions for pushing him down the stairs.

However, next week, Johnny and Gina decide to work together, putting the past behind them.

The pair come up with a plan to get the recording from Dean and wipe it in an attempt to help Linda.

Unfortunately, things don't go according to plan for the pair and when Linda walks into the reopened Bridge Street café, she's horrified about the idea of being near Keanu Taylor's body.

Viewers will recall that, after witnessing Linda stabbing Keanu to protect Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean), the Six took it upon themselves to bury him under the café, which had been destroyed by a fire weeks prior.

Matters go from bad to worse in other scenes as an argument erupts between Dean and Johnny.

A glass gets smashed during the row and Linda cuts her hand.

Johnny can’t believe it as Linda goes completely ballistic and shocks everyone.

Will he ever figure out there is more to the situation?

Theories have been emerging online about Linda potentially confessing to the murder of Keanu Taylor before promptly leaving Walford for good.

But could Johnny help alleviate the burden that weighs on her, despite being bound to the right side of the law due to his legal career?

EastEnders airs from Monday to Thursday at 7.30pm on BBC One.