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As any half-decent flash forward should, EastEnders’ New Years Day spectacular left us with genuine excitement over what’s to come, and a whole load of questions.
Some have been answered already. The curious case of ‘Man’, played by Stephen Aaron-Sipple, was resolved when he rocked up on the Square a few months later and was revealed to be a new-look Mark Fowler Jr, though some questions, such as ‘who is Max Branning (Jake Wood) marrying?’ and ‘who’s the pregnant lady he woke up beside?’ are still complete mysteries.
We have been getting drip-fed hints, though, such as Max’s burgeoning relationship with Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins), who’d been revealed as one of his potential brides, alongside Chelsea Fox (Zaraah Abrahams), Denise Fox (Diane Parish) and Linda Carter (Kellie Bright).
Rather than theorise online in forums or on fan pages, one particular fan went straight to the source, and asked Michelle Collins directly on X (formerly Twitter) if her alter-ego would end up walking down the aisle with Max, and, according to Michelle, she’s in the same boat as the rest of us – she hasn’t got a clue!
Max and Cindy’s relationship
It’s been an interesting journey for Max and Cindy to get to where they are now, especially given how Cindy was initially baying for his blood.
A couple of years after she returned from the grave, or, more accurately, witness protection, and re-emerged in Walford, the stage was set for a showdown when Max came home for the wedding of his daughter, Lauren (Jacqueline Jossa) and Cindy’s son, Peter (Thomas Law).
Max, of course, is responsible for the death of Cindy’s eldest son Steven (Aaron Sidwell), and she wasn’t prepared to let him go unpunished. Max did as Max does, though, and made an utter mess of the situation, and scarpered before Cindy could extract her pound of flesh.
His next return saw him as troublesome as ever, though the Beale/Branning conglomerate did decide that they’d have Max over for Christmas Dinner, leaving Cindy out in the cold.
He was soon out on his backside too, though, after challenging son Oscar (Pierre Counihan-Moullier) and brother, Jack (Scott Maslen) over them declining to tell him that he was the dad of Linda Carter’s (Kellie Bright) daughter, Annie (Lois Hawkins), and when a wasted Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth) let slip that Jack had had an affair with Max’s ex, Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner), season’s beatings were dished out.
Alone and miserable, Max ventured across to the Albert, finding an equally alone and miserable Cindy, and after sharing a few drinks while slagging off their families, they decided to give each other a Christmas present – all while having no idea who the other one was.
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Of course, with it being a soap, they had to discover at the worst moment, and they did! At their grandson’s christening, vicious comments were thrown, slaps were dished out and remarks about ‘ginger nuts’ and ‘biting’ were delivered.
The only thing they could agree on was their shared hatred of Jasmine Fisher (Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness) and they teamed up to bring her down, which saw them again give into passion.
Is Cindy Max's mystery bride?
They’re set to go on a ‘proper date’ next week, after their terrifying car crash with Priya Nandra-Hart (Sophie Khan Levy) led them to reveal deeper feelings and finally connect on a level that wasn’t purely physical.
But this is Max and Cindy we’re talking about!
They’re both deeply troublesome, prone to manipulation and share a thirst for scheming, danger and deep risk. Do we really think they’ll make it to New Year’s not only intact, but engaged?
Stranger things have happened, and Max will remain Max: we know he’ll be cheating on his bride to be. Surely he wouldn’t be dumb enough to cross Cindy in that way? He must know she tried to bump off her last husband with a hitman!
With Michelle not in possession of any tea, I guess we’ll have to wait and see…
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