Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) has made an emotional bid to son Tommy (Sonny Kendall) in EastEnders ahead of the festive season.
The family have been separated ever since Jean Slater (Gillian Wright) reported the youngster to social services for abusing his mum Kat (Jessie Wallace) and brothers Bert and Ernie.
Since then, he’s been living with Zack Hudson (James Farrar) whilst it can be assessed whether to not his family are safe enough for him to return home.
Kat had a spectacular falling out with Jean and Stacey (Lacey Turner), though in yesterday’s episode the trio were begrudgingly brought back together in The Queen Vic by Alfie.
With a meeting with the social worker approaching, Kat definitely needed to let her hair down and make amends with her nearest and dearest in her hour of need.
She even managed to have a moment of affection with ex-husband Alfie, leading Freddie (Bobby Brazier) to believe that there could still be a spark between them.
We’re totally here for a #Kalfie reunion.
After getting his hopes up, Alfie’s dreams were shattered in tonight’s episode when he woke up on the sofa and overheard Kat giggling with someone in his bedroom.
He’d spied some fellas chatting her up in the pub the previous evening, so assumed that she must’ve brought one of them home.
Charging over to Beale’s Eels, he opened up to best pal Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt) about his apparent discovery. Ian was upset that she’d betray him in that way, and said he couldn’t believe that she would get with another man – in his room!
Oh the irony…
Back at home, he confronted Kat over the incident and she was more than happy to unveil who had really stayed the night – it was Stacey.
In a surprising move, she extended an olive branch and told Stace’ to tell Jean that she said hello.
Kat and Alfie: A complex EastEnders love story
On-off EastEnders couple Kat Slater and Alfie Moon have a long and complicated history, which began when they were part of a will-they-won’t-they storyline while working behind the bar of the Queen Vic in 2002.
After finally getting together, they tied the knot on Christmas Day 2003, but were ripped apart a year later by Kat’s jealous ex, gangster Andy Hunter (Michael Higgs), who threatened to kill Alfie unless Kat slept with him.
Realising their feelings for one another were still there, they gave their marriage another shot and left Walford for pastures new at the end of 2005.
Five years later, they made a bombshell comeback when it was revealed Kat had been having an affair with Alfie’s cousin Michael Moon (Steve John Shepherd) and was pregnant with his son.
They eventually reconciled, with Alfie agreeing to bring Tommy up as his own. However, they were heartbroken when their baby ‘died’ – before it was later revealed Ronnie Mitchell had actually swapped their baby with her son James, who had died from cot death.
After a joyous reunion with baby Tommy, the pair were torn apart again when Kat’s subsequent affair with Derek Branning (Jamie Foreman) was exposed.
But a reconciliation eventually followed – as did their twin sons Bert and Ernie – before Kat and Alfie swapped the Square for Spain in 2016 after winning big on the lottery.
Two years later, a broke Kat returned to Walford having split from Alfie again, after cheating on him. When he later followed home, the couple had a short-lived reunion before Alfie was revealed as the father of Kat’s cousin Hayley Slater’s (Katie Jarvis) baby daughter Cherry.
With their relationship in tatters, Alfie did a bunk from Walford in 2019 after scamming £50k out of Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden), who Kat later went on to have an unlikely relationship with.
When Alfie returned to Albert Square again three years later, he sabotaged Kat’s wedding to Phil, but it wasn’t enough to split them up and they rescheduled their nuptials.
However, after Kat discovered Phil had cheated on her with Emma Harding (Patsy Kensit), the pair split and she moved in with Alfie.
Despite her surprise at Alfie dictating what she could and couldn’t do, Kat knew that his distress came from a genuine love he still holds for her.
They headed to the café to meet Tommy and the social worker, and were taken aback to see how difficult he was being. Tommy brazenly admitted that he preferred living with Zack.
Knowing that it would be a difficult conversation, Alfie held Kat’s hand tightly.
They learnt that despite Tommy’s status going down from ‘child protection’ to ‘child in need’, meaning that he doesn’t pose a risk to Bert and Ernie, the whole family would need counselling.
Alfie made an impassioned speech in the hope that he would be able to breakthrough to the teen, telling him their desire that he would be home for Christmas.
The revelation that there is a long road ahead seemed to resonate with him, and as Tommy left he smiled at his parents.
Feeling that Alfie had made some progress, Kat returned back to the flat and thanked him – and the two kissed.
Will they get their Christmas wish to have Tommy home?
