EastEnders spoilers follow.
Lauren Branning made a risky alliance on EastEnders as she sought to reverse the damage from a scam. As she seeks to do the best for her family, what bold move did the beloved character make tonight?
Lauren has been searching for experimental treatment for her son Jimmy, though she had a hard time convincing her husband, Peter, to go through with the plan due to his suspicions regarding the surgery.
Eventually, Lauren ignored the advice of her family and gathered enough money – via the theft of a charity donation – to pay Dr Adamson for the surgery, but she was devastated to discover that she had been duped after he deactivated his website.
Thursday’s (27 November) instalment of the BBC soap began with Lauren frantically attempting to contact the scammer, though she had to hide the fact that she had nervously thrown up just before Peter walked in.
BBC
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As the pair headed to the café with Ian, Lauren was evidently disturbed as she struggled to pay attention to their conversation, but she was soon locked-in as she discovered that she had been tagged in a photo along with the charity she stole from.
Lauren attempted to get more information on Dr Adamson via Anthony Trueman as she explained some of the ideas that the scammer had, with Anthony remarking that the “snake oil salesman” was delivering theories closer to “science fiction”.
Lauren then had to wrestle with a guilty conscience as a worker from the charity thanked her for the money that she had ‘raised’, with things getting even worse as she was given the honour of ‘fundraiser of the month’ alongside Peter.
Overwhelmed with guilt, Lauren admitted to Ian what had happened, and he comforted her despite insisting that she had to fix the “mess” that she had created. She begged him not to tell anybody, and said she would find a way to pay the money back.
BBC
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Though she formed an alliance with Ian, Lauren was left to reckon with her actions, and still had the prospect of telling Peter what had occurred. Even with all that, can she really trust her father-in-law to keep quiet?
This EastEnders storyline is part of the BBC’s Scam Safe week, with a special week of programming highlighting what viewers can do to protect themselves and their loved ones from being scammed.
EastEnders airs on Mondays-Thursdays at 7.30pm on BBC One. The show also streams on BBC iPlayer, where most episodes drop early at 6am ahead of their TV broadcast.
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