Who will she believe?
EastEnders' Honey Mitchell is humiliated this week when Bea Pollard publicly accuses Billy of trying to seduce her. Viewers know that spiteful Bea is lying to break the couple up, but will Honey believe the 'evidence' presented to her?
Things have been rocky between Billy and Honey in recent episodes, following an awkward date that left Honey feeling undesirable. Bea decided to capitalise on the situation, setting up a fake dating profile for Billy and using an AI generator to manipulate his voice.
Later, Bea storms into The Vic and reveals Phil's offer, claiming Billy put him up to it. But before Billy can explain, she accuses him of trying to sleep with her, and plays a horrified Honey the AI audio recording of his voice as 'proof'.
This is the worst-case scenario that anyone could be put in," said Emma Barton, who plays Honey. "It's so embarrassing for Honey, and it's humiliating as she feels she has been let down by the two closest people to her. Her husband, and what she believes is her best friend.
"She's thinking, 'why on earth would you announce this in a public place', and secondly, she's thinking ‘what is going on?!' Her world has come crashing down in an instant, and she doesn’t know what to do."
"As they've just come off the back of a failed date, and they haven't had this closeness in their relationship, and that togetherness, she starts to think that he might have gone looking elsewhere," she said.
She added: "I think Honey feels that Bea is really misunderstood, and I think Honey can relate to that. A lot of people throughout Honey's life have always underestimated her, and thought she was a bit silly. Honey's always had to fight for approval in some ways.
"I think Honey sees some similarities in Bea, and although everyone has such strong opinions of Bea, Honey sees the good, or rather wants to see the good in her. I think she thinks everyone treats Bea unfairly."