EastEnders spoilers follow for Monday’s (February 16) episode which is now available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

The air was thick with emotion in the Trueman house as Patrick (Rudolph Walker), Yolande (Angela Wynter), Kim (Tameka Empson), Denise (Diane Parish) and Denzel (Jaden Ladega) prepared to say their final goodbyes to Anthony (Nicholas Bailey).

With the revelations of his seeming descent into madness; the restraining order from his ex-wife, Sophie, and Zoe’s testimony of what he did to her marring poor Patrick’s memories of his beloved son, he’s struggled to reconcile the man his son had become, versus who he always thought he was.

Learning that Jasmine Fisher (Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness) was his granddaughter buoyed Patrick somewhat, but her disappearance as she struggled with her own secret, that she killed her dad, Anthony, wounded him further.

Though Jasmine didn’t return in time for the funeral, the Truemans were met with one surprise returnee: Howie Danes (Delroy Atkinson).

Clutching a bouquet, Howie came home to Walford to show his support for the clan after being banished by Kim last year when his various criminal misdeed came to light.

Deeply wounded when hearing his beloved Kim remark that her ex-husband, Vincent Hubbard (Richard Blackwood), was a stronger provider than him, Howie began to stoop to serious lows in order to prove that he was capable of providing the kind of life that Kim desires.

Following a tidy £6,000 win on a horse racing bet he placed alongside Patrick, Oscar Branning (Pierre Moullier) stole the money in a bungled home-burglary.

When Howie discovered Oscar’s involvement, he was faced with a dilemma: turn the thief in to the authorities, or play dirty and keep the money for himself.

Sadly for everybody, Howie pocketed the cash.

When the cash ran out and with Kim’s demands ever-increasing, Howie found himself a second job as a parcel deliveryman alongside his work as a postie.

When she destroyed the brand new (incredibly expensive) equipment she’d received to use in her work as the ‘Kimfluencer’, Howie swore to replace it, and when he discovered a parcel he’d been given to deliver contained a solid gold chain, his new scam began.

Slipping under the radar as his thefts increased, Howie tumbled into proposing to Kim. When Patrick caught him admiring a ring he’d stolen from a parcel belonging to Penny Branning (Kitty Castledine), he began to encourage Howie to pop the question.

With Anthony increasingly suspicious of Howie and aware of the theft of Penny’s ring, he hit Howie with an ultimatum: tell Kim the truth, or he would. When Howie fought back, though, digging into Anthony’s life and discovering the restraining order his wife had taken out on him, the two were forced to forge an uneasy truce, with both promising to keep the others secrets.

With secrets so explosive, though, their pact was bound to explode, and explode it did. Howie, seriously uneasy after what he’d learned, told Kim about the restraining order, while Anthony learned from Oscar the true extent of Patrick’s involvement with the robbery.

Later, at their engagement party, after Patrick referred to Howie being ‘like a son’ to him, Anthony utterly cracked and, in the ensuing melee, both Howie and Anthony’s secrets were exposed.

A heartbroken Kim declared their relationship dead and banished Howie from both the family, and her life.

Howie received a chilly reaction from the Truemans, though Kim wasn’t unfriendly as the two enquired as to how the other was doing.

Clearly with Anthony’s funeral dominating their thoughts and with Howie’s apparently genuine concern, peace remained, for now.