Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) was left concerned in EastEnders tonight when he learnt that Nigel Bates (Paul Bradley) had gone missing.
Nigel moved back to Scotland with wife Julie Bates (Karen Henthorn) last week, after Jay Brown (Jamie Borthwick) contacted her with Nigel’s whereabouts.
Julie had no idea that Nigel had left because he’d been diagnosed with young-onset dementia, and had taken to social media to try and track him down.
In tonight’s episode, a confused Nigel made his way back to London, where Phil learnt that Julie had no idea where he was.
Thankfully, Callum Highway (Tony Clay) and Yolande Trueman (Angela Wynter) managed to track him down and bring him home.
With Nigel safe, Phil and Julie soon began to row about where Nigel should stay, before Nigel interrupted, insisting that it should be his decision.
To Phil’s joy and relief, Nigel decided that he wanted to stay in Walford with him.
This was difficult for Julie to accept, but after some thinking she accepted that London was where Nigel felt most comfortable, and decided to set him free.
Meanwhile, Phil was also struggling, with his brain and heart having two different ideas about how best to deal with Nigel’s sitaution.
Fortunately, Yolande was on hand to offer some solid advice when Phil pointed out that while Nigel didn’t want to leave, he also didn’t want to hurt Julie.
As Phil argued that Julie wasn’t equipped to care for Nigel, Yolande suggested that she needed someone to guide her, which gave Phil an idea.
Following Julie’s decision to leave Nigel with Phil, he revealed that she didn’t have to go, and offered her the spare room so that she could stay with Nigel.
It was clear that Nigel was thrilled by this, as he immediately took her bags upstairs.
Will Phil and Julie be able to put their differences aside for Nigel’s sake, or is moving in together a recipe for disaster?
