EastEnders' Penny faces fury over Lauren in early BBC iPlayer release
EastEnders spoilers follow from Tuesday's episode (January 2), which is available to watch now on BBC iPlayer.
EastEnders returnee Penny Branning has been caught out over her secret drugs plan.
Penny faced the music with her father Jack in Tuesday's episode as news of Lauren's surprising arrest sparked shockwaves on Albert Square.
Yesterday, the show's New Year's Day edition saw Penny plant drugs in her cousin's bag as they took a flight from Paris to London together.
Penny had used an oblivious Lauren to smuggle drugs into the country, but the scheme backfired when Lauren caught the attention of a police sniffer dog and was arrested.
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In Tuesday's episode, Penny turned up on the Square with Lauren's young son Louie and spread the word over what had happened at the airport.
Before long, Penny was facing difficult questions from Jack, Peter Beale and Sonia Fowler over the messy situation.
Penny hoped that Jack would be able to use his police contacts to help Lauren, but the news wasn't good. Jack was blocked from getting involved in the case due to the potential conflict of interest – and he made it clear that the likely charges were serious.
Jack explained: "The courts are coming down really heavy on this sort of stuff right now – especially the amount she was carrying.
"That ain't personal use – that is dealing. The brief reckons that if she does get charged, they're going to keep her in until the trial. So unless she can come up with a more convincing reason why that stuff was in her bag, she's going down."
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Penny went along with Jack's initial assumption that a random passenger had targeted Lauren by planting drugs on her and planning to retrieve them once she'd passed through customs.
However, once Peter and Sonia were no longer around to listen in, Jack made it clear that he wasn't fooled by his troublesome daughter.
He said: "[The brief] does a lot of these airport cases and, according to him, Lauren being targeted by a complete stranger is very rare. He said that, in a lot of these cases, the culprit is usually the person that they're travelling with.
"Which makes total sense, because they'd be able to plant the package and get it on the other side."
As a furious Jack urged Penny to start being honest with him, how will she respond?
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.
Read more EastEnders spoilers on our dedicated homepage
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