EastEnders have aired a dramatic showdown between Denise Fox and Sheila Atkins as the pair tussle over Jordan during which Denise accurately pinpoints why Sheila is getting involved

Denise Fox has long been one of the savviest characters on EastEnders and nothing proves that more than her recent tussle with Sheila Atkins. After discovering that Sheila (Sheila Ruskin) was spending time with Jordan Fox (Jahsaiah Willaims), Denise (Diane Parish) demanded to speak to her and was unsurprisingly able to 'expose' the other woman's true motives.

Picking up from Tuesday's cliffhanger, Denise started question her family about why Sheila was being allowed to spend time with Jordan, given she is the grandmother of his serial killer father Gray Atkins ( Toby-Alexander Smith ). Not satisfied with daughter Chelsea's (Zaraah Abrahams) reasons, Denise demanded to speak to Sheila face to face.

She forced Chelsea to call Sheila over the phone and then took the mobile off of her so that she could talk to her herself. When Sheila arrived at Denise's house, the Fox matriarch kicked her children out, insisting on having one-on-one time with Sheila.

In their conversation, Denise demanded to know if Sheila, who brought Gray up, ever suspected he might turn into a monster. Sheila denied knowing anything at all but this did not win Denise over, who then interrogated her about her motives for being in Jordan's life.

Hitting the nail on the head, Denise asked if Sheila had some hidden motive - guilt, perhaps. She hypothesised that Sheila might feel guilty about what Gray had done and wondered if Sheila wanted to see the good in her grandson, blinding her to his true nature.

Ultimately, Denise decided that it would be better for everyone if Sheila weren't in their lives, telling her and her daughters that Jordan was not to meet his great-grandmother again. Though Sheila seemed to accept this, when she told Gray, he could not. He started giving her more tips on how to manipulate Chelsea instead...

Fans were delighted by Denise's scenes with many taking to the internet with their praise for the "smart" character. On said: "Denise is the only one in that family with an ounce of common sense.

"Sheila might be a good woman and that’s why she will always go back to Gray. She wants to see the good in him because she does feel guilty about how he turned out - she raised him. Denise hit the nail on the head there."

Another said the character was "so smart" while a third called her a "smart lady" for being "sooooo on point". "Denise is the only one with common sense and brains," a fourth claimed.

Meanwhile, a fifth felt Denise could have gone even further, saying they were hoping for a classic EastEnders slap fight: "Call me aggressive but I’d love to see Denise knock Sheila’s block off."

Elsewhere in the episode, there were four returns to the programme, as Vicki Fowler (Alice Haig) and Ross Marshall (Alex Walkinshaw) returned from their honeymoon and were later mat with the unwelcome arrivals of his son Joel (Max Murray) and his mother Cleo (Mazz Murray).

While this is the first arrival of Cleo on EastEnders, it is a return for actress Mazz Murray who has been on the show twice before as two different characters - waitress Miranda and divorcee Julie.

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