Mick cuts Dean out of a family photo. Linda insists today they must think about Stan, not Dean. Alfie’s helping Billy as he copes with Jim’s and Stan’s funerals alone with Pam off sick; Billy’s frustrated when she keeps phoning to check on him. In the Minute Mart, Linda’s shaken when Shirley announces Dean’s being released from prison and she’s bringing him to Stan’s funeral. As they prepare food for the wake, Nancy’s freaked out when Aunt Babe suggests saying a last goodbye to Stan at the funeral parlour. Tina agrees to go. Mick notes Lee’s wearing Stan’s watch. Tina wonders where Sylvie is. Babe claims she didn’t take the news well and attending the funeral would confuse her.
As Linda arrives back, Mick spots her unease but she covers she’s upset about Stan. Later, Nancy tells Lee she feels bad Dean won’t be at the funeral for Stan’s sake but Lee insists it’d send Mick over the edge. Linda overhears, worried. Later, Tina’s shaken after seeing Stan at the undertakers.
Babe fusses with Mick’s suit and remarks she wants bright colours at her funeral. Linda escapes to Phil’s house where Sharon’s showing Jane earrings that Angie left her. Linda unburdens about Dean’s release and despairs about facing him. Later, as they head for the Vic, Sharon shushes Ian as he speculates Dean’s been released because there’s no truth to Linda’s allegations. Meanwhile, a taxi pulls up on the Square and Dean gets out, flanked by Shirley and Buster. In the Vic, Mick wonders where Linda is; he darkens as Cora informs him of Dean’s return. Meanwhile, Buster ushers Dean inside Patrick’s house, insisting he hold his head high. Dean’s stunned to find Linda waiting for him in the living room…
Carol struggles to write Jim’s eulogy. In the Minute Mart, Carol and Shirley share a joke about their dads’ funerals. In prison, Dot repeats to Abi and Sonia that she’s not attending Jim’s funeral - they said their goodbyes every week in the care home for four years. Max scoffs at the amount of food and wine Carol’s organised for Jim’s funeral when they’re the only two of his children attending. Carol’s determined to do the right thing, but admits she plans to drink to drown her memories. She’s irked when Max suggests that if Dot’s not attending then they don’t either - why pretend to grieve? Abi and Sonia protest they should go for Dot. Cora overhears and thinks it’s Dot’s choice. When Abi gets upset, Max promises they’ll all attend together. Later, in prison, Dot gets a surprise visitor - Cora. Cora vents at Dot for upsetting Abi, jealous her own family care so much about Dot. Dot’s surprised to learn of Stan and Cora’s engagement but forbids Cora from comparing them to her and Jim.
Cora accuses Dot of being a martyr and not caring Jim’s dead as he’s been dead to her for years. Dot protests she loved Jim. Cora insists Dot’s making her family suffer with her by not attending Jim’s funeral. Dot sadly remarks she was a mother and a wife but now she’s nothing. Softening, Cora tells her to fight. In Walford, Sonia retrieves Jim’s cap from Dot’s house for Abi to lay on his coffin. Max thinks Jim doesn’t deserve a eulogy and tells Carol they needn’t bother. Meanwhile, Dot stares at her funeral outfit laid on her prison bed, torn.
Cora gets an eviction notice. She’s stung when Abi opts to visit Dot instead of supporting her through Stan’s funeral and hurt when a preoccupied Linda blanks her in the Minute Mart. Later, she and Patrick toast to Stan and Jim. Cora vents to Patrick that she’s being pushed out because she’s not family.
Patrick urges her to do something about it. She heads to the Vic but Babe gives her the cold shoulder, sneering there’s no room in the funeral car. After visiting Dot in prison, Cora heeds Dot’s advice to go to Stan’s funeral and prove to his family how much she loved him, leaves Tanya a voicemail asking to stay with her, then marches into the Vic and demands a seat in the funeral car. Show less