EastEnders has aired an ominous return for the late Nish Panesar (Navin Chowdhry) after his death on New Year’s Day 2025 last year.

The BBC One soap has tackled a dark revenge plot from a traumatised Harry Mitchell (Elijah Holloway) and his mother Nicola (Laura Doddington) following Ravi Gulati’s exploitation of Harry and his best friend Kojo Asare (Dayo Koleosho) last year, which ended with Harry being held prisoner, relapsing and then killing Tobias “Okie” Okyere (Aayan Ibikunle Shoderu) in self-defence and his dad Teddy (Roland Manookian) taking the fall for Okie’s murder.

To stop Harry from delivering a violent reprisal on Ravi (Aaron Thiara) – who escaped justice following his arrest for human trafficking by becoming an informant for the police on his criminal paymasters – Nicola plotted another revenge: spiking Ravi with hallucinogenic drugs and then being led into the Arches to be tormented by Harry.

In Wednesday’s episode, Ravi felt left out when partner Priya Nandra-Hart (Sophie Khan Levy) and their children headed over to Ravi’s stepmother Suki Panesar-Unwin’s (Balvinder Sopal) house for an adoption agency assessment alongside her wife Eve Panesar-Unwin (Heather Peace).

Ravi headed to Nicola’s nightclub, Harry’s Barn, and drank with a grieving Patrick Trueman (Rudolph Walker) before Nicola offered a free drink each for the pair, but Ravi’s was spiked.

As Ravi staggered out of the club, Harry led him away and steered him to the pit of the Arches and began taunting him until Harry’s uncle Billy Mitchell (Perry Fenwick) forced Harry to leave – unbeknownst to him that he had Ravi a prisoner in the pit.

However, down in the dark shadows of the pit, Ravi began to experience hallucinations. As he stared into the darkness after screaming for help, Ravi heard the voice of his father, Nish, telling him that there would be no help for his son.

Ravi then began cowering and screaming as the episode ended, in a chillingly panicked turn from actor Aaron Thiara.

The scenes are set to kick off a mental health crisis for Ravi, along with the struggles caused by his turning into an informant.

Last year, Nish was pushed to his death by his son Ravi after having goaded him following years of abuse, neglect and Nish’s plot to kill Suki and Eve, as actor Navin Chowdhry exited the soap.

Chowdhry was credited for Wednesday’s episode for his voice work, but we’ll have to wait and see what Ravi experiences in tomorrow’s episode.