Who's Been Sleeping with Kat?

In July 2012, a storyline began in the British soap opera EastEnders in which the character Kat Moon, played by Jessie Wallace, embarks on an affair behind her husband Alfie Moon's (Shane Richie) back, with an unknown person. The suspects named were Ray Dixon (Chucky Venn), Michael Moon (Steve John Shepherd), Max Branning (Jake Wood), Derek Branning (Jamie Foreman) and Jack Branning (Scott Maslen). Ray was the first suspect to be eliminated, on 7 August, followed by Michael on 14 September. The mystery man was revealed as Derek in the 20 December episode. Richie dubbed the storyline "Who's Been Sleeping with Kat?", while critics referred to it is "the who-copped-off-with-Kat saga", "Who Banged Kat?", "Who Shagged Kat?" and the "Kat Mystery Lover storyline".

The storyline received a mixed response from television critics. An Inside Soap reporter called it "soap like we've never seen it before" and the magazine's editor, Steven Murphy, said he was "totally obsessed" with the storyline, while Ellie Henman from Heat called it "possibly one of the most gripping" EastEnders storylines. Soaplife called it "boring" and "ill-conceived", and said that Kat's character had been damaged by the storyline. Kate White from Inside Soap found it "hard to have sympathy" with Kat, Sarah Dempster from The Guardian said it was a "tedious" storyline that "nobody cares" about, and Kevin O'Sullivan from the Daily Mirror called it "dreadful", "ludicrous" and "far fetched", citing similarities with a 2009 storyline in which Heather Trott (Cheryl Fergison) gets pregnant by an unknown man. Sophie Dainty from Digital Spy said the reveal was predictable and criticised the show for not explaining why Kat had the affair.

Plot When Alfie Moon (Shane Richie), landlord of The Queen Victoria pub, decides to start a pub football team, he struggles to get people to sign up. His wife Kat Moon (Jessie Wallace) takes over as manager and flirts to get people to sign up. After the first match, they host a party and Kat flirts with her chef Ray Dixon (Chucky Venn), former lover Michael Moon (Steve John Shepherd) and brothers Max (Jake Wood), Jack (Scott Maslen) and Derek Branning (Jamie Foreman), sharing a close moment with each of them. While in the kitchen alone, an unseen person enters and he and Kat have sex. She feels guilty the next day and tries to ignore his calls and text messages. She finally responds to a phone call and meets him to ask him to leave her alone. However, as he walks away she changes her mind and they continue the affair. She then fears Alfie will find out, so tries to end the affair again.

Her lover sends her a mobile phone to contact him on, but she bins it. However, when a romantic evening with Alfie goes wrong, she retrieves the phone and contacts her lover. She later receives a key to a nearby flat, and when Alfie pays more attention to the organisation of the football team, Kat heads to the flat to meet her lover, who is waiting.

The affair continues, with Alfie clueless. Kat hears that a fight has broken out between members of the football team, and fears that the truth has come out. However, it has not. The fight spills over into The Queen Victoria, and later, Kat tends to her lover's wounds. Alfie catches them but is none the wiser. The mystery man later leaves Kat a bandage with "I love you" written on in lipstick. Kat hides it in with some laundry. Alfie then asks Kat to move out following an outbreak of bed bugs in the pub. She does not want to go as she does not want to continue her affair, but she cannot resist. Alfie later finds the bandage, but assumes it is from Kat, and sends her a message in the pub's window saying "I love you 2".

Kat later ignores her lover's messages, and he tells her that he has got the message that she is no longer interested. She throws away the key, but it is found by Jean Slater (Gillian Wright), who leaves it on the bar, thinking it belongs to a punter. Kat then takes it and later meets her lover at the flat. Kat ends up staying the night, and gets her friend Kim Fox (Tameka Empson) to cover for her the next day. Kat receives flowers from her lover, and tells Alfie they are from her father, Charlie Slater (Derek Martin). Kat angrily telephones her lover, telling him she will always contact him. Alfie then grows suspicious, as Charlie would not send roses to Kat, and asks her to be honest with him. Kat then admits to having an affair.

Alfie demands to know the details, but Kat refuses to tell him who her lover is. Alfie ejects Kat from their home, where she meets Michael, to whom she discloses the affair. He urges Kat to fix her relationship, so she goes back to Alfie and says she will do anything to make it right. He gets her to phone her lover and tell him that the affair is over for good. After this, she smashes her phone and the couple go away on a "make or break" holiday.

When they return, they find that their landlord Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) has taken over the pub. He sacks them and forces them to move out. Kat pawns her mother's ring to pay rent to Phil, but he refuses to let them back so she tells him she is trying to fix her marriage following her affair, so he changes his mind. Kat then receives an envelope with a key and a note. She returns to the flat and writes "Kat loves Alfie" on the mirror in lipstick. When Derek, Jack and Max notice that Kat has had to pawn her mother's engagement ring, one of them buys it back for £2500 as a gift for her.

However, it seems the affair is over until Kat receives the gift of a watch, with a note saying "Miss you. Time we got together again x". Kat's lover tries to convince her to meet him at the bedsit, but when she arrives, she erases his message of love from the mirror, and bins the key. However, he then pays for Alfie to go on a trip to Germany to buy Christmas supplies, texting Kat that he now has her to himself. She then receives a candle from him, with a note saying to light it in an upstairs window so he knows when to visit. She throws it away, but Jean inadvertently lights another one. Kat extinguishes it, but it is too late as her lover arrives and knocks on the cellar door, but Kat does not open it.

After Alfie returns from Germany, Jean tells him to buy scented candles as Kat used one while he was away. He asks Kat where she got it from and she lies that it was from the local shop but he discovers they do not sell them. He then finds out Kat closed the pub early one night because it was "quiet" but worries it may have been for another reason. He then finds the ring that Kat pawned, and asks Jean if she or Charlie lent Kat money, but they did not, and the pawnbroker refuses to tell him who bought it.

The next day, he is suspicious when Kat leaves the pub and tells Michael that she is untrustworthy. Michael says Kat would not cheat again, revealing he knew about the affair, but he does not know who Kat was seeing. Alfie is in turmoil when Michael advises him not to pursue his suspicions. Roxy Mitchell (Rita Simons) finds a key on the bar and leaves it in a glass, but Alfie later notices it has gone. As he hides a Christmas present in Kat's jewellery box, he finds the key hidden there with the ring. He then leaves, claiming he will be away overnight, and asks Jean and Roxy to look after the bar so Kat can have the night off. Roxy tells the three Branning brothers that Alfie is away, and shortly after, Kat receives a phone call. She heads out, unaware that Alfie is watching.

Alfie watches Kat enter the bedsit and kicks the door open, where he sees lit candles and rose petals. He looks for Kat's lover but she is alone. He demands to know who she is seeing, reminding her that she claimed her lover lived miles away. Kat insists this was her only lie and says the affair is over but her lover kept pestering her and threatening to tell Alfie. He brings out Kat's mother's ring, and asks how her lover knew about it if she had not seen him. Kat reveals she had not seen him alone, so Alfie realises it is someone he knows. Alfie decides to stay until he arrives, but then sees a rental agreement. Kat quickly sets fire to it, but Alfie sees the name Mr Branning. She tells Alfie she refused to let the man in while he was in Germany, and refuses to reveal which of the three Branning brothers it is. Alfie says she makes him sick, and goes to The Queen Victoria to find out the truth. While Kat searches for her phone in the bedsit, all three Branning brothers deny everything to Alfie. Kat then phones one of them and Alfie answers. Kat panics and runs to the pub. Alfie then returns the phone to its owner, Max, and attacks him. Kat stops Alfie, saying he has the wrong person. Alfie asks who it is, and Kat points at Derek, who is smugly lighting a cigar.

Alfie throws Kat out of the pub, and Derek persuades her to go home with him, believing they can stay a couple but she insists she loves Alfie. Kat discovers that Derek has saved all her messages and is determined to play Alfie the last voicemail she left, in which she told Derek to leave her alone. Derek persuades her to let him do it, but he plays a different message and claims Kat has been pursuing him. Alfie punches Derek and gives him his wedding ring. Derek then tells Kat that Alfie is not interested, and hands her the ring.

On Christmas Day, Alfie tells Kat that he has moved on from her. Kat attends a Branning family dinner with Derek. She discovers Derek played Alfie the wrong message and has now deleted them all, so slaps him. Derek has a huge argument with Max and Jack, and they force him out of the house with the help of Derek's son Joey Branning (David Witts), while Kat watches on. He then suffers a heart attack on the street as everyone walks away, and dies.

Alfie subsequently divorces Kat. On the rebound, he marries Roxy, but leaves her on their wedding day, with Roxy's blessing, after realising he still loves Kat.

Development

Initial announcement On 6 June 2012, it was announced that Kat would embark on a long-running mystery affair with another Albert Square resident after becoming bored with the lack of attention at home. The identity of the mystery man was kept secret from the cast and crew, as well as viewers, and all scenes of Kat with her lover were filmed with an extra. Speaking of the storyline, Executive Producer Lorraine Newman said: "The consequences are not only great for Kat and Alfie, but also for each individual suspect. The audience will join the cast and crew guessing across the summer and autumn as we eliminate the suspects one at a time, leading to one almighty explosion." Inside Soap said the storyline would become "the biggest summer mystery in soap." After the storyline was announced, five suspects were revealed as potential love interests for Kat: Ray Dixon (Chucky Venn), Michael Moon (Steve John Shepherd), Max Branning (Jake Wood), Derek Branning (Jamie Foreman) and Jack Branning (Scott Maslen). It was reported that the storyline would be part of a "big year" and be as gripping as the "Who Shot Phil?" storyline from 2001, "with hints and red herrings all over the place to keep us guessing".