EastEnders viewers were shocked by Ricky Mitchell's (Frankie Day) "savage" remark to mum Sam Mitchell (Kim Medcalf) during a confrontation between her and his step-mum Denise Fox (Diane Parish).
During last night's EastEnders episode (Wednesday, October 19), Jack Branning (Scott Maslen) offered to let Sam take their son Ricky for the day despite Sam making a move on him the night before.
Sam was touched, but was worried that Ricky would get bored while she prepared Peggy's for opening.
But, with the help of Zack Hudson (James Farrar), the pair entertained Ricky by playing a game at the bar.
Both Ricky and Sam were overjoyed to be spending some long-awaited quality time with each other. However, their bonding session soon plunged into chaos.
Elsewhere, Denise was sent the video of Sam kissing Jack by an unknown sender — which was soon revealed to be Denzel (Jaden Ladega) and a furious Denise went over to confront Sam.
Denise stormed into Peggy's and lunged at Sam, but was pulled back by Jack, while she wasted no time in throwing insults at Jack's former lover.
The pair had the ultimate showdown and as they furiously argued with each other, Ricky came out of the office and interrupted the commotion.
"Stop it!" he shouted.
"Ricky, I told you to stay in the office, yeah?" an embarrassed Sam said.
Ricky swooped in to defend Denise and replied with a shocking comeback that devastated Sam.
"Denise is more of a mum to me than you've ever been," he clapped back, before leaving Peggy's.
With Ricky always defending his mum and wanting to form a relationship with her, fans on social media were astonished by Ricky's "savage" burn to his own mother...
Ricky saying that Denise is more of a mother then Sam is 😬😬. That was savage #EastEndersOctober 19, 2022
I thought ricky was gonna defend his mum cos like maybe he would want his mum and dad back together, but no he defended denise #EastEndersOctober 19, 2022
#EastEnders Ricky just told Sam - his OWN mother - to her face that his step mother, Denise, has been more of a parent to him than she ever has! pic.twitter.com/6ZDU3nwCyjOctober 19, 2022
Ooo Ricky telling Sam Denise is more of a mum than you ever been #eastendersOctober 19, 2022
EastEnders airs Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings at 7.30 pm on BBC One — see our TV Guide for full listings. You can also catch up on episodes on BBC iPlayer now.
