Jack has reached boiling point and takes it out on Denise (Picture: BBC)

Jack Branning (Scott Maslen) was completely out of his depth over Amy (Ellie Dadd)’s battle with self-harm in tonight’s EastEnders.

After his attempt to talk to his daughter yesterday ended in failure because he tends to accuse rather than listen, he’d been up all night looking at online forums in an effort to understand what Amy is going through.

Later he searched her room and found her self-harming kit, reasoning that if she didn’t have the means she wouldn’t be able to hurt herself.

When Amy discovered it missing she went to the salon to accuse Denise (Diane Parish) – and helped herself to a pair of scissors while Denise was taking a phone call.

Jack and Denise paid a visit to Amy’s school and again he was left dissatisfied.

Jack is a person who is used to being able to sort things out, both in his professional and personal life, and he couldn’t cope with how helpless he felt when the head teacher said they would keep an eye on Amy and put her on a waiting list for mental health services, warning that this could take a long time.

Following this, Jack went to the Vic to drown his sorrows, and immediately picked a fight with Howie (Delroy Atkinson).

In the absence of any other answers, Jack was fixating on Denzel (Jaden Ladega) as being the source of Amy’s problems and the reason she was cutting herself. He told Howie to keep his son away from Amy.

Howie of course defended his son, and Jack became so riled up that he punched Howie in the face just as Denise and Kim (Tameka Empson) walked in.

Back at home, Denise tried to reason with her husband. ‘You are gonna tear this family apart,’ she told him, but he responded that she was more concerned about Kim and Howie than she was about Amy.

He said that he wasn’t going to let Amy return to school while Denzel was still a pupil there.

Jack is handling Amy’s situation badly (Picture: BBC)

Denise knew this was the wrong approach and told him, ‘I’m not going to let you lock up our daughter.’

Jack’s reply was a slap in the face for Denise. ’She’s not your daughter,’ he shot back. ‘She’s mine.’

Will this situation be the end of Jack and Denise’s relationship? And can Jack calm down enough to actually be able to help Amy?

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Has Jack pushed Denise away for good?