Andy Hunter

"This day has been coming, from that one to this one son!!"

- Andy Hunter after punching his love rival Alfie Moon in retribution for the latter ruining his wedding to Kat Slater

Andy Hunter is a fictional character and recurring antagonist of the BBC British soap opera EastEnders.

He first appeared in 7 July 2003 and, following the murder of his gangland boss Jack Dalton, became the show's main antagonist until his departure from the programme on 18 February 2005.

History
Andy Hunter first appeared in July 2003 as the representative of The Firm, of which he later takes control after the murder of its leader Jack Dalton — who was killed by his bookkeeper Dennis Rickman, following the impact that Dalton has ordered the murder of Dennis's father Den Watts in 1989. Although he suspects Dennis and his love rival Phil Mitchell were involved in Dalton's murder, Andy pardons them and even forms a friendship with Dennis. When Den unexpectedly reappears two months later, Andy summons him to a meet-up and pardons him for his previous crimes against The Firm.

Having previously married and then divorced a woman named Bev several years ago, Andy embarks on his second wedding to Kat Slater. Their relationship had originally started ambivalent after Kat turned down his offer for a date in The Queen Victoria public house, but Andy eventually manages to win her over and she soon accepts his proposal whilst the pair are out in New York City. On their wedding day, however, Kat's crush Alfie Moon runs into the church and says he loves her; Kat initially pronounces her love for Andy, but ultimately leaves him for Alfie - thus making Alfie and Andy enemies. Andy soon gets his revenge as Alfie owes him a large amount of money. Andy blackmails Kat to have sex with him behind Alfie's back, in order to pay off the money and if she refuses, he says he will have Alfie killed. Alfie manages to provide the money, but only after Kat has already slept with Andy. When they are in bed together, Andy secretly films everything with a hidden video camera he sets up, and gives the tape to Alfie.

Alfie later watches the tape out of curiosity and is heartbroken at what he sees, and confronts Kat about it - nearly ending their relationship. Andy hopes for them to split but he doesn't succeed as Alfie and Kat are still going strong, and Alfie also gets his revenge by giving Andy a tape thinking that it is the same tape that Andy sent him. However, as Andy starts to watch it, he is taken aback as he discovers it is a different tape of Alfie and Kat's wedding. Andy eventually accepts their relationship but continues to clash with Alfie as he quickly establishes himself as Walford's reigning crime kingpin.

The impact of Andy's torment towards Alfie and Kat soon leads to a confrontation with her daughter Zoe - who is dating Dennis. When Zoe makes it appear that Andy assaulted her and she tells Dennis about it, he confronts and punches Andy - who is forced to explain what he did to Kat in order to get Dennis to understand the truth about Zoe. A few days later, Den invites Andy to a poker game and the pair go all-in with all their money and assets; Andy wins the final round, but chooses not to take Den's possessions and instead humiliates him in the pub by revealing his gambling bet to his adopted daughter Sharon. He also clashes with Den over his differences with his longtime friend Pat Evans, whom Andy bonds and later hires as his employee.

In 2004, following Phil's departure and with his brother Grant also absent in Walford, Andy seizes the opportunity to extract the Mitchell assets by forging a relationship with Phil and Grant's sister Sam; despite the efforts of Sam's cousin Billy and his best-friend Minty Peterson to end their relationship, Andy marries Sam after tricking her mother Peggy into believing that his intentions are for goodwill. He later has Minty beaten up after learning that he has romantic feelings towards Sam, thus depicting himself to be a threat towards Andy's plot.

By then, Andy has summoned his henchman Eddie to help expand his criminal reign and later employs local drug dealer Paul Trueman into his empire. Towards the end of 2004 at Christmas, however, Paul's efforts to uphold Andy's empire soon lead to his arrest - forcing Paul to betray Andy in order to avoid going to prison, despite knowing that Andy will come for him if he finds out. Andy manages to obstruct the police from investigating him, and deduces that Paul grassed him out. In response, Andy hires a hitman to murder Paul before Christmas, and Paul is later killed at the end of the night. Shortly before Paul's death, Sam learns of Andy's true colors shortly after she is conned out of The Queen Victoria pub by Den and her lawyer Marcus Christie. Upon learning of this, Andy kicks Sam out of the house and leaves her penniless; she subsequently resides with Minty after they make amends over what Andy did to them.

In January 2005, Andy's feud with Alfie reoccurs when the latter's two cousins, Jake and his younger brother Danny, arrive on the square; Andy clashes with the trio after Danny steals his car. After ordering Eddie to investigate the duo, Andy learns that Jake and Danny are working for fellow crime boss Johnny Allen - who soon arrives on the square himself. At first, Andy manages to have Johnny put Jake and Danny in their place, but grows dissatisfied when Johnny begins to gradually usurp his authority on the square - such as arranging for Andy to hire Jake and Danny for employment.

Whilst growing misplaced by Johnny's authority on him, Andy becomes unnerved when Paul's adopted father Patrick begins searching for him and constantly questions Andy about his "whereabouts". Andy repeatedly denies any knowledge of Paul's fate, but Johnny soon becomes drawn into the subject after witnessing Patrick confront Andy once more. Johnny later orders for Paul to be retrieved, and Patrick subsequently learns of his son's fate when the police inform him that Paul has been found murdered. After identifying Paul's body to confirm that he is dead, Patrick instantly requests the police to question Andy - which they do. However, Andy is let off the hook after the police are unable to find evidence against him. Patrick later swears revenge against Andy after confronting him over Paul's death. When Pat quizzes Andy over Paul's murder, Andy confides to her about his involvement, and she ends their friendship as his paranoia grows - up to the point where Andy threatens to kill Pat, should she grass him out.

In February 2005, Andy becomes furious when Johnny buys Den's nightclub before he can seize control of it. Andy takes an opportunity to plan revenge when Johnny requests him to help Jake with a £750,000 trade deal to settle his retirement from the criminal underworld; however, his behaviour leaves Eddie worried and this escalates when Johnny puts Jake out of the deal - forcing Andy to manhandle the outcome on his own. In response, Andy convinces Danny to help him flee the country with Johnny's £750,000. On the night of the deal, Andy succeeds with the trade and betrays Danny by leaving him on the street. However, before betraying him, Andy continues to antagonize Alfie by arranging for the local market to be trashed - leaving them virtually penniless. Shortly after "helping" Johnny with the trade, Andy is confronted by Alfie and the pair fight over Kat - whom Andy declares his love for as he blames Alfie for ruining his happiness with her. Danny attempts to help Alfie take on Andy, but this distraction allows Andy to flee with Eddie.

On their way out of Walford, Andy is surprised when Eddie pulls over - claiming that he needs to go to a toilet. While waiting for Eddie to come back, Andy is surprised when Jake enters the car and Johnny opens his door - telling him that they need to have a "conversation". As Jake keeps hold of the £750,000, Andy realizes too late that Eddie betrayed him and goes to settle his differences with Johnny. They seemingly part ways when Johnny offers a handshake, which Andy accepts. However, their handshake ends unexpectedly when Johnny – after giving Andy "one final tip" and telling him to "enjoy his flight" – suddenly forces Andy off the flyover, causing Andy to fall to his death upon hitting the ground. Shortly afterwards, Johnny and Jake leave at the scene of Andy's death whilst Eddie flees the country for good. Ironically, Andy dies on the same night that Den is bludgeoned to death by his wife Chrissie.

While Den's murder remains a mystery to the square, Andy's death becomes public knowledge when the police are informed about his fate - which is depicted to be a suicide. Sam is asked to attend Andy's will reading, expecting to get all of his money and assets. However, Andy leaves the house to Pat and the bookmakers to Dennis, leaving Sam with just his wedding ring, "so she can sell it, get her roots done and still be the dumbest blonde I ever knew." In the only revenge she can exact on her late husband, Sam refuses to attend Andy's funeral - leaving Pat and Johnny to appear as the only guests to witness Andy being laid to rest.

Following Andy's death, Johnny usurps his position as Walford's crime kingpin and ends up having Dennis killed at the end of the year; Dennis had learned on New Year's Eve 2005 that Johnny had not only throttled his pregnant wife Sharon, but also murdered Andy on the night Den died. Eventually, in March 2006, Johnny confesses to killing Andy to the police at the request of his daughter Ruby when she learns the truth about her father murdering Dennis. Later in 2006, Andy's death is avenged by Ruby's boyfriend Sean Slater when he causes Johnny to have a fatal heart attack, upon taunting him in a prison visit.

List of Victims
A list of people whom Andy Hunter has victimized throughout the course of his criminal reign upon Walford.
 * Alfie Moon — Andy sought to get revenge on Alfie for ruining his wedding to Kat Slater, particularly after he failed to warn Alfie in staying away from his wedding to Kat - due to Alfie having a crush on her. Andy soon began to torment Alfie by extorting money from him and nearly destroying his marriage to Kat, before then leaving him to provide all his assets for the community after arranging for the market to be vandalized.
 * Kat Slater — Andy raped Kat by blackmailing her into sleeping with him, in order to get revenge on her husband Alfie Moon for ruining his wedding to Kat in 2003. Though Andy would later regret what he did to Kat, the process had virtually destroyed her marriage to Alfie along with how it affects their own families.
 * Den Watts — Andy initially planned to kill Den on behalf of his criminal organization, "The Firm", but later went on to humiliate Den after defeating him in a high-stakes poker game - in which Andy would've bankrupted Den. Instead, Den was left discredited by his community and family after Andy exposed the night of their poker game.
 * Sam Mitchell — Andy forged a relationship with Sam in order to defraud her family of all their financial assets. This he did after marrying Sam in September 2004, and towards Christmas that year she lost ownership of The Queen Victoria public house to Andy's fellow enemy Den Watts. Upon discovering this, Andy promptly dumped Sam and kicked her out of his house - leaving her penniless and homeless for the rest of the year. In 2005, Andy continued to discredit Sam until she discovered in his will that he conned her out of her assets.
 * Minty Peterson — Andy arranged for Minty to get beaten up in retribution for attempting to prevent his love interest Sam Mitchell from marrying him.
 * Billy Mitchell — Andy extorted money from Billy and turned his cousin Sam and her mother Peggy against him in retaliation for his efforts to try and stop his wedding to Sam.
 * Pat Butcher — Andy started to discredit Pat ever since he ordered the death of her longtime friend's son Paul Trueman, up to the point where he throttles her in an attempt to silence her from exposing the truth about Paul's murder.
 * Paul Trueman — Andy killed Paul by hiring a hitman to murder him in retaliation for attempting to entrap him to the police for his criminal activities.
 * Patrick Trueman — Andy discredited Patrick and turned his best-friend Pat Evans against him ever since he ordered the death of Patrick's adopted son Paul.
 * Danny Moon — Andy discredited Danny ever since he and his older brother Jake arrived in Walford on behalf of their crime boss Johnny Allen. As such, Andy manipulated Danny in attempting to betray Johnny against the advice of both Jake and their cousin Alfie.

Trivia

 * It remains unclear how Andy took control of The Firm after it's former leader - Jack Dalton - was killed by Dennis Rickman.