EastEnders heartbreak in early BBC iPlayer release as two characters are declared dead

This article contains spoilers for tonight’s episode of EastEnders, which airs on BBC One at 7.30pm or can be streamed now on iPlayer.

You’d be completely forgiven for feeling like Zoe Slater’s (Michelle Ryan) missing baby drama/stalking ordeal/overall presence on the Square had started to lose major steam, but todays visit to Walford has certainly thrown a couple of major twists at us as it pertains to our Zo.

A few months ago, while we were all under the impression that Zoe had lost one twin, we saw her deal with a dodgy P.I in an attempt to find the other twin. That endeavour ended in violence and bloodshed, so Zoe changed tack.

Becoming aware that former nemesis, Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) wasn’t exactly hurting for a few quid, she turned her sights toward her and hit her with the absolute bombshell that Sharon’s deceased ex-husband (and Zoe’s former boyfriend), Dennis Rickman (Nigel Harman), was the dad.

Though her ruse eventually fell apart, Zoe’s attention became all consumed by the sinister threats she began to receive as her life descended into a paranoid hell, thanks to a mystery stalker, with discussion of the missing children relegated to throwaway lines.

Fast forward to yesterday, however, and we discovered that ex-boyfriend and occasional friend-with-benefits Anthony Trueman (Nicholas Bailey) is, in fact, the father of Zoe’s missing twins when he used a work colleague to access long forgotten files.

Twins. Plural. Because the female twin, who Zoe believed had been stillborn is actually very much alive. Not only is she alive, she’s currently under the same roof as Zoe. She’s the very mysterious Jasmine Fisher (Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness).

Anthony was left reeling by his discovery, quickly dismissing his work colleague as he struggled to digest what he’d learned. He found himself at the Albert, confronted by an angry Chelsea Fox (Zaraah Abrahams), though their tiff was quelled when Anthony revealed he has two kids he knew nothing about.

Chelsea’s jaw dropped even further when Anthony revealed that Zoe is the mother. She offered to help by talking to Zoe, thinking it’d be better coming from her as another woman and mother, but Anthony was adamant that he needed to find the missing children before Zoe knew anything about them.

He argued that Zoe is a troubled, paranoid liar, having failed to disclose to him that he had two more children and he owed it to them to keep them away from her.

As Zoe found herself locked in a bedroom with the fire alarm unhooked and a flaming teddy bear, Anthony headed to the Vic and asked Kat for a private word.

Heading upstairs, he sinisterly told her that Zoe had made a mistake. He’d accessed files from the time of the twin’s birth and not only was the girl twin stillborn, they both were. His face remained steely as Kat crumbled, pleading with him that Zoe couldn’t find out, at least not before her first family Christmas in years.

While Anthony offered to tell her, Kat reeled, snapped out of it only by sirens as the emergency services descended on Albert Square. Anthony looked on coolly as Kat panicked over Zoe, who’d inhaled a tonne of smoke.

With Kat wrestling how and when to tell Zoe that her children are dead and Anthony determined to find them, who’ll get there first? Or will Jasmine’s plan render all of that moot?

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