Major update in EastEnders Christmas death story as icon is charged with murder

It seemed pretty straightforward on the day, didn’t it? in EastEnders’ Christmas special, Zoe Slater (Michelle Ryan) killed Anthony Trueman (Nicholas Bailey), right? Right?!

Well, perhaps not.

The former lovers had a violent showdown after Zoe learned that Anthony knew he was the dad of her twins, and that he’d lied to Kat Slater (Jessie Wallace), telling her that they’d died. With his lies exposed, Kat booted him from the Queen Vic community dinner and after he clashed with Patrick Trueman (Rudolph Walker), he returned, drunk and unhinged.

As they exchanged taunts and barbs, things turned physical when Zoe shoved Anthony away and he smashed his head on the door way. Anthony, in turn, smashed Zoe’s head against the bannister and they were both left unconscious. Zoe woke up, but Anthony didn’t.

‘A Christmas storyline is a huge moment in soap, so to get that and a big Christmas Day exit was a real honour!’ Nicholas said upon the reveal that Anthony would serve as ‘Enders traditional Christmas sacrifice.

‘Obviously, it was bittersweet because it meant I was leaving, and I’ve felt really at home since I came back to EastEnders. But the storyline itself is tremendous, and it gave me much more to do than I expected.

‘It’s been great to come out of my comfort zone and play some spectacular scenes full of spectacular lines.’

Despite Kat’s determination to cover the crime up, a run-in with former frenemy-turned-total-enemy, Chrissie Watts (Tracy-Ann Oberman), the revelation that Jasmine Fisher (Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness) is her daughter and learning that they’d formed a torture-tag-team and were behind her stalking ordeal convinced Zoe to tell the police everything. After smoothing things over with Jasmine, she handed herself in.

Kat reeled when Jasmine told her that Chrissie, had advised her to do one before the police arrived. How else would she know that the police were soon to descend on the Square? In Kat’s mind, it’s simple: Chrissie killed Anthony and is framing Zoe. Eerily reminiscent, no?

In today’s episode, notorious Mitchell family lawyer, Ritchie Scott (Sian Webber), told Zoe that Anthony suffered two blows to the head. As she was unconscious after delivering the first, she’s sure she can’t have killed him, and there’s a new police suspect: Chrissie herself.

With Jasmine unwilling to make contact with Chrissie out of sheer fear, Kat sought out Sam Mitchell (Kim Medcalf), the third member of the triumvirate that oversaw the demise of Den Watts (Leslie Grantham), and the other person who witnessed Chrissie’s comeback on Christmas Day.

Meanwhile, poor Patrick, utterly broken over the loss of his son, set about trying to find any information he could, despite loving wife Yolande Trueman (Angela Wynter) trying her best to calm him, as he tore from the Vic to the police station.

Finding nothing out from Sam, Kat headed home when Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) called and revealed he’d had to tell the kids of Zoe’s arrest.

When Jean (Gillian Wright) began to enquire about Jasmine’s presence, the truth was revealed that she’s a Slater, though, when it was also revealed that she was the stalker, rage erupted, with Tommy Moon (Sonny Kendall) furious that he’d been blamed and Lily Slater (Lillia Turner) raging that Jean had.

They were interrupted by a devastated Patrick who, after displaying a few final bursts of anger, finally crumbled in Kat’s arms as Jasmine fled.

Kat later found Jasmine, with some incredibly grave news to impart. Despite Chrissie being a suspect, the police had officially charged Zoe with murder.

Clearly, the circumstances surrounding Anthony’s death are incredibly messy, but with Zoe now charged with killing him, is the case closed as far as the police are concerned? Did Chrissie kill him? Was it someone else entirely?

One thing is for certain: it’s going to take more than Kat’s determination and Phil Mitchell’s (Steve McFadden) dodgy lawyer to free Zoe…

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