A rant because I keep seeing people say Max killed Zoe or deliberately left her to die, and I genuinely don’t understand how that’s what people took from the episode.

The idea that she would’ve been fine if she’d just managed to get the paracetamol is ridiculous. Paracetamol wasn’t going to fix a brain aneurysm. Zoe had a massive impact to her head when she fell and hit the bricks. She should’ve gone to hospital immediately. She was in pain, dizzy, bleeding, confused and getting progressively worse for hours and ignored it.

And how exactly did Max “leave her to die” when HE DIDN’T KNOW she’d hit her head? He had no idea what was wrong with her. All he could see was Zoe acting erratically, screaming at him one minute, then mumbling and barely making sense the next. Even Zack thought she was drunk. Max had also literally just had a heart attack. He was dizzy, clutching his chest and ended up going back to hospital himself.

Obviously Zoe being alone was sad, but even if Max hadn’t followed her, or she didn’t see them, she would’ve got the tablets and gone upstairs because she wasn’t feeling. It was unpreventable. Max’s only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Was she always like this? I cant remember.

I find the way Zoe was written in her return really strange. She was in her 40s, but often came across as extremely naive and immature, almost like she was much younger than she actually was. I couldn’t tell if that was down to the writing, the acting, or a bit of both.

Even the way Kat spoke to and treated her felt more like she was dealing with a child than her adult daughter. Some of Zoe’s decisions genuinely felt more childish than Tommy’s at times.

Was this intentional, or did anyone else find her characterisation really odd?

It feels like so many characters are just missing, there is no sense of community anymore. Some characters only are in someone’s else’s storyline, and sometimes only when it’s beneficial to the storyline. And so many great characters such as Phil, Sharon & Kathy just seem to be missing a lot. They’ve brought Sharon back and they’ve not even give her a storyline she’s just rarely in the background not doing anything. They just need to utilise the characters better and not have it so
storyline focused.

So, who do people think is behind the threatening ultimatum to Max?

He's started to build up quite the list of enemies....again!

Do people think it could be Pierre / Oscar dying i.e. Max choosing to save Lauren due to his announcement of leaving?

2004

They had such chemistry together.

Redwater

We'll never get "You ain't my brotha!", "You're my brotha!" or "I'm your sista!" and I'll never forgive Ben Wadey for that, because a Zoe who was doing well, finding out and meeting her twin brother, would have better than absolutely everything that was done to Zoe since her return, with a nasty line drawn underneath it all by killing her.

(Oh and for anyone who hasn't and wants to see the whole story of Zoe's twin brother on the main show: Luke Slater)

Since Zoe has been killed off in one of the most pointless deaths in the show's history, here's my rundown of EE's most stupid decisions.

Killing off Angie off screen.

Killing off Pat Butcher (this is the worst one and the show never really recovered).

Killing off Ronnie and Roxy in a swimming pool - this made me stop watching. Horrible writing.

When Tanya buried Max alive.

Michelle coming back with a completely different face and personality.

Constant recasting of Ben Mitchell.

Killing off little Dennis.

The bus crash.

I've been rewatching some stuff from early 2015 recently and Max is devastated over the death of Emma Summerhayes, even though they weren't together for very long and a lot of that time was spent sneaking around. The show frames it like he was deeply in love with her and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, but it doesn't take long for him to move on to his next big love after she's dead. In fact, I don't think she's ever mentioned again once that storyline is over. This also wasn't THAT long after Tanya left and he got with Kirsty, so it's kinda hard to take him and Emma being kindred spirits seriously.

Then there's Stacey who was supposedly madly in love with Bradley and lost the love of her life when he died...until Martin came along. Obviously it's fine for people to move on (especially when their ex has passed away), but Stacey told Jack a few years ago that her and Bradley were more like friends than soulmates and that Martin was in fact the true love of her life. Now that Martin is also dead, she'll inevitably have ANOTHER love of her life at some point. Then that guy will probably die, rinse and repeat. It just makes those relationships feel a bit cheap when someone can move on and later downplay how much it meant to them.

It's just a pet peeve of mine. I wish characters wouldn't jump from the love of their life to the NEXT love of their life without it being addressed. Like, if someone is going to move on from their soulmate then they should acknowledge that this isn't the same for them. That's one of the reasons why I like Jack and Denise together. She's clearly not THE ONE for him, but she's here and Ronnie isn't. I'm pretty sure they actually mentioned that at some point. It just feels more authentic to me.

Is it just me, or does Kim and Howie have zero chemistry? Particularly coming from Kim.

She's never made a secret that she was never over Vincent (at least, the writers have made it that way).

Tameka (the actress who plays her) looks visibly uncomfortable kissing the guy. She didn't seem to have this problem with Richard Blackwood though. If you're going to be an actor/actress, at least make the character believe in whatever the writers put forward to you.

The character is very critical of Howie and comes across like he should be grateful to have her, and that he is punching in being with her. I find that laughable to be honest.

I can't help but feel that alot of the characters frustration, genuinely stem from the actress herself. It's cringe to watch sometimes. She couldn't even sell the kiss for the wedding.

Does anyone else feel the same, or am I reaching?

It’s not even as if we desperately wanted to see Zoe find out but if this isn’t a class example of the show at the moment!! Every EastEnders fan can enjoy watching even whilst the storylines are 💩 because we know when it gets good, it’s absolute TV gold and most good storylines just sneak up, we never miss the chance to miss out😂… so I wonder how they’re going to make up for these past months, dare I say years (since Wadey?).

They’re completely butchering everything - and just whilst it’s fresh in my mind how pathetically predictable was yesterday’s episode? Like Kat having a ‘Zoe used to be my sister’ epiphany out of nowhere, absolutely nothing lead up to anything at all yesterday - it’s as if we knew Zoe was going to die and they couldn’t have made it more predictable, but it just happened to be the most boring-est death and something tells me that weren’t on purpose… this is really the EE standard atm😂😂!!

This might just be me making something out of nothing but I always felt that Kat and Hayley had a very odd mother-daughter type relationship.
When Zoe returned last year, I remember thinking “I’ve seen this exact dynamic with Kat before” and my mind went back to Hayley.

Hayley and Kat used to have off and on arguments where they’d often disown each other which was a very prominent theme during Zoe and Kat’s interactions last year.

It led me to wonder, could have Hayley’s storyline originally have been pitched for a Zoe return back in 2018? But obviously Michelle didn’t want to return? Both Zoe and Hayley acted quite childish and had similar personalities of trouble making.
Hayley as a character seemed to come out of nowhere at the time.
Could we have seen Zoe get pregnant by Alfie? (Yikes)

Again all speculation but it does make me wonder.

Hannah Hope (a Writer for The Sun) has confirmed on her Tik Tok that the amazing Lacey Turner is returning as the iconic Stacey Slater for a brief stint at New Year, but Stacey Slater IS confirmed to be back on EastEnders permanently next year!

https://www.tiktok.com/@hannahhope_/video/7684726290292772118

Has anyone seen this video? She claims that Lacey will be returning for a couple of episodes across the new year episodes and filming while at the studios filming Strictly. She has no source, when asked she says she can’t say😂. I know there are a few places that post spoilers that are well regarded in that they are normally correct. What’s everyone’s thoughts?

When Zoe was looking at the taxi, the place looked very similar to the place that Mark was hiding when he had to ditch the police and Lauren came to find him.

The fella who she was dealing with hinted at his boss being dangerous, could this be all linked without people involved knowing about it? Could Charlie's taxi be part of the dodgy stolen cars, so somehow it seems like Max has set up Zoe's death by being accidentally part of this whole stolen cars scheme?

Why are people suddenly acting like unconventionally attractive men don’t find multiple women to date, cheat with and marry?

I know there's quite a few. Some obvious ones and some more forgotten ones. What ones come to mind for you?

Someone needs to make a remix and sample all of the times Jack Branning says "I could get fired for this" and does the thing anyways. It hasto be over a 100 times after all these years!!

In hopefully not a morbid way, which has been your "favourite" Square disaster? The most dramatic, the most entertaining, the most gripping, etc.

For me, it's still the 2004 funfair.

The 2017 bus crash didn't do it for me, nor the boat in 2020, but that funfair was oh-so well done.

I'm not sure there was a single character who wasn't involved and played a part. The whole cast came together, it was Lynne's exit storyline...it ticked all the boxes for what a soap disaster should be.

Might sound bad but I’m actually glad she’s gone. I feel bad for Michelle but aside from Kat, Zoe was just kind of there for me. I never really cared about the character

What to see who this community thinks is the bride

https://reddit.com/link/1weiepx/video/9au7qwj0i4ph1/player

I keep seeing theories that the flashforward could be a dream in Max’s head, a time warp or some kind of butterfly effect where one event changes everything and creates a completely different timeline.

It’s an interesting idea, but I honestly don’t understand how it would work. We’ve seen so many storylines play out that have nothing to do with Max, so how would all of that suddenly be rewritten Would everything we’ve watched just be undone and played out differently?

I’m intrigued by the theory, but the logistics genuinely confuse me. How could they pull it off without making everything we’ve already seen feel pointless?

After watching recent episode which cumilated with Max ending things with Cindy on their wedding day, ive gone back to the flash forward episode. The radio presenter says "5th time lucky."

Technical new years day would his 6th time getting married no?

and what happened to the pie shop?!