EastEnders may have just dropped two major clues concerning the identity of the Christmas victim.
The BBC One soap, as viewers know, will be home to a huge death during the festive season, as teased earlier this year during a historic flash-forward episode.
The unique scene took place in The Vic and saw Linda Carter (Kellie Bright), Denise Fox (Diane Parish), Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean), Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth), Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner) and Suki Panesar (Balvinder Sopal) standing over a dead body.
The six women, now known to fans as The Six, were in complete and utter shock, with Sharon – who was wearing a wedding dress – checking the pulse of the unfortunate resident, confirming his death.
With the list of potential victims yet to be narrowed down, viewers have been desperate to work out who it is that perishes over the holiday season and what exactly it is that leads to their unfortunate demise.
Nish Panesar (Navin Chowdhry), Ravi Gulati (Aaron Thiara) and Keanu Taylor (Danny Walters), who have all been involved in dastardly acts this past year, have been at the top of fans’ lists at one point or another.
A huge new clue, however, could indicate that it’s someone else entirely – someone who might not be that villainous at all.
We know that Lauren Branning (Jacqueline Jossa) is set to stage her long-awaited return to the show. A further announcement on Monday (November 7) confirmed that she won’t be alone with cousin Penny (Kitty Castledine) set to join her.
Penny, as long-time fans will know, is Jack’s (Scott Maslen) daughter. The two don’t exactly have the best of relationships, with Penny not having visited Walford in 15 years.
News of Penny’s comeback begs the question of why now, after all this time is she coming back? Is she simply accompanying Lauren, or is she perhaps keen on salvaging her relationship with dad Jack?
Or is there a tragic reason for her return, not to mention this long-awaited Branning reunion? The promo picture of both Penny and Lauren sees the pair in black outfits that wouldn’t look out of place at a funeral, so could they be returning to Walford to say goodbye to someone they know?
If this does prove to be the case then it’s not looking too good for Jack.
Penny didn’t live in Walford long enough to build any sort of substantial relationships with anyone else so, if there is a funeral on the horizon, then the only likely scenario here is that Jack is dead.
Is Jack the Christmas victim? A character of his calibre wouldn’t be killed off in any sort of mundane way and with the Christmas murder on the horizon, it could all be lining up for him to exit in a dramatic fashion.
EastEnders airs Mondays to Thursdays at 7:30pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
