EastEnders airs surprise unannounced return for Christmas Eve twist in early BBC iPlayer release

Spoiler warning for the Christmas Eve 2025 episode of EastEnders, which is now available on BBC iPlayer.

Chrissie Watts (Tracy-Ann Oberman) has made a spectacular return to EastEnders in a pre-Christmas surprise.

The character was last on our screens in September 2024, having spent her final week in prison alongside Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean). She had spent two decades locked up for killing Sharon's dad, Den (Leslie Grantham), and was now a free woman. Chrissie was last seen driving off for an apparent happy ending with old love Jake Moon (Joel Beckett)

However, it seems that Chrissie is still very much a scorned woman, and there's someone else in Albert Square she wants to target...

For months, we've seen Zoe Slater (Michelle Ryan) targeted by a mystery assailant, and with a day packed full of festivities for the community approaching, she couldn't help but feel that this would be the perfect opportunity for her tormentor to strike again.

Kat and Alfie Moon (Jessie Wallace and Shane Richie) were similarly paranoid, and the only gift they wanted under their tree from the big man was for their nightmare to end.

In The Vic, Zoe had somewhat of an awkward encounter with Jasmine Fisher (Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness), who viewers now know is Zoe's presumed-dead daughter. Zoe wondered whether she'd made plans for Christmas lunch and said she was welcome to come to the pub, but Jasmine said she'd made alternate arrangements.

The frosty conversation was interrupted by Jean Slater (Gillian Wright), who arrived to spread yuletide cheer and to take Zoe out on a shopping trip.

In her absence, Kat found Sam Mitchell (Kim Medcalf) lurking in the boozer's hallway, and wondered whether she could be the one who had made her daughter's life a misery.

Sam had a perfectly reasonable explanation, however. She revealed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and was seeking out Zack Hudson (James Farrar) for a heart-to-heart.

When Zoe returned home, she placed her presents under the tree and discovered a card from her estranged son, whom she had desperately been trying to track down for months. Inside was an Ibiza keyring that she had left in the hospital in 2006, and he explained that he was going to arrive tomorrow to meet her.

Meanwhile, Anthony Trueman (Nicholas Bailey), the father of Zoe's twins, drowned his sorrows and crumpled up a picture of them both from the early '00s.

Rain poured down over Yolande Trueman's (Angela Wynter) carol singing concert, as Jasmine made a phone call to tell someone that she needed to talk. She walked up towards a car parked on Edward Road, and a series of flashbacks showed that she was the one responsible for all of the vicious things happening to Zoe.

As she climbed into the vehicle, she told the driver that she had completed everything they'd asked of her but was having regrets.

But it was too late - the driver was revealed to be Chrissie, and she promised that Zoe was going to have a Christmas she would never forget.

Read more:

• EastEnders cast: Who is joining, leaving and returning to the soap?
• EastEnders confirms no early BBC iPlayer release for key Christmas episodes
• EastEnders airs desperate Sam Mitchell scenes as she takes advantage of Nigel Bates in BBC iPlayer release
• EastEnders Christmas and New Year spoilers: Your day-by-day guide as Slater and Branning secrets implode
• EastEnders 2025 Christmas schedule confirmed by BBC - including festive episode timings

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