In a shocking twist that mirrored one of the soap's most infamous storylines, Christmas Day in Walford ended with a corpse lying in the Queen Vic. The dramatic episode, released on December 25, 2025, saw the unexpected reunion of three legendary characters: Chrissie Watts (Tracy-Ann Oberman), Zoe Slater (Michelle Ryan), and Sam Mitchell (Kim Medcalf).
A Deadly Confrontation in the Queen Vic
The festive chaos unfolded after a heartbroken and drunk Anthony Trueman (Nicholas Bailey) confronted Zoe in the pub. Still reeling from his father Patrick's cruel words, Anthony slurred about them making a family. Zoe saw red, shoving him back and causing his head to collide with a metal bolt on the wall. In retaliation, Anthony smashed Zoe's face against the bannister, knocking her unconscious.
She awoke to her mother, Kat Moon (Jessie Wallace), rousing her. As she came to, Zoe saw Anthony's lifeless body beside her. The immediate assumption was that the collision with the wall had killed him. Panic set in as Kat tried to figure out what to do next.
Chrissie Watts Returns With a Vengeance
As music drifted upstairs from the Christmas party below, Zoe ventured down and came face-to-face with the architect of her recent torment: Chrissie Watts. The hardened ex-convict, who served twenty years for the murder of 'Dirty' Den Watts, revealed herself as the mastermind behind Zoe's stalking ordeal.
Chrissie explained that she had used Jasmine Fisher (Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness)—Zoe's long-lost daughter—as a pawn. She had seen news of Zoe's shooting while meeting her probation worker and went to the hospital, where she found Jasmine, who had also seen the article. Deciding Zoe needed to pay for their collective misery, they cooked up the stalking plan together.
In a legendary three-way 'bitch-off' with Kat, Chrissie's cold and conniving nature was on full display, while Kat desperately tried to ascertain if Chrissie had been upstairs and seen Anthony's body.
Unfinished Business and a Final Confession
Sam Mitchell, having been spooked by Chrissie earlier, entered and took Zoe's side, warning Jasmine that Chrissie was pure evil and utterly untrustworthy. Cracks began to show in Chrissie's plan, and Jasmine realised she had been manipulated.
After delivering final, cutting blows to Zoe, both Chrissie and Jasmine left the pub. When Chrissie's offer to look after Jasmine was rejected, the murderess turned her acid tongue on her protégé, threatening to destroy her if she went to the police. Sam witnessed the exchange and told Chrissie it wasn't too late to change, to which Chrissie spat back: 'Why would I want to change? I'm perfect as I am.'
In a poignant moment, Zoe and Jasmine shared an imagined scene of a life together, before Zoe lamented that she was sorry she wasn't there then, and couldn't be now. As Jasmine questioned her final point, police and ambulances poured into Albert Square.
Zoe had called them and confessed to killing Anthony. In an emotional farewell, she finally called Kat 'mum' and secured her promise to look after Jasmine before being taken away by the police.
A Sinister Echo of the Past
The episode deliberately echoed the events of Christmas 2005, when Den Watts was killed with a dog-shaped doorstop in the very same pub. On that fateful night, Zoe believed she had killed Den, but it was Chrissie who delivered the final blow. Chrissie then let Zoe and Sam believe they were murderers, burying Den in the Vic's cellar.
This full-circle moment leaves viewers with a burning question: Did Zoe really kill Anthony Trueman? Or, in a terrifying case of history repeating, has Chrissie Watts once again engineered a situation where Zoe believes she is a murderer, when in fact Chrissie herself may have delivered a fatal blow to Anthony while Zoe was unconscious?
The fallout promises to be explosive, leaving the future of the Slater and Moon families hanging in the balance and raising questions about how the newly discovered Jasmine will fit into the fractured clan.
