The EastEnders moment Kat comes face-to-face with Zoe after 20 years in early BBC iPlayer release

Zoe’s back in Albert Square (Picture: BBC/Jack Barns/Kieron McCarron)

This article contains spoilers for tonight’s episode of EastEnders, which airs on BBC One at 7.30pm or can be streamed now on iPlayer.

Take yourself back to October 2nd, 2001. Following Lynne Slater’s (Elaine Lordan) hen do, Kat Slater (Jessie Wallace) chased her sister Zoe (Michelle Ryan) down Bridge Street, desperate to stop her moving to Spain.

Rain had soaked the ground, the women were only lit by street lights. And the mother of all confessions was about to take place.

The bombshell was, of course, that Kat was actually Zoe’s mum, and the secret had been kept under wraps for 17 years.

Now, almost 24 years later, the two have mirrored the exact same scene – with a reunion that has been decades in the making.

Fans have been itching to find out what Zoe has been up to, with the soap drip-feeding up content since June.

What has happened to Zoe Slater?

Truthfully, we’re not entirely sure. A real mystery!

Zoe is clearly in a bad way (Picture: BBC) Alfie had been trying to track her down (Picture: BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron)

The last time we saw Zoe, she fled London, telling Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) and Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner) that she’d done something ‘so bad’ that her family would disown her.

Fearing the worst, Alfie decided to follow her to Barcelona – telling his suspicious wife that he was actually going to stay with brother Spencer (Christopher Parker) in Australia.

While he sunned it up in Spain, Stacey faced the wrath of Kat. She wanted answers as to where he’d disappeared to, and wasn’t satisfied by the Spencer story.

With nowhere left to turn, Stace’ said that Alfie was in a bad headspace after another cancer scare.

Jean Slater (Gillian Wright) later assumed that he was actually helping out his estranged daughter Cherry, something which Kat then believed.

Ultimately, he couldn’t find her.

Tommy tracks Zoe down

At the end of last week, Tommy Moon (Sonny Kendall) went AWOL after an explosive argument with Kat and Alfie.

Tommy tracked down his sister (Picture: BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron) He brought her back to Walford (Picture: BBC/Jack Barns/Kieron McCarron)

He had stormed out, and later broke down crying in the play park. Opening his phone, Tommy send a text message to Zoe.

‘You don’t know me… but I’m your brother,’ it read.

‘I can’t deal with mum anymore either.’

Concern began to grow for the teen when he didn’t return home, and Kat said that she had to just accept that yet another of her children wanted to cut her off.

Thursday’s cliffhanger saw Tommy arrive on Zoe’s doorstep, and that’s where he’s spent the night.

In today’s episode, brother and sister got to know one another, as they started to plan their next steps. Zoe was adamant that she was going back to Spain, and he wanted to join her.

The trouble is – she has no cash. Luckily, Tommy said he had a solution, but she wasn’t going to like it.

Meanwhile, a traumatised Kat and Alfie rallied everyone to hunt the youngster down. He was reading their messages, but not replying. For Kat, this gave her some hope that he was still alive.

She didn’t want to involve the police for fears that Tommy would be taken off them, but that decision was almost taken out of her hands when a social worker began knocking at the door.

Kat had missed an appointment with her, Tommy hadn’t showed up at school, and to make matters worse, Bert and Ernie had stolen Alfie’s wallet for their lunch money because he was too distracted by their brother’s disappearance.

Thinking quick, Alfie explained that Tommy was on holiday, but had been delayed on his journey back. The social worker just about believed his story, but assured the Moons that she would be back.

The scene mirrored that infamous moment from October 2001 (Picture: BBC)

Kat is visited by a ghost from her past

A thunderstorm struck Walford as Kat stared out of the window, waiting to see whether Tommy would return.

He was in a taxi with Zoe, making their way back to Albert Square.

Kat ran downstairs into Bridge Street, when the vehicle pulled up in front of her. Out stepped Tommy, declaring that he had ‘a present for her’ – Zoe.

The moment we’ve all been waiting for, which was stunted by the sound of the infamous doof doofs and the knowledge that we’re going to have to wait another day for the aftermath!

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