EastEnders fans were left gobsmacked by the unexpected twists in the soap’s annual Christmas Day special.
After months of teasers leading up to this episode, viewers finally learned which character got killed off the show.
The soap opera created huge hype around this year’s Christmas special as they released a flash forward to it in February, where they showed the murder scene but kept the identities of the corpse and killer a secret.
After ten months of anticipation, the wait was finally over for viewers and the Christmas Day victim and murderer were revealed on December 25th.
In shocking scenes featuring a highly unexpected and dramatic twist, the crime took place in the famed Queen Victoria pub.
The highly anticipated episode came to a volatile end as we saw Denise Fox (Diane Parish) hit Nish Panesar (Navin Chowdry) across the head with a bottle, in an attempt to protect his wife Suki Panesar (Balvinder Sopal) from his abuse.
Although Nish appeared to be dead and the dramatic reveal was over, the shocking scenes did not end there and Keanu Taylor (Danny Walter) then burst into the Queen Vic pub.
After seeing Nish’s body, Keanu began to fight Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) because their wedding was called off after it was revealed that he attempted to kidnap her son Albie.
Despite the audience believing that Nish was the murder victim of the Christmas special, Keanu then began to strangle Sharon to no avail after she threatened to send him to prison over her son if he ever spoke about Nish’s suspected death.
A user posted a snippet of this scene to X and said “Live reaction to EastEnders Christmas special, incredible cinematography.”
live reaction to eastenders christmas special, incredible cinematography 😭 #EastEnders #Christmas #xlbully pic.twitter.com/sdZUxLFlL5
— alex (@alexwiddall) December 25, 2023
In true EastEnders fashion, all was not as it appeared and Linda Carter (Kellie Bright) then picked up a knife and stabbed Keanu in the back to save Sharon’s life.
Viewers were also left aghast after the shot widened and Suki could be seen in the back of the frame reviving her abusive husband Nish.
Fans were in complete shock at the end of the episode, as they did not expect to see Keanu murdered in the last few seconds or Nish to be saved by Suki.
Fans took to the social media platform X to share their thoughts on the episode.
One user wrote: “The whole of the UK to the writers of EastEnders for saving 2023 with that Christmas special *clap hands emoji*”
Another wrote: ”Bloody hell, that was an episode We don’t watch Eastenders now, but had to see what the fuss was all about! Brilliant, that’s how you do a Christmas special!#EastEnders #TheSix”
Another fan shared their disbelief and said: “#EastEnders had goosebumps as always w the christmas special omg didn’t see that coming.”
The whole of the UK to the writers of eastenders for saving 2023 with that Christmas special 👏🏻👏🏻 #EastEnders pic.twitter.com/sOockwKSgP
— Olivia ⚡️ (@livportxr) December 25, 2023
Bloody hell, that was an episode 👀 We don’t watch Eastenders now, but had to see what the fuss was all about! Brilliant, that’s how you do a Christmas special! 👏 #EastEnders #TheSix pic.twitter.com/FdrPB2OyvX
— Steven Kelly (@StevenKelly82) December 25, 2023
#EastEnders had goosebumps as always w the christmas special omg didn’t see that coming. pic.twitter.com/YTvugtdotZ
— 𝖊𝖒𝐳 🍃🌸 (@SHYXAWAY) December 25, 2023
