WARNING: This article contains spoilers for tonight’s EastEnders (Thursday, August 4) which is available for streaming on BBC iPlayer now, but has not yet aired on BBC One – in which the connection between Max Branning and Zoe Slater is connection is revealed.
EastEnders has revealed what links Max Branning and Zoe Slater, in the wake of last night’s cliffhanger. In this shocking episode Max Branning made his long-awaited return to the soap, ringing Zoe as she struggled for her life after being shot.
Max hung up the call before Kat could identify him, while also leaving viewers wondering what his connection to Zoe is.
What links Zoe and Max? Is he friend, enemy… or something else entirely?
Early EastEnders iPlayer release confirms Max and Zoe connection
Today’s episode shared another set of flashbacks to Zoe‘s past. In doing so, it revealed that Zoe and Max first met earlier this year, at a swanky-looking bar in the UK.
Overhearing Zoe’s name, Max sidled up and enquired whether she was related to Stacey Slater. And, as they hit it off over their shared past, flirting progressed to the next level, and they took things to the bedroom.
Swapping notes on their lives, Zoe revealed how she’d given birth to twins in 2006, but lost both – one to a stillbirth, the other, she’d abandoned in the hospital. She was now trying to find the son she had adopted, and had hired a Private Investigator to help.
Who’s Zoe running from?
The episode also revealed who the sinister figure is that Zoe’s so afraid of. After giving her Private Investigator £5000 (thanks Max), he turned nasty, and attempted to sexually assault her.
She hit back, smashing a lamp over his head and leaving him for dead. Outside, Max lambasted her for her actions, and drove off as she threw his gift of a fancy necklace back in his face. Once again alone, she called Stacey for help. And this is where and how Alfie found her, weeks later.
As the episode ended, Zoe regained consciousness following her operation. Taking a moment alone, she called Max, warning him to stay away from her and Walford. Max, however, won’t be so easily dissuaded…
Read more: Who was Harry Slater on EastEnders? Zoe’s monstrous father explained
