Zoe Slater’s (Michelle Ryan) 20-year web of secrets and lies is set to unravel in a special episode of EastEnders on Thursday.

This week will see the moment fans have waited two decades for, as Zoe comes face-to-face with her estranged mother Kat Moon (Jessie Wallace) after making a shock return to Walford.

And while there are some emotionally charged scenes ahead, it will soon become clear that Zoe is far from the same person who left the show in 2005.

Fans of the BBC soap have already seen that Zoe is hiding plenty of skeletons in her closet after she made a brief visit to Kat’s cousin Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner) earlier this year.

She later fled their AirBnB after admitting she’d done something very, very bad, sparking Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) to launch a desperate hunt across Spain to find Zoe behind Kat’s back.

While Alfie’s search ultimately proved fruitless, Tommy Moon (Sonny Kendall) ends up being the one to bring his half-sister home this week.

And after Zoe and Kat have the ‘muvva’ of all reunions, more information soon comes to light about what has happened in Zoe’s life over the last 20 years.

‘Zoe is not in the best of places. She is struggling in every area of her life, but she’s tough because she’s a Slater, so she is able to keep going,’ teases actress Michelle Ryan, who plays her.

‘She’s taken a really dark turn in life, and she’s gone to a really dark place. I don’t think anyone would have been expecting that. Zoe left with no self-esteem, and I think the trauma was far more embedded than anyone realised.’

Many EastEnders fans believe Zoe could turn out to be the mother of teenage incel Joel Marshall (Max Murray), who we’ve learned previously walked out on him and father Ross Marshall (Alex Walkinshaw).

However, Michelle has warned that viewers should ‘expect the unexpected’, perhaps pouring cold water on the speculation.

EastEnders’ executive producer Ben Wadey, who was responsible for persuading Michelle to reprise the role of Zoe, also teased: ‘You’ll have to wait and see what effect the last 20 years have had on her, and what Zoe has been up to during her time away, but what I will say is that she has a lot of secrets waiting to be discovered…

‘She’s learned to be independent and mistrusting. She struggles to let people in, and has the ability to make enemies quickly.’

Speaking of which, there will also be spicy scenes ahead when Zoe is reunited with old foe Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean), having been involved in the cover-up of her father Den Watts’ (Leslie Grantham) murder back in 2005.