EastEnders viewers got a MAJOR shock last week when Cindy Beale (played by Michelle Collins) returned to our screens for the first time in 25 years. Although Cindy was thought to have died off-screen back in 1998, it turns out that was all a big ruse and she’d actually been in witness protection the whole time.
As if that wasn’t enough, Cindy has reunited with her first husband Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt) and they’re currently living in France with their son Peter (Thomas Law). However, Cindy is no longer under witness protection now that her former cellmate had died and is free to return to her old life in Walford – which seems likely as Ian’s mum Kathy (Gillian Taylforth) is getting married and wants her eldest son at the wedding.
Little does Cindy know, her ex-husband George Knight (Colin Salmon) and their daughters Gina (Francesca Henry) and Anna (Molly Rainford) who she abandoned a decade ago have moved into Albert Square to help run the Queen Vic.
Sounds like a recipe for drama and we’re totally here for it.
But while Cindy’s return left us gobsmacked, it turns out there was a secret scene that basically confirmed the epic twist which first aired 16 years ago.
In the clip, which has been unearthed on social media, three of Cindy’s children, Steven, Peter and Lucy, discuss whether their mum could actually be alive and concoct a theory that is scarily close to what really happened.
“[Cindy] could be alive,” Lucy, played by Melissa Suffield at the time, said.
She added, “Maybe she had to go into hiding.”
Peter rejected Lucy’s theory, claiming their dad Ian “wouldn’t lie” to them, however Lucy was quick to suggest that maybe Ian himself didn’t know what had really gone down.
See, we told you it was eerily similar to what actually happened.
Over the years we've said goodbye to plenty of characters who later surprised us by popping back up on our screens. Ian's mum Kathy 'died' in a car crash in South Africa in 2006 but people were then shocked when she returned in EastEnders' 30th anniversary week.
Dirty Den was shot and fell into a canal back in 1989 but later returned to the square ALIVE. Unfortunately for him he was then killed by his wife Chrissie in the Queen Vic. Nick Cotton is another Walford resident who faked his death but returned to the square later. Drugs eventually got the best of him and he passed away from an overdose.