Zoe Slater Dies in EastEnders After Untreated Head Injury

EastEnders character Zoe Slater died in the episode broadcast on Thursday, September 10, 2026, after a head injury she refused to have treated, in scenes released early on BBC iPlayer before airing at 7:30pm on BBC One. The death concludes the storyline marking the end of Michelle Ryan's return to the long-running soap, in which Zoe, Kat Moon's eldest child, had recently returned to Walford after a two-decade absence from the show. The fatal injury occurred earlier in the week's episodes, when Zoe went to buy her grandfather Charlie Slater's old taxi cab. The seller turned hostile, and as Zoe attempted to flee she fell and hit her head on rubble before making off with the cab without paying. She was left in pain and bleeding but declined to go to the hospital, telling her mother she would seek help the following morning if the injury had not cleared up. In Thursday's episode, Kat and Zoe made amends during Kim and Howie's wedding celebrations at the Queen Vic, with Kat urging her daughter to get the injury examined. The pair told each other they loved one another, unaware it would be for the last time.