Cindy Beale’s (Michelle Collins) explosive EastEnders return is currently airing on the hit BBC soap.
Plot twists have been plentiful so far, with the reveal earlier this year that Cindy a) hasn’t been dead for the last 25 years, and b) has been in witness protection this whole time.
Oh, and c) she’s the ex-wife of George Knight (Colin Salmon) and mother of his daughters Anna (Molly Rainford) and Gina (Francesca Henry).
Now she’s back in Albert Square, having followed son Peter Beale (Thomas Law) to Walford – and has already faced off with Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth).
But is this really the first time she’s been back to the Square in a quarter of a century?
Not quite, as there’s another twist – and it’s all to do with Cindy’s whereabouts when her daughter Lucy Beale (Hetti Bywater) was killed nine years ago…
It turns out that Cindy Beale secretly returned to Walford almost a decade ago, upon learning of Lucy’s death.
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Viewers knew that Cindy-as-Rose had abandoned the Knight family nine years ago.
And in the episode airing tonight (Tuesday, August 29 – and is now available to watch on BBC iPlayer), it was revealed that Lucy’s murder was what prompted Cindy to leave George, Anna, and Gina behind.
In a flashback to the day after Lucy’s death on April 19, 2014, we see that Cindy is living with George in Spain.
As the dad and his daughters headed out for the day, Cindy received a call from police handler Mary, who informed her about Lucy – prompting the devastated mother to jet back to East London.
Viewers then saw flashback scenes of Cindy in Walford on the same day, hiding in the bushes of the Square Garden.
She was watching ex-husband Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt) while grieving Lucy, just hours after she’d been killed.
However, Cindy’s return to Walford was short-lived, as police handler Mary had tracked her down and urged her to leave in a car… but not before revealing that Cindy had not only put her own life at risk, but the lives of the Knights too.
So, after resurfacing, she skipped out on kids Anna and Gina, seemingly in a bid to keep them from harm.
Of course, viewers of the Who killed Lucy Beale? whodunnit storyline back in 2014 wouldn’t have been concerned with Cindy’s whereabouts.
She was long presumed dead – as everyone believed her to have died during childbirth in prison in 1998.
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