EastEnders airs horrifying Keanu death aftermath in early BBC iPlayer release

The BBC One soap aired shocking scenes on Christmas Day as Linda Carter (Kellie Bright) was confirmed to be the killer of the Six, taking the life of Keanu Taylor (Danny Walters) as he violently choked her best friend Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean).

The Boxing Day episode dealt with the direct aftermath of the events in the Queen Vic pub as Sharon wailed and grieved for the man she loved, killer Linda panicked over her actions, Kathy Cotton (Gillian Taylforth) and Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner) each tried to remove themselves from the situation, Denise Fox (Diane Parish) attempted to pull them all into what happened, while Suki Panesar (Balvinder Sopal) kept a level head and tried to think clinically with what came next.

Despite each oscillating between panic, anger, sadness and horror, eventually, the Six agreed to stick together and cover up what happened.

An issue arose given that a second body was in the Queen Vic and also in critical condition - Nish Panesar (Navin Chowdhry). While the suggestion of getting help from Jack Branning (Scott Maslen) arose, his status as a police officer and love rate saw Stacey persuade them otherwise.

The story the group settled on that they would tell: Nish had gone to the pub and ended up in a confrontation with an irate Keanu, prompting Keanu to smash a champagne bottle over Nish's head, killing him.

Kathy's estranged husband Tom "Rocky" Cotton (Brian Conley) tried to enter the Vic at the back door and see Kathy at one point while drunk, but Linda sent him away, lying that Kathy was not there.

In the aftermath, the ladies all agreed that Keanu would then need to disappear, and after much deliberating and moving of the body, they settled on placing the body in the ruins of Kathy's Cafe, dumping him wrapped in tarpaulin in the exposed foundations of the building.

As Linda had initially placed a 999 call to the police but didn't speak, officers briefly visited and Denise - who had remained for a time in the Vic to keep watch - lied that she was Linda and the call was a mistake.

The Six agreed that they would say Keanu had been inside, holding them all hostage, with the threat of hurting them with a knife should they not comply with his wishes of getting the police out of the way.

As the episode concluded, the Six stood in the burned-out cafe, as the weight of their upcoming lie will bond them in blood forever...

Read more:

• EastEnders 2023 recap – what you need to know for Christmas
• Every EastEnders Christmas episode ever, ranked
• EastEnders spoilers: Whitney Dean heartache in tragic fostering story
• EastEnders must give tragic heroine Whitney the happy ever after she deserves
• EastEnders boss Chris Clenshaw previews Christmas 2023 and The Six aftermath
• EastEnders' Gillian Taylforth on Kathy and Rocky: "She can’t live with the constant lies"
• EastEnders' Diane Parish teases "heartbreak" in Christmas episode
• EastEnders' Lacey Turner on whether Stacey will kill again: "She will do whatever it takes to protect Eve"
• EastEnders' Balvinder Sopal: "People will be on the edge of their seats"
• EastEnders' Kellie Bright: "The body wasn't who I thought it would be"

EastEnders airs Monday to Friday on BBC One and BBC iPlayer this week.

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