EastEnders spoilers follow for Tuesday’s episode (9 September), which is available to watch now on streaming service BBC iPlayer.

Zoe Slater finally opened up in tonight’s EastEnders episode, as her dramatic return to the BBC soap seems to have strengthened her bonds with her mother Kat.

Last week, Zoe was accidentally shot during a fight between Jack Branning and Ravi Gulati. Since then, Kat remained by her bedside at the hospital, even if things between them were still tense.

After following Alfie’s advice to take a softer approach to get through her, Zoe started to confide in Kat – but there are still some secrets she is not ready to share.

In the new episode, Stacey, Freddie and Alfie came to visit Zoe at the hospital, bringing some much-needed laughs and family connection. Zoe was reluctant at first, but she enjoyed their visit, packed with music, dancing and goodies from the bap van.

Later in the episode, Anthony and Denise stopped by the hospital too, asking about Zoe’s health condition after the incident. “She’ll be on crutches for a while, but she’s getting there,” Kat told them.

Once alone, Kat reminded Zoe that “there’s a lot of love” for her in the Slater family. However, Zoe admitted she is worried that they will have questions about her life, and she might not be ready to offer answers just yet.

In a heartfelt conversation, Zoe finally spoke to Kat about her years away from Walford. “I just didn’t know who I was. Drinking all the time, a ton of drugs. Just one big messy fog for years,” she recalled.

“Then I found out I was pregnant. I was sleeping on people’s sofas, didn’t have a steady job. Chaos. It was all just chaos. Never could have been a mum,” she added.

Kat tried to get more information about the pregnancy and who the father was, but Zoe drew a line. “I’m sorry, I can’t talk about it. Anything else, but not that,” she told her mother.

Kat assumed that both of Zoe’s twins died, and her daughter didn’t correct her, but viewers know that’s not exactly true. One baby died, but the other one was adopted shortly after Zoe gave birth, back in 2006.

Zoe is now on a quest to find her adopted son, but the identity of the father is still a mystery. Will we ever find this out, and is it a character we know?