EastEnders reveals who stole Kat's phone as Zoe's imminent return 'sealed'

There was a twist involving one of the Mitchells on EastEnders on Monday night.

Kat Moon was just about to listen to her husband Alfie Moon's voicemail message,which she didn't know revealed all about the recent return of her daughter Zoe Slater, when she was mugged. A masked man on a bike sped past and grabbed the phone out of her hand.

Later in the episode we learned the thief was none other than Harry Mitchell. He was shown playing around with a phone before chucking it in a bag in frustration.

As he did this, the camera panned to the inside of the bag, with multiple phones shown. One of them had Kat and her young twin sons as a wallpaper, showing that it was Kat's mobile and Harry was the thief on the bike.

But will he return the phone, and will Kat ever hear the voicemail? In the message, Alfie had wrongly believed Kat knew he was off finding Zoe after her abrupt return weeks ago.

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Zoe refused to see Kat and fled abroad, with Alfie soon heading off to try and bring her home. He was forced to tell Stacey Slater he'd lost her last week, after a trail ran cold following Stacey giving her money to Kat for the pub, instead of giving it to Alfie to pay off some men in the hope of locating Zoe.

Both Stacey and Alfie have kept it all from Kat and instead, Stacey allowed Kat to think Alfie was helping her cousin Hayley and Alfie's daughter Cherry. So Alfie faced a race against time to get the phone and delete the voicemail to stop Kat learning the truth.

But instead, Harry stole the phone which means the message will remain on there unless it deletes after a certain amount of time. So whether Harry returns the phone or she gets it back somehow all remains to be seen.

Surely the message is a ticking time-bomb, as is the truth about Zoe. Will this phone theft and the message somehow trigger Zoe's comeback?

After all, we know Zoe is returning to Walford very soon. Michelle Ryan, the actress who plays Zoe, has already begun filming summer scenes. With it very nearly August and her filming for weeks, it's safe to assume Zoe will be back in Albert Square, for the first time in two decades, very, very soon.

Within a few weeks it's thought she will be back on the show, given the gap between filming and transmission. So something has to happen relatively soon that will trigger Zoe's Walford comeback - but will it be linked to Harry and the phone theft?

Might he answer a call or listen to the message and realise the importance of Kat getting her phone back? Might Zoe make contact? Viewers will just have to tune in and see what happens next.

EastEnders airs Mondays to Thursdays at 7:30pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , and Threads.