Nigel Bates (Paul Bradley) was deeply puzzled in tonight’s EastEnders as he pondered over whether his blurred memories about the crash earlier in the week were actually true.
Nigel ended up putting Gina Knight (Francesca Henry) and Jasmine Fisher (Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness) in hospital as a result of being distracted while driving his car.
Prior to this happening, Nigel decided to sell his vehicle to fund his and Julie’s (Karen Henthorn) trip to India. He chose to take it out for one final spin before the new owner collected it from the car lot, leading to him hitting Gina and Jasmine.
Jasmine shoved Gina out of the way and took the full force of the car, but both of the characters were rushed to hospital.
In the aftermath, Julie has chosen to tell Nigel that he wasn’t involved.
But Nigel keeps suffering flashbacks, which ultimately led him down a path to try and find out the truth tonight.
First, he visited the hospital to see Gina and Jasmine. When he arrived at Jasmine’s bedside, Nigel asked her about what she said just after the crash. Jasmine mumbled something about not wanting to die yet, because ‘she’ needs to pay for what she did.
Nigel asked Jasmine if he had remembered this correctly. Due to the fact he was too close to the secret she’s been hiding ever since she arrived in Walford, Jasmine claimed that Nigel wasn’t responsible for the incident and sent him away.
Still curious, Nigel then searched through the bins and found his shoes amongst the rubbish. He recalled wearing them on the night and then when he turned them over, he saw they were splatted with blood.
Horrified, Nigel took himself off to Jack Branning’s (Scott Maslen) house and held his hands out, ready to be arrested.
Poor Nigel would not cope well in prison but he’s confessed now, does that mean his fate has been decided?
The mystery of newcomer Jasmine’s past has surrounded her since her arrival, when she seemingly locked her sights firmly on Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins), hustling a blindsided Freddie Slater (Bobby Brazier) out of his job at The Albert. Though Cindy was well aware of Jasmine’s devious streak, she was taken by her initiative and handed her Freddie’s job at her bar.
From there, even the characters have been left with little more than crumbs when they’ve attempted to find out more about her. ‘Situationship’ partner, Oscar Branning (Pierre Counihan-Moullier), previously asked her if she was either escaping from or looking for something and Jasmine slyly suggested that she could potentially be doing both.
As Cindy and Elaine Peacock (Harriet Thorpe) tried to learn more about her past, Jasmine shrugged them off by claiming that she was avoiding having to join the family business, leaving Cindy and Elaine to wonder if the ‘family business’ could be sinister in nature.
Jasmine has since continued with her Cindy-obsession and has taken each and every opportunity to dig into her history, while remaining incredibly cagey regarding her own, reeling when asked to produce identification by Elaine.
She later shook Oscar down for information, leading her to learn that Cindy had previously faked her own death after informing on her gangster cellmate, Jackie Ford.
Viewers will recall that Cindy hadn’t, in fact, died in 1998 but had been placed into witness protection, due to her handing over information on her cellmate, Jackie Ford, to the police and, in turn, earning a sentence reduction.
Cindy lived as Rose Knight until 2023, reassuming her true identity upon the revelation that Jackie had died in prison.
Fans are convinced that Jasmine is connected to Jackie Ford and to further fuel this theory that she comes from a criminal and gangster background, we saw Jasmine holding a card in tonight’s episode that said ‘Rest up and get well soon, need you back on top form.’
Is Jasmine working for someone who knew Jackie?
