You've got to wonder how Jessie Wallace has taken the news. I know she was initially so excited about Michelle coming back. I wonder if they'll be out of the Vic by the end of the year.

Absolutely crazy. I know the character isn’t as great as say Pat, Abi or Ronnie and Roxy by ANY stretch, but is a very similar short sighted decision. As a character alone she isn’t much, but given she’s part of the Slaters she will always slot in and realistically she’s not a character like Martin for example who would never leave his family, she would easily just swan off and come back down the line. To close that off just because she wanted some time off is inconceivable. Plus they spent so much time building her back up and whilst it was a disaster, an epic fail, I can’t fathom Wadey just killing her off instead of trying to right the wrong or refreshing the character.

Also I just know Jessie is fuming 💀

I'm not that bothered the character is leaving and i'm kinda surprised at the reaction on here/ elsewhere. Zoe has had an incredibly poor reception since coming back and Michelle Ryan in particular seems to have been slated fairly regularly. Now people are up in arms about her going. Sure killing her off seems a little OTT - but looks like Wadey can't win either way.

Well I guess she did ask for time off...

Seriously though, I won't miss her. I have found her character quite annoying from the get-go.

I just think they could do without yet another death, especially one so close to that of Anthony.

16 hours ago, Jαsє said:

Ben Wadey truly needs binning. What an awful decision. It sounds like she was frustrated with the direction of her character and asked for time off, he wasn't happy and he decided to get rid for good.

Such a shame they're killing her off after bringing her back

I feel like Zoe should’ve probably been recast years ago and she might’ve been a much more successful character if that had been the case.

Michelle turned down many opportunities to return and you can only imagine that she turned down genuinely great stories too. I don’t know if it’s Michelle herself or the stories she had since coming back but it’s just all been really awful. I won’t miss the character but I imagine it’s a shortsighted decision and the death will be some sort of random stunt / accident (well not a long running issue based death story at any rate).

Jessie will probably be fuming though ☠️

I just-

As much as I haven't enjoyed Zoe's comeback, this is an absolutely insane move...! Writing her out is one thing but the way of doing so, after making us sit through "I need to find my son", killing Anthony and leaving us with their tedious kids... ☠️

I’m in Paris this week so I won’t be keeping up with the show until I watch them all on Thursday night.

I did see the Zoe news though and I think I stated earlier in the thread that I wouldn’t be surprised if she was leaving. She’s had barely any screen time this side of Christmas and they haven’t developed her at all. Sending her away for a reset down the line is understandable but killing her off seems short sighted.

Her return was a flop. It was badly written, not amazingly acted and took up too much time of the show. She was known as a classic character but I’ve argued this before-she was never that great.

Michelle Ryan was decent enough in the early 2000s when she was playing a gobby teenager but they’ve brought her back exactly the same. Zoe was never particularly likeable and in a family setting that included Mo, Kat, Little Mo and even Lynne, she wasn’t that interesting. Her legend grew through the iconic storylines she was involved in. Namely You Ain’t My Muvva and Den’s murder. That was pure circumstance. Any character could have been thrown into those. It wasn’t Zoe or Michelle who made them iconic. The show even focused her return around two awful storylines-her relationships with Dennis Rickman and Anthony Trueman. Two stories that were terrible the first time around.

If she wasn’t Kat’s daughter, no one would be asking for her back.

They needed a plan to bring her back and it was a poor one. We haven’t seen her develop relationships with her new family members and it’s been repetitive and boring. They clearly knew they had to do something around Christmas but could work out what.

Now that they’ve decided to do what they’re doing they’ve made a mockery of the last year. Do I particularly care if Zoe leaves? No, she’s been terrible. But this storyline has cost Anthony Trueman’s character and his life and we’ll have two characters that didn’t exist a year ago hanging around as orphans and seemingly only brought into the show so they can react to their parents dying. They whole thing is now a completely unneeded waste of of time when they could have decided to fix it or shelve it for later.

Apparently Jessie unfollowed Wadey on Instagram 💀

Wonder how long it'll be until Kat leaves to live with Lynne.

It’s one thing for a character to written out or need a refresh or not work but I don’t think they ever need to kill off a legacy character of a big family just because the actress wanted time off.

Like if they’d done an issue based storyline and done something good with it, fine, but bc it seems very sudden I’m sure she’ll just be ran over or something random. Not that I think Michelle Ryan could carry a story like that but with the material she’s been given you can hardly blame her for the storyline. I do wonder if there’s more to it bc Zoe did kind of suddenly vanish and has barely been on screen for a while.

I screamed 💀

Not everyone needs to die in soap land. Maybe Callum Highway does, but not everyone x

Killing her off is a mistake and short sighted especially when we see the work that has gone into characters returning from dead such as Cindy, Kathy and Dirty Den.

As others said it would be totally plausible for Zoe to swan off and not give a damn that way leaving a future return open.

Her return hasn't worked as good as everyone hoped but it just seems crazy to kill off a legacy character.

Sharon had been gone that long I had actually forgotten about Zoe's lie about Dennis being the dad lol.

Vicki and Ross have been on a very long honeymoon 🤭

Jessie Wallace and Shane Richie confirmed to both be taking breaks from the show later this year. That's going to coincide with Zoe's exit I'm sure.

39 minutes ago, lewistgreen said:

Jessie Wallace and Shane Richie confirmed to both be taking breaks from the show later this year. That's going to coincide with Zoe's exit I'm sure.

Seems their breaks are for panto season later in the year, whereas Zoe's exit has already been filmed apparently (though narratively there could be a link of course!)

1 hour ago, lewistgreen said:

Jessie Wallace and Shane Richie confirmed to both be taking breaks from the show later this year. That's going to coincide with Zoe's exit I'm sure.

They're doing panto - which Shane Richie does every year

I think the story about the breaks is deliberate click bait to make it seem like there's trouble behind the scenes.

Zoe is gonna be long gone before Christmas/ Panto

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by ElectroBoy

Okay :)

That would tie in with Tracy’s ‘they’re not here’ line from the flashforward when asked about the Vic owners.