EastEnders’ Zoe Slater has had a difficult first few weeks back in Walford – starting with getting shot on the night she returned home. Her quest is now to find her son, who was put up for adoption back in 2006, but she has been going to extreme and dodgy lengths to fund a private investigator to track down the young man.

However, her search has been made trickier recently by a series of scary goings on in The Vic that Zoe can’t seem to explain.

A photo of her and Kat was smashed and smeared with blood, the triggering video of the Slaters from 1988 was mysteriously played at the party, and there’s a feeling that someone is moving around the pub…

A terrifying event on Halloween night in today’s episode saw Zoe locked in the barrel store, before she emerged with blood on her hands. This was finally enough to convince Kat and Alfie to call the police, but is someone really stalking Zoe – and if so, who? Here are our theories.

1. Vicki

Vicki has held a grudge against Zoe for two decades, due to Zoe’s involvement with her dad Den’s death. They’ve been constantly at odds since Zoe returned to Walford last month and they’ve already had a couple of iconic scraps in the Square. But their feud has escalated this week when Vicki found out that Zoe had lied about her adopted son’s paternity, and Sharon’s late husband Dennis isn’t the father after all.

Sharon was devastated when Vicki told her this news off-screen, as she felt she had lost what would have been a link to her late son Denny. With heartbroken Sharon having retreated to the States, her sister Vicki was furious that Zoe had torn her family apart. Still scarred by Joel’s attack, she refused to let anyone walk all over her again.

“It is a wicked thing to do, what Zoe’s done to Sharon,” she said to Zack. “I am not going to let her get away with this.”

It seems like revenge is on Vicki’s mind, and Zoe has directly accused her of breaking into The Vic to smash the photo and playing the old Slater family tape. Is Vicki responsible?

2. Jean

While Jean has previously been willing to welcome Zoe back to the family, she is convinced that Zoe’s kiss with Max is what drove Stacey away from the Square and towards a new life in Brazil. She promptly kicked Zoe out of the house, and despite attempts from Alfie to build bridges this week, Jean refuses to make amends with her.

Jean has recently made several concerning threats against Zoe, remarking that one day she’ll cross the wrong person, and someone will teach her a lesson. In today’s episode, these threats got even darker in a conversation about the past with Lily.

“She’s a nasty piece of work, that Zoe,” she said. “Manipulative and nasty. It’s like what my dad used to say. ‘What goes around, comes around’. So, we’ll see.” Has Jean decided to deliver Zoe’s karma herself?

3. Tommy

It has been lovely to see Zoe and Tommy’s sibling relationship blossom in recent weeks. Zoe is naturally protective over her little brother, and Tommy has been more willing to open up to his big sister than he is to his parents. But when Kat opened up to Tommy about her childhood abuse in today’s episode, he grew confused about why Zoe is always so angry with her.

Despite Kat’s calls to go easy on Zoe, Tommy was desperate to defend his mum. He said, “I swear, if anyone hurts you again, I will…”, with Kat cutting him off before he could make a threat. We know that Tommy has the capacity for violence, plus he lives in the pub so wouldn’t have to break in to create chaos. But could he be giving Zoe a spooky warning?

4. Bert and Ernie

Kat and Alfie’s first reaction to Zoe’s stalker claims are that it was just Bert and Ernie playing a mischievous trick on her. It was soon established that these threats were more than just Halloween fun and games, so the young twins are likely not responsible for these sinister goings on.

However, when they returned from trick or tricking with Tommy, it seemed that Bert and Ernie were hiding something or had observed something suspicious. They started to blurt out a secret to Zoe, and said, “Tommy saw…”, but Tommy shushed them before they could reveal any more.

What did they see, and are any of the three Moon boys involved in this Zoe mystery?

5. Anthony

Anthony’s flying visit to Walford for his dad’s wedding has turned into something more permanent, and this has left fans wondering whether there is a darker purpose to his recent comeback.

It’s a popular theory that Anthony is the father of Zoe’s twins, including the adopted son she is searching for. This week, Zoe set him straight and told him that he isn’t the dad – but we all know that we can’t necessarily trust what she says.

He has grown increasingly concerned about his ex’s welfare, telling Kat that Zoe’s paranoia and heightened behaviour suggest she is experiencing a psychotic break. Of course, Anthony’s medical opinion could be correct – but is he actually responsible for these frightening threats, while trying to prove that Zoe is having a breakdown?

6. Jasmine

There’s currently very little evidence to connect newcomer Jasmine to Zoe, but fans have been speculating that there could be a link and have theorised that Jasmine could be Zoe’s secret child – and her other twin didn’t actually die.

Jasmine has been much more interested in Cindy recently, however, and has now managed to wheedle her way into Lauren and Peter’s house where she’ll be staying in Cindy’s room.

But when she was recently hit by Nigel’s car and feared that she was going to die, Jasmine mysteriously said, “She’s ruined everything. She needs to pay for what she did.” It also looks like Jasmine is working for someone, who sent her a fruit basket in hospital, with a note that said, “Need you back on top form.”

It’s quite a rogue theory at this point, but could it be Jasmine targeting Zoe?

7. Someone else

While these appear to be the main suspects, this is EastEnders, so anything could happen. It feels impossible that Kat or Alfie could be responsible for this chaos, especially considering Zoe’s terror is damaging the pub’s overall success – but Zoe has accused both of them of messing with her, so we can’t fully rule it out.

Plus, it’s very possible that Zoe isn’t being stalked and has made the whole thing up herself. Next week, the plot thickens when all of the Slater photos are defaced, but Zoe later admits that she did the damage herself. Is she responsible for all of the creepy antics in The Vic?

It appears that this spooky mystery is going to continue way past Halloween…