The following article contains spoilers from an episode of EastEnders that hasn’t aired on BBC One yet, but is available to view on BBC iPlayer.
Reiss Colwell (Jonny Freeman) has killed his wife Debbie in EastEnders.
The character, who is in a relationship with Sonia Fowler (Natalie Cassidy), has become overwhelmed in recent weeks with stresses surrounding money.
At first, Reiss was using money from Debbie to fund his and Sonia’s IVF journey, but then started scamming Sharon (Letitia Dean) into paying for Debbie’s care as well.
In tonight’s (July 24) episode of the BBC One soap, Sonia was feeling hopeful when Reiss spun another story about paying off debts for the care home that’s been looking after Debbie, who’s been in a coma after experiencing a stroke.
With the pressure getting to him after another visit from Sharon and a confrontation from Phil (Steve McFadden), Reiss then paid a visit to Debbie again.
Reiss broke down and spoke about the amount of debt he had got himself into, and how he wished Debbie could communicate with him and not live a ‘pitiful, pointless half life’.
Desperately telling himself a different story to ease his guilt, Reiss told Debbie that if she died, he could start over.
Not wanting to lose Sonia and their new baby, Reiss stood up, moved a pillow from behind Debbie’s head, and prepared to smother her face while he cried.
With Reiss already on the edge, what will killing Debbie do to him?
And will he tell Sonia?
Speaking about the storyline to Metro.co.uk at the Radio Times Soap Awards, Jonny said: ‘The man’s under a lot of pressure. He’s doing his best but he’s not making a great stab of it.
‘I think anything that could go wrong for him is going wrong for him, and he’s scrambling around. I’m sure if you could see his legs under water they’d be going like the Clappers!’
