ON Friday, EastEnders fans saw Dennis Mitchell die in horrific fashion as the explosive 35th anniversary episodes came to a close.
Ian Beale locked him in a room below deck which ultimately left the lad unable to escape with everyone else – but some viewers had figured out it he was the character who wouldn’t survive all along.
Thanks to a series of clever clues that were dropped into the BBC One soap up to EIGHT months ago – many had Dennis pegged as the character who would die on the soap.
Here, we run down some of the biggest hints that the youngster was going to meet a watery end…
Stuart Highway, dressed in true creepy form as Captain Hook, made reference to a “pesky boy in green” who would “never grow up”.
He was, of course, talking about Peter Pan – but Dennis was also dressed in a green jacket and sadly now will never grow up.
One fan tweeted: “After Stuart’s Peter Pan reference of a boy never growing up, and Denny being in a green coat, I thought it’d be him that died. Really sad and tragic death!”
Sharon swore on Dennis’s life that nothing was going on between her and Keanu Taylor – months before he died.
She unleashed the mighty whopper when Louise Mitchell made her promise, with Sharon insisting: “Find a bible if you like.” But she pressed: “On Dennis’s life.” Sharon then replied: “On my son’s life.”
One fan predicted: “I have resigned myself to the fact Dennis is going… it began when Sharon said ‘on my son’s life’.”
Back in June, Dennis’ stepbrother Ben went to buy Sharon a card after finding out that she was pregnant – at the time thinking that his dad Phil was the father.
The Walford bad boy left Lola disgusted when he picked up a card that read “deepest sympathy”, with Lola snapping: “Deepest sympathy, are you serious?”
Ben replied: “It could be ironic, couldn’t it?” – with the dark joke now holding a whole new meaning.
As the waters rose, Dennis reached for his phone and sent his mum a voicemail, yelping: “Ian’s locked me in a room on the boat. I need help, I can’t get out.”
Many fans correctly guessed that meant his fate was sealed – and that Sharon was going to go ballistic at Ian in a later plot twist.
One amateur sleuth tweeted: “He left Sharon a voice mail, wanna bet she’ll listen to it once he’s dead and blame Ian for his death.”
One thing nobody on EastEnders should ever do is say anyone is going to have a happy ending – because it usually spells disaster.
Sharon did just that, telling her newborn son: “You gave me quite a scare there. But everything is going to be all right, sweetheart. Everything will be fine.
“Your brother will be here soon and then we’ll all go away for a new start. Just the three of us.” Oh no.
