EastEnders fans are trying to predict why the soap’s new villain killed Shireen Bashar, saying they are ‘dying to know’ their motivation following a shocking reveal.
Shireen is the ex-girlfriend of Teddy and Nicola Mitchell’s son Harry, who mysteriously disappeared before the family moved to Albert Square last year on the BBC soap.
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Suspicions initially fell on Harry himself, who told his girlfriend Penny Branning that despite his past relationship being fiery he would never do anything to hurt someone he loves.
With the mystery not mentioned for several weeks, last week saw Nicola reveal, in attempt to stop Zack Hudson from revealing he’s Barney Mitchell’s dad, that Teddy killed Shireen.
However, in scenes aired on Monday (March 18), the fourth anniversary of Shireen’s disappearance saw her brother Asad return, who told Harry he doesn’t think he was responsible.
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Asad went on to accuse Teddy of killing Shireen at a vigil organised to honour her, with Harry rushing to get his dad out of the wine bar. Harry later begged Teddy for the truth, who said he is going to get bottom of things.
At the end of the episode Nicola met with her associate Benji in an alleyway, where she boasted about how Teddy is getting blamed for the killing she committed. Benji then revealed that Shireen is buried in a derelict industrial estate in Dartford.
Over on the EastEnders Reddit page, in a post titled ‘why did she do it’, @big_white_fishie shared some of their reasons for Nicola killing Shireen.
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After blaming Teddy it was revealed that Nicola killed Shireen(Image: BBC)
Among the fan’s theories is that Shireen ‘found out that Barney isn’t Teddy’s and threaten to tell’, she ‘ knew Harry actually had feelings for Asad’ or she witnessed ‘a bad drug deal’.
The comments section of the post saw fellow EastEnders detectives trying to get to the bottom of the murder motive in a story that has had lots of twists and turns in recent weeks.
@SaltEOnyxxu said: “Not such a fun answer but hearing they were toxic together that’s probably enough of a reason for Nicola who definitely would blame Shireen for her son’s toxicity.” @McZadine added: “)Shireen had been having an affair with Teddy, even could have been pregnant with his child, and Nicola killed her when she found out.”
Capable_Current8868 wrote: “Nicola seems pretty selfish, so I’m guessing it was something to do with her/save herself. Rather than her wanting Shireen out the way to stop her from hurting Harry.” @stpony posted: “Might Nicola have been having an affair with Shireen herself? It would have been two birds, one stone and destroyed her relationship with both Harry and Teddy.”
@VelvetDeviltry commented: “I think the Harry and Asad affair is plausible given the looks between them. Maybe Nicola is not homophobic herself, but she was terrified of Teddy’s reaction to Harry not being straight, and Shireen was going to out him.
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“If Shireen was pregnant, maybe it’s possible that the baby wasn’t Harry’s and she was cheating. I don’t think it would be Teddy’s though as Nicola would be a lot more hostile towards him. Shireen knowing that Barney isn’t Teddy’s is also plausible.”
With so many theories circling about what happened to Shireen, it looks like all of the answers will be revealed sooner rather than later.
