First look at Mel Owen car crash aftermath in EastEnders

Thursday 14th November picks up directly from Tuesday's devastating doof-doof, in which vengeful Mel was paying more attention to her plan to destroy the Mitchells than she was to the road and ended up smashing into the back of a broken down car and flying through the air.

• EastEnders crash horror – is Mel Owen dead?
• Tamzin Outhwaite on why she's quitting EastEnders

Mel was en route to catch Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) landing at the airport to tell him future son-in-law Keanu Taylor (Danny Walters) was the father of his wife Sharon's baby, as well as of the sprog that daughter Louise Mitchell (Tilly Keeper) is expecting.

The calculating club owner was also on loudspeaker from the car having called Billy Mitchell at the E20, and was about to announce the baby secret to the assembled partygoers there for Lou and Sharon's joint birthday celebrations.

Sharon watched and the E20 punters listened in horror as Mel failed to swerve in time before the accident occurred. New pictures from the next instalment show shellshocked Sharon investigating the wreckage to see if Mel has made it out alive, as news of the incident spreads around the Square.

Keanu and Louise look concerned, but Mr Taylor may have dodged a bullet if Mel is dead – or at least in a coma. However, if she's survived she could go ahead with letting the cat out of the bag about Keanu's betrayal, fulfilling her wish of blowing the Mitchells apart as revenge for their involvement in her murderous son Hunter's death.

Outhwaite is definitely leaving EastEnders, just under two years after embarking on a second stint as feisty Mel, who she originally played between 1998 and 2002. But viewers will have to tune in to discover whether Mrs Owen is being killed off – or whether she manages to impart Sharon's dirty secret before her exit…

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