{"id":329264,"date":"2026-03-04T23:42:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T23:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/329264\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T23:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T23:42:07","slug":"eastenders-lines-up-clare-bates-exit-twist-after-special-episode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/329264\/","title":{"rendered":"EastEnders lines up Clare Bates exit twist after special episode"},"content":{"rendered":"

EastEnders spoilers<\/a> follow.<\/p>\n

EastEnders airs another tear-jerking episode for Clare Bates on Thursday (5 March)<\/a> as she struggles to cope with seeing her stepfather Nigel move into a care home. Ahead of the powerful scenes, we’ve got the exclusive lowdown from soap favourite Gemma Bissix, who has reprised her role as Clare this week.<\/p>\n

The next episode is a special single-storyline edition<\/a>, focusing on Clare, Julie and Phil as they navigate this major change for Nigel’s life. Julie is furious when she discovers that Clare has teamed up with Lexi Pearce to discharge Nigel from hospital<\/a>, bringing him back to Albert Square for a last hurrah at the Queen Vic.<\/p>\n

Later, reality hits for everyone as Clare and Phil take Nigel to the care home and help him settle in \u2013 marking the start of a new chapter for Nigel’s dementia storyline.<\/p>\n

Gemma opens up over these emotional scenes in a big new interview with Inside Soap<\/a>‘s Soap Scoop podcast<\/a>, which is available to watch right now.<\/p>\n

Related: EastEnders confirms emotional Nigel Bates reunion \u2013 but Phil is missing<\/a><\/p>\n

“Nigel doesn’t want to be there,” Gemma confirms, reflecting on the character’s big move. “He’s saying: ‘I don’t want to be in this room, just take me home’. But the care home places are quite few and far between, so when you get offered one, there’s no going back.<\/p>\n

“He does get quite violent towards Clare \u2013 by accident. He just doesn’t want people in his space. That is really hard for Clare. In the end, she just bottles it and she can’t deal with it. That’s why she leaves \u2013 she just goes: ‘I’ll be in touch, I can’t cope with it anymore’.”<\/p>\n

“That’s when you see the breakdown from Phil,” Gemma continues. “He can’t do it anymore and you see it from us all \u2013 it’s almost like giving up. Nigel isn’t Nigel anymore.<\/p>\n

“You feel like you’re letting him down but you just can’t see him like that. It’s not the Nigel that any of us remember \u2013 or want to remember.”<\/p>\n

Related: 12 huge EastEnders spoilers for next week (7 to 11 March)<\/a><\/p>\n

Overwhelmed by everything she’s seen since coming back to Walford, Clare ultimately decides to make her escape rather than sticking around. She’s particularly troubled that Nigel no longer remembers her \u2013 but is it really the last we’ve seen of her?<\/p>\n

“For her, she really does believe it’s too late and I don’t know if she wants to deal with that,” Gemma shares. “But there are discussions and I’m hoping that Clare will be back for some more.<\/p>\n

“As Nigel gets towards the end, I don’t think she’d miss the funeral, would she? There are talks about this kind of stuff.<\/p>\n

“But I think at the moment, Clare needs to go back to her family and regroup. I think really, if there’s going to be any reconciliation, it’s going to be between her and Julie \u2013 because with Nigel it’s probably too late.”<\/p>\n

Related: EastEnders reveals Mark and Ravi’s dangerous showdown in 39 spoiler pictures<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, what about the rumours that Gemma’s other famous Clare could be heading back to Hollyoaks<\/a>? Tabloid reports recently revealed that cruel Clare Devine will be back in the village soon<\/a>, just a few months after bowing out amid the show’s 30th anniversary storylines.<\/p>\n

“There’s bits and pieces,” Gemma teases. “I’ve always said this \u2013 even in the interview at the Inside Soap Awards<\/a> \u2013 that I don’t think it’s the last you’ll ever see of Clare Devine and she’ll just dip in and out, as and when they need people killed off! Or they need some carnage!”<\/p>\n

Watch Gemma\u2019s full interview with Soap Scoop at the top of the page or on YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n

EastEnders airs on Mondays-Thursdays at 7.30pm on BBC One. The show also streams on BBC iPlayer, where most episodes drop early at 6am ahead of their TV broadcast. <\/p>\n

Read more EastEnders spoilers on our dedicated homepage<\/a><\/p>\n

The new edition of Living Legends, a 100-page all-colour celebration of Harry Styles, is here! Buy Harry Styles in newsagents or online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EastEnders spoilers follow. EastEnders airs another tear-jerking episode for Clare Bates on Thursday (5 March) as she struggles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[131172,131124,137437,1105,152074,1107,93,61,60,1135,152073,131322,282],"class_list":["post-329264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-collection-inside-soap","tag-collection-latest-news","tag-collection-soap-scoop-podcast","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-4e623010-7b16-4de8-8dee-6468d20e8c80","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-locale-gb","tag-shorttitle-eastenders-lines-up-clare-exit-twist-after-special-episode","tag-subsection-eastenders","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}