By most soaps' standards, delivering three back-from-the-dead shockers in the space of a fortnight is about as forbidden as promoting a 'wrongly-priced' pub buffet.
But EastEnders wasn't playing by the rules this Christmas, bringing Alfie, Mel and Ray back to life when viewers thought all three may have met their makers over the last couple of weeks.
Alfie, of course, was feared dead on Christmas Day but later got up and kidnapped Cherry, while Mel was seemingly killed by Ray on New Year's Day but later shocked him by turning up for their wedding.
And after Ray was run over by Mel last night (January 3), she tried to bury him, but he regained consciousness and Hunter killed him... for real this time.
Still, after all those games of dead-or-alive, at least the BBC One soap was able to poke fun at itself...
Tweeting on Thursday night, the show's official account posted the following three "hopes for 2019":
What to Read Next
1) New ringtone for Alfie
2) Ian Beale gets back his utensils
3) Walford residents undergo training on how to determine whether a person is living or dead
... If we could add a 4th, sounds like the local police could do with a lesson in crime-solving too.
EastEnders airs Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays on BBC One.
Read more news, spoilers and gossip on our EastEnders homepage
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