Ravi Gulati left EastEnders on Thursday after telling Priya Nandra-Hart that his family would be better off without him, ending a reunion that began when she found him in their flat after his discharge from a secure mental health unit. Their reunion turned quickly into a brief night together, but Ravi then packed his bags and walked out, despite Priya begging him to stay and warning that if he left the door, their relationship would be over for good.

The exit answered the question that had been hanging over him since he returned to Walford after two years away from the square. Ravi, played by Aaron Thiara, has been at the centre of one of the soap’s darkest storylines since Anthony was murdered at Christmas, and Thursday’s episode closed the door on him at the same time as it shifted the focus to Denise Fox. A consultant told Denise, after a run of unexplained tiredness and bone marrow tests, that she has blood cancer.

That sequence gave the episode unusual weight, because four EastEnders characters left in the same instalment. Ravi’s departure came after Priya had missed a letter he had sent her, a small detail that helped explain how the pair ended up back together before he decided he could not stay. His exit was not framed as punishment or defeat, but as a choice he made because he believed the people he loved would be better off without the damage he brings with him.

Denise’s diagnosis landed as the episode’s most devastating turn, and it arrived with no room for comfort. The hospital tests, the tiredness and the consultant’s blunt diagnosis turned a health scare into a major long-running storyline, one that is likely to dominate the next phase of the show. Sharon Watts also made her position clear, saying she would return permanently in a month or so after tying up loose ends in America, while Ross Marshall and Vicki Fowler married after Vicki’s silence at the altar gave way to the ceremony going ahead.

The sharpest tension in the episode is that Ravi left on his own terms, but not because the story around him is finished. His goodbye followed a fragile reunion, and Priya’s plea made clear that the relationship did not end because she stopped caring. For now, though, the answer to is ravi leaving eastenders is yes: he has gone, and the episode made it plain that he left convinced walking away was the only way to protect his family.