u/USER12120202

His character confuses me so much.

Is he supposed to be a good guy or a bad guy? Are we supposed to like him or not?

Him being a criminal and him manipulating his way into Mercedes's life and Warren's life and Warren's children's lives makes me think he isn't a good guy. But then him genuinely wanting to help Sebastian makes me think he can't be that bad after all.

Also, some days I don't know whether he wants to destroy Warren, have a relationship with Warren or just wants to be Warren.

With Lucas soon to return to the village, I started thinking about this storyline again.

Ever since Lucas beat up Dillon during the pride episodes, I had a feeling the show would eventually do a storyline about Lucas's temper and violent tendencies. I was actually excited when they announced the COP abuse storyline. There was so much potential because of Ste's past and his worries about Lucas turning out like him. There could have been so much character growth for Ste because he has been an abuser and has been abused. He has been on both sides of abuse and therefore knows how difficult, but also how necessary it is to overcome that type of behavior. It could have led to Ste helping his son to break the cycle and create a more healthy future for his family.

Nothing of what I hoped would happen actually happened. Instead we had Ste allowing Lucas to beat him up. He did very little to actually help Lucas. He mentioned Lucas going to therapy a few times but never pushed it and he never stuck to the ultimatum he made. He kept the whole thing a secret and basically just watched Lucas get worse and worse.

During the COP abuse storyline there was so much else going on with Ste, Rex and Dillon that wasn't necessary and just cheapened the storyline for me.

For Lucas's aftermath, we saw him go to prison and take accountability for his actions, but we are still left with a lot of questions. They didn't go deeper into the reasons of his temper and violent tendencies. His childhood trauma was mentioned a few times, but again was never explored further. We still don't know if his brain surgery made his temper and violent tendencies worse or triggered something. And as for Ste's aftermath, we saw him be upset for a few episodes, but now he is fine. He never mentions Lucas and is acting like he never even existed. You would think if your own child hated you and abused you and literally tried to murder you, it would have an impact on you.

I still have a little bit of hope that when Lucas returns to the village they might revisit that storyline and give us answers to our questions, but I think it is more likely with everything that is going on right now (Leah's return, James's return, Rex's murder and Ste being a suspect...) they want to fix Lucas and Ste's relationship quickly and move on from that storyline.

For a show that is known for and takes pride in their issue-based storylines, they really messed up with this one.

I know Anna Passey is on a break and Sienna is in prison, so she isn't able to be involved in the storyline, but I would have at least thought they would have a few scenes where someone calls Sienna to give her updates or even just mention her.

Imagine if Sienna gets released from prison, for a crime she probably didn't even commit, only to find out her son has leukemia and no one told her. She will be furious.

Every time a character goes off screen for a certain amount of time, they simply stop existing. It's so frustrating.

They have had criminal gangs, serial killers, sex traffickers, drug dealers, abusers, corrupt cops... Anything bad you can think of has happened there. I'm not even surprised so many people die. It would be a miracle if anyone makes it out alive.

What I would really like the show to explore, is a storyline about natural male infertility.

Almost every time they had an infertility storyline it was focused on women. Yazz Maalik had an ectopic pregnancy and had to have an emergency surgery that left her unable to conceive children naturally in the future. Both Grace Black and Diane Hutchinson have had issues with infertility in the past.

The only time they had an infertility storyline that focused on a man, was with Tony who was diagnosed as infertile (in 2015) after cancer treatment. To me, it felt more as a plot device so Ste could be revealed as Hannah's biological father. They have also completely forgotten about it because later it was revealed that Tony is the biological father of Morgan Osborne (who was born, after his diagnosis, in 2022). More recently he also got Mercedes pregnant.

It could be an interesting issue-based storyline because male infertility contributes to nearly half of all conception struggles, but it remains heavily stigmatized. We could not only explore the medical side, but also the impact it has on the man who got the diagnosis (and by extension his partner and family).

Mine are Amy Barnes, Peri Lomax, Dillon Ray and Ethan Williams.

Prince won't succeed at killing Warren (obviously), but instead Warren ends up killing his own brother Jenson and frames Prince for his murder? I'm looking forward to seeing how all of that unfolds.

I am so not here for yet another Ste love triangle where he will just keep going between two men and somehow will still be this "innocent victim" at the end of it. Ste's romantic drama isn't fun to watch anymore. He is a grown man pushing 40 who desperately needs to grow up and figure out what he wants from life.

I wish they would just end that Cleo and Dodger affair already. It has been going on for long enough and is just making both characters look bad.

I am also not here for the Leah and Prince affair. Prince is too old to be dating and/or starting affairs with girls who just got out of their teenage years. I wonder if the affair will be exposed at the wedding.

I am not sure what to think about Lucas getting a new love interest so soon. I really wanted them to focus on his mental health and unpack everything that happened before he went to prison. That probably won't happen now. At least they are bringing in a new character who is (hopefully) the same age as him instead of putting him with James or Rex. The last thing this show needs is yet another inappropriate relationship between a teenager and an adult.

I am looking forward to seeing what brings Cindy and James back to the village. They should have never left in the first place.

Abigail will become a new villain and have a "never seen before on soap" storyline with Dee Dee where she will probably start grooming her. What is up with Hollyoaks and making their queer characters groomers? We had Carter, Rex and now Abigail in the last 3 years. Also why is Hollyoaks deathly allergic to having an adult take genuine interest in a teenager and wanting to help them with their trauma instead of just taking advantage of them?

Jonah has a big secret that will soon be exposed. I knew he was too good to be true. There had to be something wrong with him.

Nancy will get another health scare and has to face a relapse of her MS. I'm glad the show hasn't forgotten about her health condition.

He came into the show as a criminal. He was a pimp, was working with blue and did a lot of messed up things to the people in the village.

After the time jump he was supposed to be a changed man, but that only lasted a few months. He started sex trafficking teenagers just because Ste didn't love him back. He wasn't the mastermind behind it all, but he was very much involved. He did all the dirty work. He could have stopped it at any time, but chose not to. When he did eventually choose to help the police at the very last minute, it wasn't because he cared about the teenagers. It was because he didn't want to lose Ste.

He got away with all of his crimes scot-free and the show even tried to make him into a victim and a hero who saved the teenagers (even though he was the reason they needed saving in the first place).

Now his only personality seems to be cross dressing and begging Ste to love him.

I don't even know why the show and some of the fans act like Ste and Rex have this great love story. Rex made a sex tape of them (without Ste knowing) and blackmailed Ste with it. Rex tried to sex traffic Ste's son. Ste tried to kill Rex twice and cheated. The only thing they have in common is that they are both horrible people.

When Ste and Rex's relationship eventually ends, where is the character of Rex supposed to go? All of his family members have died and he doesn't seem to have any friends (apart from Ro who is a teenager) in the village.

I hope this might lead to an exit, because even though I love the actor, I'm getting tired of seeing Rex on my screen.

Why does the show think the only way to test a relationship is to have someone cheat? Why does every character think the only solution to any (relationship) problem, big or small, is to cheat? Why does cheating have barely any consequences?

They have normalized it so much, that there is nothing dramatic or shocking about it anymore. It has become boring and repetitive.

Is there actually a professor Tate and a year long internship in America? And is the project actually part of a study or is she just doing it for her own influencer career?

We know that she has already lied about nobody ever seeing the video's. Maybe she is lying about more than that.

With the second episode, we had time to explore the characters inner thoughts. Normally we don't have time for that and have to figure out by ourselves why the characters do what they do and act the way they act. There were some great acting performances (especially Anya Lawrence) and well written monologues. I also didn't mind that they spend an entire episode on the confessions since the storyline is going to be very present over the summer.

With Caleb's confession we had a chance to get to know him better since he is a new character. I felt sorry for him when he talked about his mother's death and how her really feels about being in a wheelchair. Telling Frankie he loves her when he actually doesn't was a bit messed up though. Especially his reasoning behind it.

Vicky's confession was by far the best performance and monologue. I was glued to my screen. I felt like the eating disorder storyline came out of nowhere because she always seemed to be so confident and I didn't understand how that one comment from that guy could shatter her whole confidence. Now it all makes sense. She never was confident to begin with. It was just a front she put up. I can understand that when she has been told since she was only 14 years old that she is attractive, she started to build her whole personality around that. She felt like that was the only thing she got going for her. And when that starts to not be enough anymore she would obviously feel very insecure.

Prince's confession about being in love with Leah doesn't make sense. He barely knows her. His confession about planning to murder Warren however does make sense. Hunter's death was a big loss for Prince and seeing the man that he thinks is responsible walking around the village as a free man enjoying life could actually be the thing that pushes him over the edge. Prince not having mentioned Hunter in a long time also makes sense because if he did and Warren did end up death, everyone would think Prince did it. It also gives Warren a fake feeling of being safe. I don't think he will actually succeed, but if he did it would be kind of funny that out of all the people who have tried in the past, it is Prince who pulls it off.

Frankie's confession is probably fake. She is the only one who speaks directly to Leah in her video. I think she made it up in the hopes Leah would confront her and then she has proof that Leah lied and is able to see the video's. She played her at her own game. She will get inside Leah's head and make her question her relationship with Imran. The whole thing will probably come crashing down because of it.

Imran's secret will be exposed later. Leah will regret not watching his confession because it will probably turn out to be the most explosive one.

Leah just sitting there eating popcorn, being all pleased with herself and smirking while her friends are so vulnerable and insecure (especially Vicky) was disgusting. When did she become so cold-hearted?