What a week in Hollyoaks we had Leah Barnes (Ela-May Demircan) and DeMarcus Westwood (Tomi Ade)’s budding romance, Ella Richardson (Erin Palmer) and Charlie Dean (Charlie Behan) who were facing heartbreak, Bobby Costello (Jayden Fox) putting his mum Mercedes McQueen (Jennifer Metcalfe) through hell and even the lesser spotted Lucas Hay (William Hall) put in an appearance.
Poor Ella she was so determined to prove Nancy Osborne (Jessica Fox)and family wrong over the doubts she and boyfriend Charlie were too young to start a family. With Mandy having jetted off abroad Nancy really stepped up in scenes this week when time came for the first scan. Ella wasn’t putting up with second best and after deciding that she would go through with the pregnancy she issued Charlie with an ultimatum, either be there for her and every scan or they are done. Charlie did make it to the hospital for the scan but gave up and left after learning from Cleo McQueen (Nadine Mulkerrin) that Ella was considering a termination.
Personally, I think Erin and Charlie really showed they are fine actors but part of me wonders was this storyline changed after Sarah Jayne Dunn left? Erin really nailed her performance of struggle and I can’t imagine how hard this would be for a seasoned actor let alone one so young and I can’t wait to see what storyline she tackles next.
The Hollyoaks fandom are a savvy bunch but you didn’t need to be Sherlock bleeding Holmes to work out the clues that it was creepy Silas Blissett that Bobby was playing chess against. For those that new to the show Silas, played by the brillant Jeff Rawle is his grandad and during a reign of terror held Mercedes McQueen hostage in a cellar – a cellar in which young Bobby this week tried to keep his mum in, aww kids eh.
I’ve always enjoyed a Silas appearance but at this point the other logical reason to actually bring him back to screen would be if the show finally killed him off for good. Jayden Fox who plays Bobby can do creepy quite well and having had another Bobby in EastEnders beat Jane with a hockey stick it remains to be seen how far Oaks’ Bobby will go in hurting his mum.
Another important storyline tackled this week was period poverty by Leah who bled through her school uniform before admitting to DeMarcus that she doesn’t dare ask dad [Ste] to waste money on sanitary products. DeMarcus added that he and Leah are the same having struggled growing up with his mum working two jobs when he was a kid. DeMarcus is not doing this out of sympathy for Leah, but rather, because he enjoys he likes her.
DeMarcus and Leah are not a possible couple I am sold on he looks far too grown up to be playing a teen and to me Leah is still that same kid who was in the middle of the road and the resulting action was a bus crash.
And while it was nice seeing Leah getting screen time the surprise for me was seeing Lucas appear. Out of the pair of them Lucas has always been underated and devoid of screen time so knowing they haven’t packed him off to live with some unknown relative was nice, even if he does appear to have aged a lot since he was last on screen.
Hollyoaks continues Monday March 7 on Channel 4, E4 and All4.
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