It still throws me off that Avani and Nugget are the same age. I know it's possible given he was a September birthday and Avani July. I could've sworn they'd said Nugget was older though a while ago.

I do think the teen cast should be given a chance to shine but not Hollyoaks style. We don't need 2017 Bex and Louise vibes / screen time domination but there are so many 17/18 year olds in the cast that they should occasionally be at the forefront more than they are.

Surely Nuggett is older than Avani by virtue of him being raised by Ravi and Ravi not knowing Avani existed?

1 minute ago, T Boy said:

Surely Nuggett is older than Avani by virtue of him being raised by Ravi and Ravi not knowing Avani existed?

Apparently they're both 17 but could've sworn that Nugget mentioned something about not getting an 18th birthday party when Avani was wanting one for her 16th last year. Possibly just another retcon they hope we don't notice for the sake of plots and storylines.

I dunno man I just think that Joel absolutely had it coming what with not doing anywhere near enough time as he should have, which to be fair is actually pretty realistic unfortunately. Things can’t get forgiven and forgotten that soon if it all.

Nugget is the most obvious perpetrator but I have a feeling it might be Will after he turned up late, unless he’s too obvious. It could also be Amy and tbf I’d kinda love it if it was lol

But Joel had no choice in how long his sentencing was? He appears to be showing genuine remorse and not actually wanting to be around these people. He’s even the one that pointed out to Avani they shouldn’t be near each other.

Joel obviously did some horrific things, but since when is it up to the general public to decide when he’s been punished enough? I’m not saying his sentence wasn’t extremely lenient, but he was a minor so it was always going to be.

All these kids have done is shown that, actually, they’re not much better than him. They, like him, know that their actions are wrong. They’ve proven that they are kids and they aren’t mature enough to deal with these situations no matter how much they yell at their parents for allegedly letting them down.

If you want a class act in dealing with Joel’s actions, look at Vicki. At every opportunity she has removed herself from Joel’s orbit. She has never gone back on the fact that she cannot have Joel in her life yet she is also lending support to her husband who is in one of the most impossible positions. She has not tried to set Joel up or inflict any revenge.

It’s not nice to have him around, but the kids don’t have to have anything to do with him. He was already a pariah and knew it. They lured him out. They’re not as good people as they’d love everyone to believe, they are still kids at the end of the day. I haven’t seen today’s episode yet, but it will be good to see them having to deal with the consequences here. For them to begin their journey growing up.

Not Barney surely 😵‍💫

53 minutes ago, lewistgreen said:

Not Barney surely 😵‍💫

I think Barney is a red herring and he just knows more than hes letting on

Barney could work as a red herring. But unfortunately, I don’t think he is. It was a bit much I guess to see the teens reflect in the way I mentioned earlier. Perhaps that will come but they actually got very little screen time in that ep.

Unfortunately, Barney is a nice young teen who is never rude, wants to do well and is a little socially awkward. This seems to be EE’s go to every time we have a plot like this ‘always the one you least expect’, etc.

They’ll give some ‘he did it to defend Avani’ excuse and she will chastise him about not needing someone to defend her whilst she’s shouting at Joel, Priya, Ravi and literally anyone else.

I did see someone speculate Vicki may be behind it but I’d hope not.

It could just be that Barney witnessed the attack therefore knew where the weapon was but who else out of all of them would have access to a hammer when he’s admitted he knows where the keys to the Arches are kept.

I just have a feeling it will be Barney to give him more of a storyline which unfortunatly will mean them once again trying to shove Zak in our faces with screen time, they have tried every other angle to try and make Zak stcik with the audience and it hasnt worked so this will be another attempt.

Not sure about that with Zack. He’s been awfully anonymous recently. I feel Wadey responds quite quickly to feedback (the Zoe stuff) and might actually be distancing Barney’s connection to Zack rather than enhancing it as previously shown. Note that last night it was Nicola and Harry that Barney chose to go to.

Laila such an icon

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DVdaLJq24/

Short return confirmed for

Janine

We love to see it.

Ooh yes

1. Don't f*** this up Wadey

2. We don't want Mick back

Wadey isn’t great but the show IS still in a better place than it was back then.

11 hours ago, T Boy said:

Wadey isn’t great but the show IS still in a better place than it was back then.

Agreed

It does irritate me just how much she is associated with Mick now. What awful developments.

I know it’s only brief and we may not get an interaction but I’d be here for more of this.

I don't trust Ben Wadey to get this right and quite honestly I'm so bored of returning characters at this point, it just feels like nostalgia bait and relying on past glories.

Definitely with it only being 2 episodes, it begs the question of why even bother lmfao, see Chrissie in both her stints. She has no ties to the Square either other than Linda and why would she even care. Like yeah maybe she blames her for Mick but Christ we do not need to drag that utter dirge up again. And besides, she’s been in prison, why would she get out first thing and decide to terrorise Linda? Janine might be a villain but she’s way more complex than that. The whole point of Janine is exactly that, there’s so many layers, shes not some two dimensional hammed up villain who would turn up for a petty reason or a grudge. That seems strange to say of someone who killed two of her husbands, but it’s what makes her such a good character.

Ricky even has the kid doesn’t he so it’s not even like she can just dump him on Linda or something. She’s one of my fave characters but they ruined her so much last time I don’t see what they can do in a small stint, compared to a longer stint where they could maybe do something to rebuild her, but it was almost Michelle level where it’s difficult to bring her back at all.

When she just drives past the Vic and runs down Zoe 💜

I’m willing to give it a chance with it just being a couple of episodes. Wadey despite his faults has managed to salvage characters before. Max, Cindy, Lauren and Elaine are all much better under him.

Janine’s last stint was pretty poor. There was no clear plan. They were desperate to improve the show and the lack of steady work during Covid meant Charlie would definitely say yes. Janine’s ties were almost non existent then and the only relationships they built for her were with the Carters and that was really bad. The fact that all anyone is mentioning with this news is Linda kind of proves how misjudged it all was. She struggled to play off anyone-Ian wasn’t even around! I did like her double act with Sonia though. She shouldn’t have come back poor and she shouldn’t have been portrayed as a neglectful mother.

It would be great to have her establish new relationships to keep her relevant but that’s unlikely to happen in 2 episodes. I’m going in with an open mind though.