By 
Cabin Fever
Cameron is struck down in a hit and run.
It might take a while but karma always catches up to Hollyoaks village’s killers; the illustrious history of serial killing in the small town will show you that. Cameron Campbell has been running amok in town for nearly three years now, amassing a list of six victims including his own brother all while managing to fly under the radar. This last week delivered Cameron’s long awaited comeuppance in a grand affair, one that was equal parts unnerving and thrilling.
Leela and Peri Lomax were supposed to be getting out of the village to spend a mother daughter weekend away. Leela had no clue that it was a set up by her daughter to reunite with husband Cameron Campbell – and Peri had no idea it was a set up by Cameron to kill her mother! Cameron has been mowing down villagers for years and never getting caught but it’s clear that his luck was running out since murdering ex-girlfriend Celine McQueen last fall. Cameron is a man prone to extreme acts of desperation; it doesn’t always have to be murder, it could be as simple as lying or shouting but when any time he’s cornered then everyone else better watch out. All of the murder he committed had been to keep his family together, that was how the killer rationalized each crime in his head. Leela betrayed the family, spoiling all of the efforts he put in to keep the family unit tight by getting pregnant from a one night stand and humiliating Cameron by giving birth to a biracial baby. Kind of impossible for two Caucasian parents to produce a baby like that. Because of that humiliation, Cameron had to wipe her out and start anew with just his daughter; they’d be the new family unit.
At the cabin, Peri allowed her parents some time alone to talk, distracting her aunt Tegan Lomax and cousin Courtney Campbell from the reunion by taking them to skip rocks on the lake. The scenes between Leela and Cameron are eerie, incredibly agitating as Cameron weeps and apologizes to his wife for what he has to do. Leela just thinks he’ll leave her, divorce her and run off but she wants to fight for their relationship for their daughter’s sake. The scenes play out similarly to his with Celine though the outcome is vastly different. Leela is forever the girl Cameron loved, the girl he waited for behind bars and the mother of his daughter – Celine was just an ex who knew his murderous secret and threatened his family’s safety. She could go easily. Following lots of tears, the couple finally agrees to give it another go just as Tegan and Courtney come across Celine’s waterlogged body in the lake. Cameron went to investigate only to find he no longer had any way to talk himself out of being guilty anymore. Like a fool, he’d been the one to update the village on Celine’s whereabouts, throwing suspicion onto himself as soon as realization came upon the girls that Celine most definitely was not vacationing in Thailand.
Leela and Peri discover the truth about Cameron.
Cameron came clean, terrifying his entire family with how ruthless he could be. I was so happy to see Leela immediately switch off her love for him, the shock of knowing he’d killed so many of her loved ones proving too overwhelming for love to win out. She immediately went into Mama Bear Mode and protected Peri when Killer Cameron returned to the cabin keen on torching the entire place with them all inside. If I can’t have you, no one else can was probably the motto ringing through the killer’s head. Karma really sought to take Cameron down this time because thanks to quick thinking from Courtney (before Cameron locked her and Tegan in the tool shed), the authorities were able to pinpoint the location of the distress call she made. Funnily enough, rivals Ryan Knight and Ste Hay raced to the cabin in Ste’s new car to rescue his family. A distraction from Ste was what Leela and Peri needed to make a run for it through the thick woods but Cameron was quickly on their trail again. Like Nico Blake’s death last fall, the direction of these scenes fit more of a horror movie than a soap opera and I mean that in the best way. I was on the edge of my seat right up until Cameron was run down by the camping van driven by lusty womanizer Mac Nightingale and his son’s girlfriend Lisa Loveday. They’d been on an adulterous holiday in the woods and were headed back to Hollyoaks when they literally ran into Cameron.
They left the scene of course. The repercussions of their affair being exposed would be catastrophic. Once and for all, Cameron was taken into custody but not without one warning to Lisa. If she didn’t get Peri to visit him in prison then he’d leak the news about her sleeping with her boyfriend’s father. A panicked Lisa went through with the plan and took Peri to the prison to see her dad – but one part of the plan fell through. Cameron expected his daughter to still be on his side after learning he’d killed her grandparents, uncle and other friends but she shut that delusion d own pretty quickly. Peri minced no words as she told her father he was dead to her. I love the little actress Ruby O’Donnell has become on the show; she’s so great at conveying emotion now. There was nothing but hatred between Peri and her father, even down to the way she moved and how she spoke. I absolutely loved it. I can’t wait to see what becomes of her now as a young mother and seeing firsthand how to not parent a child. You know, committing multiple murders.
I’m oddly a little sad to see Cameron go. Not just because he was a nice piece of eye candy, but Cameron Moore as Cameron Campbell was such a great character, a true character study. He was a male killer ruled by a lot of emotions. In soaps, it’s usually the women who are emotional killers while the men are just methodical villains knocking people off. I think it was important to show that side of Cameron. He literally cried through many of the last few killings – and many other times throughout the show. He was an intense character played by a solid actor, so it’ll be tough to see him go.
I’m sure he’ll be back though.
Please comment below with any questions about the show or tweet me, let’s get you addicted to Hollyoaks too!
Comments