By 
Hollyoaks had a week full of lies both big and small. Everyone had something to hide and everyone was somehow able to get away with their lies – for now at least. It was an interesting to see how one little lie can snowball into something bigger, something each of these stories has in common. Some of these characters are lying to protect others or themselves while others are just doing so out of spite. But in Hollyoaks village, lies have a wild way of catching up with you! I’m sure they’ll all learn soon enough. Let’s get into the highlights of this last week in Hollyoaks!
Week in Review for Hollyoaks episodes airing January 30th – February 10th.
The Whole Truth
Kim Butterfield took her desperate plotting to a new despicable level this last week. While the Dee Valley Hospital nurse may not be a serial killer like her big sister, Lindsey Butterfield was, she’s definitely got a bad habit; instead of murder, she lies. Kim’s insecurity toward wife Esther Bloom and Grace Black’s friendship has always been an issue. The once lovers turned surrogate co-parents and best friends’ relationship went through its ups and downs but never broke for long. Kim’s clearly always despised that. Now back in Esther’s life after leaving her on their wedding day for giving Grace an ultimatum on their status, Kim is doing everything she can to make sure her mentally weak wife doesn’t sway again.
Grace regrets taking out Eva.
Grace came onto Hollyoaks not like a fireball, but a full on inferno. She was the villain of comic book proportions, wronging everyone in her way and getting away with it. To say the least, her shtick got old pretty quickly and the show’s writers must have noticed that as they’ve reeled her in over the years, humanized her. With a team of brothers, an estranged mother and a son behind her, Grace can’t go off the walls (like locking people in houses set to be demolished to get rid of them) like she used to. There’s too much to lose now. She lost that notion for a split second when she shot her brother’s fiancée Eva Falco in the head for shooting Esther in the head days earlier. This last week detectives revealed to Liam Donovan that his fiancée had been pregnant at the time of her death, dealing him yet another painful blow aside from knowing his big sister was responsible.
Had this storyline played out four years ago there would have been little to no remorse on Grace’s end but the news from the autopsy had her visibly shaken up. One brother was helping her cover up the crime, another brother was clueless about her part and the other most effected brother was actively seeking to take her down; Grace had no one to turn to but her best friend, Esther. Still hospitalized from the shooting, Esther’s been having constant problems with short term memory loss. Whatever she heard or said or did the day before is often lost the next day. I think at first Grace saw this as the best outlet to vent her fear about having put herself in this situation for Esther would quickly forget. So during her visit, Grace confessed to the crime to her best friend; not only did she know Esther wouldn’t snitch on her but that she couldn’t either. There was this outpouring of emotion from the reformed criminal that made her realize she had a little more to say. After coming clean about the killing, she then came clean about still having feelings for Esther. It was a lot to handle for both women. To remember the day prior’s events, Esther has taken to writing down the happenings on Post-It notes. This time she wrote about Grace’s confession and how she might feel the same.
On the day of her hospital discharge, Kim took Esther to see the new apartment she leased just for them. The reveal went down rather mildly, much to Kim’s dismay. There was obviously something bothering her wife as the stress from it all caused her to sicken again. Back at the hospital, Kim found the note about Grace’s confession, tore it up and forged a new one warning Esther not to trust Grace. I never liked that Kim Butterfield and this just further pushed my point that she’s awful! She always babies Esther whether she’s her patient or not but that babying, that caring comes off as condescending and honestly manipulative. It feels like Kim wants a patient rather than a wife.
When Esther saw the note the next day, she immediately took it for what it was and avoided all things Grace. She knew no better, in her murky mind, she’d written the warning not her conniving wife. Kim basically turns Esther into her prisoner, not even letting grandmother Frankie Osborne have access to her. Both Grace and Frankie wanted to speak to Esther but were pushed back by Kim. Like a twisted puppeteer and puppet show, Kim did all the talking for her wife, starting the process of isolating her from her loved ones. While Grace may have turned milder over the years as her family grew along with a conscious, none of that made her any less of a mouthpiece. I was happy that Grace told Kim off but I wonder if she suspects anything else considering Esther’s sudden violent aversion to her. Though I doubt she’d ever guess that Kim had stooped so low that she told Esther that Grace was the one who shot her, not Eva.
Disenchanted for being rebuffed by her best friend and love, Grace decided to get into a dirty deal with Shane, Goldie McQueen’s ex. Grace had pulled herself out of the underworld for that family but now she feels as she’s got nothing to lose, with a double murder hanging over her head and Esther gone, it’s hard to see a way out of it all. Unfortunately for Grace, agreeing to distribute counterfeit money with Shane is all a part of brother Liam’s entrapment plan.
The end of the road for Grace is rapidly approaching and unlike before, there seems to be real consequences heading her way. Hollyoaks is always one to throw a curveball at viewers but this time seems different, I don’t think Grace will be able to escape without praying a price; whether that be jail time or another kind karmic punishment. With enemies surrounding her and very few left in her corner, the odds do not seemed to be stacked in Grace’s favor!
Comments