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Much like another production from across the pond, Hollyoaks understands that all men (and women) must die. Unlike Game of Thrones, the deaths aren’t as grim and medieval but they’re tragic all the same. I’ve mentioned before that Hollyoaks doesn’t have a designated core family or core set of characters, the only true constant is the village of Hollyoaks itself. Everyone inside the village is but a piece to a bigger puzzle. This last week we lost Amy Barnes, an important character to the canvas of the show over the last twelve years. Viewers have seen her grow up from a teen mom to an accomplished young woman only to watch her die from a tragic accident… Or was it an accident?
This show is so good at weaving together multiple villagers and their stories into one bigger picture, and this week showed just that. Even if you don’t agree with the killing of a character, most times you can’t help but to be pulled in as other characters are as well. Hollyoaks took us on such a wild ride this last week, so let’s jump right into it!
Week in Review for Hollyoaks episodes airing March 27th – 31st.
‘Till Death
It was supposed to be the best day of Amy Barnes’ life. Her fiancé Ryan Knight had returned to the village, apologizing for the umpteenth time for sleeping with Mercedes McQueen while the couple was on a break, even going so far as to re-book everything for their canceled wedding. He wooed Amy back into his good graces and the two hit the church for the celebration. Even Ste Hay, the often unreliable father to her kids, sucked it up and got on board after realizing how much Ryan meant to the little family unit. Everything was going perfectly – until it wasn’t.
Ste and Amy get into it.
Honestly, I was so surprised to see the actual wedding ceremony go on uninterrupted. So often do these soap opera weddings come down with a fiery crash and burn right in the middle of the church. Amy and Ryan actually made it down the aisle, but it was the reception that took the cake. Unbeknownst to Ste, Ryan had received a job offer in America and wanted to take Amy in the kids with him though Amy wasn’t so sure if she should take the kids from Ste as he’d been so well behaved lately. See, Ste is an utter train wreck of a character and the only time I truly ever like him is when he’s with his children. He’s a great father and wants to be even better but most of the time, he’s not even a good person. It’s understandable that people have this apprehension with him, it’s even more understandable that Ryan wants to get the children away from his unpredictable influence.
During the reception, village blabbermouth Scott Drinkwell let it be known that Ste slept with his ex-husband which his current fiancé overheard. In a totally wrong place, wrong time scenario, scorned fiancé Harry Thompson confronted Ste and incited a brawl that left Amy with red wine all over her wedding dress. The chaos that followed should have broken Amy but instead she remained mostly calm, realizing that Ste would never change and it was time to leave the village for good.
Unfortunately that just wasn’t in the cards for Amy.
After a row with new husband Ryan over Amy’s soft spot for Ste, he leaves her alone in the apartment in the middle of packing for their big move. I can completely understand why Amy has this back and forth with Ste, it really mimics how I believe most viewers see the character too. He does his best or at least he always tries to do his best so you root for him but then you’re cursing yourself when he stumbles down again. With multiple drug addictions, an HIV diagnosis and not to mention the time he spent physically abusing Amy in their teens, Ste is not a great guy. But did he deserve to never see his children again.
It’s almost like clockwork for Ste, as soon as someone is feeling soft toward him, he runs in to wreck it all. He shows up at Amy’s flat after finding out from daughter Leah Barnes that they’ll be shipping off to America. And he’s pissed. He thinks that she’s planned this move just to hurt him but Amy is doing this for the children, to expand their opportunities for happiness and success. She continually tells Ste it has less to do with him than he thinks but he doesn’t listen. Amy sends Ste off and he dissociates with reality, going into one of his blackout periods brought on by his heavy crystal meth usage in the past. From there all we see are flash forwards outlining the crime scene in the apartment then finally Ste washing blood from his hands.
Amy’s found dead by her husband and father later that night. She’d hit her head on the coffee table after what looked like a struggle and the only person they could think of blaming is Ste. But nothing’s ever that easy in Hollyoaks, there’s seriously no such thing as cute and dry in this village. Ste would be the obvious target with his history of violence and a pretty strong motive to off Amy, but could he have done it? I don’t think so.
Throughout the rest of the week, Ste tries to pin together his jumbled memories. We see through flashbacks that he did go back to Amy’s place after leaving the first time, the following argument grew violent and Ste cut his hand on a framed photo which was why he had to wash his hands. But from what he could remember, Amy was still very much alive when he left the apartment. But anything that happened between that is the blurriest of blurs!
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