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‘Hollyoaks’ Week In Review: Non-consenting Young Adults

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Sienna can't help but lie to Warren.
Sienna can't help but lie to Warren.

Hollyoaks was just incredible this last week. This show never shies away from material – sometimes which can be not the best thing i.e. constant murders. But then sometimes the writers get it right, portraying true life issues affecting teenagers and young adults as well as their families. Sure, there were the usual custody battles and deadbeat dads but there was also an incredibly honest depiction of rape and the culture behind it. Hollyoaks truly deserves all the accolades for what they’ve done with their consent story which hit another climax this last week, giving viewers yet another upsetting but honest viewpoint into assault. There was very little to pan this last week in the village!

But let’s check out some of my picks and pans from this last week on Hollyoaks anyway!

Picks of the Week

Basic Instinct

Warren Fox and Sienna Blake is a match made in heaven — or is it hell? Between the two of them, they’ve committed so many crimes from kidnappings to attempted murders that they should be locked up for the rest of their lives. Or at least town pariahs. But nope, somehow they are still accepted members of the village and funnily enough, one of my favorite couples on the show. They’re just so bad but so good together that it’s almost beautiful. This last week highlighted just how awful they can be to each other and I was living for it.

Being the paranoid snoop she is, Sienna messed up her perfect little family unit when she stumbled upon beau Warren meeting with solicitor James Nightingale at the coffee shop. She had no clue that Warren was going back on his plan to take full custody of their unborn twins once they were born. The two of them had fallen out before she announced her pregnancy because… well, she had tried to kill his oldest son Joel Dexter in a revenge explosion. But over the weeks Sienna had shown solidarity for her man even after he murdered Bart McQueen and that just reaffirmed his love for her. So sweet, right? Being a lady who can never let anything go, Sienna found out that Warren had wanted to take away her twins and went about crafting a revenge plot.

In some very poignant location scenes last week, Sienna convinced Warren not to turn himself in for the murder because the babies would need him. His fear was that he’d corrupt the kids like he did to Joel who began using heroin in his guilt. Then Sienna reaffirmed what everyone thought, viewers and villagers included — these kids are bound to be messed up regardless just because of their DNA. Sienna proves this when she fakes a miscarriage so she can pack up and flee before Warren can take her kids. I love that the writers inserted Nancy Osborne into this story to give Sienna a dose of reality. Being the woman who was gaslighted and almost had her own kids gassed to death by Sienna, she was an unlikely choice for a shoulder to lean on when Sienna had worried she’d really had a miscarriage but it worked. Hollyoaks really knows how to use history to bring different kinds of people into each other’s orbits.
Nancy telling Sienna she’s being crazy again rings true to the former kidnapper and she fesses up to Warren who actually takes her back! I was cheering because I want them to work just because who else could possibly love these two? Warren makes this passionate plea for the two of them to stop doing awful things to each other so they can raise their babies in peace… only to announce to Nancy in the end that he’s back to wanting full custody of the kids! Now Nancy is caught in between these two warring psychos and boy, is it going to be good. This will be a custody battle to remember.

One of the best lines of the week was when Sienna tried to argue that Warren couldn’t deem her an unfit mother when he was an unfit father. To that, Nancy replied, “I think that’s for social services to determine.” I love how she desperately does not want to be involved in their situation, knowing just how messy the two of them can get and yet she’s found herself caught in between. Nancy will be the factor that keeps this story interesting instead of their usual back and forth revenge plots. I just hope these two have a happy ending after all of this.

Fatal Attraction

Darcy Wilde is no quitter. She may have lost Adam Donovan to Maxine Minniver a few weeks ago, but with the couple on their honeymoon she’s been working on a new plot to get back at them. But what that might be exactly… I’m not so sure. This last week we saw the village’s new schemer putting the heavy moves on Adam’s little brother, Jesse Donovan, turning him away from my sweet Goldie McQueen. Even though Goldie is literally his perfect match! Who cares if he dated her cousin that got murdered just a few months back!

Jesse and Goldie are like two rays of sunshine in this village that gloomy very quickly. Every soap opera couple technically has to jump through hurdles but can you blame me for not wanting it for them? They may not be 100% innocent as Goldie is a teen mom and Jesse slept with his brother’s then girlfriend but compared to the other villagers? They’re angels!

This last week Goldie went to ask Jesse for her job at the salon back — to which he agreed, swamped with appointments because Adam is off on his honeymoon. Too bad their time as a happy team is cut short when Darcy shows up for a job too. It’s clear to anyone watching that Darcy is trying to play Jesse, forcing her way back into his life and laying it on thick that he wants her. In a surprise move, Jesse actually turns away her advances because it’s Goldie that he wants. And instead of being the shy inexperienced guy he usually is, he went ahead and told her too! If I was a fist pumper, I would have been pumping my fist to this scene. These two had so much back and forth over the last few months that them locking in a date felt like a huge triumph.
But then messy Darcy had to lie and say Jesse only wanted Goldie for a one night stand, blowing their budding romance apart. But the real question is why? Adam firmly told Darcy before leaving Hollyoaks that he was done with her. Her sleeping with his brother wouldn’t upset him one bit anymore, he’s committed himself to Maxine all the way. So what is Darcy really playing at this time?

Coryon Gray
Coryon Gray joined TV Source Magazine as a staff writer in October 2014. Prior to TV Source Magazine, he's written for and moderated Asian entertainment blogs and forums. On top of writing duties, Coryon is also a panelist for the TV Source Podcast, Soap Countdown Podcast and Our Take Media.

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