EastEnders has seemingly ‘confirmed’ a huge fan theory regarding Joel Marshall (Max Murray).
Little is known about the Albert Square newcomer, other than the fact he’s found himself in a lot of trouble since his arrival.
Alongside dad Ross (Alex Walkinshaw) and Ross’ partner Vicki Fowler (Alice Haig), the trio came to Walford for her uncle Martin’s (James Bye) funeral.
It soon transpired that they couldn’t return to their home in Australia, as Joel had upskirted a pupil in his class, and Ross had paid her family $50,000 in exchange for their silence.
The youngster has then showed a number of worrying behaviours towards women – watching extreme adult content online with Tommy Moon (Sonny Kendall), recording himself sleeping with Avani Nandra-Hart (Aaliyah James) and this week, sexually assaulting a passenger on the London Underground.
Tommy witnessed the latter incident and was horrified, and as we saw in tonight’s episode, is reluctant to hang around with him.
This came following a conversation about a disgusting influencer, who degrades women.
Joel thought this was an appropriate way to talk about the opposite sex, branding his own mum a ‘slapper’, talking about how she abandoned him as a child.
But who exactly is his mum?
Well, fans flocked to social media to question whether recent returnee Zoe Slater (Michelle Ryan) could’ve hooked up with Ross during her 20 year absence, and subsequently left him to raise their son.
‘So…Joel and Zoe….??’ said @E20AfterDark.
@blistatcapital wrote: ‘Zoe is going to be Joel’s Mum or something absurd like that.’
@RyanJL commented: ‘Come on, who cares about coincidences, Zoe being Joel’s mum is pure soap gold. Kat’s his Granny! Tommy’s his uncle! It’s Slater magic.’
Well, further fuel was added to that fire in tonight’s episode, with an off the cuff line that harked back to one of EastEnders’ most iconic scenes.
Back in 2001, Zoe discovered that her sister Kat (Jessie Wallace) was actually her mother.
She was planning to head to Spain for a new life with their Uncle Harry (Michael Elphick), unaware that he was in fact Kat’s rapist – and therefore her father.
‘You can’t tell me what to do, you ain’t my mother!’ screamed Zoe, as Kat attempted to prevent her relocation, howling back: ‘Yes I am!’
Cue the doof doofs!
In tonight’s EastEnders, Vicki paid £2,000 to the girl that Joel assaulted on the tube. He promised her and Ross that he would change his ways, and that he’d never commit such an offence again.
However, Vicki saw straight through his act and pinned Joel against the door.
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She swore that if he ever did anything like that again, she would ensure that he faced the full and proper consequences for his actions.
Trying to squirm away, Joel yelled out: ‘Well, you ain’t my mum, you don’t get to tell me what to do!’
History repeats itself.
Could this be the biggest clue yet, or has the BBC soap dealt us a red herring?
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