Anything interesting in this episode??

Yay we got loads more JP/James! John Paul really cares about him, I'm squealing! He was worried about James getting drunk in the middle of the day and James did the classic "why don't you take me to bed then" trope, it was great! James was all angry and defensive, but at the end of the ep he texted him to apologise and asked if he fancied a takeaway and they had a lovely last scene together. They're really getting closer I feckin LOVED this episode!

James really gave the impression that Mac raped him today.

Another powerhouse performance from Gregory today. He absolutely nailed it.

Lovely scenes between him and John Paul too.

I was hoping that wasn't the case. Can soaps just stop that please?

God, please no. Enough of that!!!

I was under the impression that James and JP weren't even in the episode...the episode thread has been particularly uninformative tonight. LOL

There was loads of them.

Yeah possibly the strongest episode of the week. Jade and Alfie were heartbreaking too.

It does look that way. James was talking about a time his dad was really abusive and said that he didn't always use his fist and that he has other ways of causing pain and that he was 8 years old.

I need to watch those these again once they're available, there was a lot to take in.

I know. 😮 I thought thier scenes were going to be fleeting but they had a lot of screentime together. It was a please tell surprise given there was little in the spoilers.

Basically like Brendan and Aaron?? 8 years seems to be the age gay soap characters are raoed by their dads.

*rolling eyes*

I really don't want sexual abuse to be involved, not just to spare James the horror of going through that.... but can we please have 1 gay character who wasn't sexually abused, or physycally abused??? Geez.

One thing is bothering me: with all this, they kinda glossed over the bet thing. I would expect JP to at least ask James about that. But now they have obviously skipped over it.

I know what you mean and I feared Kirkwood wouldn't be able to resist going there. 🙄 I just wanted something different because we have been there, done that....mane James will only get compared to other characters/stories.

Having said all that, despite its predictability, the story does have the potential to be incredible. Tonight was a taster of what it could be.

But as the other thread suggested it would be similar to what JP went through with Finn. At the moment you wouldn't know it had ever happened.

As soon as James mentioned being 8 I had that exact same thought! They always go for 8, I'm sure both Aaron and Brendan were both that age. Bloody hell. The more I replay that scene in my head the more I'm sure they're going there. *sigh*

If they do go there thank goodness he has John Paul. Obviously there is no childhood sexual abuse in his past, but he knows what it's like to be raped. Goddamn it hollyoaks, they're gonna do this aren't they?

At least we have Todd and Billy on Corrie. A pair of gay characters and no child abuse between them! I'm gonna go out of my way to appreciate that fact specially.

It's a shame because HO was doing so well with the domestic violence plot. Why throw rape in? It wasn't neccassary. Plus we have Ellie's story coming which has a similar theme. A bit overkill. 😑

Well was getting into this and I do like the act that plays James. I really thought physical abuse would have been enough and different. I have never seen a storyline with a parent abusing their adult son. This story does need to be done with a straight male character now. Its getting a bit old

On the HO Facebook page, they said they are working with the nspcc on this particular storyline.

I guess we don't know 100% for sure this is where they're going, but if they are...

It's starting to become offensive the way soaps keep having their gay male characters suffer historic sexual abuse. What kind of message does that send?

It sounds remarkably similar to Aaron's story on ED.

The only thing they will achieve with this (if it turns out there was rape) is to be dismissed and compared negatively to other soaps who did it before. Comparizons will abound.

People (who were already comparing James to Brendan) will say that James is a Brendan-wannabe, and that Kirkwood is desperately trying to recreate the success his predecessors had with Brendan's story.

The Robron fans will say that McNight is an attempt to imitate Robron's success.

And the detractors will complain about the repetitivity of the storyline, and it's a big shame, since Greg is fantastic, and deseves to shine.

I am a bit disturbed by this, to be honest, I hope we are just jumping to conclusions...

Let's be real, it's practically identical.

Exaclty. Being gay = result of childhood trauma. all these soaps storylines are reinforcing stereotypes instead of battling them.

I might be wrong, but I didn't get a sexual abuse vibe at all. He said that Mac was creative for someone so stupid and that to me says emotional abuse i.e. locking him in a small space as punishment etc..

Right down to the character in question confessing all to their love interest. The comparisons are numerous. Only difference I can see is Aaron's dad wasn't violent to adult Aaron.