Hollyoaks writer explains reason behind Maxine story outcome

Spoilers for Hollyoaks follow.

Hollyoaks writer Jayshree Patel has explained the reasons why Maxine's attack story had the outcome it was given.

In Hollyoaks' special episode, titled The Long Walk Home, Maxine Minniver (Nikki Sanderson) tries to make her way home after a night out but doesn't have her phone or money with her. She ends up being violently attacked. The episode takes a look at whether different choices she made could have changed the events of her attack.

The special episode is produced by a team of women and explores the various situations women are confronted with on nights out.

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Maxine's attacker is eventually caught in the end, which Patel explained likely wouldn't happen in real life. Rape Crisis, who were present at a special screening of the episode last week, report that only 1 in 100 reported rapes actually result in a charge.

Speaking to Digital Spy and other media at the screening, however, Patel explained why they chose to have the rapist get caught despite that.

"I think in a way you can have an original story idea, but it’s about making it work authentically. One of the things that was in the episode is that the rapist is caught and in reality that isn’t going to happen. I made that decision because it’s about Maxine and what happened to Maxine, and how she feels about it – not about who the rapist is," Patel said.

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"One of my worries is that people would say, ‘Was it Eric?’ and that kind of stuff. I wanted to cut that dead even though the reality is that the rapist probably wouldn’t have been caught. It was a decision that was made for the story and for the development of the story."

Some fans might have thought the attacker was Eric Foster after the soap aired the episode wherein he attacks Lizzie Chen-Williams. However, Maxine's attacker was definitely not Eric, Patel explained.

Patel went on to explain how they had to make "a number of judgement calls" in terms of how "brutal" Maxine's attack should be. They were concerned about putting 6:30pm audiences and the actors through an attack too brutal.

"We really wanted to make sure that it was authentic and realistic, but not overly harrowing," Patel said.

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"It’s not a wagging finger episode. It’s about the joy of living and the right to have the joy of living. We had always called the episode 'The Long Walk Home,' but really, the episode should be called 'Girls Just Want To Have Fun.'"

"That is the final song we hear at the end and it was important for me to have pictures of our actors when they were younger as when we are six or seven we don’t care how we dress, we don’t care how we behave."

Patel continued: "The whole point of the episode is a celebration of life and a celebration of what it means to be a person and be a woman and to live your life as positively and safely as you can."

Hollyoaks streams first on All 4, with new episodes dropping each weekday morning. The show airs Mondays to Fridays at 6.30pm on Channel 4, and at 7pm on E4.

Selected omnibus episodes are available via Prime Video.