Gays of Our Lives Theater: Happy Anniversary Christian and Olli!

Welcome to a new edition of Gays of Our Lives Theater. We’ve got plenty of clips and commentary for you, so let’s get started!

Hollyoaks

Hollyoaks has never handled reveals well, usually finding a way to botch them. That was never more apparent than this past week when there were a number of reveals regarding Brendan’s sexuality, his past with Pete and the various crimes he’s committed since coming to town last year.

Now I’m not saying these things didn’t need to come out (pun intended), as they’ve been secrets for far too long. Besides, it made no sense that Cheryl hadn’t yet picked up on the fact that Brendan was gay when nearly the entire town knew, especially since she'd been told more than once yet didn’t believe it. But unfortunately, what should have taken a number of episodes to work through was done in the space of about 10 minutes.

There was so much wrong and/or badly played here. Let’s start with Ste. Not only do I have a problem with Ste outing Brendan to Cheryl as that’s not his place or decision to make, there’s also his confessing to nearly killing Brendan.

Didn’t Ste have any concern that Cheryl might go to the police with his confession? (Not that the police seem all that interested in looking into the attack on Brendan.)

It was nice to see Warren surface, though there was no talk of where he’s been since Brendan’s attack. I guess since Warren is suddenly involved in a completely different storyline, those details no longer matter. Oh, show….!

Pete finally revealed Brendan’s biggest secret….

Now let’s get to Pete. After weeks and weeks of Pete rolling around town, threatening Brendan and swearing revenge, we found out, in a nearly offhanded fashion, that years ago Brendan tried to come on to Pete and Pete rejected him. Brendan got so upset that he got drunk and tried to kill himself. Pete jumped into the car to stop him and that led to the accident that crippled Pete. It’s a nice reveal and certainly believable. But the fact that Brendan hated himself so much he tried to commit suicide is not only glossed over, it gets lost amid the dozen other revelations that took place. Worse, it looks like another important plot element will get short shrift and probably never be mentioned again.

And what about Pete? He came to town to get revenge on Brendan, but now he’s going around town trying to find Brendan and fretting about what happened to him after Brendan up and left town. It was as if the threats and recriminations that went on for weeks never happened. And since Pete's reason for coming to town is gone, what does that mean for the character? And Pete isn't the only character's future I'm wondering about.

What’s next for Brendan now that he’s out?

I do wonder what is next for Brendan and the people that swirl around him. For the better part of a year, Brendan and his secrets drove all the drama and action. But with all of that gone, what will be the story now for himself and the people in his life? Brendan will no doubt return and I’m curious what life will be like for him since everyone knows he’s gay. Will Brendan still be full of denials and self hate? What about his violent nature?

And then there’s Ste. He clearly still loves Brendan, and we know Brendan loves him. What’s going to get them back together after everything that’s gone down?

Basically, the story is starting all over again with a fresh slate and in a sense that’s a good thing. But the way the show went about clearing it off was very bad.