Hollyoaks airs shock death in double exit episode
This article references a storyline about anti-LGBTQ+ hatred and debunked ‘conversion therapy’.
Hollyoaks spoilers follow from Monday’s episode on Channel 4 streaming, which doesn’t air on E4 until Tuesday.
Hollyoaks has killed off religious fanatic Declan Hawthorne in an episode that also saw the exit of his crony Carter Shepherd.
The two villains have been trying for months to set up a secret ‘conversion therapy’ operation in Chester because of their bigoted views against the LGBTQ+ community.
While Carter’s plot against the Pride festival recently failed, Declan managed to kidnap his daughter Kitty and take her to their family cabin.
Kitty was unable to escape due to injury, as her father repeatedly misgendered her and ordered her to renounce that she is trans.
Back in Chester, Beau Ramsey got a surprise clue as a photo of Kitty helped him realise she must have been taken to the cabin.
As Declan turned violent against his daughter, Beau arrived on the scene and tried to rescue Kitty. During their attempt to escape, Kitty finally had to confess the truth about her identity to Beau.
She explained that she’d taken the identity of the real Kitty Draper from the road crash back in January, after discovering that the real Kitty had died in the wreck.
The “real Kitty” had been trying to help her escape, when they were caught up in the massive road crash that ultimately claimed her life.
“I was so desperate to stop [Declan] from finding me, look what I was running from,” she pointed out. “Ever since he’s kidnapped me, he’s tortured me. He’s done this to me ever since I told him I was trans.”
Kitty explained that she’d also been separated from her mother because of Declan’s hatred and wasn’t even able to say goodbye before fleeing her family.
“Any time I get any chance of happiness, he always catches up to me,” she said of her evil dad.
Beau left to bring the car closer since Kitty was too injured to walk, but he was knocked out by Declan before he could rescue her.
As Kitty cried out for help, Declan once again terrorised her until Beau was able to wake up and burst back into the room. Beau pulled Declan off Kitty, before she punched her father in the face.
“Run, Kitty, go,” Beau cried out as he tussled with Declan.
Declan tried to grab Kitty’s leg, but Beau bashed him over the head with a scrapbook. Declan smacked his head on the bed railing and slumped to the ground.
“He’s dead,” Kitty announced after taking her father’s pulse.
Meanwhile, John Paul visited Carter in prison to confront him over his bigoted views, accusing him of being a “charlatan” who preyed on young people who were confused about their sexuality.
“I’m going to go and live my true, authentic life while you rot away in here,” John Paul told him.
However, the episode included a sinister post-script where it was shown that Carter hadn’t changed at all following his arrest as he was organising one of his ‘therapy’ sessions in prison.
The soap first announced this ‘conversion therapy’ storyline last September as a way to raise awareness that these debunked and dangerous practices were occurring in the UK.
Hollyoaks streams first online via Channel 4 each weekday at 7.30pm. Episodes then air on E4 the following day, before getting their YouTube premiere a week after that.
