Hollyoaks spoilers follow.
Hollyoaks has hinted at a dark new storyline for village youngster Charlie Dean as newcomer Eric Foster continues to influence the younger boy's behaviour.
A few weeks ago, Eric was responsible for giving schoolboy Charlie some disturbing advice, which led to a humiliating ordeal for his teacher Olivia.
It all forms part of the soap's radical misogyny storyline, which has seen Eric (Angus Castle-Doughty) exhibit disturbing behaviour and extreme misogynistic views as the soap explores incel culture.
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In today's (June 14) E4 first-look episode, Eric's worrying influence over Charlie continued after Charlie and Vicky Grant clashed in the yard over the 'fit list' he'd written, with Vicky later being suspended after Charlie accused her of online bullying.
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"He deserved it," Vicky insisted to Olivia and Scott. "Charlie Dean is nothing but a sexist pig."
Later, Eric approached Charlie and insisted he'd done the right thing by telling the teachers about Vicky, but Charlie wasn't convinced and wondered whether he should apologise as the girls at school continued to call him out for his actions.
"For what, sticking up for yourself?" Eric questioned, before later telling Charlie that they needed to "stick together".
Later on, Nancy Osborne and Charlie marched over to Vicky to discuss her sexism allegations against Charlie, but Nancy was quick to stick up for the teen.
"Charlie would never do something like that and, quite frankly, I resent the accusation," Nancy insisted, with Charlie later denying all knowledge of the list when she asked him about it directly.
"Absolutely not. I can't believe you'd even ask me that question," he replied before going on to use sexist language that left everyone shaken.
He then stormed off, leaving Nancy to apologise to Vicky saying she had no idea that he'd use language like that as Scott insisted that Nancy needed to have a serious talk with Charlie.
With Eric's thoughts and actions clearly starting to have an impact on Charlie's behaviour, it seems that the soap is lining up a dark new direction for the teen as Eric continues to groom him.
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Just last month, Eric actor Angus Castle-Doughty hinted at Eric and Charlie's storyline when Digital Spy asked if Eric will continue to have a worrying influence on the teen.
"Maybe!" Angus teased. "I think part of the importance of this storyline is exploring how people fall into such a subculture. That would be interesting to explore."
Speaking about the storyline more generally, Angus insisted that he felt "a huge weight of responsibility" taking on the role of the influential incel.
"In all honesty, it's an honour to be involved, precisely because I think it's such an important issue that we simply are not engaging with enough," he continued.
"After two years of various degrees of isolation, our society is more online than ever. The advisor on this storyline, feminist writer Laura Bates, did research into how algorithms dictate the media we consume and our auto-cue on YouTube which suggests more radical content per view, we are now faced with a vital responsibility to engage and educate young people; their fears, their anxieties and their viewpoints or risk losing more and more to anti-feminist, radically misogynistic ideas"
Hollyoaks now 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 Amazon Prime Video.
Read more Hollyoaks spoilers on our dedicated homepage
If you've been affected by the issues raised in this story, organisations who can offer support include Samaritans on 116 123 (www.samaritans.org) or Mind on 0300 123 3393 (www.mind.org.uk). Readers in the US are encouraged to visit mentalhealth.gov.
