EastEnders teens thick as thieves in loving pictures despite soap incel attack

Let’s face it, Joel Marshall’s return to Walford has gone down about as well as a bout of norovirus, but it looks as though Max Murray, the actor behind the grim teenager, has been welcomed back to EastEnders with open arms.

Regardless of how sympathetic he might now appear, Joel has done some truly heinous things, and fans continue to mull over if the character can ever be truly redeemed, but while said mulling is occurring, Max is overjoyed to be reunited with his fellow Albert Square teens.

Taking to Instagram, Max uploaded a slew of images from behind the scenes of his character’s recent attack.

‘What a privilege and honour to work with all the amazing talented young cast of @bbceastenders,’ he started the caption.

‘Off screen there is so much love and support between us and I am so grateful and proud to say that I have worked with all of them.’

Ellie Dadd, who plays Amy Mitchell, a major driving force behind the teens taking a violent revenge on Joel commented: ‘Always love working with you’

The images featured the other teen characters who are embroiled in the attack plotline, Aaliyah James (Avani Nandra-Hart), Lillia Turner (Lily Slater), Lewis Bridgeman (Barney Mitchell), Juhaim Rasul Choudhury (Nugget Gulati), Ricky Branning (Frankie Day), Denzel Danes (Jaden Ladega) and Freddie Phillips, whoes alter-ego, Will Mitchell, was the first of the teens to suggest they’d gone way too far.

Avani has been deeply triggered by Joel’s return, with him previously filming them having sex without her consent, before uploading the footage online and using it as a method to shame her.

She fell pregnant, and faced an incredibly difficult journey before ultimately deciding to have an abortion, something Joel further attacked her verbally for.

As viewers know, Joel’s descent into inceldom got worse following his torment of Avani.

He terrorised Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner) over her online sex work, with his increasingly sadistic and disturbing behaviour eventually culminating in a full scale sexual assault, when he attacked a commuter on the tube.

Clearly on a path of no return, he later viciously beat his step mum, Vicki Fowler (Alice Haig), and once arrested, continued to torture his victims by pleading not guilty, necessitating a trial and forcing them to relive their trauma, before a seeming change of heart and a word from his defeated dad, Ross Marshall (Alex Walkinshaw), saw him ultimately plead guilty.

Released last week, Joel was returned to Albert Square, despite plans being in place for him to live with his mum, Cleo (Mazz Murray), who ultimately abandoned him after her husband decided he didn’t want Joel anywhere near his own daughter.

While Vicki has struggled with how best to support Ross while still terrified and traumatised by Joel’s attack, Avani and Amy’s fury has seen them plot a violent revenge designed to make it clear to Joel how despised he truly is.

Luring him to the park under the guise of forgiveness, once Avani learned that he planned to stay in the area, Amy upped the stakes of their scheme and, roping in the other teens, they chained him to a fence.

Learning from Lily that Joel had been bullied badly while in prison and had waste food dumped over him repeatedly, Amy decided to implement the same punishment as they set about humiliating him, dousing him with beer and filming it.

As the teens reeled from how extreme their actions had become, it was clear one of them, or potentially more were hiding a secret, and when Will insisted that they check up on Joel, finding him unchained but on the ground, bleeding from a nasty head injury, it was clear that someone had decided that the soaking wasn’t enough.