Hollyoaks stars Ijaz Rana and Stephanie Waring have confirmed that Imran Maalik will go all the way in the plot he formed with Cindy Cunningham to punish Ste Hay (Kieron Richardson).
Ste vanished without a trace back in August, sparking a two-month long investigation into his disappearance, with both the villagers and viewers at home scrambling for clues in a bid to find out what happened.
With suspects such as James Nightingale (Gregory Finnegan), Lucas Hay (Oscar Curtis) and Sienna Blake (Anna Passey) thrown in the mix, all with potential motives aplenty, it proved a very difficult mystery to solve.
But after weeks of speculation, Hollyoaks finally revealed what happened to Ste and who was to blame, with Imran and Cindy – who fell in love in secret in LA a year earlier – having plotted revenge on the chef.
Now that’s a twist!
Discussing the big story turn, Cindy star Stephanie Waring told Metro: ‘Initially it was a wish of Cindy’s to get justice for what happened to Ella, and she expresses this to Imran when they are in LA.
‘What unfolds is obviously kidnapping, which really comes from Imran. This really shocks Cindy that he has gone this far, and he convinces her to go along with it. But Cindy has the moral compass in all of this and she is really trying to stop everything.’
Steph told us that Imran is certainly the ‘more dangerous’ of the two. ‘Imran is more dangerous than Cindy,’ she reiterated. ‘He’ll go to the lengths. He can’t back down. It feels like he has to see this through at any cost.’
Ijaz, meanwhile, reveals that Imran and Cindy’s connection was born out of their trauma. ‘It is one of the common grounds that they have,’ he explained. ‘They connect on their trauma mutually caused by Ste. It is one of the early things they connect on.
‘For Cindy, it is just something to talk about but Imran wants to turn it into action and actually get revenge on Ste.’
While Stephanie confirmed that Imran is the one pushing this vendetta, she can also understand why her on-screen love is pursuing this revenge mission, given all the damage Ste has caused over the years.
‘There’s not been a comeuppance for Ste, he hasn’t paid for any of the crimes he’s committed,’ said the star. ‘It feels like there has not been justice. There is a valid reason for them to do this. I am kind of behind Cindy and behind Imran.’
Ijaz was on a similar wavelength. ‘Ste kind of deserves what coming to him because he is not always the nice person everyone thinks he is!’, he said.
Discussing what’s to come next, Stephanie revealed that Cindy’s cold feet over the plan will play a pivotal role in upcoming scenes.
‘Cindy is trying to talk Imran down and try to actually stop what’s happening – and she goes off on her own to try and find Ste and just end it.’
Ijaz added: ‘There’s a lot of tension. A lot of drama – naturally. A lot of figuring out what is the right thing to do between the two characters’.
Hollyoaks streams Mondays to Wednesdays from 6am on Channel 4’s streaming platform, or catch episodes on TV at 7pm on E4.
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