The Hollyoaks writer explains the reasoning behind the Maxine story’s outcome

Spoilers for Hollyoaks Follow.

Hollyoaks Author Jayshree Patel has explained the reasons why Maxine’s attack story got the result it did.

IN Hollyoaks‘ special episode, titled The long walk home, Maxine Minniver (Nikki Sanderson) tries to get home after a night out but has neither phone nor money with her. She ends up being violently attacked. The episode takes a look at whether different choices she made could have changed the events of her attack.

The special episode is produced by a team of women and explores the different situations women face on nights out.

Related: Hollyoaks reveals all the details of Maxine Minniver’s dark history

Maxine’s attacker is eventually caught, which Patel explained was unlikely to happen in real life. Rape Crisis, which was present at a special screening of the episode last week, reports that only 1 in 100 reported rapes actually lead to a prosecution.

To talk to Digital Spy and other media at the screening, but Patel explained why they chose to let the rapist be caught anyway.

“I think you can kind of have an original story idea, but it’s about making it work in an authentic way. One of the things that was in the episode is that the rapist is caught and in reality that’s not going to happen. I did that decision because it’s about Maxine and what happened to Maxine, and how she feels about it — not about who the rapist is, Patel said.

Related: Hollyoaks used intimacy coordinator to upset Maxine attack scenes

“One of my concerns is that people would say, ‘Was that Eric?’ the development of history.”

Some fans may have thought the attacker was Eric Foster after the soap aired the episode where he attacks Lizzie Chen-Williams. However, Maxine’s attacker was definitely not Eric, Patel explained.

Patel went on to explain how they had to make “a number of judgment calls” in terms of how “brutal” Maxine’s attack should be. They were concerned that the 6.30pm audience and actors would go through an attack too brutal.

“We really wanted to make sure it was authentic and realistic, but not too outrageous,” Patel said.

Related: Hollyoaks the author explains why she looked up Maxine’s dark story

“It’s not a finger-wagging episode. It’s about joy in life and the right to have joy in life. We had always called the episode ‘The Long Walk Home,’ but really the episode should be called ‘Girls Just Want To Have So Much Fun.'”

“It’s the last song we hear at the end and it was important to me to have images of our actors when they were younger like when we’re six or seven we don’t care how we dress, we don’t care how we behave.”

Patel continued: “The whole point of the episode is a celebration of life and a celebration of what it means to be a person and to be a woman and to live your life as positively and safely as you can.”

Hollyoaks streamed first on All 4, with new episodes released every weekday morning. The program is broadcast Mondays to Fridays at 6.30pm on Kanal 4 and at 7pm on E4.

Selected omnibus episodes are available via Prime Video.

Read more Hollyoaks spoilers on our dedicated website