Rejected and misunderstood, or just plain bad? It looks like the latter when Steven Beale manipulates Lucy, says actor Aaron Sidwell. What on Earth is the problem child up to?!
"It’s all about Ian again. Steven wants all Ian’s love and attention and he feels Lucy is getting in the way. She’s the one who gets most of Ian’s time and energy and he thinks getting her out of the picture will leave Ian all for him." Out of the picture as in permanently?
"Lucy hasn’t been in actual danger. She ran away on her own, but she got in touch with Steven and ever since then he’s been keeping her away. He’s been brainwashing her into thinking Ian doesn’t care if she never goes home again." Only Lucy isn’t so keen and when she talks about going home he says they can go and stay with a friend of his in France...
"The truth is Steven has no intention of going with her. His real plan is to keep her out of Ian’s life for good." If it’s Ian’s attention he craves it must follow that Steven loves him. So how can he deliberately hurt him so terribly?
"Steven doesn’t think like that. He craves Ian’s full attention and is willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen. He doesn’t exactly plan to be evil but he is dangerous." As Pat finds out when she catches him trying to take Lucy’s passport, right?
"He knows she knows and makes a run for it but she chases after him and gets run over by Roxy and rushed to hospital." The shock does actually make Steven stop and think about what he’s doing... until he finds out Pat is trying to warn Ian that Steven knows where Lucy is.
"He decides he has to stop her and he goes to the hospital where he tries to smother her with a pillow." He fails, but then flees to the Beales’ for Lucy's passport. Then he’s off again to get Lucy and head for the Eurostar to France – with Ian in hot pursuit. Does he catch up with them?
"He does but Steven is such a good manipulator he thinks Lucy will side with him. He’s shocked when she doesn’t and when she agrees to go home with Ian." With Aaron leaving EastEnders, is this the end or is there some last-minute evil yet to come?
"Steven’s gutted when Lucy makes up with her dad and he vanishes..." But we can reveal that’s not quite the last Ian sees of him...
