An enraged Ravi Gulati (Aaron Thiara) has lashed out at Joel Marshall (Max Murray) in EastEnders.
If there’s one thing we’ve learnt about Ravi, is that nobody messes with his daughter Avani Nandra-Hart (Aaliyah James).
Remember when he dangled poor, innocent Barney Mitchell (Lewis Bridgeman) off the Turpin Road viaduct?
Well, if Joel’s dad Ross (Alex Walkinshaw) hadn’t intervened in tonight’s episode, we’d have probably seen that again.
As viewers of the BBC soap have seen, Avani and Joel have grown closer following his arrival in Walford from Australia earlier this year.
In fact, they became so close that she decided that he was the one she should lose her virginity with – unaware that he had secretly recorded the dalliance and later showed his pal Tommy Moon (Sonny Kendall).
As it transpired, Joel has quite the wicked history of disturbing behaviour towards girls. It was because of an upskirting incident that his family were forced to flee Sydney, leaving his dad in mountains of debt.
Ross was forced to pay $50,000 to the girl’s family, who then wanted him nowhere near their daughter.
The second time that Joel and Avani slept together, Ross and partner Vicki Fowler (Alice Haig) walked in on them. Vicki found hilarity in the situation, until she discovered the gravity of his devious past.
Ross found the video of Avani and made his son delete it – but of course he didn’t.
Vicki thought it would be best if Ross spoke with Avani’s parents about what she and Joel had been up to, but was clearly worried about what would happen if they found out the shocking truth.
Deciding to speak with Avani instead, their chat was overseen by Suki Panesar-Unwin (Balvinder Sopal), who wanted to know why her granddaughter was having secret conversations with an older man.
After some conflicting stories, Suki marched over to speak with Ross herself, and was gobsmacked to hear what Avani and Joel had done.
She implored Avani to open up to mum Priya (Sophie Khan Levy), but due to the youngster’s embarrassment over the situation, she had to do it herself.
What neither women realised was that Ravi had overheard, and suddenly saw red.
He raced out into The Square and caught sight of Joel, smashing through the front door and pinning him up against the wall in the living room.
Ross was stood on the other side of the room and launched himself onto Ravi, fiercely defending his son. Avani then stormed in and had to tell her dad that the act was fully consensual.
After rushing off to the park, she broke down in Suki’s arms, saying that her only hope was to feel wanted.
