Ever since he strolled back into the Square at Christmas, we’ve been wondering one thing: just what is Max Branning’s game?
His revenge plot is slowly, slowly taking shape, but we’re still not entirely sure what the end goal is.
And now show boss Sean O’Connor has spoken about exactly what he has planned for Mr Branning.
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While playing the nice guy on the surface, Max has been working behind the scenes to cause trouble ever since he came back. He was seen meeting with the mysterious “Chairman” earlier this year saying he didn’t care if The Vic burned.
We also know he’s working with a property company, so many fans have joined the dots and assumed he’s trying to buy half of Walford up so they can knock it down and build flats.
He managed to get Shirley to sign over the freehold of the pub to some of his associates, which seems to be the first step.
But more recently he’s been playing his own brother, Jack Branning. That doesn’t seem to have anything to do with property, so what’s going on there?
Max contacted Charlie Cotton and got him to go for residency of Matthew, therefore making Jack lose it and punch Charlie. Charlie then appeared the next day with far worse injuries than Jack’s one punch could possibly have given him, and it looked like Max had set Jack up good and proper.
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All this has led to some very confused fans trying to piece it all together and figure out exactly what Max is up to.
I don't understand the Max storyline in #eastenders why is he against Jack?
— Charlotte Beer (@CharCharBeer) May 19, 2017
Can someone PLEASE explain to me WHY Max hates Jack so much???? #eastenders
— evie (@evie_brooks) May 18, 2017
What is Max playing at? What's his end game? #Eastenders
— No Thanks (@vge100) May 17, 2017
So confused at #eastenders can someone tell me why max is doing this to jack!? 🤔
— Holly Simmons (@sollyhimmons) May 17, 2017
In an attempt to clear things up, Metro.co.uk asked Sean exactly what he’s planning to do with Max. Sean revealed: “The revenge that he is planning is of an epic nature but the very thought of it causes him heartbreak – and that’s absolutely brilliant.
“The reason he is self-harming is because the revenge he is planning is hurting him profoundly and that means that we will care about him, despite the fact that he intends to damage people around him that he also loves.”
But what about the big reveal of what’s really going on? “With Max’s story we were going to reveal the real nature of his plans much earlier, but we have held off.
“When it is finally exposed, it’ll be much more compelling because we’ll have months and months of anticipation and suspense.”
So it sounds like we’re going to have to wait a bit longer still before we find out everything.
How frustrating!