There has not been a bone in our bodies that’s trusted Max Branning since he came back to Walford and started plotting to take everyone down.
Read more: No one liked Steven’s sick ploy to stop Lauren leaving him
In case you’ve forgotten, Max was banged up for a year for killing Lucy Beale, even though pretty much everyone on the Square at the time knew it was satanic Bobby who threw the fatal music box.
But rather than let the truth out, Ian and Jane – accompanied by several Walford residents, decided to let Max take the blame when his DNA was found at the scene of the crime.
Since then, Bobby finally admitted to his part in the murder, whilst leaving his mum, Jane, unable to walk after attacking her with a golf club.
Jane has been in a wheelchair ever since, and Bobby finally got his comeuppance and is serving time in EastEnders juvenile prison thing.
Max returned at the end of last year and it looked as though he was building bridges with his family and friends.
But, unknown to them, Max has been secretly plotting the take down of the Square, and anyone involved in keeping the truth buried.
He’s already targeted his brother, Jack, by ensuring he lost custody of Matthew, his stepson, and last connection to dead wife, Ronnie Mitchell.
And now it looks like he’s after his own daughter, Lauren, when he randomly joins forces with her weirdo boyfriend, Steven.
We’ve already seen Max dole out some pretty dodgy advice to Lauren when she confided to Max that she no longer loved Steven.
Instead of helping her find a way to leave him, Max told her to stay put and that not all relationships are based on love and excitement. Erm, is that hypocrisy we smell, Max?
While Steven is taking drastic action to keep Lauren in his life with a whopping great lie, Max confronts Steven over his tales. Will Max side with Steven over his own daughter?
Aaron Sidwell, who plays Steven, says: “He’s devoted to the life he has rather than Lauren. Lauren has become this image and figurehead of this life – so if she were to leave it, he would lose it all whereas if Ian were to leave, he’d still have Lauren and Louie.
“She is the one that would make the house of cards fall – this is the happiest that he has ever been and it’s because of this little family life that he is living.
“He is devoted to that – in his head, he is thinking that it is Lauren and he is totally focused on that but it’s more the life that he has.
Read more: ‘Enders fans think Steven Beale will MURDER Lauren
“We will slowly start to see that revelation in him – it’s more about the baby, it’s more about living in the Beale house with the family, it’s perfect for him.
“It’s all that he has ever wanted.”
But what has this got to do with Max’s revenge plot? And how does he manipulate the situation to benefit himself?