EastEnders has aired a special episode revolving around teenager Joel Marshall’s misogynistic and violent behaviour. With the Walford community rocked and divided by a distressing event, this storyline proceeds to take its most terrifying turn yet.

In the opening moments of today’s episode, Amy ran home from school in tears, while Kat, Alfie, Ross and Vicki received calls informing them of a safeguarding issue involving their boys.

Through the recollections of the Walford teens, it was eventually established that Joel and Tommy had shown a violent pornographic video on the screen in assembly – and when Amy confronted Joel about it after school, he hit her.

Amy was distressed by the incident and Avani knew it was wrong, but the likes of Nugget and Ricky played down the situation and said the video was just a joke.

As the parents had a heated discussion about events in the Square, Priya, Kim and Jack were furious, while Sharon, Kat and Alfie weren’t too worried about the extreme video.

Everything changed when Ross and Vicki discovered that Joel had attacked Amy, but Will suggested that Amy had hit Joel first.

Meanwhile, Joel continued to indoctrinate Tommy while hiding out at Container Junction and convinced him that there was a “double standard” for men and women – but they were found by Ross and Alfie who had gone looking for them.

Back in the pub, Julie informed everyone that the headteacher has contacted the police due to the nature of the video, which was extreme, explicit and “incredibly degrading”.

The parents were all confident that their children weren’t watching this material, but Julie wasn’t so sure and encouraged them all to start having honest conversations with their kids.

Kat and Alfie scolded Tommy for continuing to watch these violent videos and forbade him from seeing Joel again, but Tommy kept spouting misogynistic views.

Tommy called his mum a hypocrite for her past behaviour and made it clear that he thought men were better than women – and Kat and Alfie were left fearing what had happened to their little boy.

At the same time, Ross and Vicki confronted Joel – but when Joel hit back at his dad for his life choices and choosing a “low-value female” like Vicki, Ross reached breaking point.

He came close to hitting his son, and Vicki urged Ross to leave the house and get some air before things got any worse.

But with Vicki left alone with Joel, the situation escalated drastically when she tried to get some answers about his offensive comments.