EastEnders fans think they’ve worked out who attacked Joel.
They reckon they’ve clocked the identity of Joel’s attacker thanks to the odd behaviour of another Walford resident.
And it’s definitely not who you might think!
The fans reckon Vicki – Joel’s stepmum – is the one who bashed the troubled teenager over the head, claiming “it’s the only thing that makes sense”.
Joel recently returned to Walford after spending several months in young offenders for attacking and beating poor Vicki.
He’s now claiming to have been rehabilitated and has been welcomed back into the home Vicki shares with her new husband, Joel’s dad, Ross.
Who is guilty of Joel’s attack?
But not everyone has been pleased to see him. The other teens on Albert Square were still angry about his past behaviour and decided to teach him a lesson.
They chained him up and taunted him, while recording the whole sorry incident on their phones.
But later Joel was viciously attacked.
The teens claim they’re all innocent and they do seem to be telling the truth. Sort of.
So who is Joel’s attacker?
Well some EastEnders fans think it’s Vicki!
Is Vicki guilty?
Vicki has been acting very strangely since Joel returned. She’s been forcing herself to accept him moving back into her home, smiling at everything he says, and generally pasting on a smile.
She even claimed her worries about Joel moving in was her problem to deal with.
Now some viewers think her odd behaviour can be explained – it’s guilt!
“I reckon it was Vicki that attacked Joel,” one viewer declared.
“She has the motive,” another fan wrote on Reddit, agreeing with the theory that it could have been the teen’s traumatised stepmum.
“I do think Vicki herself is likely [to be Joel’s attacker]” wrote another fan. “There’s nobody more motivated to hurt him than her, he physically and mentally traumatised the woman. It would also explain why she’s changed her tune so fast on his living arrangements, pure guilt on her part.”
While we weren’t convinced at first, these theories do make a lot of sense.
Blackmail?
And some fans have taken it even further, suggesting that Joel could be blackmailing Vicki to let him stay.
After all, he did it with Avani and Vicki was very quick to suggest her stepson had forced another victim to give in to his demands.
Was she speaking from experience?
“Definitely Vicki,” wrote another fan. “And I think Joel definitely knows and he is definitely blackmailing her.”
And one fan summed it up neatly, saying: “It’s the only thing that makes sense!”
We can’t argue with that!
Read more: Who’s leaving and who is returning to EastEnders this year?