The character was introduced earlier in the year with his family
EastEnders fans have admitted that they have a ‘bad feeling’ about a new character as they predict a ‘dark’ twist is on the way.
It’s been a busy period for the youngest residents of Albert Square, with a number of intense storylines taking place.
One character at the centre of things on the BBC soap is Avani Nandra-Hart, who is still recovering from an incident that occured at a police station last month.
The teenager has been struggling since she was subjected to a strip search after being caught with drugs belonging to her dealer.
Drinking and smoking to deal with the trauma, Avani was seen on Monday (April 28) hanging out with Joel Marshall, who she appears to be on the road to becoming romantically involved with.
Introduced to the soap after moving to Walford from Australia with his dad Ross Marshall and Vicki Fowler, an air of mystery surrounds the youngster.
It also emerged on Monday that the police will not be taking her complaint forward, adding to her stress.
In scenes that aired on Tuesday night (April 29), Avani’s parents Priya Nandra-Hart and Ravi Gulati invited her for a family takeaway night.
However, Avani managed to convince them into letting her friends Amy Branning, Denzel Danes and Nugget Gulati come over.
Joel arrived later with Tommy Moon, bringing a bottle of vodka for them and the fellow teenagers to drink.
Things take a turn for the worse when the boys tease Tommy, who is still processing reuniting with his parents, over his lack of experience with girls.
Offering Tommy advice, Joel said: “It’s not a big deal, some 40-year-olds are virgins. They made a film about it.
“I remember being like you, it’s scary even thinking about it… I was a lot younger than you when I first started [watching pornography].
“If you ain’t got the courage to try it out with girls in real life then that’s how you learn. You’ve got to learn sometime.”
After seeing Joel pushing Tommy into watching porn, viewers on the EastEnders Reddit page fear what it could mean for him and Avani.
@mesoamericanMorrigan said: “I have a bad feeling Joel will try to push for intimacy with Avani and she will have a trauma response and panic from the aftermath of the strip search.” @ittleloula added: “Same and given the type of stuff he’s probably watching he’s probably going to do it in a respectful way.”
@littleloula wrote: “I never thought I’d say this but I wish Tommy kept with his AI chatbot friend, he’d probably keep him on the straight and narrow rather than smarmy Joel.” @cultural-Fortune-573 stated: “Joel showing Tommy porn has knocked me sick.”
@happy_the_Cat2 commented: “Idk what’s happening with this Joel storyline but he’s lowkey scaring me. Does make you wonder what he did to make Ross and Vicki flee to Walford.” @chloedarlinggg replied: “Well he is the reason because we saw the debt they came to pay off was something to do with him and his dad hadn’t told Vicki.”
