Hollyoaks' Jonah Keane will drug his own teenaged son Caleb in a horrifying and controversial new storyline. Spoilers for next week's episode reveal the very start of the plot, as Matthew Wolfenden's character drugs his party guests. But the storyline is set to take a dark turn when Jonah drugs Caleb, amid Caleb's hopes to leave the village to go travelling.
Exploring FDIA
Matthew exclusively told The Mirror that the soap is set to explore FDIA, which stands for Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another. It's a severe mental health condition and form of abuse, historically known as Munchausen by proxy.
Matthew was informed of the shocking storyline when he was first offered the role of Jonah, and he warned it would escalate very soon. He told us: "We were called up and told the way that the storyline was going to go, particularly with Jonah and his FDIA story."It was a bit of a shock that it was going to start so soon and he was going to start actually doing it to his guests at this party. And I think that, and the reaction that he got from that and seeing how well this worked on his guests, I think this is what instigates him to do it to his own son."
Party incident
Jonah initially secretly drugs the party guests with a tiramisu. Matthew explains: "No one's having a good time. He decides to put Beth's medication, which is a kind of beta-blocker to calm her down, in the tiramisu. He's hoping everyone starts having a brilliant time."
But the party incident is only the start, and Jonah's true colours will soon show. Matthew told us: "We can see that there's cracks in Jonah's kind of shiny armor, that he's not as prim and proper as we think he is."That's going to lead to us finding things out maybe about his past as well."
Research and inspiration
Matthew revealed he's done his research on the controversial topic. He shared: "Me and my writing partner Roxy Shahidi, we wrote an episode for Doctors a few years ago, and it was a Munchausen by proxy story. Since playing Jonah, I've gone and revisited that. I've been watching the stuff and listening to the podcasts about Gypsy Rose Blanchard, which anyone that's reading this should watch, it's incredible."
"In the Gypsy Rose dramatisation of it, her mom is on the surface quite a strange woman, and people do think she's strange anyway. Whereas what they wanted with Jonah was for people to not see that, and to see the other side of him, and actually what he's doing is all behind closed doors."
Danger ahead
Teasing what's ahead, Matthew told us Caleb could be in grave danger as Jonah continues drugging the teenager. Matthew said: "What I know about this condition is that, the kind of perpetrator will push it and push it and push it until really bad things happen."They end up killing people in the end. The condition suggests that you love that person so much that you want to keep looking after them, you want to be the carer, you want them to be ill so you can keep them there under your roof and in your eye line."You never want to let them go, you love them so much. And the knock-on effect of what you're doing to them is actually killing them."
Hollyoaks is available to stream on Channel 4's streaming service now, while it also airs Mondays to Wednesdays on E4 at 7PM.
