Her husband Tony (Nick Pickard) lied that Diane had died, convincing Eric to release the men from the pub so he could get her medical help. Meanwhile, joined by her sisters Serena (Emma Lau) and Lizzie Chen-Williams (Lily Best), Maxine stood up to Eric – refusing to be silenced after all the years of trauma she had already been through.

Eric responded by taking aim at Max, but as he tried to run, she was able to trip him up as police burst in and shot him down. In hospital, we saw that both Eric and Maxine had survived. Diane was still unconscious, but she finally woke when Tony played a bit of Rick Astley.

As detective Zoe Anderson (Garcia Brown) apologised to Maxine for not believing her about how dangerous Eric was, Maxine insisted on being able to talk to him one last time. Zoe dismissed the police guards outside Eric’s room, allowing Max to shock him as she wandered inside.

Handcuffed to the bed, Eric spilled further vitriol in Max’s direction, telling her it was only a matter of time before she pushed another man too far. But after being controlled and abused by husband Patrick Blake (Jeremy Sheffield), kidnapped more than once and more recently, attacked on the way home from a night out, Maxine was not going to take any more from another man like this.

Reminding Eric that he would no longer have his computer or his ‘online buddies’, Maxine scoffed as she laughed at his pathetic attempts to undermine her. She added that she would wear what she liked, and never let the likes of him bring her down.

Zoe arrived to take Maxine out of the room, while Eric was left cowering under his blankets. Is that the last we’ll see of him?