Hollyoaks 25th anniversary: Silas Blissett is back but where has he been?
A reminder of where we left the famous serial killer.
Hollyoaks pulled off a major surprise by bringing back iconic baddie Silas Blissett (Jeff Rawle) for the soap’s 25th anniversary episode, the first time we’ve seen the serial killer since 2016.
The McQueen family were being blackmailed by an anonymous stalker, who threatened to expose their darkest secrets unless they coughed up a load of cash.
Defying their intimidator, Mercedes McQueen (Jennifer Metcalfe) demanded her clan do nothing and play them at their own game. Then fans saw Silas lurking in the village plotting his next move.
It’s been almost five years since we saw Hollyoaks' gruesome granddad, so here’s a reminder of his dastardly deeds, taking us up to his last appearance…
2010: The First Kill
Posh pensioner Silas was the seemingly harmless patriarch of the Costello clan, who used to run the Dog in the Pond, but he lived a disturbing double life as a mass murderer who created fake online social media profiles and arranged dates with young women he thought were promiscuous, luring the unsuspecting ladies to their doom and murdering them.
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His first victims were students India Longford and Jenny, who were both bumped off and buried in the woods.
2011: Reign of Terror
Settling into the village, Silas targeted several local women, notably India’s sister Texas Longford and Mercedes McQueen. Suspicious nurse Lynsey Nolan was on to him and a long-running game of cat and mouse began as she tried to catch him out. Of course, no one believed Lynsey’s claims that Silas was a murderer and he painted her as an unstable fantasist. He strangled Rae Wilson, then kidnapped heavily pregnant Mercedes on her wedding day as punishment for her cheating on fiancée Riley Costello, Silas’s grandson, with his dad Carl Costello. He planned to kill her once she’d given birth in the pub cellar.
Plotting to kill nemesis Lynsey on Halloween, he accidentally did in his own daughter Heidi Costello (they were wearing the same fancy dress outfit, what are the chances?!) which led to him unravelling and his crimes being exposed. Silas was arrested and put in a mental institution.
2012: Back for Revenge
You can’t keep a good baddie down, and in 2012 Silas escaped his incarceration and confronted terrified Texas, tying her up and threatening to finish what he started – only to let her live at the last minute, but warning her he would bide his time and she would have to be looking over her shoulder for the rest of her life.
Smirking as he boarded a bus full of wild young women on a hen party, Silas was not seen again until…
2016: Defeating the Gloved Hand Killer
His last hurrah was another comeback in 2016 at the height of the Gloved Hand Killer storyline, in which nurse Lindsey Roscoe euthanised patients she deemed not worthy of living.
Having heard about the murders, an impressed Silas tracked her down and helped her escape the police. Promising to help Lindsey snatch baby son JJ from ex-lover Joe Roscoe and his new girlfriend Mercedes so she could go on the run, Silas was all set to kill old enemy Mercy – but there was a final twist in store.
Mercedes spilled to Silas about Lindsey’s adulterous past, and how she’d bedded Joe’s brother Freddie behind his back. This changed the game somewhat, and Silas turned on ‘loose woman’ Lindsey, killing her and leaving JJ with Joe before getting away one last time, sporting the trademark hat, black leather gloves and chilling expression that was all present and correct in 2020’s shock reappearance… Will he finally get Mercedes this time?
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