Friday’s episode of Hollyoaks had fans horrified by Mitchell’s sudden homophobic attack on Azim.
Despite coming out to his mum in Hollyoaks, Mitchell was forced back into the closet after his grandfather Walter set him up on a date with Abigail from church.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Mitchell takes Abigail to the The Dog, where Mitchell’s secret ex Scott Drinkwell is on stage performing his drag act, Anita Tinkle.
Mitchell attempts to drink away his problems, and date Abigail storms off after Mitchell tries to kiss her.
Back on stage, Scott reads out a slip of paper, saying, “This one says, what is the best way to ask my amazing, gorgeous boyfriend to move to London with me?”
Scott walks over to Azim and gleefully accepts, but Mitchell witnessed the whole thing and doesn’t look pleased about it. This is when he decides to confront Azim as he tries to make his way home.
Azim tells Mitchell that he didn’t realise he was there, but Mitchell soon launches into a homophobic attack, saying, “Since when have you gays ever cared about what anybody else thinks?”
Bewildered, Azim says, “You’re gay too Mitchell” to which Mitchell snaps back “No! No… I’m nothing like you.”
He goes on to accuse Azim of “rubbing his sexuality in everyone’s face” and tells him not to touch him as he “doesn’t know where he’s been”.
A clip of Azim’s rant was shared to the Hollyoaks Twitter account, with the caption, ‘What Mitchell did to Azim was horrendous! Do you think you'd ever be able to forgive him?’
One fan wrote, “Scott better not defend Mitchell to Azim. What Mitchell said to him was horrible!! Azim didn't deserve that at all #Hollyoaks xx”
Another added, “It was an abhorrent act and Azim is clearly scarred from it. In time if Mitchell seeks help and shows remorse he could he forgiven but it can never be forgotten. Some things stay with u. In Mitchell’s case all he can do is try and be better.”
And a third said, “This is self loathing on Mitchell's part... He can't admit to himself what he is and that he loves Scott, but also can't bear seeing Scott happy n moving on (without him) but what he did to Azim was DISGUSTING!! No two ways about it...”
Some fans think that Mitchell regretted his drunken homophobic rant; with a Hollyoaks Twitter poll revealing that 81% of fans didn’t think he meant what he said.
Do you think Azim will be able to forgive Mitchell?
Hollyoaks is shown weekdays on C4 at 6.30pm with the next episode following on E4.
