EastEnders: what happened between Max and Steven?
What happened between Max Branning and Steven Beale in EastEnders? The brain tumour lie, the restaurant fire, Steven's death explained — and why Cindy blames Max.
Walford has a long memory and a longer list of grudges, but few of them are quite as awkward as this one: Max Branning slept with Cindy Beale at Christmas, anonymously, festively, and only afterwards did the pair clock that he is the man she holds responsible for her son's death. As Peter Beale helpfully put it on screen: "Well, he did kill her son." Cheers, Peter. Very Christmassy.
So, for everyone who was watching something else in 2017 (no judgement, it was a big year for Love Island), here's the Max and Steven saga in full.
The revenge tour that ate Steven Beale
Max came out of prison in 2016 having been framed for Lucy Beale's murder, and he was not in a forgiving mood. His masterplan required a useful idiot, and Steven — freshly returned to the Square, dating Max's daughter Lauren, and lying to her that he had a brain tumour — was practically gift-wrapped. Max found out about the lie and used it as leverage, blackmailing Steven into doing his bidding.
Aaron Sidwell, who played Steven, warned viewers at the time that his character would become "a puppet" in Max's hands. Reader, the puppet did not have a happy retirement.
The night it all went wrong
The short version of 7 September 2017, for those keeping score:
- Steven set fire to Ian's restaurant with Jane Beale inside;
- he then had an attack of conscience and refused to leave Jane to die;
- Max, who very much wanted Jane left to die, shoved him — straight into the corner of a counter;
- Steven was pulled from the fire and rushed to hospital, where he suffered a cardiac arrest and died of internal injuries to his liver — injuries caused not by the flames, but by Max.
The truth eventually came out via Tanya Branning, at which point Max's daughters disowned him, which felt about right.
Max's defence, such as it is
Jake Wood, bless him, has been doing his best PR for the character ever since. Speaking about the Cindy fallout, he told Digital Spy:
"It was an accident, so he didn't intentionally want Steven to die." — Jake Wood
Which is true, in the way it's true that you didn't intend to break the vase you threw at the wall. Max didn't plan Steven's death — he simply blackmailed a mentally unwell man, weaponised him against the Beales, and shoved him into a worktop during an arson he was happy to let play out. An accident, then. Cindy, understandably, is not persuaded, and Walford's messiest reckoning is only getting started.