Next week's Hollyoaks spoilers - Mercedes gets gunned down, but who did it?

The plot catalyst for making Mercy public enemy number one is the discovery of her recorded confession of causing the hit and run that paralysed Grace Black, and the death threat issued to tragic Harry Thompson to keep quiet about it – just weeks before his corpse was found in the woods.

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After the incriminating audio clip is played to a pub packed full of punters, battle lines are drawn and vendettas formed by those who have been wronged. Also coming to light is Mercedes' cuckolding of caring husband Sylver through her fling with bad boy Liam, and secret abortion of the child that could've been fathered by either of them.

Self-preserving Mercy does herself no favours by going on the defensive when challenged over her crimes (she didn't actually kill Harry, but true culprit, serial killer mother-in-law Breda, is only too happy to throw her under the bus), and publicly lays into James, Grace, Joel, Diane and Nana in a vicious verbal assault that may well be the most entertaining and jaw-droppingly outrageous soap scene of the week.

Even Jennifer Metcalfe, who has played the character for 13 years, reckons she's got it coming: "It's about bloomin' time," she says. "She's an absolute wrong one, I'm surprised this hasn't happened sooner."

So as Mercedes lies unconscious on the Loft dancefloor after the gun goes off, prepare for red herrings, ambiguous looks, shaky alibis, quivering lips and all-round melodramatic soapy fun as this refreshingly old-fashioned 'whodunnit' cranks up. My money's on Nana.

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