Blood, Booze and Tears: Mon Mar 21, 2011 Corrie Episode Review

7:30pm

Written by Martin Allen, directed by Duncan Foster

Tensions are tight between Steve and Becky, as Steve’s on his last string, and Becky’s pulling that string taught.  Becky tries to argue with Steve over his mother.  Liz can’t help herself and takes the digs in on Becky.  Becky has an extremely low patience for, well, anything.  Including Liz.  When Graeme comes in with his order to Liz for the wedding reception, Becky kicks off knowing that Liz has approved Kylie’s wedding reception at The Rovers.  It comes to blows when Becky tries to defend Roy against Liz.  Becky grabs a bottle of liquor and storms out – as expected.  Becky sees Steve with the bottle come out of The Rovers and screams at her.  Becky figures that if Liz thinks she’s a low-life, she’s going to act like one.  Steve orders her to go back to work, but Becky says she’s going to the Weatherfield Arms to get wasted.  The only person happy to see Becky a mess, is of course, Tracey. 

Becky, in her drunken state, sees Kylie and David chatting about their wedding and gets thinking.  She runs around to No.8 and pushes past a stern but whispering Gail.  She finds Kylie and starts to pick a fight.  Kylie tries to call her bluff, but it turns into an all-out cat fight as Becky attacks Kylie as David unsuccessfully tries to pull her off, and Gail watches in horror from a safe distance.  Becky casts David’s lithe body aside and proceeds to grab Kylie.  Kylie gets on her and punches her in the nose.  They finally get Becky out and she’s off on another rampage.  Becky is too drunk to wipe the blood off her face for the duration of the episode, so be warned.  Becky goes back to The Rovers and officially kicks Liz out.  Liz tells her she’ll regret that, and leaves.

Janice is shocked to find that Chesney and Katy are moved into her flat.  Out with the old, in with the new?  She’s even more shocked to see Trev back on the street.  Seems he’s back on bins.  Janice invites him out for a drink later. 

Maria avoids Tracey when she tells her how red hot Frank was.  At Underworld, Maria tries to drum up some old business by Carla quickly shoots her down, as those were old contacts.  Carla announces to the factory girls that their hours are now being reduced.  Later, in The Rovers, Janice proposes to the other factory girls that they strike to keep their jobs.  Carla overhears this and sacks Janice for being a trouble-maker and a lazy worker.  She reminds the other factory girls that if they stop working, it’s liquidation. 

Kevin thinks that Sally and he can talk about dividing their assets together instead of wasting too much solicitor time.  Sally thinks he’s trying to get back in her good graces, but agrees to meet him in The Rovers later.  Meanwhile, Cheryl pays Sally a visit at her home to do a measure-up.  Cheryl gives the home a once-over and says she’ll be ripping all of Sally’s old-style decor up.  Sally can’t help but feel offended.  In The Rovers later with Kev, Kev suggests cutting everything down the middle.  And as for the house, she can stay there as long as she likes.  Way to go, Kevin.  Cheryl and Lloyd go into The Rovers, and Kev tells them about the house.  Sally takes this opportunity to remind Cheryl that she’d only have to replace everything anyway, no hard feelings. 

Pigs must be flying somewhere, since John Stape has been let out of the mental health institute.  He should go straight into prison, not back home, in my humble opinion.  Chesney thinks it’s a good thing and that John might even be made a decent husband out of by her.  Fat chance of that happening. 

8:30pm

Written by Peter Whalley, directed by Duncan Foster

Liz is taken in for a cuppa by Eileen after she’s been kicked out of her own pub, while everyone else watches in horror as Becky gets more drunk in her bloodied state behind the bar.  Sean quickly takes over the mast of The Rovers from Becky while Hayley pulls her away into the back while she blubbers about Liz staying away.  Hayley tells Becky that Steve can’t see her like that, but Becky is so full of “poor me’s” that it’s useless.  Hayley wants to know what caused all of this but Becky can’t tell her.  All she can do is complain about how she’s ruined her life – again.  Steve arrives and sees the state of Becky, so Hayley leaves.  Becky immediately blames Liz and says that she’s gotten in a fight with Kylie.  Becky says that she’ll not have Liz looking at her “like that.”  Like she’d just crawled out of the gutter.  Well, that’s exactly how she looks.  Steve, of course, cannot deal with this.  Steve makes Becky drink cups of coffee and to tell her exactly what happened. 

Over at Eileen’s, Liz tells her there’s stuff that’s gone on that she’d never believe.  Eileen can’t believe that Becky’s thrown Liz out.  Eileen figures that Steve will take Becky’s side like he’s done it on everything else.  Liz says she feels sorry for Steve, since he can’t just walk away.  Liz can’t understand how their marriage survives.  Steve calls Liz and Liz tells him what went down – the sober version.  Steve asks Liz what she wants to do, but Becky won’t let Liz come back.  Steve goes to see Liz at Eileen’s to try and smooth things over. He basically asks Liz to be the one to change.  Becky emerges from The Rovers with Liz’s best frocks in her arms.  She marches back out onto the cobbles with the dresses and tosses them into the air, as they land in a puddle right in front of a bewildered audience, including Liz and Steve.  Liz almost tears her apart as she’s held back.  Steve couldn’t look more disappointed.  Becky has completely lost it.  Becky yells at Steve and Liz saying that The Rovers is HER home, and she won’t have Liz living there.  Eileen invites Liz back to hers while Hayley and Julie pick up Liz’s frocks from the water.  Back inside, Steve tells Becky that she’s pushing him away.  Steve is angry that he let Tracey keep Amy, so Becky could have Max.  Speaking of which, who is watching him? 

Maria realizes she has to apologize to Frank to get that order back and Carla agrees.  They agree to meet Frank in the office of Underworld.  Maria swallows her pride as she tries to convey a meaningful apology.  Frank eventually agrees that he’ll put through the order, since the apology was sufficient enough.  Maria is further haunted by Frank when he’s sidled up to Tracey at the Rovers and makes her stay for a drink. 

The Barlow's are back, Simon and all, from honeymoon holiday.  Janice clearly wasn’t expecting them, as she’d been in their flat smoking endless fags and drinking cans.  For what reason?   Peter isn’t delighted to see Janice and can’t get rid of her fast enough.  Leanne is worried about Janice but finds she’s been living in Julie’s flat.  Janice leaves, saying she’ll be fine.  Poor Jan is a sight cast out onto the street in the rain.  Lucky, her knight in shining leather (Trev) finds her and asks her for a pint so he can hear about her burglary.  Carla sees Trev in the pub, and it’s slightly awkward.  Trev tells Jan that he shouldn’t have left as he did.  He made a mistake going back to his ex and so he went back to Weatherfield. 

Sally goes out for her date with Jeff as a recovering Sophie and Sian eat cheese puffs on the couch.  Jeff flirts with staying over the night at Sally’s but Sally’s taking it slow.  However, it looks like this girls’ moved on and there’s no chance for a reconciliation that Kev might have been expecting. 

HIGHLIGHTS

- “Can’t tie my shoe laces.”  He speaks!  I think that’s the first line that I’ve ever heard Max Turner utter. 

- Trev’s back!

- Steve to Becky, “Well, act the grown-up!”  Ha-ha. 

- I don’t normally approve of cat-fights, but I can’t lie, I did laugh hard when Becky pushed David out of the way when he tried to get her off his fiancé. 

- Becky to Liz: “You’re a tart with a bus pass.” 

- I loathe Becky, but great acting from Katherine Kelly. 

- The stunned looks on the factory girls faces as they watched a drunken bloody Becky pour more booze down her gullet. 

- Tracey aiding Becky in her destruction. 

LOWLIGHTS

- SO sick of all of the drama that is Becky Granger McDonald.  Will Steve finally kick this tramp to the curb?!  She has completely lost it. 

- How can Kev take back the house if he already sold it to Lloyd and Cheryl?  Did I miss something?

- Poor Liz and the abuse she took from Becky today.  She did egg Becky on, but she didn’t deserve it. 

- Becky to Steve: “We were fine until she came back.”  Steve: “Were we?  That’s a matter of opinion, isn’t it?” 

- Why WAS Janice in the Barlow flat smoking fags and drinking cans?!  Why didn’t she go back to Julie’s, where she lives? 

- How passive can Steve GET?  Meandering between his demanding mother and demanding wife?  Choose a side, and stay put!

- Poor Julie always wondering why love happens to everyone but her – even Hayley.  She really does need a good storyline here!