Big Hole: Fri May 27, 2011 Corrie Episode Review

7:30

Written by Martin Allen, directed by Peter Rose

John visits his captives with some coffees and snacks and asks Alan how his head is.  Chesney begs to get let go, but John says “all in good time.”  Dorothy says that he needs a doctor.  John’s captives try to loosen the bar rail they’re attached to down in the cellar so that they can escape.  Eventually, they actually get themselves loose and manage to rip the bar off.  They can now stand up and walk around, but they can’t get through the cellar door to get out of the basement still, despite Chesney’s best efforts with a bar stool. 

Carla bites into Owen about hurrying up the job on Underworld since she’s losing money.  John overhears that Owen needs someone new to work on the digging, so he volunteers his help, and Owen has no choice but to accept since he’s down a man.  We all know why John’s volunteered for this position.  Fiz is upset that John has a job – especially when John tells her it’s to get some money for when they run away from Colin.  She reminds him that they’re not running away.  John works his scheming little arse off at the factory just determined to find Colin’s body before anyone else and Owen is impressed with his efforts.  John pours a bag of sugar into the compressor machine so that it will malfunction and he can halt the digging process and buy himself more time – which is what he’s been doing since day one really.  Fiz comes to see John and to bring him some sandwiches.  The compressor breaks, and Fiz is glad thinking that now they’re “tools down” for it to be fixed, John can get a rest. 

At Izzy’s flat (never seen before!) we see her and Gray eating breakfast.  She mentions that her arm is hurting since she bumped it in the shower.  Gary is concerned and thinks she should see a doctor, just to be on the safe side with her condition and all.  Izzy is upset that he’s fussing over her and tells her to forget it.  Gary later tells Izzy that he booked her an appointment at the medical centre for her elbow.  She makes him cancel the appointment, but when he won’t she cancels it herself and tells him to mind his own business.  Later, Katy complains that she still hasn’t heard from Chesney to Izzy.  She says her exams are a complete waste of time since she keeps throwing up.  She admits to Izzy that her father might be right about her having an abortion.  Katy tells Izzy that it wasn’t supposed to be this way, and she’s going to that abortion appointment. 

Amy and Tracy go into town and refuse a ride from Steve, who tells Tracy it’s not too late to change things.  Tracy says that she and Amy are moving, period.  Diddy Daddy David is STILL going on about Max and Kylie’s rights to see him and all.  David convinces her to go to Becky and Steve and push the issue further.  At the Rovers, David makes his way to the back past Betty to see Becky and Kylie follows.  Becky wants him out of there and tells him that there’s no way he’s taking Max to the park.  Becky shoves David and Kylie out of the back room and locks them out.  Betty calls Steve to tell him what’s going on, and he rushes to the Rovers. 

Graeme and Xin have to plan their “breakup script” for the party.  They both aren’t looking forward to it since neither of them are arguers.  Actually, it’s because they like each other.  Xin snaps at Graeme since she’s so upset over leaving.  She reminds him that they only have so much time together and she wants to enjoy it.  Graeme says it’s all pretend, but Xin says that pretend is a dangerous game.  They both reminisce about what they’ll remember about each other in their short time together.  Graeme tells her that she’ll leave a big hole, but she says Tina can fill it.  At the Rover’s, Tina forces Graeme to think of an argument that will break he and Xin up, but Graeme is wishy-washy.  Tina invites as many people as possible to their flat to witness the breakup but it’s making Graeme nervous. 

8:30

Written by Peter Whalley, directed by Peter Rose

Steve arrives at the Rovers and gets rid of David and Kylie pronto.  His problems are far from over, because Tracy comes into the pub to announce to him that she’s got a job in a florist shop in London and she and Amy are moving down there.  She says she’ll let them know when she’s going and they can wave them off.  Steve is upset over Amy, but Becky is only concerned with Max.  Steve gets mad at her for preferring Max over Amy.  Becky gets a wise idea to “talk” to Tracy in a civilized fashion.  Only, there’s really no doing that.  It was all a waste of time, since Becky’s pleas to keep Amy around for Steve’s sake fall on deaf ears.  She leaves, and tells Steve that she went to talk to Tracy, and Steve gets angry with her for interfering.  Later, Steve spills all to Lloyd and Lloyd figures that the best thing that could happen is if social services find out about Max and that they won’t give him back to the crazy mother (Kylie), they’ll keep him there with Steve and Becky and the power that Tracy has over him will be gone.  WOW, Lloyd finally cracked the ridiculous case of Max-for-sale.  Steve says that Becky might go bananas, but “what can you do about that?” Precisely.  Lloyd’s starts sweating over Steve taking his suggestion seriously.  Steve figures that sometimes a man has to gamble. 

John’s plan to halt the digging backfires when Owen passes around sledgehammers and announces that they’ll dig up the floor the old fashioned way.  Luckily, they haven’t found anything yet, and John offers to stay and clean up then lock up afterwards.  Meanwhile, John’s captives still can’t get out of the basement and worry that he’ll either never return to let them out, or only return to “finish them off.” Back on the street, John goes back to “finish work” again, and Fiz complains to Maria that she suspects that John is up to something, since he’s not himself.  Whatever himself is these days?  At Underworld, John digs through until the stench arises and he’s finally unearthed Colin’s rug-wrapped remains.  Owen arrives at Fiz’s inquiring about Chesney and Fiz asks about John.  Owen says they closed down working a long while ago, and this worries Fiz since John said he was working late.  Fiz leaves the baby with Maria and rushes over to the factory worried about John.  Fix finds John in the factory looking guiltily over the stench of the colin-in-a-rug and looks horrified.  How is he going to get out of this one now?

Graeme tells Xin that when she goes up to Edinburgh he and Tina could come visit her, but she doesn’t believe that’ll happen.  At the party, Graeme and Xin are nervous about their planned row.  David takes his chance to tell Tina that Graeme and Xin seem cosier than ever as a married couple.  At the party, Graeme and Xin start up their argument, however it starts to turn very real as they fight over the fact that they’ll never be able to be together and how Tina can’t keep pretending anymore.  Tina watches with anger in her eyes over seeing that there’s more of a connection between these two than she thought.  She leaves Graeme there for the night in anger, leaving him there with Xin.  Xin admits to Graeme when they’re alone that there was no job in Edinburgh, and the only person she wants to be with is her husband – him.  She admits she lied because she wanted to get away from there and him since she loves him.  Graeme tells her he doesn’t want her to go, and that’s honest.  The two of them look into each other’s eyes and realize their feelings for one another and kiss.

Izzy tells Gary later that with all the time off she’s got now, she’s realized she should have gone to art school.  She thought that just having a job was an achievement because of her disability but now she thinks she should have aimed higher.  Gary, like any man, of course feels that if she’s bored with her life, that means she’s bored with him. 

HIGHLIGHTS

- It’s nice to see Izzy’s flat since she’s such a regular character now.

- Tracy and Amy’s matching red tops. 

- Gary’s such a nice devoted boyfriend.  Good thing he doesn’t take after his father in that regard. 

- Sean to Marcus: “Would you have me any other way?” Marcus: “There’s an answer to that.”

- David to Becky about Max: “Look, we have a right.”  Becky: “And you’ll have a left in a minute if you don’t get lost.”

- The way Steve patronized Diddy Daddy David.  Too bad he doesn’t treat his wife that way too.  Ha-ha. 

LOWLIGHTS

- Why does Izzy’s flat seem like the only home with much natural light in it on Corrie?

- David STILL going on about Max and how Kylie has a right to see him.  Could we just put the Max storyline to bed? It’s well past it’s bedtime now. 

- I don’t even know why I’m saying this, but doesn’t anyone on the street find it a BIT strange that Tina is inviting people to Xin’s going away party (the woman that her boyfriend cheated on her, then married – which is all anyone else should know) AND attended the party? 

- Poor little Max with all these scary, crazy people in his life.  I think it’s ironic that everyone claims to “not want to upset Max” when all they’re ever doing is upsetting this kid.  He should have been adopted out to the Windasses.

- Why on earth is Kylie cage dancing with Tommy Duckworth?  What is with Tommy Duckworth and his obsession with other guy’s girls?

- Can you IMAGINE how bad Colin’s remains must smell?!