Coronation Street episode review, Weds 11 November

"She'll get a ring on his finger, nag him into an early grave and bang goes my inheritance!"
"Yeah, you wanna watch that"
"Nessa. I mean, even her name sounds like a bank account"

Why hello there! Welcome to yet another (albeit slightly late-sorry!) Wednesday review.

I will start by saying first and foremost that I very much enjoyed tonight's episode. It was almost definitely a 'bridge' episode, but it worked very well, especially with the cliffhanger. There was a welcome break from the slightly frustrating Alya drama, a fair bit of comedy and plenty of Tracy Barlow, who I've missed recently. I'm not sure if I've ever announced it for fear of being shot down but Tracy Barlow is one of my all-time favourite characters. She's vile, but fabulous.

Anyway, on with the review. First of all, we visit Barlow's Buys where Tracy is lamenting to Beth about Nessa and letting Tony do all the work. As we saw in Monday's episode, Tracy is far from suited to the idea of her dad dating Nessa so soon after Deirdre has died. Of course, she doesn't want her mother replaced, but typically, Tracy's main concern is that of her inheritance if Ken remarries.

When Tracy notices Tony smile at Liz as she passes the shop, she becomes like a dog with a bone and won't let it drop. Her determination that something is going on is not in any way wavered by Tony's denial and the Wicked Witch of Weatherfield gets to work, spending her day digging and stirring.  Amy's violin bow is broken and unbelievably (but, as it's Tracy,  totally believable) Tracy has the audacity to barge into the back room at the Rovers and demand that Michelle pays the replacement costs since Steve is away. Liz and Michelle cannot believe their ears and send her packing. But Tracy isn't done stirring her cauldron yet. Oh no.
   
Liz is putting on a very convincing lying act to everyone, which is driving Tracy mad because she knows she's right. Liz is seeing Tony again and even voices her concerns to Tony about him still working alongside her at the pawn shop. Thus, Tony asks Tracy to buy him out for £6,000 and thereby fuelling more suspicions. She flies back over to the Rovers, where Michelle and Liz have conveniently not moved since her last intervention and accuses Liz of putting Tony up to leaving the business. Liz, again, shoots her down but Michelle is beginning to look suspicious now. As Liz later puts it about Tracy: "Evil she might be. Stupid she isn't."

At the end of the episode, Tony tells Liz of his plan to drain the joint account, which will leave Tracy penniless. This brings a wicked smile to Liz's face. Does she have a brain in that hair anymore?

"I'm going to clear the joint account tomorrow. It won't give me everything back but it's a start"
"Won't that take all her money"
"Every last cent"

Simon is back. He's been visiting Peter and Leanne is hoping that the holiday will have put an end to his physical outbursts. She and Eva have decorated the flat with 'Welcome back' banners and are planning a special lunch. However, there is a problem with the staff wages at the Bistro and Leanne has to sort it. This leaves Eva to go and collect him from the station. Simon arrives home looking nonchalant. He won't hug Leanne; he ignores his welcome home card and the efforts Leanne and Eva have gone to, sloping off to his room. Towards the end of the lunch, he seems a little more social but things turn nasty when Ken and Eva leave. He is full of anger and resentment towards Leanne for 'sending him away'.

"Why did you send me away?"
"You know why"
"Tell me again. It's been that long I've forgotten"

Elsewhere, to keep the tangled web of Platts-I mean, lies- sufficiently tangled, David tells Audrey that Kylie has an appointment with her drugs counsellor and she gets the afternoon off work. Of course, she doesn't. She's not on drugs but Kylie and David decide that lying, or rather, 'pretending' is the way forward if they want to keep their skeleton in the closet or their corpse in the manhole, as it were.

 Whilst Erica is performing her 'shopgirl' duties, she receives a phone call. There has been a family emergency involving her brother and she must dash off to sort it. Later on, in the pub, she tells Dev and Michelle of how she has put her foot down and left her feuding family to it, which leaves her needing a place to stay. Dev  kindly offers her the flat above the shop. Hmm. I wonder what is going to happen there.

A fantastic episode with some brilliant moments. The performance of the episode in my opinion goes to Kate Ford as Tracy and also, I'd like to give a mention to the darling Billy who always seems to brighten up a scene with his one-liners:

"Customers! This would be such a wonderful job if it wasn't for cus... Afternoon..."

"I'm sorry. I'm gonna have to go"
"Why can't you just leave it til tonight?"
"We could be looking at a murder inquiry if I leave it til then"

"It'd be a wonderful job if it weren't for the shop assistants too by the look of it"

As always, thanks for reading!


Jordan. Twitter @JordanLloyd39



Deirdre: A Life on Coronation Street - official ITV tribute to a soap icon. Available here.

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