As brides-to-be go, you’re unlikely to see many as miserable as Kate Connor. Her hen night looming, she battles the excited factory folk, Sophie Webster, fiancée Caz, and her own feelings, and ends up calling it off. Caz puts two and two together, comes up with Sophie, and makes her anger known as Kate sobs.
Kate is all over the place, and proves herself to be weak as she fails to be true to anyone, including herself. At the heart of it all, whether she likes Sophie or not, she clearly doesn’t want to be with Caz, but doesn’t have the strength to cancel the engagement, and so goes for half measures by postponing the wedding. There is much toing and froing after she gets caught kissing Sophie and tries to convince Caz that it was all Sophie’s fault, and the latter then gets hurt on learning this from Caz before she hops in a taxi. We then hear Kate tell Aidan she knew exactly what she was doing when she kissed Sophie.
Faye Brookes conveyed the exasperation well in what was a challenging pair of episodes for Kate, but it’s difficult for me to buy into this storyline as I don’t feel much sympathy for any of the characters. Aside from Kate’s irritating inability to face the truth and deal with it, Caz showed a glimmer of her potential for violence which I’m no fan of, and if this develops, it’s not something I’ll be looking forward to watching.
While it’s never good to see the wonderful Tim Metcalfe suffering, I for one welcome the bumpy road that has risen before him with the appendage of Councillor to his wife’s name. Tim and Sally excel as a comedy couple, but for them to be truly authentic, there needs to be added layers to their their relationship, making this latest development an important one.
Both are set to dine with the esteemed Gerald and Anne regarding the new Frescho development, and as if patronising her husband by texting him ‘aide memoires’ concerning potential topics of conversation wasn't enough, Sally insists he be on his 'best behaviour'. He reluctantly gets dressed up and goes to the meal after Kevin advises ‘happy wife, happy life’, but arrives in time to hear a tipsy Sally talk about him being an antique glass dealer and charity worker, and how they’ve sacrificed having a large home in exchange for being at the heart of the community.
Clearly crestfallen, he walks out, and lets his feelings known later when she berates him at home for not turning up. He recalls her wedding vows in which she said she wouldn’t try to change him and it's therefore as frustrating for me as it is for him to hear her point out the man he could be, even after this reminder. When she finally says it’s okay, it’s something of a triumph to hear him assert himself and say it’s not okay with him.
We all love snobby Sally, but Tim’s disappointment and frustration lends a welcome realism to what it’s like to live with it. He is also sure to let her know that he has been counselling Sophie in her hour of need, and rather excellently too, showing that there is far more to Tim than sneaky swift halves and skiving, and Sally would do well to value him as he is.
As Robert and Tracy snog in the Bistro kitchen, it seems that stepping up to the plate and washing a few pots will suffice in the event that you want to rebuild trust after lying, hiding, spying, swindling and generally being a sly egg. On the lighter side of work romances, Aidan offers Eva her job back at Underworld, and she happily accepts.
She joins in the fun at the Rovers with Mary as Liz keeps up the pretense of being Amy’s Mum to win a night out with Chris. Amy shows shades of being her own person in some episodes, while in others, she’s clearly written to be mini-Tracy. In Friday’s double she manages to swindle £35 out of Liz in exchange for playing the role of her daughter. Liz's face and Chris's reaction were both amusing sights, but I do like to see other dimensions to Amy such as the child who, last Friday, was upset at her Dad not being around.
If we can thank Brendan of The Inexplicable fame for anything, it’s bringing out the more adventurous side in Mary. Nor did the experience douse her romantic ideals; if anything, it’s added an optimistic, mischievous, twinkly-eyed dimension to them. I find at the moment that, like Amy, different writers pen Mary in different ways. On some nights, she reverts to her pre-Brendan state, but on others, she sparkles anew, and I infinitely prefer the latter. She’s a delight in the Rovers as it’s prettily decorated for the hen that wasn’t to be, and adds a joyous Dubonnet infused dimension to proceedings. Long may her lust for life prevail.
Twitter: @ELHynes
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9 comments:
What in the world is Robert getting out of the relationship with Tracey? He looks like an idiot even being with her. Yes, we've seen a not so nice side of him, but come on! I can't wait for their breakup. Kate Ford does a good job making Tracey so frustratingly petty and snarky and selfish. I wonder if she gets tired of it?
I also like to see the other dimensions of Amy's character. It's fun to watch her outsmart the adults with skills she learnt from her mother but she's old enough to realise that Tracy is unhappy most of the time. Someone Amy respects should explain to her that mimicking her mother's behaviour isn't going to be a lot of help in the long term.
I would like to see Mary have a suitor slightly younger than herself. Because she normally goes after older men, she would initially be oblivious to his intentions. Mary would work best if she was part of a permanent double-act.
Sally is now just plain nasty. Her amusing snobbishness has given way to blatant lying and total disregard for Tim's feelings.
Cas. I totally agree with you. I was hoping it would've been Norris who won the election. It was so predictable that she would have delusions of grandeur. She has always loved the idea of living in Bowdon, but it's getting hard to watch, I wish she'd cut Tim some slack and stop putting him down. He was superb when talking to Sophie. I'm really not liking scenes with Sally at the mo
Cas and Anonymous 18:48 - agree completely. I don't love snobby Sally at all.
Bonnie from Canada
I don't love Sally, either -- never have. She's always been a nasty, superficial character and there's never been anything redeeming about her selfishness, misbegotten snobbiness and delusional thinking. I hope Tim dumps this harpy soon.
Sally could definitely use a slap back to reality; she is anything but amusing at the moment. Speaking of violence, Caz needs to just go away already. I have zero interest in anything related to Sophie so giving her screen time with YET ANOTHER romance is just boring as hell. If this show is to be believed, lesbians are incapable of anything productive outside of finding and losing a love interest. Give it a rest.
We are two weeks behind you, in Canada. I thoroughly enjoy Sally's snobiness. In real life, of course I wouldn't like her -- but on the show, I just love her! She makes me laugh so hard sometimes. But maybe the next 2 weeks will change my opinion? Hmmmmmm not sure it's possible for me.
I liked Sally's snobbishness when it was applied lightly, like Deirdre's pottery. It adds a dimension to an already rich character. Here and there, just a little whiff to remind us who she is, that works. Slapping it on with a trowel, not so much. You don't notice anything else about her right now, like she might in fact have the potential to be a good representative. (Ditto for crazy Mary and stupid Gail, btw.) Aiden taking her down a peg was the first time I've cheered for him ever.
The old joke: what do lesbians do on the 2nd date? Move in together. What's happened with Sophie ever since she came out? Oy! Give this once bright girl a chance to rebuild herself post-Maddie and make something of this business with her dad. She doesn't have to reach out and grab every Sapphic babe she meets, oooh look, another lesbian, maybe we'll get married. The only other thing they have in common is they work at daddy's business. Sophie is building it and has a chance, finally, to make something of herself. Kate is just hanging around until something better shows up; she's just as much a zero as Sophie was as a cashier. Maybe even less than zero because she has no history with us. Only Kirk has gotten to know her and he's a background character so it's mostly off camera.
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