Coronation Street Weds 13th April episode review

Hello! It's Jordan again with the goings-on in last night's Corrie. This episode was written by Jonathan Harvey, which is always very promising. The camp level was certainly high, as was the amount of fabulous pop culture references.

As we all know- Maria's back. Unfortunately, she didn't return while singing 'My Favourite Things',
but her returning storyline is actually surprising interesting. It's early morning on the cobbles and the salon is occupied by the usual lot. With Maria back, she's back to her day job as someone who is supposed to be a hairdresser but spends most of her time drinking tea and sighing. Luke is very excited that she is back, but as we know from Monday's episode, she's hiding something. Most people go on holiday and come back with a tan, but if you're from Weatherfield, you'll no doubt come back with a secret. As the first scene in the salon unfolds, Maria is questioned by Audrey after she was spotted with another man the other night. Maria rightly tells Audrey to mind her own business but it is obvious she is panicking about something. When Luke calls into the salon to invite her for lunch, she fumbles her way out of it by saying she has a lunch date with an old friend in town. When Luke asks who, she cleverly takes inspiration from the song on the radio and tells him she's going to see Anastacia. Everyone, except Audrey, believes this and Luke decides to surprise his girlfriend with a huge bunch of flowers later in the day. She's already left for town by this point and despite Audrey's attempts to intervene, the rest of the salon gang persuade him to go to the restaurant in town and surprise her. When Luke gets to the restaurant, he spots Maria, but no Anastacia. Has she been left outside alone? Nope, there is a man sat with Maria. Oh no.

"This is Luke, my boyfriend"
"And who's this?"
"This is Pablo. My husband"

 

Luke pulls up a chair and after lecturing the waiter on the pronunciation of espresso, he demands an explanation. Maria reveals that Pablo was a regular at Reservoir Bobs, the salon she worked at during her six months in Cyprus.  She's quick to announce that he's gay, but this causes Luke to be even more confused. Pablo is Argentinian and this allowed him to obtain entry into the country; his parents aren't aware of his sexuality so that made things difficult. When questioned on her silence, Maria simply says she didn't think it was that important. It wasn't really, when you think about it. She was merely doing a friend a favour. Luke marches out of the restaurant, and on his way out, presents a random woman with the huge bunch of flowers. Later on, Luke goes to see sister Steph to tell her all the good news. He caught them together. Eating calamari. Whether it's family loyalty or just another case of closed-mindedness, Steph does not approve of the situation either. During what appears to be a family meeting in the Bistro, she sticks up for her brother and no-one seems to be listening to Maria. Throughout the episode Luke constantly said the word 'gay' in a hating, uncouth manner but he is fantastically put in his place. Although not officially broken up, at the end of the episode, Luke is still refusing to listen to Maria and leaves her standing, sighing, alone on the cobbles.

"You know what you are?"
"What? What is he?"
"A drama queen. Ciao, Maria"

Elsewhere, Erica gives some home truths to Gary about Izzy's cannabis. She has sussed out that he is trying to score drugs and gets him to promise he won't do anything silly that would jeopardise his job at the gym. If you've been reading my reviews lately, you'll know I'm not keen on this news-item of a stroryline, but Erica's small scene with Gary was rather sweet.  Tyrone and Fiz are still trying to earn money with their scrap metal scheme. At first, Fiz was reluctant, but after junk-expert Cathy had a word with her, she was totally on board. Rita gets on board too when Tyrone asks to display a sign in The Kabin window and she brings the ever-whinging Norris along with her. I'm not entirely sure what this storyline is supposed to be, but currently it seems to be a bit of light relief to go alongside al the other blockbuster storylines, the latest being that of sham marriage.

"Norris, is there any metal in you? Only you often strike me as the Tinman. No heart"
"Yes and you remind me of the Wicked Witch of the West"

Apart from a few small scenes with the Nazirs and that tarty nurse who is clearly more familiar with a make up brush than a set of scrubs,  the majority of the episode was taken up by Maria's problem. How are we going to solve this one? I wasn't expecting it to be a sham marriage at all; I was expecting it to be a typical affair. However, I do think it could turn out to be a rehash of the Tina/Graeme/Xin storyline in some ways but nonetheless, I am looking forward to it. 



A fantastically written episode, lots of camp fun, even in the more serious scenes. It didn't feature my favourite storylines, but you can always rely on Jonathan Harvey to write a fabulous episode.



Until next week.


Thanks for reading


Jordan


Twitter- @JordanLloyd39








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