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It’s Carla and Nick’s wedding and Tracy sabotages Carla’s flower order by sending the bridal bouquets to Crewe. Johnny finds out what’s she done and locks Tracy in the storeroom at Underworld to stop her doing any more damage to his daughter’s big day. But Tracy sets the fire alarm off and is rescued by Aidan. She arrives at the Bistro just in time to ruin Carla and Nick’s wedding and any chance of future happiness for them both. Carla’s already had a wobble in front of the registrar in the Bistro and she tells Nick she’s slept with Robert. It’s hard for Nick to take but he gets his head around it with help from David in the backyard at the Bistro. David reminds his brother that he slept with Kylie but David got over it, in time. And so Nick heads back into the Bistro to marry Carla and that’s when Tracy arrives with what she thinks is a bombshell.
“Sorry to rain on your grenade,” says Nick when he tells her he already knows that Carla slept with Robert. But Tracy has more ammunition and reveals to everyone that Carla gave her the money so that Robert to buy the Bistro. Nick wobbles but doesn’t fall and carries on and marries Carla, despite knowing this. However, when he stands to give his speech at the top table, he demands to know from Carla when she slept with Robert. He now knows that when Carla proposed to him she was doing so out of her guilt over her fling with the chef. Carla denies all and so, in a heartbreaking scene, Nick thrusts a white napkin at his new wife, he needs to see her face when she lies so that he can compare it with what she looks like when she’s telling the truth. “Tell me it’s red,” he implores her. “Tell me!” She can’t say anything, and Nick knows she’s lying about Robert and the proposal. I cried a little cry at this point.
Nick walks out of the wedding leaving Carla in tears. She gets into her car to drive away and when she revs up the engine, Tracy Barlow is caught in her headlights so she drives the car straight at her, intending to knock her down flat. At the last minute, Carla swerves the car but hits Cathy instead who’s taken to hospital with concussion. But Carla’s actions have much worse consequences when Tyrone’s tow truck swerves to avoid Carla’s car, and he drives the truck into Gail’s annexe. The weight of the truck is too heavy for the floor and it sinks… into the manhole where Callum is buried. His corpse is exposed and the cops swarm all over the Street.
Elsewhere this week, Cathy asked Roy to marry her but in all the wedding action of looking after Carla this week, he hasn’t yet given her an answer. Carla goes to hospital to visit Cathy and Roy, to try to apologise to them both, but Roy’s anger and hurt is palpable and he tells her to go. As Carla says her goodbyes on the cobbles to the Connors, Roy arrives just in the nick of time in the Weatherfield Wayfarer. “You need to learn to love yourself as much as we all love you,” Roy tells her before she is driven away in her dad’s car, in tears. I felt this was a very disappointing end to one of Corrie’s most powerful women of the last 10 years.
My personal highlights from this fabulous ‘big week’ are as follows:
- Gail slapping Carla hard across the face at the wedding reception when she finds out she’s been unfaithful to her Nicky-boy.
- Jenny Bradley dancing around the factory to “Trapped” while Tracy Barlow is locked inside the storeroom at Underworld.
- Audrey at the wedding reception: “I don’t see how things can get any worse for this family.” (before Callum’s body is found).
- Amy Barlow channeling both Blanche and Deirdre in decrying her mother’s actions at the wedding. A wonderful, powerful scene.
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This week’s writers were Mark Burt (Sunday); Julie Jones (Monday); Debbie Oates (Tuesday); Joe Turner (Wednesday); Jan McVerry (Thursday). Find out all about the Coronation Street writing team at http://coronationstreetupdates.blogspot.com/2008/11/exclusive-all-current-corrie-writers.html
Glenda Young
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Blogging away merrily at http://flamingnora.blogspot.com
Website: glendayoungbooks.com
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For all that it seemed like Amy was starting to take after her mother, I really thought these scenes of Amy turning against her mother were indeed very powerful. She's old enough to really see the kind of woman tracy is and realize the damage she does to other people. She only saw her mother making smart alec snarky remarks before and it was funny to her, not realizing that the remarks do hurt people sometimes, and not really realizing what was behind the scenes.
ReplyDeleteWhy in God's name would anyone on the street buy their flowers from TracY? Unbelievable!
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit confused, Carla proposed to Nick before she slept with Robert so that bit didn't make sense?? She didn't propose out of guilt.
ReplyDeleteThere was some terrific acting this week. Nick, who's intermittent brain damage I have trouble accepting, was so deserving of sympathy. He is a damaged man who got crushed by forces out of his control. If this is what his condition is, I hope TPTB remember in future stressful situations (and he gets proper therapy).
ReplyDeleteAmy: yeah, she's older and exposed to more of the world. I am soooo glad she got to see her horrible mother for what she really is. I hope she goes all the way and changes her last name to McDonald. She's only right next door, but needs as much distance from Tracy as possible.
Romances: I like Jenny and Johnny both more and more every day but I'm not sure there is a spark there. She was much more natural with Kevin and he was with Liz. Cathy and Roy, no, not yet. Her proposing to him was ridiculous.
Missing in action:
- Simon: Amy was there, presumably, as Carla is her ex-aunt. Nick is his ex-stepfather.
- Leanne: not as a guest but to run the bistro reception.
- Norris: There was so much fodder for the gossip mill this week, where was he?
Leanne said she was taking Simon to visit Peter this week, so as not to have to cope with the anniversary of Kal's death.
DeleteIn Canada, we haven't seen Simon for ages and ages!
ReplyDeletenorris fell into a vat of рear droрs! :)
ReplyDeleteI hope Amy sticks to her guns and stays with Steve and Michelle. It would mean that Tracy had nothing left in Weatherfield as her father offers her very little. Time's up for this character. Let her go.
ReplyDeleteI wondered why was Amy at the wedding but not Max or Kylie?Kylie is Nick's sister-in law and Max his step-nephew.It makes more sense to see them rather than Amy.
ReplyDeleteGail's behaviour is creepy at best - there's such a skin-crawling incestuous vibe to her obsession over her sons (Nick in particular).
ReplyDeleteAlso missing-in-action: Steph.
ReplyDeleteDavid said that Max had been vomiting which was why he wasn't at the wedding. I'm not sure whether that was also the reason why Kylie stayed home.
But did anyone understand the significance of Max's parachutist landing on Carla's car?
Anonymous: I had a right laugh about Norris falling into the pear drops!
ReplyDeleteRapunzel: I've lost track alltogether of Steph and Andy! I love them and wish they were more threaded into the show. As for the parachute toy ... that's a great question! I felt it was poignant, and I kind of like that there was something tender and sad about it (but subtly so) and that it wasn't hitting me over the head with foreshadowing.
Maybe it was just the last carefree thing for Max to do as the world of grown-ups around him implodes.
Amy had the best line in the whole episode when her mother was whining and she proposed getting her violin. I hope the writers realize what a great character she already is and how much potential she has in future storylines.
ReplyDeleteRapunzel, max was sick so Kylie agreed to stay home with the babies so that Sarah could go to her brothers wedding
ReplyDeleteThis recap isn't quite right. When Nick asked Carla to lie about the white napkin, and she didn't, that didn't confirm that she proposed to Nick out of guilt. What it did was demonstrate that Nick cannot trust Carla to tell him the truth anymore. He has no idea when she is lying and will be always suspicious and doubtful. End marriage.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Carla revved the engine AFTER she saw Tracey. And I don't think Carla hit Cathy. Cathy was hurt because she fell trying to avoid the car.