Coronation Street Episode Review Monday 17th July

Aidan sells his car to help with the deposit for the flat purchase, and Eva's feeling guilty about it, until she sees that hussy Maria smiling sadly across the street at Aidan. Someone else is after Aidan's dough - Adam needs money to do up his new office and he tries to blackmail Aidan for a further £10K. Aidan has threats of his own, to go to the police and the law society, but Adam retaliates by taunting him, telling him to divulge his secret to his fiancée. Realising Adam knows about the affair, Eva doesn't want the jig to be up, so she fakes a faint, and meets Adam in the ginnel to tell him a pack of lies about why he should stop blackmailing Aidan. She says that she loves him and wants to raise the baby together but unfortunately for her, Adam comes back to the flat to pick up his keys and spots two glasses of wine and now it's Eva who's the blackmailee. Either she helps him destroy Aidan or Adam'll tell her fiancé what she's up to. Ooh, that ginnel could tell some tales.

"You can't play fast and loose with yer spleen," says Eileen wisely. Which means Shona's staying chez Grimshaw where David finds her to ask her to find fellow victim Lara in order to testify against Nathan, although Shona thinks there's no point, much to David's disgust. Shona and Bethany bond at the bus-stop over their shared nightmare, but whilst Shona has moved on, Bethany is still in a deep depression, saying she feels like she's been "rubbed out". So Shona (ess aitch oh enn ay Shona) goes to the nearest park and soon finds her girl. But Lara wasn't under Nathan's spell: she tells Shona and David that Nathan provided her with food and shelter, but since Bethany went to the filth, she's hungry and homeless. Despite them putting pressure on her, Lara does a Shona and flees the scene with David's wallet.

Bored at the yard, Seb starts poking around Phelan's laptop and finds a news story about Nicola, which he uses against Pat when his boss chews him out for throwing bits of wood around the yard. Phelan's not in the mood and promptly sacks him. Funny how Phelan is taking on the bad dad role with Seb, just as his own father was emotionally abusive with him. We don't really know much about Seb's family - when he first started dating Fay(e), he seemed to be a spoilt brat from a well-off family, but now it appears that he's a neglected kid: his parents have never met Anna and didn't seem to visit him in the Young Offenders' Institute. Nor have they checked in on what kind of man is mentoring their son - perhaps Pat's attention, however unpleasant, replaces the lack of attention from his parents.

Eileen confesses that a) she went to see Nicola and b) she's told Seb about Nicola's possible parentage, which, considering Pat's temper, he takes pretty well. Unbeknownst to them, Seb contacts Nicola and tells her that Pat is dying!

Cathy (Catherine Wheel) has stayed the night at Brian (B-Pac)'s and he shows her his megaphone over the breakfast table. He's soon using it, blaring at Phelan and Gemma about dropping litter. B-Pac finds a receipt for a salt and pepper mill and uses his detective skills to try to work out who discarded it. "Obviously someone with affluenza," he muses, as the items were bought at the Trafford Centre in the middle of the day, "I thought you said they weren't ill," comments Gemma. Anyway, the receipt belongs to Roy and Brian issues him with a £70 FPN (£50 if paid within 10 days). Brian won't listen to reason and even though Roy withholds his butterfly bun, he's determined to press on with the fine.

And finally, Luke and Alya grow closer, bonding over Kate being annoyed with them after they made a mess of the flat. Obnoxious, much?

Rachel Stevenson - on twitter

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