Hiya! It’s just Jordan with my thoughts on this Friday’s
trip to Weatherfield. After a short break, I’m ready to bitch and moan once again
about our favourite Street. I can’t pretend that I’m enjoying Corrie as much as
usual ever since the inundation of the sixth episode but that doesn’t mean
Friday’s episodes weren’t without their scarce positives.
Nicola is still moping around with the age-old soap dilemma
of whether to follow in Madonna’s footsteps and keep her baby – or not. Let’s
just ignore the fact that Nicola only slept with Gary a mere three weeks ago so
clearly holds the world record for fastest plumbing and try to make the best of
the irritatingly cliché plot device.
After receiving some advice from new stepmother Eileen earlier in the
week, Nicola decides it’s time to visit a friend of her late mother and fill
her in on all the daft drama of her life. Lydia is initially thrilled to heard of
Nicola’s pregnancy, but supports her choice to have a termination if she chooses
to do so. However, Lydia seems to struggle when Nicola casually slips into
conversation that Isaac is not her biological father as she had believed for all
her life up until four months ago. Things are only made worse for this random
new character when Nicola shows her a photo of Pat on her phone. Lydia takes an
odd turn; she appears to recognise Pat but won’t let on. Instead, she politely
kicks Nicola out. So, yet another clever-but-not-clever twist in the Pat Phelan
epic saga. This random woman who claims to know nothing about Annabel’s affair
nearly thirty years ago just happens to be linked to Phelan.
That Pat Phelan is a very busy
man. Recently, amateur journalist who is
apparently sleeping his way to the top (nothing wrong with that), has been covering
the story of an apparent award won by Vinny Ashford, Phelan’s partner in crime
from that property scam a million years ago. Phelan is now going to desperate measures
to make sure the truth doesn’t come out. Daniel visits Vinny’s elderly mother
Flora once again in the care home. It’s her birthday and her son always contacts
her on her birthday, so Daniel is hoping to get an interview. Phelan, posing as
Alan, once again fakes his way into visiting Flora, claiming that she was his
aunt. Now, he’s convinced the receptionist to tell Daniel that her birthday was
two weeks ago, in order to prevent him getting an interview. With Daniel gone,
this leaves Phelan to videocall Vinny – or as it transpires, Harvey - in Flora’s
room. After getting the elderly woman to leave the room, he orders his former
crime partner to meet him or, along with his mother, face the consequences. Phelan’s
not finished yet though. He’s only gone and tracked down Daniel’s boss’s
husband and told him what she’s been doing with her protégée. How does he know
all these people? A scuffle in the Bistro tells me that Daniel’s journalism
career won’t be going much further and neither will Daniel himself, given that
when Phelan visits the cellar, he tells Andy he’s found his replacement
prisoner. And as if things couldn’t get any more bleakly twisted, the episode
closed with Phelan loading a gun.
Can I stop talking about the tangled
Phelan web now? Good. What else happened? Well, in scenes that saved the
episode from being a tangled travesty akin to EastEnders, Liz is struggling in her new role as an employee at the
Rovers. At first, she appears to be loving it; it’s her old job without the
stress. Or so she seems. Toyah is unfortunately settling into her role as
landlady a little too well – despite the lack of beehive and cleavage. The
managerial empowerment is going to her head as she orders Liz to unclog the
toilets and doesn’t allow her to have an early finish. Not how Liz used to run
the place at all! When Toyah notices a problem with the pump and asks Liz to
fix it, the former landlady finally snaps. She goes on her break, helping
herself to a large glass of red without hesitation. Toyah’s power made ego is
soon shot down, though. Tom Ridley – as in Newton and Ridley – calls in for a
pint. He greets Liz fondly and she introduces the new landlady. When Mr Ridley
tastes his pint, he is less than impressed. Unfortunately, Liz forgot to sort
that dodgy pump out early but she works ever so hard to stifle a smile when Tom
announces to a flustered Toyah that he may have to cut off their supply.
Elsewhere, Summer landed herself
in trouble at school after spray-painting a massive unmentionable on the
headteacher’s car as part of a dare. Billy can see she is upset because it is
her late father’s birthday tomorrow, but the stubborn genius won’t admit it.
Foster dad Todd has landed himself in trouble with the law. Earlier, Alya bought
a machine from a dealer, which turned out to be property of the factory before
it was cleared out by Adam Barlow. A business card for Todd and Adam’s business
was found at the premises where she bought it and now the police are very suspicious.
Still, they let him go for the day but are sure to be back in touch soon. As
well as all that, the ostensibly broody Rana finally admitted her feelings of
lust towards Kate, just after accepting Zeedan’s marriage proposal. The nurse
sat and cried about how she may or may not be a lesbian, before Kate decided to
do her “I’m not talking to you” routine which she has been doing to just about
everyone over these last few weeks. No doubt an affair is long overdue. We haven’t
had one in about two months. Oh, and
Mary’s long lost son returned to the country, this time to move onto the Street
permanently, brining his African wife with the Manchester accent with him.
My God, that was a hard one to
review! So much happened but of so little interest. Please stop it with the
ridiculously contrived twists and turns in overblown storylines! Although the
acting in these storylines must be praised, Corrie’s charm is in its smaller
storylines, which are traditionally filled with the camp wit that made Corrie
the institution it is. Maybe Friday's episodes simply fell victim to the curse of their airdate.
As always,
Thanks for reading!
Jordan
Twitter - @JordanLloyd39
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