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3. Pat Phelan's Reign Of Terror (2016-2018)
Okay I know he's not to everyone's taste, so just skip my rambling if you're not a Phelan fan, because I could write a whole book about how brilliant I think he is. (Disclaimer here - I'm not a psychopath, I wouldn't be an admirer if he was real, I just appreciate a good old bit of drama.) What I loved about Phelan was that originally he wasn't just your ruthless soap serial killer, he had other layers to him and he did seem to genuinely love some of the people around him. Anyway, he started off (fairly) small, by making Anna Windass sleep with him in order for Owen and Gary to keep their jobs, but he soon progressed to bigger and better things.
A couple of years later, after Michael uncovered Phelan's scam with Vinny, he tragically suffered a heart attack before he could tell anyone, and Pelan sat back and watched him die. Shortly afterwards, Michael's sort of son Andy makes what would ultimately be the biggest mistake of his life and clobbers Phelan over the head, believing him to be responsible for Michael's death. This led to Phelan blackmailing Andy and eventually smashing his head with a laptop, leaving Andy's girlfriend Steph to leave the country without him.
Several months later however, it was revealed that Phelan hadn't murdered Andy but had in fact been holding him hostage all this time (best twist EVER!). Phelan then tracked down Vinny, who had conned him out of their scam, and in an episode that got loads of complaints but was actually such an exciting night (why on earth am I currently without a boyfriend?!), Phelan forced Andy to shoot Vinny dead before turning the gun on Andy himself (I can't lie, that was a bit devastating, I was so convinced that Andy would somehow get out alive).
His long lost daughter Nicola also discovered that she was in fact the result of Phelan's rape of her mother, young Seb was tricked in to handling the gun that had killed Vinny and Andy, Luke realised the truth about Phelan and was promptly blown up (again a brilliant twist which I didn't see coming), and Anna was framed for the attempted murder of Seb and sent to prison. Phelan eventually confessed his crimes to his shocked wife Eileen, who promptly let him fall into the sea, supposedly to his death, but he was actually in hiding, until Gary tracked him down and brought him back to the street (seriously, why would you?).
Obviously it wasn't long before he broke out (how brilliant was the scene with him roaming the street to Joy Division - Atmosphere?), and went straight to Eileen's where he accidentally shot Nicola before crashing Robert and Michelle's wedding where he shot Michelle. But Anna had secretly been released from prison and she stabbed the evil psycho in his cold dark heart and, knowing his game was up, Phelan pulled the knife out, resulting in a pretty quick death. Anna had got the ultimate revenge, and walked away a free woman, while the street was free of Phelan's evil forever (such a shame). I really tried to do a brief write up on this one but it was so action packed it hasn't really worked out. Sorry about that.
Guest blog post from Jade Rainbow who is on Twitter: @MissJE1994
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I have to say that I was not a Phelan fan initially. But as the story moved on and the character developed, I was held in suspense as to what would happen next. Connor McIntyre was fantastic in this role, and I think it's going to be a long time before we see another Corrie villain this epic. I'm really surprised this isn't the number one storyline!
ReplyDeleteOh I really struggled with what order to put them in the closer I got to the top!
DeleteI am surprised too. The subtleties with which Connor McIntyre imbued this character were amazing. He is a consummate actor.
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree, he was one of the best things to happen to Corrie.
DeleteAndy's death broke the rules of soap land. I'm sure there are other exceptions but generally the bad guys get their comeuppance and the good guys win or get saved. We had spent a lot of time thinking that Andy would get saved in the end, but of course that didn't happen. That was such a creepy episode, very well done.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see your top two choices.
Aw thank you for all your lovely comments on the posts. Hopefully you’ll like the last 2, it really was a struggle to choose!
DeleteAnd that's when I stopped watching, for nearly a year. Couldn't stand Phelan or anything about this story. It would have made a brilliant drama, but totally out of place in an early evening soap. Other characters and storylines were ignored as 'The Phelan' was given centre stage.
ReplyDelete