Having been away for a two weeks getting back up to date with events has been an uphill struggle especially as the Sky box died in my absence. Thanks to Ms Kelstar for holding the fort in my absence.
Most of the trafficking story has largely been put to bed on Wednesday but Alina turned up with her babysitter (Rebecca above) to let Seb (who has returned to Eileen's from Hospital) know that she is in a safe house. Given that most of the gang are still at large I fear for her family at home but apparently this is not a problem. Alina refuses to promise to stay in touch with Seb as she believes there will be a complication over her staying in the UK. To be honest this story has felt unsatisfactory. If girls are trafficked then they are more often put to work in something which drives real money (not a nail bar) and the prime baddy sounded like a girl; inevitably it left a bad taste that Eileen felt she had chosen another wrong 'un and if Jan is NOT a wrong 'un at what point did he get a religious conversion to the straight and narrow, particularly as it was implied that Paula already knew he was not what he was. I assume there is more to come - but the storytelling, like the last trafficking story, has been not been good.
Comedy tonight relied on the best the Street can deliver - Evelyn is supplied information by James Bailey on the state of fitness of the Weatherfield County squad ahead of the first fixture of the season tonight. She is able to use this information to run an illegal gambling parlour in the Corner Shop offering some particularly good odds to Tim and later to Steve on events that evening. Even the great Tommy O will not be appearing as a bug has struck half the team - Steve is betting on him to score the first goal. There is a lovely little scene as Johnny tells Steve and Ty that the anticipation before the first match is the best bit of the season and thereafter it is all downhill. (As a Southampton supporter I know exactly what he means!). When Evelyn's deception is discovered she is called to account but refuses to refund the bets or take seriously the threat to tell Dev - as she points out (above it costs £2 a minute to phone Dev, you can see from her face she knows she has the upper hand) and bets are illegal in the shop so Dev would have problems if discovered. Steve and Ty end up not bothering to go to the game. All nicely done by all concerned.
Emma seems to have supplanted Aunty Emily as the go-to babysitter and gets landed with a couple of the Street children preventing her being able to pop along to the General where her father is about to undergo an operation for stomach ulcers. Except that all along he has not told her the truth - he has cancer and it is not looking good. In distress Emma turns to her mother in Australia - where apparently they both lived for a while after the divorce but Emma soon returned to the UK. Her un-named mother does not sound particularly sympathetic and is not intending to return to the UK to see her ex-husband. Maria is however very supportive when not being chased around by Ali (that seems to be definitely "on"). Meanwhile Emma looks like she is going to have to cope with the loss of her father on her own.
In one of the co-incidences which do not happen in real life Michael Bailey spots Gary looking at a blue key he has found in Neelan's books (above). Michael recognises it as opening a storage box as he used to store vacuum cleaners in the same lock up! Gary beetles over there and finds the storage box (lucky because the key I have does not have the locker number!). Inside the box is a safe. To open the safe Gary guesses that it is the year Weathy County were formed - and magically the safe opens to reveal a pile of currency. Although it is not much use as Jenny does not want to take a £50 when Gary pays for a pint! Three impossible events in one story line is probably one too many! Now really loaded Gary needs to launder the money and after he becomes aware that the factory insurers have only offered £20k on an ex-gratia basis he comes up with a bright idea well above the normal level of his thinking ability. Gary also has Ryan in his sights - he wants the money back next week which Ryan has stolen to fund his trip to Copenhagen with Alya.
Above left is Derek Milligan whom Gary has introduced to Nick. Derek will rebuild the factory in exchange for ownership of the land for which he will be paid rent. It is a condition that Gary is in charge of the rebuild but this will get the place back into action. Once told Sarah is completely against the plan and the factory employee / owners are not keen on Gary's involvement in the work as it was through him that Rick Neelan caused the damage in the first place. In the end economic necessity leads to acceptance of Milligan's offer and Nick manages to talk Sarah round into sharing running of the factory once again. However it is not quite all as it seems. Gary is going to use the money pile he discovered earlier to fund the rebuild, Milligan owes Gary / Rick money and his debt is reduced for the help he has provided as a front man. Gary will be using one of Milligan's companies to launder the money!
A long standing contact of Carla's turned up at Roy's Rolls (where Carla was struggling to get a single order right as Roy was laid up with a back injury). Jo Lafoe (above) has a new online business and needs someone to run it - and believes Carla is that person. Notwithstanding her inability to serve a butty with the right sauce and delivering tea in place of a hot chocolate it looks like she is about to take on another high flying job. Is she ready?
No Corrie Comicals this week - but track down Rita telling Ken and Claudia how to resolve their differences for the best scene of the week!
Writer: Simon Crowther Director: Vicky Thomas
Kosmo
@Kosmo100
All original work on Coronation Street Blog is covered by a Creative Commons License
I so enjoyed this episode. Love Evelyn - full stop.
ReplyDeletePoor Emma, Gemma's treatment of her makes me dislike Gemma even more....
I was confused at first when Maria sought out Emma to babysit, but then realized oh yeah, she is living with Maria. With that in mind...why did Maria offer to meet up with them 2 hours later in the café...why could they have not gone back to Maria's?
As for Imran and Nick...is it just me or are these to becoming interchangeable. Both are smart, but not as smart as they think they are, they are arrogant, they dress alike pretty much, and they even speak with the same inflection to their voices.
I thought it odd too that trafficers would stop at nail salons....thankful though that it did not get even seedier....enough of that with the Bethany story line.
And finally - Gary! OMG I am willing to suspend reality for this storyline. In true soap fashion, he manages to get his hands on enough money to be the secret mastermind behind the new Underworld. Loving it!
Newfy Pearl,I'm not loving the Gary storyline,he's responsbile for Rana's death,gets away with it and exploits the tragedy to get his way in the end?!
ReplyDeleteThat being said,after Peter blindsided Carla by selling his share of Undworlds to Nick behind her back,I can't wait to see Nick's reaction when he realises the same has been done to him and he has to 'deal with it'as he told Carla to do.
While I’m glad Mikey North finally has a venue to display his talent, Gary going from desperate imbecile to cash laden genius with a foolproof revenue stream scheme is ludicrous. A new lease on life as a furniture restorer/reseller would have been believable. He is good with his hands. He’s never been good with his brain, however; there have been too many coincidences, lucky breaks and close calls for this to be anything but a house of cards. Wonder who it will fall on?
ReplyDeleteMy first encounter with Gary Windass, was seeing him come home from the army, a broken man interested in wooing Izzy. It was so sweet and wonderful. I fell in love with the Windass clan, and with Corrie; these were my first ever episodes of the soap.
ReplyDeleteToday, I too want to suspend disbelief and just enjoy the story that his life is getting back on track...for these few, brief moments before Gary gets thrown in jail.