It’s the day of Dr Ali’s disciplinary meeting (that got set up quickly), but he's far more concerned with getting Maria back. When Gary ambushes him in the café and warns him, off Ali is unconcerned but later Ryan tells him not to mess with the dodgy builder and admits it was Gary who beat him up. This only makes Ali more determined to get him away from Maria. I feel like he’s going to do something stupid…but you know if you hang around with Maria for any length of time some of the stupid is surely going to rub off.
Elsewhere Michelle turns up for work at her other job and gets in a huff when Ray Weinstein tries to get her to stack chairs for him. Yeah the bloke is a sleazebag, but Michelle has only done about 45 minutes of actual work since he employed her, so the chair stacking doesn’t really seem that onerous to me. Nevertheless the Queen of the Universe tells him to stick his job. When he retorts that her contract states she must give him a month’s notice she threatens to tell all her business contacts about his wandering hands. Not totally sure what business contacts these are, maybe the bloke who delivers the Bistro olives will be interested? But Ray looks rattled anyway. Later he turns up at Chez Michelle with a proposal, if she signs a non-disclosure agreement he’ll release her from her contract and give her £20 grand. Seems a rather high figure to me. I’d have started on £5 grand and negotiated from there, but maybe £20k is the going rate for covering up sexual harassment?
Meanwhile the hideous waste of organs that is Geoff is continuing his gaslighting of Yasmeen. He pretends that he’s been on a dating site, and then when she asks him why he claims that he had already told her it was for a radio feature and that she never listens to him. Then he accuses her of always questioning him like his ex used to. Finally, as the coup de grâce he pretends that he was planning a surprise holiday but that he’s cancelling it because she doesn’t trust him. All of this undermines an already anxious and fragile Yasmeen. I know this is all part of a coercive control storyline and set to run for a while, but I’m really not sure I can stand this for much longer. Can we please just cut this short and let the revolting man choke on a chicken dhansak or be savaged to death by Eccles?
Over in the pub Roy, Brian, Mary and Evelyn are having a slightly fraught game of Scrabble, but when Roy discovers it was Carla’s idea as a means to distract him from his online Scrabble obsession, he takes offence and storms back to the café to continue his word games in peace!
Back on the Street a determined Ali fobs off Faye who is supposed to be looking after Gary’s furniture emporium and manages to find Gary’s loans and leg-breaking ledger. Convinced this is the evidence he needs to get Maria back, he gets buzzed into her flat only to find Gary waiting there for him. Gary seems strangely nonplussed about Ali’s threats to tell Maria about his loan-sharking, and it soon becomes clear why as, like a Scooby-Doo villain, he decides to explain his entire evil plan. First he found Ali’s drug dealer and got the full story from him, then he stole Ali’s phone, (somehow) hacked his voicemail and found a message from Toyah about his diazepam addiction and now he’s going to pretend to be a ghost to scare people away from an old funfair, err sorry, now he's going to blackmail Ali to keep away from Maria.
In other news Robert spots Tyler hanging around the Street. The reformed toe rag tells him that he and Amy have become mates and that he feels he owes her. Because he has no moral compass Robert tries to warn him off by claiming that it would all be too stressful for Vicky and might cause her to have a miscarriage. When this doesn’t work, he calls Steve. Later at No.1 Carla is taking a break when Amy stomps in furious that Robert has grassed her up. Her curiosity pricked, Carla tells Michelle. The Queen of the Universe had been momentarily distracted by the moral dilemma of Randy Ray offering an unsuspecting Alya her old job, but of course the sisterhood means nothing when your fiancée may be up to no good. Time for Detectives Carla and Chelle to get on the case…and please hurry up girls this is another storyline that really needs to be put to bed.
And that's it for this week. See you here same time same place next Friday or catch my pointless mutterings on twitter @mskelstar.
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Gosh, after a bit of a good run, we're back in yeurgh territory again. By that I mean wall to wall non-fun. Life is not like this anywhere. Horrible.
ReplyDeleteAnd as disgusting as Geoff is, what really really irks me is that this character never, ever showed any signs of this aspect of his sick psyche. He was just kind of boring and occasionally a little funny. Where did all this come from? It feels like a couple of writers heard about the word gas-lighting in the media, and decided to shoehorn it into our dear, once beloved Corrie.
I agree with maggie muggins that not enough indication was given about Geoff's darker side. I read in an interview with the actor that this development was discussed with the director when he arrived in the soap. Maybe they kept it vague in case they didn't want to go that way. You could also say the references to Tim's mother suggest this might not be the first time Geoff has behaved this way. But that might be retconning. Although it's a dark and creepy storyline, it's yet another in the series: "If .... can happen to xyz character, it can happen to anyone", eg: David, Carla, Aidan, Peter, Ali, Billy and now Yasmin. It loses its impact although I know it will help people in a similar situation. But what about the rest of the audience? It's got to be interesting to watch even if you don't have experience of it. I'm afraid I don't engage with it at all, having never particularly liked Geoff, Yasmin or Alya.
ReplyDeleteThey were hints about his darker nature you only have to look at what he did to Brian's plants plus they're hints about his treatment of Tim's mother. Also when it comes to this kind of abuse the people who carry out aren't wearing a sign saying evil on it, They're often on the surface perfectly normal, reasonable even nice people.
ReplyDeleteFirst time I've read one of your reviews and it's brilliant! So funny and insightful.
ReplyDeleteKelly, you truly made me LOL at Geoff= HWO, Hideous Waste of Organs. HWO? GHWO. Just to save space? Still LOL! Nice write up Kelly, thank you.
ReplyDeleteAgree with Maggie Mullins. The show has too much negativity. We have formerly "fade into the wallpaper" Geoff brainwashing lovely and smart Yasmeen, and formerly super nice but not too bright Gary whom the writers are trying to turn into Corrie's latest bad guy. He can't compare to Terry Duckworth and Pat Phelan. Plus we have that dumb quad story going on and Robert and Vicky and Michelle. Those three please go...SOON! Where's the humor, where's the HEART?
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame that the producers don't take some legal advice when dealing with legal issues. The settlement agreement between Michelle and Ray would not be legally enforceable, as any such agreement has, by law, to be approved and signed off by an independent legal adviser, and it's quite clear that this one wasn't.
ReplyDeleteUnless this is the basis for a spectacular plot twist of course, in which case please don't let it be sleazy Adam who reveals it!