Sally comes to the cab office and they talk about Geoff and Yasmeen and Tim suddenly realises (above) that he has Elaine's address in the rubbish bin (how many weeks ago?) and heads off to find her - meeting Geoff who has been released having explained to the police that the recording was entirely misleading and a one off and anyway as his pc was stolen from his home the recording cannot be used. Sally gets to run the switch whilst Tim is hunting his mother and provides an entertaining cameo talking to a narcoleptic councillor about her time as a mayor - she was acquitted of all charges - but it means that she also does a monologue this evening!! Tim on his return says that the flat is empty and there is no sign of Elaine and there is a lot of post piled up behind the door. And are Weatherfield police going to take any interest in a missing person? Once Alya is updated she suggests that they get Imran to call her as a defence witness which will force the police to find her.
Nick, Steve and Leanne are off to Cornwall tomorrow for their long delayed holiday but Oliver's illness re-appears with a bad seizure which leads to them going to hospital. It is not good as the medics have to apply so much sedation to Oliver that he has to go onto a ventilator and the news is not good - having been through the usual discussions it clear to me, having personally heard doctors talking that way over my daughter, then poor Oliver may not have that much longer. Leanne is sure he will get better like last time and goes to sit with him. Steve knows it is serious and the holiday is off. The real reason for the hospital visit happens in the car park where Nick comes face to face with Natasha Blakeman (above). She is a little surprised to see two exes together admitting they have a son - but they soon clear up that confusion, not admitting that Leanne is the mother! Natasha - with her perfect skin - has been seeing a dermatologist. And she has two hair salons of her own and is opening a third next year (the new Claudia).
Brian is writing a play for which Cathy is taking the female lead and it would appear that she is admitting an affair - with a Cyborg (above). Dev was listening to her soliloquy - Kurt is a silent cyborg apparently. He then offers her some extra shifts for Cathy at the Kebab shop but she declines. Dev ends up doing the shift himself - but the deliveries get completely confused - he also has to do his own one man show talking to at least three telephones callers - as Aadi phones ratting out Asha who once again has Corey visiting and even heading to her bedroom with Aadi's yoghurt! Dev is finding that teenagers are impossible to control and running the kebab shop by yourself is difficult!
Ray has "heard" about the sink hole and offers the Platts use of his 5 star hotel. Given that he has been established as a perverted employer of racists (and I apologise but check his record) so pretty unpleasant to say the least his motivation for doing this seems unclear. Until the "water board" engineer who inspected the sink hole and advised David that his house is "unsafe" and they should move out is seen taking a nice payout from Ray (above). Ray owns the Bistro, Kev's garage and seems to have arranged a problem with the Platt residence as it becomes clear that the "engineer" was supposed to get the sink hole to open up overnight (anyone who can explain the mechanics of creating a sink hole please let me know on Twitter - I would like to visit a sink hole on a neighbour). Shona is safe as she was eating a banana in the house and when they get to the hotel David tells Shona that he is fed up waiting for the old Shona to come back to him (she has already offered to share his bed tonight, even though they will have to be physically distanced) and so he wants to get to know the new Shona over dinner.
There is a complicated story which involves missing people. Todd is missing but in reading things online about missing people Billy has convinced himself that Kel (Paul's abuser) has been found dead in the canal. Sean tells Billy he to tell Paul this "fact". No-one says anything interesting about Todd. Billy has not actually checked on the identity of the possible security guard in the canal but wants to tell Paul until the latter says that he cannot face thinking about Kel. This is soap opera knottage and high wattage. Meaningless fluff and some real solid FACTS (like a body at the bottom of a sinkhole) might be preferable to mentally distressing discussions about people who may or (more probably) may not be dead and who will walk back onto the Street having been in a squat near the Red Rec.
And why was the radiant Natasha lying earlier? Apparently her nine-year-old son has sprained but not broken something and he can go home according to the medic - an announcement which Nick lurking behind a mask overhears! Now Natasha left the Street in fiery form 10 years ago having aborted Nick's baby and having stolen Fiz's baby scan to pretend otherwise until Gail snooped through the medical records and found proof of the abortion. So there are now three possibilities:
a) Nick is the father and there was never an abortion - which is a massive retcon
b) Nick is not the father or
c) At some point post abortion Nick / Natasha shared a tender moment and the son is his.
I hope we are going to avoid the first two of these - anyone with a better memory than me able to comment on the third possibility please? At the moment Natasha does not want to discuss her son's father (above). And in hospital (where I have spent time recently) you keep that mask in place at all times!!
Monologues are the new normal obviously. It is not clear if they are desperately filling space as a result of re-writes or if it is the impact on numbers on set or if they are simply fed up with everyone sitting half a mile apart!
Written by Alasdair Morrison and directed by Steve Finn.
Kosmo
@Kosmo100
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