It's a fright night on the street, a Hallowe'en horror as Scott's evil plan, the Weatherfield version of the Hatton Garden Heist, finally takes place. Johnny is, to say the least, unkeen on carrying it out. Scott produces a gun and Johnny, sweating, refuses to go in to the Bistro. He has an MS attack and Scott's true colours are revealed as he refuses to get Johnny's medication and then bashes him with the gun shortly before bursting into the Bistro where Ray and a fellow perv are playing poker and Fay(e) is hostessing. Scott's wearing a mask (not PPE) but master criminal that he is, doesn't think to disguise his voice, for some reason. Johnny calls the po-po, but Craig is already there. He goes in through the back door, just as Scott says he's taking Faye as a hostage and shoots Craig whilst trying to escape.
Back at the pub, Johnny tries to tell Jenny what has happened, but she thinks that he's being secretive about his MS and tells him they'll get through it together.
Meanwhile, at Kate Oates Memorial, Steve tells Leanne that no specialists will support their case in court. Gail again tries to persuade Nick to talk to Leanne about Oliver's future, or lack thereof. She tells Nick that Oliver has gone already, but as Leanne doesn't believe that, Nick says that he has to carry on fighting for Oliver. Gail points out that it's what's best for Oliver, not what's best for Leanne. Anyway 'tis moot as Leanne reckons that Oliver, or rather the doll playing him, reacted to a noise. Unforch for them, the doc tells them it was an involuntary response, to which Leanne's response is as you can imagine. I do wonder how long it's going to be before Leanne stops being in denial and we have the terrible turning off of the life support machine scene. Some time before January??
After some initial misgivings, I'm quite into Nu Todd, now that the gangster storyline is over, and he's back to doing what he does best: causing trouble unnecessarily between friends and family. The Loki of Weatherfield goes to Speed Daal with his mum, plus George and Mary, suggesting that George likes Eileen rather than Ms Taylor. George is having none of Todd's nonsense and doesn't react to Todd's filth about wanting to be buried with his bum in the air (?!) But it looks like Todd is right as George seems upset at having to leave Eileen to hang out with Mary. Middle aged love triangle!?
As an aside, I think we all want Billy and Todd to get back together (just as we did with Peter and Carla when Mr Barlow reappeared) but in the meantime, what about Todd and James as a couple? James is young and handsome and might lead Todd a merry dance.
Talking of a merry dance, when Evelyn talks about extending the mini-break to a month, Arthur does an immediate runner. What's Arthur's secret then? He's not a widower as he said he was? I'm a bit sad that he and Evelyn will presumably break up and also, I'm pretty keen on Paul Copley.
In a kind of extension of his previous job as a loan shark, Gary's lurks around various places looking for people in need of cash. He overhears Alya and Imran talking about Yasmeen's legal bills and suggests selling the house, but on visiting the prison, they find out that Yasmeen has missed loan repayments and also has signed over half the house to Ghastly Geoff. Given that it's Hallowe'ek, I'm very surprised that ghoul didn't make an appearance.
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Just in case others were baffled by the ‘bum in the air’ joke, it’s part of one of so many wonderful Billy Connolly stories, though how Todd would know it is a mystery. He wouldn’t have been born when Billy told it in the 1970’s.....but to hear just part of it last night made my day.
ReplyDeleteAh, I don't know the joke, I thought it was just Todd being filthy! (or maybe that's my filthy mind).
ReplyDeleteWhy does Gail always whisper and keep blinking when she is being serious? I had to turn the volume up just to make out what she was saying. Mind you I’m surprised we can hear anything at all from underneath all that hair.
ReplyDeleteIt does work!!!
ReplyDeleteI thought the Nick and Gail scenes last night were excellent. We are finally getting a more serious side to Gail! Although she wasn't quite the Gail of old, she was pretty damn close. It was great to see her have some backbone by refusing to lie about Oliver's condition and pointing out that his needs were far greater than Leanne's. Ben Price rose to the challenge again acting-wise in the scene with Gail and Wendy.
ReplyDeleteBut those scenes only highlighted the weaker Bistro robbery scenes. Also, the number of characters who are injured or shot becomes so frequent that the tagline 'will they die' becomes so hollow because we know they won't. It didn't help that the actor who plays Craig was sharing on his Instagram that he has been filming recently, so obviously he wasn't going to die.
So overall the episodes were average, for the fact there were quite a few scenes that could have been better if they moved away from the usual soap tropes.