It's musical houses on t'cobbles as various people are moving in or moving out, or not in George's case, as he's still hanging around no. 11 with a face, as Bernie would put it, like a slapped backside. Moving in (or so we think) is Moaning Millie, another one with a visage like a smacked posterior. Theo is once again wearing his singlets, which might suggest he's gone back to being Fun Theo rather than Haunted/Hangdog Theo, but no. When he's out (you'd think it'd be peak scaffolding season and he'd be very busy around the renovators of Chorlton cum Hardy), Millie confesses that she's pregnant. I guess that extreme religious cult the whole family were in isn't that powerful? Also, I imagine that if they are against homosexuality, they're not going to condone abortion. HOWEVER, I may be a little cynical but I suspect Millie might have cooked this up in order to get Daddy Dearest to move back home, which he does towards the end of the episode, leaving Todd living with two middle aged people, none of whom are actually related to him.
Also moving back in is David and most members of Platt chat and David has to get a flatpack bedside table ready in time for an upcoming barbecue* (not sure why they need a bedside table for an outdoor do, but maybe it's going to be one of those parties). Because of this, he gets Lou to cover his shift at the salon, but none of the regulars want her to cut their hair given that her husband is a cop-killer (what did they think she'd do - murder their perm in cold blood?)
*this seems an odd choice of party given what happened to the house at the hands of Max.
Talking of houses, the mystery of what happened to Lisa's remains unsolved but also closed. She lives with Carla (but not Bobby who's been (temporarily I hope) written out) now and that's that. She's odd and distant and Carla tries to get her to open up, but to no avail. Even Kirk can't help because he's gone to Craig's funeral with Peanut as his emotional support dog. Meanwhile, Kit stops his on/off son Brody from nicking a bottle whisky but the latter gets hold of some anyway and has a seizure on the street, at which point, Kit takes him to hospital and Bernie steals his hat so they can do a secret DNA test. This is not as stupid an idea as when she stole Gemma's pregnant wee to sell online but not a great plan either.
And finally, Leanne and Ronnie (wearing a lovely salmon jacket that matches the Bistro banquettes and possibly also the menu) bond over being dumpees. Unfortunately, Leanne uses the non-date to have a go at Toyah, who waitresses their table. To be fair to Toyah, Leanne could've suggested Speed Daal for lunch, but to fair to Leanne, Toyah does tell Ronnie that Leanne has "had a hard time recently". Which was (partly) down to you, Toyah love!
Rachel Stevenson - on bluesky
