Michael is conscious and suffering but Phelan gives him no sympathy at all, until that is, Jason arrives and then it's all concern and call the ambulance! At least it broke up the post-debate argy bargy on the road! Michael is ok, though. Phelan has his act perfected but whenever Michael sees him, he gets so upset he gets pains in his chest. Oh, and the tools? He apparently took them to get cleaned which was a nice suck up job. Michael of course didn't believe him and Andy didn't really hear anything that could be construed otherwise. Michael had to apologize and Phelan is good at making him seem weak, jealous and useless.
Michael wasn't too bad off, just bruises and sprains. He's swallowing his pride for Eileen's sake but he isn't going to be Phelan's BFF either. Anna's not going to give him any ammunition and Gail's right there to offer a shoulder. She also reinforces his suspcions that Phelan is after Eileen but I'm not sure Michael is able to do much about it. Oh I wanted Michael to take one of his crutches to the back of Phelan! (Well, no, not really, violence is wrong but it's telly, right?)
Gail seems to be finding the opportunities to take Michael's side against Phelan and the ornery Eileen, but then she would, for more than one reason. Unfortunately, I don't think anything Michael does at this point is going to do him any favours. He's not going to convince Eileen that Phelan's a wrong'un and he's only going to make himself look foolish and unworthy in her eyes, especially when he tried to hide in the van to spy on her. That's the end of that relationship, right there. Anna's right, he's best out of it because Phelan always wins. And Eileen played right into Phelan's hands by asking him to return Michael's wallet. Given all the tension between the two men, that was a thoughtless thing to suggest but luckily, or unluckily, Michael walked in on Phelan hugging her.
Didn't I say? Didn't I mention Michael taking one of his crutches to Phelan? He did deserve the dressing down Eileen gave him but he is also being made a fool of by Phelan. He's right that Phelan is playing them off against each other and he did his work well. He divided, he conquered, she finished with him. Phelan was practically drooling when he went back into Number 11 to Eileen. Out pops the red wine and you know what happens when red wine is involved. He used it to confess his feelings, leaving Eileen stunned.
Phelan reasserts his growing feelings for Eileen and she eats it up, inviting him to lunch at the Bistro. She says she's taking it a step at a time. Anna's not too pleased to see Phelan having a quiet lunch with Eileen. She tells Izzy her suspicions about the pair and is dismayed that Eileen and Michael are split. Izzy urges Anna to tell Eileen the real story. If something happened, she'd never forgive herself. Later, Michael insists vehemently on being served a cup of tea as it's not quite closing time yet. Later, at Number 11, he's smooth and he's persuasive and Eileen admits she really likes him but wants to make sure she's not going to get hurt again. He's also a schemer and when he realizes Anna is trying to call Eileen, he figures out why and gets to Eileen first. He says he has to tell Eileen why Anna hates him. He did something he's ashamed of but she deserves to know the truth.
Sally sputters and denies the allegations but Norris is keen to know and points out that Sally has been running on family values. So the secret's out. Doesn't matter that it was years ago. Sounds like the debate is over! Sally did have that coming, though. Sally reckons that's the end of her political career. Isn't it nice to see Tim standing up for Sally and encouraging her, though. There was a third candidate. He never uttered so much as a squeak!
Now everyone reckons Norris is a shoo-in. As much as Sally would be unbearable to live with if she wins, I would much prefer it over Norris. I really want to see that smugness smacked off his face! Sally apologized in public and seemed to impress not just her friends, but the non speaking extras posing as voters. Sally spun the poll tax riot and likened Tim to Ghandi! She practically wrapped herself in a flag! Norris isn't going to walk this like he thought!
Sally's next move is to nag Tim up a ladder for photos of him washing windows even though her prior feeling was that he should be a bit more than that, so she bought him a share of the taxi firm. Norris' next move is to try to put his political posters in the Bistro and Steph told him off roundly for it. Foiled again. But Sally's confident she's got more to appeal to the voters than Norris.
Norris isn't happy that Emily's postal vote is going to miss election day (he wasn't slow in sending it to her, was he? She had no idea he was running for office when she left at New Year's) Both he and Sally fight over Rita's vote. Norris comes into the factory to do a bit of campaigning under Sally's nose in retaliation for her pushing Rita for a vote. Sally is incensed that he's passing out chocolates until she finds out they're just out of date stock and proceeds to take the mickey.
Bethany has confided in Kylie who suggests that if she can't rise above it, to fight back but it isn't that simple. I suppose because she's outnumbered. Kylie's been there and fought back and advises the same. Be the poisonous puffer fish! She did try to stand up to them but it's hard when you're scared. It was Super Luke to the rescue, before things got out of hand! At least it seems that the bullying is now out in the open and her mother knows about it. Bethany is saying it was only in the past few weeks. I have a feeling it's been longer than that. Well, Sarah went to sort it all out but I doubt we've seen the last of it. Meanwhile, Sarah is getting stressed over more than just Bethany. She's big and awkward and isn't sleeping.
Audrey isn't having much luck getting a student to help out in the salon. One young fella has a near-Elvis coif. The "J-Wave", his own personal style. Heh. The new one is calling herself Gemini. Guess what the shortened version of that is? Gemma! Yay! I love Gemma, she was one of the best secondary characters! Audrey wasn't planning to keep Gemma on, David and Kylie were horrified. And she might bang on about wanting a new life but when she clocked Sarah, she was eager to let them know she was still in touch with Callum. You remember Callum, the body under the concrete, right? She's going to blackmail them into keeping her job but David called her bluff and guess what? The call went to voice mail though she said she spoke to him recently. I doubt that. David convinced Audrey to keep her on at least for a trial, against Audrey's better judgement. And David reckons that if Gemma is believed and people think Callum is alive, that looks better for them.
Gemma is proving to be a less than reliable employee. She rubs David and Kylie the wrong way constantly (but fills me with glee! What a banging secondary character!) Her bragging about talking to Callum in front of Rita serves the purpose and David subsequently sacks her (after she presumes he's going to make a move on her after he shuts the shop!) She threatens to tell Callum that Sarah's pregnant with his baby and of course, David isn't bothered and when she supposes Kylie won't be happy, reveals that sacking her was Kylie's idea. Gemma leaves in a temper, disappointed.
Anyway, in the dawning of a new storyline, Kylie has an appointment with a client she hasn't seen for awhile, Sadie Smith. She does do mobile appointments, you may recall. But it turns out her client "Sadie Sunshine" has died and he wants Kylie to do her nails. While she's in the coffin. It's a bit of a throwback to when Audrey used to do hair on deceased clients for Archie Shuttleworth, remember? After she got over the shock, Kylie did Sadie's nails.
Freddie tries to pay Kylie for her services to Sadie but she won't let him so he takes her for a drink instead. Freddie is struggling to cope with his loss and misses his Sadie enormously but give him credit where credit is due, he appreciated his wife and said he made it his life's work to make her happy. He's determined to persevere, because she would want him to live a good life. He isn't going to make plans, just go with the flow.
Sounds like Rana wasn't much of a cook and is flattering Zeedan for his efforts. Man she's really working on that poor lad! She managed to blag a bed for the night instead of taking 3 busses to get home. She's really quite something, isn't she? She's always in full-schmooze mode, isn't she? Zeedan's crush is pretty obvious, even Andy was teasing him about it. Rana is looking for a flat locally and suggested that Alya move in with her at victoria Court. At least she did show a sympathetic side when she realized that was where Alya's dad died. Ooops.
Since Zeedan was a bit cool to her, on Andy's advice not to pander to her too much, Rana turned the tables and flirted with Jason. That certainly put the wind up Zeedan considering Jason's history with Alya. She totally enjoyed the unexpected upset she caused. Or was it? Surely Alya told her about Jason and pointed him out so what are the chances she did it all on purpose? Apparently not, though, because she sat her down and told her. In the end, Zeedan gets what is probably his first kiss!
Rana starts her job at the medical centre. Zeedan asks her for a date. They end up snogging before their meal. She says she's worried about Alya finding out but he's not. It's none of anyone's business. They're dressed to the nines when they go to the Bistro but she sees someone come in and hides behind her menu to avoid eye contact.
Eva was ready to make Marta pay even if Billy advised "softly, softly". Aidan just whinges. But the problem is, they have to bring her back to the O'Driscolls so she can get her passport. Poor kid seemed to accept her fate even though she was scared stiff and now Eva isn't so sure her story wasn't true after all. Now they have Marta behind closed doors.
Aidan really doesn't think there's an issue with Marta. He isn't observant and is only concerned with the factory. Eva accused him of putting money first, and it does look like that. Billy was also right, Aidan does have a lot of responsibilities. Meanwhile, Eva's asked Sally to keep an ear out for job possibilities and asked her for a decent reference. I bet Aidan would give her a good one and Carla certainly would but it's a bit tricky to explain why you lost your last job.
Eva got Billy to go check on Eva if he could. The O'Driscolls told him that she's already gone but Eva saw her at a window. No surprised there for finding out the O'Driscolls lied. They're both nasty pieces of work, they are.
Eileen is trying to show Tim the ropes, with the financials but he doesn't seem to be catching on too quick. He's run his own business with the window cleaning but that's different than having to track everything by a software program. He's more concerned with his job title. Chief? Gail wasted no time honing in on a broken hearted Michael in the pub!
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