Sunday Comments March 19

Nick is most definitely feeling threatened by Leanne's decision not to put him on the birth certificate. It's been an ongoing state of mind for him during this pregnancy. David had a few choice words about being Max's dad though Max doesn't carry his name, all set up to give Leanne a few guilt trips. What's David waiting for, by the way? He's been saying he's going to adopt Max for years now. Anyway. It was all contrived to make Leanne change her mind about the birth certificate.

Michelle believes that Steve's grief is holding him back from seeing the new baby. Cue more guilt! Then she adds to it with a bombshell. She wants to get pregnant again! Shall we start calling her BombMichelle? Because by the end of the next two episodes, her life is going to resemble the after effects of a very big bomb. This wanting a baby thing is really doing Steve's head in at the moment and it's really far too soon to be even thinking about it even if he didn't have another secret child 50 yards away.

Gail's organized a welcome party for the baby. Today. The party superceded the appointment at the registry office for today. The timing felt a bit off. Steve booked a table for "early" and suggested 6:30 so they're at the Bistro about then, with the Platts all trooping in shortly afterwards. But Leanne and Nick were on their way to the registry office and were sideswiped by the party. Would the registry office even be open that late? Given that it would take some time to get there and get parked and inside, even if the office closed at 5, it would have had to be about 4 when they were heading out. It wouldn't take an hour and a half to fetch the baby buggy. Never mind...

Gail was in her element hosting the party and proud of what she thinks is her new grandchild. there are speeches while Leanne stands awkwardly seeing Michelle and Steve looking on. Michelle is holding up fine. Steve is the wobbly one. And when David unexpectedly put the baby in his arms, his face! His face just crumpled with love for that wee baby and he couldn't stop himself telling Michelle it was his son. Freeze Frame. Michelle saw the truth in Leanne's eyes and Leanne couldn't deny the truth either. Nick sees everything crashing down around him, just like he feared. The family is shocked. Gail's crack about people laughing at Nick bringing up someone else's child, though, at least got David's retort that he's doing the same thing as is Nick in a way, with Simon.

Michelle and Leanne had a dramatic and heart rending confrontation in the kitchen. I like that Leanne didn't say much and didn't defend herself much. She was wearing the responsibility but also tried to get Michelle not to give up on Steve. Michelle may never be able to forgive Steve, though, and in her situation, it's understandable. Leanne ended up with a bloody nose. Pretty powerful stuff. Outside, Nick looked triumphant. Steve might be the biological father but the baby is in Nick's arms. Steve is outnumbered by Nick and Robert both. Robert of course, is on Michelle's side because he loves her even if nobody else knows it yet besides Michelle.

But everyone else on the Street is soon going to know the secret too when Michelle came into the pub and blazed out the news. Their marriage is over and nobody watching is surprised. Michelle left the pub, Robert went looking for her, Nick went for a run. Right down the middle of the road.

I see Leanne has fallen back out with Eva again and Michelle is sinking into a major pity party. I know, I know, she's got reason but her rage and resulting behaviour is getting out of control, now. Typical Steve thinks he can get her to forgive him and thinks he can also be a dad to Oliver at the same time. yeah, like that's ever going to happen. At least, it hasn't a snowballs' chance if Nick continues to be in the picture but he's in a snit, too. Oh, I can understand that, in a way, because it's also just lit a bomb under the life he thought he was going to have as well. Nobody seems to be thinking about poor Leanne in the middle of all this, is anyone going to stand beside her in support?

Michelle's going for half of everything including the pub. That could be tricky since Liz owns half of it so Michelle decides to blackmail them by getting the Underworld van to block the main door so she can get in and lock Liz and Steve out. She ends up assaulting Eva and trashing the place to get her way but her lawyer did say it wasn't a cut and dried case that would give her a successful win. She might have her name over the door but there's no financial stake. I don't care if it's a soap, the law is the law. Now she's in Maria's flat. I didn't see her calling Maria to get permission though she did (probably) bully the key off Kirk.

Michelle tells all the punters why she's doing what she's doing. Seeing as she's got them all hostage, and not wanting to wave a red rag in front of a raging bull, they decide to take her side and order champagne for Rita's birthday, snacks, too. Outside, punters that can't get in are getting restless. Laughed at Tim who wants to support both sides, calling Steve an idiot but still thinking of him as a mate. He's right, though.

Eva starts to rebel and that causes Michelle to instantly insult Eva, Leanne and everything else. She treated Eva appallingly and it was totally uncalled for. And because Eva held her ground, Michelle tried to fire her and when that didn't work, she assaulted her, dragging her out the back door by her hair. Sympathy gone. But none of the punters are willing to walk out in the wake of the bully tactics either, are they? Robert thinks it's funny and Steve finally calls the police which only makes things worse. She smashed behind the bar and trashed one of the front windows, conveniently waiting until the police had left, of course. In the end, Steve shouted at her from the street, telling her she could have everything. She didn't look too happy about it, in the dark with another glass of wine in her hand.

Steve's going to have a job convincing Leanne to let him be part of Oliver's life but I reckon she'll let him eventually. He's got Tracy's on his side, though that's a dubious advantage if ever there was one! Leanne does tend to do the right thing. If things had been kept a secret she would have kept him away but since they're out, I'm sure she'll give in. Steve has to tell Amy as well. Now Leanne's going to have to tell Simon. With his recent rage issues, I hope that she's going to wear body armour. Steve has decided to get legal advice. I hope the lawyer advises him to get a dna test, just to have that exta added punch to his case.

Nick unloaded on David and his insecurities are raging. He does have a point. Kylie always wanted David to be Max's dad but it doesn't feel to Nick like Leanne is so certain, not if she's wavering on letting Steve have a say in his son's life. Let's face it. Nick doesn't like to share. He even gets uppity when Simon prefers Peter to him. Leanne apologized and assured Nick Oliver would be his and told Steve as well. It just goes from bad to worse for Steve but he's going to persist. He's going to see a solicitor.

He's putting his half of the pub up for sale. Liz isn't too happy about that. He's also trying to talk to Leanne but she's not having it. Surprised that Tracy actually took Steve's side. She insisted he should tell Amy about Oliver, too. Amy's been away on a school trip to the Eden Project so she wasn't there for the big reveal. Steve and Tracy decided to tell her this news together but she thought at first they were getting back together. She was relieved to find out they weren't but she was pissed at her father for making a stupid mistake. Very appropriate response, I thought.

Eva took Liam to see his mother though Aidan is worried it's going to be a bad scene all around. He's scared Maria is going to tell Eva the truth about the affair. Maria realized that she did need to see Liam and it did him the world of good, too. Liam now wants to live with Eva and Aidan because of the whole rat incident, and to be truthful, I would imagine that Craig does harbour some resentment towards the little guy. Maria agreed to Liam living with Aidan and Eva to make him happy but it sure doesn't make Aidan happy especially when he hears how angry Maria is at the mere mention of him. I predict another bombshell going off before too long. She'll be out of prison before you know it and when his affair with Maria comes out, and it will, the pooh that was so recently cleaned off the street will have hit the fan again.

Brian and Cathy are flirting up a storm, he with his tall tales and her laughing at ever bad joke. Must be a match made in heaven! Yasmeen and Rita can see it very clearly and Cathy admitted finally that she does like him.

Mary is showing photos of her grandchild! Liz seemed to be able to hear David talk about Gail being a granny from all the way across the road. It's all intended on adding to the melancholy and guilt and regret for Steve and Liz. Can you believe Mary was a blacksmith? I can just picture her in a leather apron sweating over a hot forge fire!!!

Sally got the wind taken out of her sails well and truly when she went on a rant about Rosie's charmed life and what a come down it is to be cleaning windows. Anna being the shrew she usually is, blabbed that Rosie smuggled drugs into the country, albeit by accident and by way of being a dumb bunny. Naturally, nobody is surprised when Rosie adds to Sally's humiliation by admitting she didn't have the charmed life she was pretending to have after all this time. She doesn't have a modelling career or a boyfriend or a home. She got the sack. She lost everything in London so how did she get to Miami? Was that Antoine, too? She did say he offered her a home in his flat.

Rosie seems to be having a personal crisis. At least she's honest and she feels like she let her mother down. Tim was kind to Sally who has had a hard reality check about her priorities.

Since Sally can't take it out on her child, she takes it out on a rude builder for catcalling the lovely Rosie on the street corner for the second time in that day. Rosie's used to that sort of reaction from random men and flirted right back the first time but it doesn't mean it's right. It's sexual harassment and Sally's right to complain. I did have to gripe at Anna for saying it didn't count if a woman was ogling a man. Yes, yes it does count and to Rosie's credit, she thought it was no different. But later, when it happened the second time, Rosie wasn't in the same flirty mood and Sally was then in her element, protecting her chick and getting on the campaign bandwagon.

Sally went to the foreman but his promise to "have a word" wasn't good enough, especially since he was dismissing and called her "sweetheart". I think she was right to escalate the issue. Sally's complaint has turned into a full out protest with a megaphone. She has to go it alone all day but Rita joined her valiantly. Go, Reet!

Sinead thinks she might finally have the peace, quiet and space to start making her soaps again to earn a little extra cash but Chesney thinks she's trying to get back together with him when she comes to get her things. No luck. The breakup seems to have caused a bit of tension between Fiz and Beth at work too, being on opposite sides of the breakup.

All this, of course, is making Chesney even angrier so he packs up her stuff and instead of dumping it on the Street like most people, sells it from the kebab shop, at Gemma's suggestion, leading to another punch up between Daniel and Chesney and this time Daniel leaves the poor wall alone and connects with Chesney's face instead. There have been a lot of punch ups on the Street so far this year, haven't there? As if all these serial killers and fiery disasters weren't enough of a hazard already!

I don't see why Ken should get on his high horse over a fight over a woman. He had a few of them over the years, usually with Mike Baldwin. Oh right. It *is* Ken we're talking about. And while we're on the subject, there he is, watching his son brawl in the middle of the street, with a typical Ken look of confusion on his face. Method acting? Daniel stood by his point, you have to stand up for yourself and what you believe in and got a bit of a dig in at his father for not sticking around when things got tough. Ouch! Anyway, he gave Sinead a necklace that belonged to his mother. It's very pretty. I don't know why she didn't take it with her when she left. But her talking about his mother and maybe meeting her one day seemed to bring out an odd reaction in him. Very odd.

Over in the cafe, we have more clues about Shona after Gail accuses her of stealing her purse (wallet, here in Canada). Gail held her ground until Roy came back and naturally, Shona didn't have Gail's wallet but was made to empty the bag on the table, and we even caught a glimpse of a tampon! That must be a first. I can't blame her for not accepting Gail's half hearted apology when she found it later back at home. It wasn't very sincere was it? There was one thing Shona slipped out of her bag before she dumped it, though. The photo of a baby that she didn't want anyone to see. Who's the baby?

Anyway, Gail swallowed her pride and went to the cafe and when she saw that Shona was so busy, she donned a pinny and got stuck in to help. There's a blast from the past, seeing her behind the cafe counter. She and Shona seem to be friends but Gails remark about solving problems under her own room seemed to affect Shona. I'm dead curious as to what's up with her.

At least Bethany's relationship with Nathan is out but Sarah's not really comfortable with it. And she doesn't know the half, does she? She was in the Bistro later with Mel and Gail managed to meet her cheerfully. Mel assured Bethany that Nathan likes her but warned her not to get pregnant, suggesting that she get an implant.

Rita takes umbrage because everyone forgot her birthday. There must be fewer and fewer people that even know when it is! Emily was probably the one that made sure everyone remembered. I wonder if she did this year? I wonder if she's coming back? I do hope so. Gemma decided to talk Rita a kebab for her birthday. Not quite sure it's something Rita would appreciate but she would appreciate the gesture.

Tvor @tvordlj on Twitter


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