Tracy/Becky war is escalating. Tracy seems to have Becky on the ropes and she's taking full advantage of all those buttons that are being pushed left, right and centre. Add to that, every time Steve puts his foot in it with Becky, Tracy's right there to smirk. Things are bound to go nuclear any minute. And if they don't, David pushing matters over Max will add that little spark to the fire that the explosion needs. Meanwhile Tracy is starting to obsess about Steve and it's put Frank right off her. Tracy is usually smarter than that.
And David is like a dog with a bone and Kylie isn't too comfortable with it all. David and Nick actually had a civil conversation, very brotherly! Shock! Becky had to leave Max with them after Steve left him with them to take Amy to the hospital but you could see it rankled with her. She's so scared Kylie really will want to take Max back. And she so insecure about Tracy and Steve spending time with her because of Amy's illness that she's getting more and more out of control and Steve is getting more and more fed up while David seems to be making more and more inroads with Kylie and maybe slowly wearing her down about Max?
Gail seems to be on Kylie's side more or less. She doesn't want another little kid in the house, at least one that isn't blood related to her! But faced with the possibility of David moving out and that will never do, she'll back down and allow Max to come for visits. Now that they've got her at their back, watch David and Kylie start to put the pressure on Steve and Becky.
Amy doesn't seem to be getting better in spite of being told she has a dairy allergy and did you guess why? The little devil is drinking it on the sly and then whining for daddy. Seems pretty clear she's making sure she gets ill so that she can have her father around. Yet nobody else realizes it yet so what does worried Grandma do? Go off to see her friend Bev for a holiday. If you believe that, I've got acres of land in the Everglades to sell you!
Boy. Becky sure let a lot of Roy and Hayley's skeletons out of the closet in one fell swoop. Poor Roy was horrified and humiliated. Hayley could only hide her face. Then did you see... she poo pooed little Hope, saying she could take or leave babies but there was a little smile flitting across her chops just the same. This actress, Stephanie Cole is a master of the subtle gesture that conveys SO much! Imagine how Sylvia would react if she found out about Hayley's past?
John seemed a bit better. He must be back on his meds. Fiz figures she should probably get back to work but doesn't think he's up to minding the baby all day. I can't understand why she wasn't on mother's benefits, more because she had a child that needed extra care. Chesney is really against John and it's no wonder really. He's never given anyone any reason to trust him and Chesney feels he's pulled the wool over Fiz's eyes. Of course he has and it's painful for us to watch Fiz getting flanneled, blindly believing his bull$h##.
The more he pushes John, the more unstable he sees John getting so he's investigating on his own. He goes to see Charlotte's parents. Oh this isn't good. Not good at all. John is going to go spare if he finds out! The Hoyles fill in Chesney about Charlotte and Colin, the happy couple and "Colin's" part in the decision to turn off Charlotte's life support. Then Ches has sussed out John's involvement with Joy Fishwick, too, and the nosy neighbour filled in that piece of the puzzle. I think Chesney's mind is about to explode i think and he decides to drop John in it by making sure they have his address, on the same street Charlotte died in and living with the "friend" that came to rescue him from their house the other week! John can't have that so he hustles them back out the door and back to their house and later, Mrs. Hoyle finds John's real identity papers. So John does what John does best. Ties them up in the cellar in Mr. Hoyle's new "study" !!!
He does love a good kidnap, does John! So he can't be satisfied with just the pair of them. Oh no. When he realizes Chesney knows most of the real story (barring the actual murders/manslaughters) he kidnaps Chesney too! And i do find it odd that when John was leading Chesney up the steps, even with a cricket bat in his hand, that Ches didn't throw himself back at John. It would have sent them both down the stairs again but Chesney might have been able to disarm John. Ah well.
Meanwhile Katy and Chesney are still hiding her pregnancy from everyone and she's sick as a dog, poor kid. She ends up going to Anna for sympathy and since Faye over hears, she gets jealous of the attention and grasses her up to Owen who blows his stack. As you would expect. With all Chesney's obsession about John, he's not really supporting poor sick Katy as he should and she's not happy about it. Now that Chesney has disappeared, Katy thinks he's run off because John made it sound like it. Her father can be very persuasive in taking advantage of that, and there's no evidence to the contrary so Owen preys on her fears and pushes her to have a termination. Will he succeed? And John just stood there watching Fiz upset and Katy upset and knowing damn well where Chesney is and all he can do is tuck his tail under his legs and run away.
aww Carla fired Kirk but everyone guilted her into keeping him on. And the song playing in the background to accompany his misery prior to that was "The Grenade Song". Marcus is back! Oooh! Poor Sean didn't want to know at first. Too scared of screwing up again. Loved Eileen's imitation of Sean the morning after! But Eileen knows what's what and played matchmater. Now Marcus's back with Sean! Yay! Sally's back from her "romantic" holiday to Paris with Jeff but she seems less than impressed, don't you think? Now Kevin wants to buy a fancy lift for the garage and Ty doesn't because he can't afford it as a business partner. Ah but Kevin can afford a new machine so he's having it And not going to let Tyrone play with it either. Would have been a lot better if Kevin had "Read the F-ing manual" first instead of showing off in front of Dev who couldn't care less.
More angst between them and Tyrone blows a gasket and bashes the machine with a tire iron or something. I do wonder though, h ow a few bashes on the platforms can make the hydraulic fluid come spurting out of the "legs" of it. Isn't it supposed to take a lot of weight from larger vehicles? Surely a few smacks with a wrench isn't that much pressure. Ah well, we aren't supposed to analyse it like that! So, What happens next? It collapses on Kevin's chest! Uh oh!
Mary's motorhome is back and better than it was before! Curiouser. Norris is glad to get shut of her and she is reminsicent. Poor Ty is trying to get back into the dating scene but he's absolutely rubbish at it! Tommy is certain he can "turn" Sian and pours on the charm and cheezy lines. Driving lessons seem like the perfect way to get her into an enclosed space but it blows up in his face when she figures him out after that pass. The bet with Jason seems won but Rosie might just dump Jason for good for interfering. Rosie's revenge on Tommy trying to set him up isn't going to help she and Jason get back together either. Eileen did that instead. She's 2 for 2 this week!
Claudia is expecting a fancy scarf. What she's going to get is the shock of her life ... and a box of chocs. She thought Audrey might have been the secret recipient and changed her mind. Audrey's too old. Pot? Kettle? Ok. So the scarf is for another woman. More than you know, honey. More than you know. Audrey knows exactly whose pretty little neck it's encircling. Well Claudia knows now, pretty much forced Marc into it and she didn't take it well. You never know about people do you? I suppose she thought Marcia would have better dress sense than her. She didn't wait to see the wardrobe did she? she'd have had no worries there.
Deirdre is taking to pottery like a duck to water. The end results are somewhat less than talented but she's enjoying herself and I'm finding it a nice little comedy side story. Meanwhile, Tracy most definitely doesn't trust James. I'm not altogether sure Deirdre does either but Ken has blinders on and Sian and Sophie certainly are getting more and more involved with the shelter.
And the best thing this week is the return of Dennis Tanner! Long time viewers know him as Elsie Tanner's son. This is excellent stuff! He's shown up as a homeless man coming to the shelter for a meal and he meets up with Sian and Sophie who decide to volunteer there. From there, he comes to Coronation Street, sees the carving on Number 11 where he etched his name as a boy and runs into Rita. Rita knew him back in 1964, her first appearance as one of his mates. And we find out how Elsie Tanner finished her life, in a red convertible holding hands with the love of her life as the car veered off the cliff. A romantic and somewhat fitting end for a woman that lived large. And you know in a few short scenes, Philip Lowrie just leaps off the screen with chemistry. What a screen presence!
Dennis is now the second current cast member who was on the very first episode of the Street! How cool is that!? You noticed Norris had a face like a slapped backside as well. No surprise there. You wouldn't expect him to be pleased to meet someone with such friendly memories with BOTH Rita and Emily and he probably felt a little left out with all the rest of them reminsicing.
Sylvia has already met Dennis and was highly disapproving but he didn't take too long cheeking her into a bit of a smile! Did you see Sylvia spraying Roy's hand after he shook Dennis's? LOL! I am a bit perplexed as to how Sian and Sophie knew the Dennis Rita mentioned to Ken was the same Dennis they met at the shelter but oh well, never mind. Naturally, Dennis and Rita caught up and Rita took him right in hand, cleaned him up and took him to the Rovers where he met up with the only other two people that would have known him, Ken and Emily! That of course sends Norris' face into a knot of Geordian proportions. I really felt like slapping him when he was poking into Dennis' homelessness in front of everyone. How would he feel if the shoe was on his foot?
Of course, as with so many things, the go-to family for recasts are the Barlows. No wonder Ken always looks a bit anxious; every time he turns around one of his family members has a new head. Tracy has been through four metamorphoses over the years. Christabel Finch famously went upstairs to listen to her tapes and didn't come down for two years; Holly Chamarette replaced her, before being replaced in turn by Dawn Acton, who played Tracy as a stroppy teenager. Even knocking back a couple of dodgy ecstasy tablets couldn't keep Dawn down, until she was replaced by Kate Ford. Each transformation has seen a ramping up of the character's personality, from "annoying", to "very annoying", to "wild child", and finally to "demented psychopath". Presumably if a fifth actress is cast, she will make the full blown evolution to "medusa", and a snake handler will have to be hired.
