State of the Street: March 2010

The main story this month was Joe's death and Gail's arrest.

Gail keeps getting herself in deeper and deeper and finally, she got arrested. Lying about sending the texts and getting caught with the fact that Joe was already dead. There was the insurance policy. Did she tell them about that? She said she never saw the document, and she didn't, but Joe did say there was life insurance she could claim in 7 years so she must have realized there was some. And why didn't the police try to confirm her signature was indeed a forgery? Joe hadn't been practicing it for that long, surely an expert could have figured that out.

There was that couple in the Lakes that saw them rowing. More circumstantial evidence. And yet, she still can't help herself. She still continued to lie to keep David out of trouble too regarding the mobile phone he tossed in the water. Gail feels so guilty that i thought she was going to take the blame even though it was an accident. There's nothing she could have done. Thinking if she didn't cover for Joe, he might not be dead but he died probably less than an hour after he sailed away. And thus starts the replay of Deirdre Raschid's I Didn't Do It stretch in prison only this will be more than two weeks and her roomie to start with isn't another Jackie Dobbs. Thank God!

This incarnation of Nick isn't bad at all though he's a smug bastard. But then the last incarnation was as well but only because he couldn't act anything else. At least Ben Price can act! So can Michelle Keegan who's really been playing a blinder as a grieving and angry Tina. And you know, I don't even blame Tina for hurling all that circumstantial evidence at the police which caused Gail to be arrested. She was honest, she told it as she saw it even though we know it to be incorrect.

Jack P. Shepherd is the real acting star in this storyline. He's just gone from strength to strength and he's really enjoyable to watch. Did you ever think you would see David defending his mother? He's gone from hating her guts to being her staunchest defender. I can't get my head around that. All is not lost though, he spends the rest of his time sniping at Golden Boy Nick and trying to coerce witnesses. The old David is still in there but he's doing it for the *gulp* right reasons!

And just a word about that appalling funeral. I know Joe didn't have a lot of mates on the Street but Gail certainly did. Where was Emily? Jack? Sally and Kevin? You'd think they'd have gone for Gail's sake. As usual, staffing for major events like this always seems to be lacking. At least Deirdre said she'd have gone if the Simon crisis hadn't been ongoing. And don't the police usually show up at funerals on soaps when there's a suspect involved?

Was it me or was it a very strange type of eulogy for Gail to talk about Joe's depression. Makes it sound like he killed himself when he didn't. Tina couldn't hold herself and her grief and anger back and it all kicked off. Gail and Tina arguing and everyone else got into it, Jason and David scuffling, Audrey hollering. As Dev said to Norris, and Audrey also said, decorum, people. Decorum.

Becky miscarried and Steve didn't know why she didn't just go to him straight away. But remember, this is Becky, what other reaction did you expect? She shuts down and self destructs. She doesn't think she's good enough and doesn't think she's worthy. But absolutely brilliant scene with Liz and Becky where Liz told her about baby Katy. See? Your mother-in-law isn't so awful after all? And indeed, the advice was good, don't let it split you and Steve apart, hang onto each other. I did have a problem with Becky jumping into the sack with Steve a day or two after losing the baby, medically, I mean.

From a baby unexpected and lost to another one that seems to be here for the long haul (and will they show some scenes with Becky emotionally congratulating Ty and Molly?)

Molly finds out she's four month's gone. That's a long time to have skipped a period and not realized. You're usually even past the morning sickness phase by then so she must not have had any other than that one morning where she almost fainted. Probably, she just put it all down to stress.

But Kevin burning the scan photo and telling her to get rid of the baby was pretty brutal. Molly still thought that a baby would bring him back to her. When she realized it wouldn't, that seems to have turned the corner on her emotions. Even if he backed off a bit, he still doesn't want the baby and after all, it might not be his. Doesn't stop him from obsessing about it and Tyrone talking about it 24/7 isn't helping. She might think odds are in Kevin's favour for Daddy status, and frequency wise, they are, but it doesn't always work that way. After all, how many times have you heard "But we only did it once!"

Kevin has no intention of leaving Sally. He knows where his heart is and it's not guilt, like Molly thinks...he never stopped loving Sally. It was infatuation with Molly. Full stop. In the end, Molly goes back to Tyrone because it's safe and she doesn't want to be alone with a baby and maybe it's a little bit for revenge having Kevin watching them bring up a baby that might be his. You just know the secret will come out at some point and Tyrone's heart will crack in two. I hope the baby is his and he kicks out Molly and raises the baby himself.



From there, we go to another "baby" lost but found again.

All along, i didn't trust George. I really wondered if he had plans to take Simon away from Peter. For a short while there, i thought it was just concern when Peter went back to booze but that didn't last long and George was back to getting temporary custody orders and whisking Simon away, not just to Spain but to Blackpool, too, but that backfired when Simon ran off, every parent's nightmare.

But before that, when George wasn't letting Peter have Simon back, they kept talking about getting Social Services involved, but where were they? Once the police had been called, surely the Social would have been alerted that there was a child custody issue brewing. George had valid concerns but only once Peter started drinking again and he had no right to handle it the way he did, not with a responsible Leanne also in the picture to look after Simon and certainly not without consulting his wife. I don't know if we're going to see any more of George and Eve now they've been banished but I'd be interested to find out if Eve makes George's life hell for what he did behind her back.

And in summary...

John Stape...lying always comes back to bite you in the ass. Binman Trevor. Carla's got him but Janice wants him. Lucky Carla. He *is* very good looking and so nice and tall! Rita's back, yay! Mary's starting to show (even more) cracks in her veneer. Kelly's gone after a blatant set up. Carla was a bit harsh calling her a self deluded slapper, even if that's the truth. She wasn't a nice person but I liked her for being all high heels, cheap plastic jewelry, short skirts. Highly inappropriate for a factory and always amusing to see what she was going to turn up in.

Dev and Sunita are back together. Love them or hate them, i do like them as a couple. He's really been at loose ends since they split up before, he's getting too old to play the playboy and it made him look like a buffoon. He's at his best with Sunita. Jesse and Eileen are not back together even though she made the attempt. But all those longing looks at Julie's backside finally spurred him to try it on with her and she couldn't keep it quiet, not in all good conscience and rightly so! Jesse was run out of Dodge City, plastic props being flung at his back.