State of the Street - November 2010 (and speculation)

 As we head into Anniversary week, November sees storylines hot up, twist and turn and so along with some discussion of those, there's also some musing and speculation about the upcoming carnage.

So...Kevin is baby Jack's father and he instantly regrets finding out. I really wish the baby had been Tyrone's but it's a soap, and and affair or a one night stand with someone you should not be with always ends in a pregnancy and 9 times out of 10 the father is the one you've flung with. Thing is, Kevin has no intention of leaving Sally and if he wanted to raise the baby himself, Sally would have to find out and he'd lose her, very likely. I hope the truth comes out soon and i hope Sally throws Kevin's sorry ass out on the cobbles.

In the meantime, Tyrone has to deal with the grief of losing Jack who died in his armchair, dancing with his Swampduck as he faded away. *gulp* Watching Jack find out about Molly's betrayal was hard too. You could see it broke his heart, just simply crushed him! I'm sure it probably just hurried on his death, though it wasn't much longer in coming anyway. The funeral was dignified but I kept expecting Terry to crash it no matter that he wasn't invited and didn't want to come anyway. Now another long time character is gone.

When push comes to shove, Molly still wants Kevin. She seems to think that because he wanted to know if he was the baby's father, it means he wants to acknowledge it and be with her. It's weird though. He was all horny to find out if he was the father but then he's backing down and doesn't want to know Molly. So why did he want to know if he wasn't going to want to be any part of the baby's life? He certainly doesn't want Molly, he wants Sally (see above). Molly figures feelings of love don't go away. They didn't for her but probably hers were more genuine than his. I always said he was just infatuated.

Molly's leaving the show so odds are that she's going to be a tram victim. Will Tyrone raise the baby himself? How could he work side by side with Kevin? He'd have to leave as well. Still, Molly reached the end of her rope and it looks like she's planning to leave Tyrone and take the baby. It seems to me now that she's going to have to die in the crash. That way Tyrone still has the baby but if he ends up knowing it's not his, will  he convince himself Molly just said it to hurt him? The truth has to come out eventually, it's a soap but when and how is up to the writers.

I suspect we'll see a few more of the older guard characters leave over the next couple of years now that the fuss over the Fiftieth will soon be over. I hope they don't kill them all off, though. I would like to see some of the "oldies" go off to retire. Betty Driver is certainly due and I suspect Barbara Knox won't be long either. I do hope Rita isn't going to be trammed, but the crash is going to destroy her flat. Let's just hope she isn't in it! We'll find out in a week!

I really didn't want them to do it. I really hoped Leanne and Nick wouldn't jump in the sack but they've gone and done it. And ok, i can almost buy into a one night stand, but continuing on with it really isn't working for me. It feels forced. Carla is after Peter too, after he's been so helpful to her over the drinking thing. Very likely a dependency thing rather than actual love or something like it. What a bitch, too, knowing Leanne is shagging Nick so feeling free to persue and try to seduce Peter.  Spoilers tell us there will be a wedding so I can only hope it's Peter and Leanne. It's refreshing to see that Peter is on the moral high ground and resisting Carla who's broken hearted, he of the weak will and Barlow womanizer genes. Hmm.. what was i just saying about shagging someone you aren't supposed to ending up in a pregnancy? Doh. Well, if that happens, they can't have Nick be the baby's father if she's marrying Peter. First of all Nick'd be insufferable and second of all, they'd have duplicated Molly and Kevin.

Claire and Ashley are soooo tedious! Ok, he lied about having a heart condition for a day and she decided that was it, she was leaving him and moving to France. Well, she should have packed up and left then and there and in with her mother. Sticking around isn't doing any good if you're planning to go. But of course, that's not what's going to happen, naturally they were going to get back together. They plan to move to France and where does that leave poor old Graeme? Could he manage to buy the shop? Maybe Ashley could keep the shop and let him run it though i expect Graeme would probably run it into the ground, he just doesn't have the experience.

More spoilers have Number 13 in flames after the tram crash. Will any little Peacocks die? Chances are pretty good that the children will be ok as they probably wouldn't kill off the little ones. I would prefer to see them be ok and all move away together but again, as the adult pair are leaving the show, chances are one or the other will be under the wheels or in the fire. I have heard that the night of the incident is the hen/stag night so perhaps Claire and Ashley are both out and there's a sitter! Eek! That might be Sophie and Sian! Danger, Will Robinson! Or maybe the little'uns are at Sunita's? Oh i'm going to worry about this one!

Claire never was overly sympathetic, always a bit headstrong and feisty at times and she certainly rules Ashley's roost with an iron fist, moreso in recent years which really irritates me. But his first wife, Maxine was pretty similar, if you will recall so i suppose that's the type of woman he likes...dominating ones. I reckon he'll be the one to die and she'll leave with the boys with her mother and off to France because he can't be widowed again, left a single dad. They've already done that with his character when Maxine was murdered. No, *if* either of them is going to die, my money's on Ashley. Aw, I would still like to see them go off to France and be happy.

Stape's mishap with Colin has come back to haunt him full blast. There was some speculation that Colin wasn't really dead but it the truth really does have Charlotte doing the "stalking" to get back in John's life and have him for herself and she's getting off on calling him Colin, too! Bonkers, the woman is totally bonkers! John finally found the evidence but she's not letting up. I am actually enjoying all the twists and ins and outs and watching John squirm. I thought the turn up of Colin Fishwick's mother was brilliant! What a morbid old woman! The part i don't like is that Fiz ends up getting the short end of the stick and probably STILL won't leave him when it all comes out. I really hate that he can't stop lying to Fiz, even though she's stressed and pregnant.

There's other spoilers floating around that John is going to kill Charlotte after she attacks him with a hammer. Is he going to end up like Hillman? I can see a lot of parallels. Hillman bashed Emily and Maxine with a spanner and it's said that John is going to bash Charlotte with a hammer after she attacks him with it first. Is he desperate enough to lash out? In the heat of an argument, possibly self defence, he probably could. Richard hid the body of his ex wife in the foundation of a new building. I reckon John will put Charlotte's body in the wreckage of the old ones and hope people believe she was caught in the crash. Either way, though, he has to be found out eventually and please, please, please let Fiz kick him to the curb for good, baby or not!

So there you have it. The tv ad says four deaths and a wedding. My money's on Ashley and Molly and it looks like Charlotte will likely be one of them too. Who will the fourth death be? Again, we can look to characters that are leaving and one of them is Janice. That's a possibility. She's been drinking in the Joinery more since it opened, supporting Leanne. What about Ciaran? Will they have Michelle lose yet another man in a tragic accident? After her husband was killed and both her brothers dying suddenly, perhaps not. Perhaps Ciaran is a serious injury instead. There's a logic behind all this, see. In all my years of soap watching, I've found it's rare for a real surprise to be pulled out of the hat when it comes to people dying. It's almost always an "expendable crew member" or someone already know to be leaving.

What about Nick? Or maybe we'll just see Gail blinking and wringing her hands over Nick's bedside with Audrey feeding her cups of tea and David being moody because he loves his brother, really. And no Sarah to be seen of course. Or, the corner shop and Kabin are going to be destroyed. Rita lives in one flat, Graeme and Tina in another and the shop might have Dev and/or Sunita in it at the time, too, if it isn't late at night. I don't think they're going to get rid of Graeme or Tina, they're the golden couple of the moment and Tina is going to be the new Rovers barmaid.

Possibly either Dev or Sunita could be killed. Would they leave Dev as a single dad with the twins? But it's all been done before. Still... it's possible one of them could be killed or, more likely, seriously injured. We're going to have a few of those too, don't forget. How could you not? Will the identity of any of the dead be a total surprise? I'm speculating that it won't be, though one may possibly. It could still happen, of course, and we won't have long to wait to find out. It's fun trying to work things out, though, isn't it?

Aww i'm glad that Graeme and David made up in the end. I don't think Graeme every really believed that David ran him down on purpose. Interesting to see how David is going to settle down to his diagnosis. I'm sure his horror and embarassment is very natural for someone who's now got to control a disease for life with medication.

And one last related note...

The new Joinery has opened and it's all blue lights and black and silver glowing in the subdued lighting. Very nice. Classy. I think Leanne ought to give up her dream though. First time around, Peter ruined the opening with his drinking and this time around, the whole thing's going to be flattened by an explosion and the tram in a few days' time. I think she'd better get the hint, settle down with Peter and have babies.