State of the Street - September 2013

Karl's comeuppance finally happened on his wedding day, the wedding day that lasted through 5 frigging episodes! Ok, the day before and the wedding day lasted that long. They don't do that too often but it's happened before. Anyway, the pressure built and built and poor young Craig finally broke and told the secret. I felt so bad for the kid. He really thought he was to blame for the fire and deaths of two people regardless of what the police said (fire started inside the pub with an accellerant. Why didn't anyone tell him that before? Surely he'd have overheard stuff? Never mind. He's a child really and that's way too much for a child to have to carry even without Karl bullying him and terrifying him.

Beth was brilliant, showing that she really is a good mum in spite of her low class rough ways. I adore her and this shows a softer side of her which you need to be a long term sympathetic character. She might have a passing resemblence to Cilla Brown and a gob to match but she's a much better person. Cilla would never defend her chicks unless there was something in it for her. Beth is like a pitbull defending her lad and that's the way it should be.

Jason finally persuaded Dev that Karl was responsible for the fire and Sunita's death, along with Karl's hot and cold behaviour and they zoned in for the ...er... kill, so to speak. Stella got the shock of her life and now feels as stupid as every other duped woman who never saw it coming. She and Fiz and Gail should start a club! This crisis really has shown up how little Stella fits in. She has no friends! Fiz or Gail could have commiserated with her, having been through a similar thing. Eileen and Deirdre could have shown up with a bottle of red or two. But no. Stella's alone and wallowing in it and her daughters and mother can't do much to pull her out of it. I do feel for her, mind you. You can't expect her to snap out of it in a couple of days but I harken back to the days of Bet Lynch. Bet would have plastered a smile on her face, slapped on some lippy and faced the community from behind the bar, suffering in silence. She wouldn't have cowered in the back room.

Hearts are breaking all over Corrie-dom. We have to watch Roy and Hayley deal with her terminal illness. It's tragic but there can be no other way that Hayley would leave Roy (since the actress wants to go). It's too bad Sylvia isn't there to support them but apparently the actress was leaving anyway and just left early due to a sudden death in her family. I suppose with Sylvia on screen it might take away from Roy and Hayley who should be front and centre. The actors are already giving us award worthy performances. It's going to be unimaginable, watching this sad story play out, not the less that so many people watching will have had real life experience in similar situations. Hayley plans to make the most of the time she has left. She's another one I can't see cowering in the flat, holding her own pity party away from those that love her. Hayley always has taken life by the throat, as difficult as it has been for her at times. Realistically, though, we should have the occasional scene with her being sad or angry. It wouldn't be normal to react that way sometimes.

Fiz and Carla seem to be taking the second string for support. You would have expected Fiz who is like a daughter to R&H. Carla was a surprise. We all knew she respected and liked Hayley but I think her reaction has even surprised her. They finally dragged up Christian from the annals of "Corrie history that should have been forgotten". He was just as obnoxious as he was last time, just without the violence. You'd think he'd have got his head round the fact that his biological father is now a woman after all this time but apparently he's just buried it and forgotten it (the way we all wanted to) so when she got in touch again, he really hasn't come to terms with it at all. Hayley's a grandma but probably won't get to meet her grandchildren. Roy was quite harsh with Christian but he did have some of it coming. I don't know if we'll see him again but it would be nice for Hayley and he to at least come to terms with it and him to at least accept her and bring the children for her to meet. But then, unless you're planning to have them around a lot, meeting them once only isn't really fair on both sides if she's going to die before ever seeing them again.

Meanwhile, speaking of Carla, there's Michelle glaring at Peter, the intruder, in the factory office. Michelle was hired as a PA but given more responsibility over time and she thinks Peter's edging her out. He's not but he can't seem to get her to realize it. I keep hollering "Grow Up!" but she just won't and she can sulk for England, can Michelle. And like it or not, Peter is part owner and thus, her boss. Oh come on, Michelle, at least it isn't Frank Foster or Tony Gordon! It's all leading to the surprise that Steve is buying back the pub! Will Michelle get to be landlady with her name over the door? Time will tell.

Chesney finally decided Sinead was the one he wanted, not Katy and I couldn't give a flying fig. I do like Sinead but Chesney and Katy are terminally boring these days. I am chuffed to little mint balls that Fiz and Tyrone are now living under the same roof as a lovely little family. I think with Roy and Hayley as the "perfect" relationship about to end, we need one stable couple on the Street and I think Fiz and Tyrone are the best ones to take over that position. Please, Powers that Be, take note!

As we end the month, Nick is about to wake up and the Plattilsley family feud is about to hot up again. Will Nick remember? Will the secret blow David's marraige up? If the secret doesn't, all the lies just might. But Nick has a lot to lose too, and after waiting so long to get Leanne back, he might not be willing to fess up, either. Secrets do come out and they will, it's just a matter of who, what, when, where and how. This has been one storyline I have really enjoyed watching. Kudos to all the actors involved!

Karl's Nicked!

It was six months ago that Karl Munro burned down the Rovers Return, killing fire fighter Tony. A few days later, he killed Sunita in hospital and the game was on. When Dev was becoming obsessed, inching closer and closer to the truth, Karl pedalled furiously to try to keep calm and carry on. It seemed to work at the time when Dev had to back down for his own and his children's sakes though we, the viewers, knew he was only inches away from that last clue that would reveal Karl's dirty deeds.

That gives Karl breathing room but it wasn't to last. Enter a 14 year old lad with a guilty conscience. The house of cards slowly came down as Karl tried to keep Craig on an even keel. The poor kid! That was a lot for a child to carry, thinking he caused two people's deaths and it was enforced by Karl who was desperate for Craig to keep his mouth shut. He knew that Craig could place him at the scene of the crime, with keys he wasn't supposed to have as he used them to lock the back door of the pub behind him.

Jason never trusted Karl and after Karl admitted to torching the van and threatened Jason's life (with Dev overhearing from the other room), he put the pieces together and knew Karl had caused the fire but there was still no proof. Inch by agonizing inch, though, it all came together. Missing from photos from the Full Monty night, and then the realization that Craig had something to do with it. But then we had a few episodes where there were near misses, trying to talk to Craig and Craig avoiding it, even running away and who is the one that finds him? Karl!

Finally, Craig confessed and was whisked off to the police station while Dev headed to the chapel. The race is on, can Dev stop the wedding? Jason's on the way to the police with Craig, Dev is zooming to the registry office. It obviously isn't very far away because Dev got there in record time. The registrar declared them husband and wife and presumably, they signed the papers. It's a done deal.  So why didn't Dev say anything?! Was that a Judas "kiss" when he hugged Karl? Mice touch!

It took far too long at the police station to get someone to take statements, typical police procedure snarling things up. Why didn't Jason text Dev to get the name of the detective right from the start? Come to that, Dev should have told them when they left the shop. I do think that was dragged out too far but it's typical. Dev stalked around the edges of the party observing and waiting.  I didn't think Dev should have warned Karl at the Bistro, but he did.   Loved Dev creeping up silently behind Karl and cornering him in the pub.

Jimmi Harkishin played it spot on, not too over the top as he usually does. That quiet rage held him back. He laid it all out, Karl knew he couldn't hide and he confessed. There were no excuses that made any difference. Trash talking about Sunita was a big mistake even if it was true. Why did he think Dev would take that lying down?  Dev was going to out Karl to Stella so he can feel what it's like to lose what he loves but Dev ended up bleeding on the pub floor instead.

Oh I loved it that Stella caught Karl trying to leg it with the cash. He lost his rag when she tried to help Dev while we waited on tenterhooks for the police to untangle all the infernal red tape. She threw his ring away, annullment in the offing while he fought with her. Couldn't you tell how creeped out she was when she tried to placate him, stalling, and keeping him calm while he was holding her and stroking her, her making him think she was on his side, biding time until help comes.

She went a bit too far and he could see through her. Dev came to and dialed his phone... to Jason, who saved the day, just before Karl had a chance to flame up the pub again. That was a bit stupid, really, surely they could have put out a fire quickly enough but I suppose Stella was worried that Dev would come to further harm with the flames. I read somewhere else that Stella only had to blow out the flame of the lighter, it was right in front of her face, after all! But Karl dragged Stella back into the cellar, back to the scene of the crime, which was also odd. If I was her, I'd be down there chucking bottles at him like a mad thing.

Let's just pause a moment to add up Karl's charges. Arson, manslaughter, murder, assault (Grievous Bodily Harm judging from Dev's injury), and surely there must be something they can charge him with for terrorizing a child? He better not get one of those shifty solicitors that manage to charge Dev for assault and use Karl's attack on Dev as "self defence"!!

Come out! you're surrounded! For heaven's sake, he's not armed! Just go get him! Exciting stuff!

John Michie was so good. He really was the star in all of this through the whole storyline. It's too bad his talen makes Michelle Collins look even more stiff. It was painful watching her try to force that cardboard face into something resembling emotion and straining to push her whispery voice to a normal talking level when really, she should have been shouting and screaming at him!

Jason was a bit annoying, with all his shouting and angst but you could see where he was coming from. I really thought Beth was good, as well, heartsick, worried and guilty for her boy. She might be a gobby mare but she *is* a good mother.

Stella did persuade Karl to give himself up.  There wasn't much more he could do. Can you imagine the chaos of the police trying to storm the barricades, having to file down the cellar steps one at a time and crowd around between the crates and bottles, trying to apprehend Karl? I always wonder why they make the person they're cuffing lie down on the ground. There doesn't seem to be a point to it in most cases. Handcuffs can go on just as easily if  you're standing up if you aren't struggling which he wasn't. I guess in this case it was so that we could have he and Dev face down, face to face, Karl defeated and Dev quietly and justifiably triumphant.