And so it begins

It's the beginning of the end for Julie and Brian. There's no way he can come back into her good graces after his most recent cowardly stunt. He says he didn't want to break her heart by admitting he was taking a job in Wales and by going along with her plan to foster. He says "IF" I was lying... eh? *IF*??? He's always been selfish and cowardly and Julie now knows it and he's broken her heart. The ultimate betrayal was him sabotaging their fostering chance behind her back. That really was the ultimate in underhandedness. He only admitted it when his back was against the wall in the face of her determination to appeal the decision.

We've already seen the beginnings of Peter and Tina. Whether that will continue after the honeymoon or not, whether we'll be in for a full on affair or a lot of angst, doe eyed looks across the bar and "come here, no, go away" over and over remains to be seen. After everything Carla has gone through to finally be happy, it's only inevitable that her world comes crashing down around her ears. She's uttered far too many Phrases of Doom in the past couple of weeks for it to be any other way.

It's the beginning of the end for Marcus and Maria too, if Todd's lascivious look at Marcus' backside is anything to go on. I applaud Corrie for breaking the mold and showing us the unlikely love affair between a gay man and a straight woman. It does happen, probably more often than we might thing but it's not all that common either. It is meant to show us that you really can be surprised by who you fall for. But in the end, Marcus still identifies as gay and it's bound to come between them sooner or later. I just wish it wasn't with the manipulative tosser that Todd has turned into. Todd may fancy Marcus but I wouldn't put it past this version of Todd to chase after Marcus just to stir the pot and break he and Maria up on purpose. With some people, it's more about the chase than about the catch and I think Todd is one of those people.

I'm going way out on a limb here and predicting another beginning, if not an end. With the arrival of the handsome Kal, everyone wants to know which woman he'll get involved with. There were rumours that Liz would get her claws into him but now that we've seen Kal, even just a little, I don't think he'd be lured by Liz in the least. I'm predicting another L-ady. I'm going to point the fickle finger of fate at Leanne Tilsley who is probably ripe for a bit of fun after the uphill battle she's having with damaged husband Nick. Kal will start working with Nick and be around more and I think Nick's tirades are wearing her down, little by little. I never really thought Nick and Leanne were suited this time around anyway. She might be the love of his life but I never felt that he was the love of hers. That honour went to Peter, in my feeling. I think she went to Nick on the rebound from Peter and while she loves Nick, it was more about stability and maybe to make up for hurting him in the past (the affair just before the tram crash when she had the affair with Nick but married Peter on his deathbed).

I can picture Leanne and Kal together and I think they would have a lot of chemistry. She's already proven she can be a good mother so his kids would be in good hands. He's a dad so he'd be good to Simon, too.



And the last beginning of the end is the final few weeks for our beloved Hayley Anne Cropper. So far, chemotherapy hasn't seemed to have had a lot of residual effect, not that we've seen but I do think that they're dressing her in clothes just a little too big, to imply she's losing weight. She's starting to look a bit more tired and pale around the edges. She's planning her funeral and it's all going to be terribly sad for all of us who have come to love her over all these years. Now that her son has popped up again, only to be just as horrible as it was the last time and the first time, she's at least got some sort of closure even if it's not really a peace made between them. More of a resignation.

And in this, the anniversary week of the tram crash three years ago, I do wish someone would have mentioned the fact. Three people died, one of them integral to the street for many years and who might still count quite a few neighbours as his friends. I still miss Ashley Peacock. It would have been nice for Nick, whose life Ashley saved, or Kirk, who worked with him, or some of the other regulars to make a mention of him.

Analyzing Peter Barlow

Peter Barlow is a bit of a hound dog when it comes to women, just like his father. He's not quite as excitable as Ken, though. Ken Barlow had a much higher relationship count by the time he was Peter's age, mid to late 40s, but he never married two women at the same time, either.

Peter, like Ken, finds it hard to resist when a woman starts batting her mascara at him. No, I shouldn't say that. Blinky Gail has been doing that for years and it's never moved Peter to flirt with her though at least, she's a little closer to being a similar age than Peter's latest object of lust, Tina McIntyre, who, by the way, is Gail's erstwhile step-daughter.

Tina is young enough to be Peter's daughter, a fact that's been mentioned on the show by Tina herself. It's not stopped her obvious interest. The last time something like this happened was between Kevin and Molly and the nation cringed. Partly, that was because Kevin had teenage daughters not that much younger than Molly herself. It certainly added an element of squickiness for sure.

Tina's on the rebound from Tommy. Peter's had a massive kick to his ego and self esteem in recent months. He loves Carla but she's a force to be reckoned with and while Peter may like that in a woman, he must also take the down side of that, her love of being the one to wear the pants in the family. After he went bankrupt (ouch!) she bailed him out and then hired him at the factory, making him a minority partner, not equals. (ouch!) She bought her own engagement ring because the one she wanted was far more than he could afford and she's paying for a posh wedding for the same reason. (ouch!)

She isn't very maternal so with all the problems Simon has had dealing with an injured and angry Nick and with the bullying he's gone through, she's not really been a lot of help. In fact, Peter sees her as being unsympathetic and cold, being more focussed on the wedding and angry at him for letting her do all the work to put it together.  Simon is his priority and far more important to him now than flowers and napkins. Why Carla didn't hire a posh wedding planner in the first place is beyond me.

Poor Peter! I kind of anticipated this might send him back to the bottle but this time, he's looking for a different sort of vice to iron out the kinks. So to speak. 

Enter Tina, someone to help out with Simon, someone for Simon to take a real shine to, unlike his feelings for Carla which live in the general realm of resentment and contempt most of the time. She does like Simon but she doesn't know how to relate to a child. Tina is a mate, and understands what it's like to be a troubled kid. Tina shows affection freely. Tina is stunningly beautiful, probably the only one on the Street that can rival Carla aside from maybe Eva who's equally lovely but a bit dim. Tina is razor sharp.

The age difference? Yep, it's wide enough for concern even if there were no Carla involved but there's a vast difference between Kevin Webster and Peter Barlow, both of a similar age to each other. Kevin Webster is no poster boy, and Peter? Peter is downright gorgeous! (in my opinion!) When Peter smiles, those brown eyes and dimples are captivating.  With Kevin and Molly, it was a case of a mild flirt on his part which sparked Molly into chasing him into the ground shamelessly. Peter and Tina are coming to it on equal terms. There's interest on both sides but at the moment, neither one is really pushing it though Peter may become the instigator. I guess that's the male instinct oozing out.

Peter's hormones are perking up. His genes are kicking in. Ken would probably be proud and disappointed in equal measures though he wouldn't admit to the pride bit. "Oh, Peter!" he'd sigh. And if Tracy gets wind of it, you know everyone else is going to hear about it. She hates Tina already and she's got history. She's the one that knew he was a bigamist and she's the one that outed Leanne's affair to Nick to Peter. She won't sit still if it means she gets to cause trouble even if it ends up breaking Carla's heart and causing Rob to rake her over the coals for it.

 

 As it is, Liz can already see the train wreck about to happen. She won't be quite so indiscreet as Tracy would be but it looks like all her warnings will be ignored and she'll end up mopping up Tina's tears more than once. 

It's all going to end in heartbreak but this pairing, at least, isn't making me cringe. I think the actors involved are far better than the Molvin disaster although, admittedly, seeing Sally throw Kevin out and seeing Tyrone knocking Kevin into Molly's grave were supremely satisfying.

Fact: Carla stole Peter from Leanne.

Carla should probably remember the old saying "If he runs *with* you, he'll probably run *on* you".

State of the Street - November 2013

It's been so hard watching Roy and Hayley grapple. Hayley wants to end her life before she gets to the point where she's stupified on drugs and Roy doesn't want to waste a single minute he can get. The Great Divide seemed uncloseable until Roy realized that lying for the one he loved on this was the only way to close it and make Hayley's last months happy for her. It's the unselfish thing to do though it goes against every fibre of his being. He's got to pretend to support her decision when he can't bear the thought of it. I wonder if they'll actually have her go through with it or if she'll slip away before she gets the chance. Or maybe they'll just leave it ambiguous and we'll be left to decide for ourselves if she did or didn't. I don't know how long she's got but I reckon we'll have one heart wrenching bittersweet Christmas at least.

I hope they start having her showing effects of her illness soon because she still looks the picture of health. She's just had her first chemotherapy session and jumped right back in and finished Carla's wedding dress. You'd think she'd have been wiped out after the treatment. Are they not going to show her suffering any ill effects at all? We did get one scene where we finally saw her break down and tell Roy she was scared and didn't want to die.That was something I expected to see a lot earlier. Roy is hovering and fretting over her and she keeps pushing him away as getting under her feet. Or she's forcing him to face the things he's trying to avoid. The first I think might be a bit hard, the second seems to be a bit of a necessity with Roy's head in the sand so much.

It's such a tough thing on everyone involved. I thought we'd be seeing more of Fiz and Tyrone through this but so far, not a lot. I do like the closeness between Hayley and Carla that we have seen since Hayley got ill. We didn't really see a lot of that before.

David's lurching around from pillar to post and while I understand Kylie's anger and disgust, I don't think she can legally keep him from the kids unless she tries to go to court. He must have a lawyer/solicitor over the sale of the house at least so why doesn't he get him/her to write a letter? They're all ganging up on David and rightly so but is it fair to keep him from the children who don't understand? Audrey was the first one to crack, though, letting David at least come live with her. You could see that coming. Tina had had enough. Weird, David was full of help with cooking and cleaning at first but obviously it didn't last. As much as what David did with Nick was awful, you can't help feeling a bit sorry for him. Just a little bit.

Now Tina's helping out with Simon. Because, you know, a kid that can find his way home from Blackpool at the age of 6 can't manage to walk a couple of blocks to school in his own neighbourhood. He's also at that awkward age where he can't really be left home alone but is almost too old for a sitter. Not too old to be the victim of bullying though. Poor kid!


Ironic isn't it, that Faye was bullied and was drawn into Grace's bullying, mostly letting Grace to the dirty work but going along with it. Grace bullies Faye as well but Faye is desperate to have a best friend, something she's never had. You can tell, though, that little by little Faye had doubts but was both afraid of Grace and afraid of losing her only friend. I bet Grace has been bullying a lot of the kids and now that Faye has finally outed her, more kids might want to be her friend, too, kids that would be true friends, not false ones. I wonder if we actually will see Grace having any consequences now that Faye has shopped her to the cops. I certainly hope we see a bit of fallout in the coming weeks or else it was a real, pardon the pun, cop out. It was a good storyline, I thought.

The girl that played Grace really nailed it and Ellie Leach played Faye well, too, with those little looks that the viewer could see, letting us know Faye knew she was doing wrong. It was frustrating, though, watching Anna be so blind for so long even though Owen and even Izzy suspected Grace and Sally had her number from the start. Sally probably *was* Grace when she was young!

Nick's still forgetful and tempermental while he's recovering. It's a good storyline, something a bit different, isn't it? Once Nick's physical issues are healed, there really isn't any type of therapy you can do for a brain injury except wait it out and hope for the best.

By the end of the month we're careening wildly towards Peter having a fling with Tina. Is it appropriate? No. Is the age difference as appalling as it was with Molly and Kevin? Yes. Does it make sense? Yes. And the reason I say yes is because Peter's ego and self esteem has been taking a kicking these last few months. Carla's barging ahead with the wedding, as do most brides but Peter's been focusing on Simon and Carla doesn't understand the lad is his priority. Then there's the lovely Tina and there's Peter's Barlow genes kicking in. Tina's on the rebound from Tommy and vulnerable and Peter? He might be old enough to be her father, but he's a hell of a lot sexier and good looking than Kevin. And in that fling, it was Molly that did all the initial flirting. Kevin never had a roving eye utnil she put the idea into his head. Kevin being the father of daughters not so much younger than Molly also added to the ick factor.