At long last, the temptation becomes too much to bear and
Norris finally gives in and opens Ramsay’s trunk. The first
items out are a teddy bear and Ramsay’s cricketer’s box. This almost brings a tear to
Norris’s eye (which I found rather confusing because I thought the
latter object was supposed to prevent that happening). However, it’s the bundle of
returned and unopened letters from Ramsay to their mother which
really tug at Norris’s heartstrings and when Emily finds a letter
from their mother to Ramsay, telling him that she had another son,
Norris, and a new life and that he would ruin everything and to
please leave her alone, it finally opens the floodgates. Norris acknowledges, alas
too late, that he misjudged both his mother and Ramsay and
desperately wishes that he could turn back the clock and give his
long lost brother the warm welcome he
deserved.
Fortunately, it doesn’t take too much to revive his
spirits. Norris has a
lightbulb moment when he realises how he can do something meaningful with
the money which Ramsay has left him. Rita has been hinting for
several weeks about her desire to retire, and so she doesn’t need
much persuading when a very over-excited Norris puts his plan to her
to buy her half of the Kabin.
The arrangements are soon sorted out over a round in the
Rovers where Norris declares he feels like he’s won an Oscar and
Rita announces that she’s going to spend a large chunk of the
proceeds by taking herself off on a round-the-World cruise. In less time than it takes
to climb a stepladder, Norris is hard at work with his
paint-scraper, removing all traces of Rita’s name from above the
shop door.
Just
as Rita is talking about leaving, Amber is arriving back having only
left for Uni in
London
a few days before.
“It’s Freshers’ week and we don’t
have any lectures,” she says by way of explanation but it soon
becomes clear that the reason has more to do with the fact that
she’s missing Darryl.
Meanwhile, with Michelle back on the Street and behind
the bar at the Rovers, there’s plenty of opportunity for some
flirting with Luke who’s very keen to get things back together with
her. There’s just the
small problem of Rosie but he promises Michelle that he’s going to
end it with her that evening and arranges for Rosie to go round to
his flat so that he can tell her. Rosie, meanwhile, is being
given a few home truths by Janice about her designs. “Draw a few
frills round the backside of a stick man and you think you’re Stella
McCartney”, declares Janice.
Luke makes the mistake of taking the more subtle route when
he has “the talk” and, before he knows it, Rosie has turned the
situation around and invited herself to move in with
him.
By the following morning, Luke’s having second thoughts
and this time when he tells Michelle he’s going to dump Rosie, he’s
as good as his word, choosing the bar of the Rover’s Return to do
the deed. This provides
plenty of entertainment for the punters, especially when Rosie sobs
that she’s already put down a deposit on a big lip sofa.
There are a few more lips being put to work at Jason and
Tina’s party that evening.
The purpose of this particular shindig is twofold: a) to
demonstrate to us mere mortals how to throw a party with five
minutes’ notice and only enough cash to buy a couple of packets of
cheesy puffs and b) as a vehicle to allow Darryl to get back
together with Amber, David to show off his latest bit of hot stuff,
Graeme to try it on with Natasha (and fail miserably), Ben Thompson
(a.k.a. Ryan) to showcase his guitar playing and singing
talents, Fiz to
celebrate her birthday,
Luke and Michelle to do things which you really shouldn’t do
in polite company and Rosie to see them at it, resulting in a cat
fight which involves Michelle losing a clump of hair and Rosie
ending up in a crumpled heap on the cobbles.
Rosie of course is not one to take anything lying down
(well, apart from half the male population of Weatherfield) and is
soon plotting her revenge, making use once again of her old weapon,
the mobile phone. This
time she pinches Luke’s and uses it to set him up. However, it’s going to take
a lot more than Luke’s plea of “I can explain” to convince Michelle
of his innocence when she is lured to his flat by the steamy
promises made in a text message which she believes to be from
him. She arrives just
in time to find Luke lying on the bed in his boxers and Rosie
looking even more ready for action than
usual.
When
Dev discovers the real reason for Amber’s return home, he’s none too
pleased and hatches a plot to break up the newly rekindled
romance. At first
Darryl rejects Dev’s bribe of £500 to go and buy himself a new life
in Spain but then he realises that Amber’s
future is more important and that only by him moving away will she
agree to resume her studies.
So he breaks the news to her (conveniently not mentioning how
he can afford to go) and Amber storms off, presumably back to
London.
Back at the Kabin, Norris is getting stuck in to his new
role as sole proprietor.
First item on the agenda is the recruitment of a new member
of staff but with the only applicants being of the calibre of Kirk and Teresa he’s not having much
luck. That is until the
arrival of a larger than life new character, Sheila Wheeler, who is
so named in order to get in a quip about car insurance and to whom
Norris decides to offer the job, in spite of her dodgy
knees.
Last, but certainly by no means least, while all of this
has been is going on, Fiz is preparing for her big day. She has her dress, hair and
make-up all sorted. The
only thing missing are any guests which is hardly surprising since
most of the Street don’t even know she’s planning to get
married. The only
people that do know have excuses why they can’t be there, some more
plausible than others.
Chesney, of course, continues to be devastated by the thought
of his sister marrying “that freak” and Hayley and Roy couldn’t
possibly condone the wedding with him feeling that
way.
Finally Fiz’s chariot awaits in
the form of Eddie Windass’s taxi. Anna is horrified by the
state it’s in and whilst she does her best to clean up the worst of
the rubbish on the back seat it gives enough time for Fiz to be
spotted waiting on the Street in her wedding dress and Kelly to
totter (at surprising speed given the height of her heels and the
tightness of her skirt) back to the factory to break the news. They all come rushing over
to wish her luck; all that is except Rosie who takes it as another
opportunity to give Fiz a torrent of
abuse.
So, Fiz arrives at the prison to find John waiting in his
suit and the registrar hovering in the background. John can sense that all is
not well and tells Fiz he can’t marry her unless she’s totally
honest with him. So the
registrar does some more discreet hovering while Fiz explains why
there are no guests and, in particular, how hostile everyone is
towards John, especially Chesney. The result of all of this is
that while John is still prepared to marry Fiz she realises she can’t marry him without Chesney’s
blessing. So a dejected
John returns to his cell and Fiz rushes out of the prison and calls
a taxi.
Meanwhile,
back on the Street, Gary Windass, who has
become quite close to Ches of late, is
using a bit of reverse psychology on him. It finally dawns on Chesney
that deep down he really loves his sister and perhaps he’ been a bit
hard on her. So much so
that the sight of a good luck card from Kirk makes him wish that
he’d gone to the wedding after all. He rushes over to
Roy’s
Rolls to borrow some money to book a cab. “What are you waiting for?”
Anna asks Roy and Hayley, reminding them that they own a car. So, pausing only for
Roy
to change his cardie and collect their
visiting orders, they all pile into The Woody and set off for
Weatherfield nick.
Unfortunately, as Hayley explains, the car can only do 40
downhill with the wind behind them so by the time they reach the
prison, Fiz is already in the back of her
cab.
Luckily, they spot each other just in time for Fiz and
Chesney to leap out of their respective vehicles and have a bit of a
Cathy and Heathcliff moment in the middle
of the road. Chesney
says sorry for missing the wedding and Fiz sobs that there was no
wedding. When Ches asks why she tells him that it’s because he
wasn’t there. “I’m here
now,” he declares poignantly as the credits
roll.
Phew! That’s
finally it. Writers for
these episodes were Stephen Russell, Damon Rochefort, Jonathan Harvey, John Kerr and Mark
Burt.
Written by Karen
Jankel (standing in for
Glenda)