Friday, 17 August 2018

Coronation Street Review: "Punch In The Gut"

A night that begins with Kana is a night that I can stan even if it ripped my heart out and then stomped on it.

With Rana fearing whether or not her dad is dead, Kate suggests they pretend to break up so that her mum will allow Rana to see him. Rana completely rejects that because she loves Kate, she's the best thing in her life right now and she's not going to deny that. Whilst dying in these feels? You also knew by the end of the episode Rana would be doing this exact thing.

Wednesday saw Peter and Carla engage in a bit of passion. To Peter's head that now means they're together, or at least going in that direction. Carla's very much not in that direction as she tried to shrug off Peter's 'friendly' advances, and Imran was getting a bit of grief for taking Duncan on as a client. If Kana beginning an episode wasn't enough, they're soon sitting down for breakfast, with Imran informing them Hassan is indeed still alive but Rana being at the hospital probably isn't the best idea and Rana knows he isn't going to push it. Whilst the soap police may be questioning Sally's innocence based off cobbled together evidence, Carla assures Sally at Underworld they operate a innocent until proven guilty policy because she has after all had her fair share of run-ins with the law.

You can really tell tonight was aiming to kill us with feels when 9 minutes in Rana is desperate and crying, begging Saira to let her come to the hospital, Saira was continuing to ignore her existence whilst Imran was helpless and Rana could only cry over the fact her mum hates her.

I don't know who exactly is in charge of the various soap awards, but if Bhavna isn't at the very least nominated next year it'll be a travesty. She's been completely faultless throughout this storyline, and deserves recognition for it.

Being the helpful vicar that he is, Billy offered Rana a solution of sorts to her problem; he'd distract Saira so she could sneak into the hospital.

Michelle couldn't resist having a dig at Carla about her life, which roughly translated I'm gonna say is a dig over her involvement with Peter because Michelle knows he's trash, knows Carla can do better than trash, and Carla really needs to love herself and keep distance between herself and trash. That may seem overly harsh and quite strange coming from someone who freely admits to liking Peter/Carla, but I'm a person who can admit to liking something whilst acknowledging everything wrong with it.

Question I'm gonna have to pose though is why on earth Leanne cares so much about Peter getting back into business with Carla? Sure she tries to paint it as being annoyed that Peter is wrongly investing Simon's future when he has court issues to deal with, but it still feels really jarring to see her react so incensed at the mention of Carla.

Being the good vicar he is, Billy attempted to distract Saira with small talk to enable Rana to get into the hospital and I have to say this is one duo I could do with seeing more of. Billy is so much better as a character when he's advising and being friendly with people. Unfortunately they were caught in the act by Saira, because that's just how soaps role.

With Sally's legal troubles of course comes the only new character anyone really cares about; PAULA! If you're up to date on your soap info you know where this is going. If you haven't? You're in for a treat.

In an episode that was full of Kana drama and Peter being smarmy, it's only right we got a designated Michelle/Carla scene where Michelle again questioned the goings-on with Carla/Peter and Carla assured her it is just business. We also got Kate on the phone telling Rana they're in it together and loves her, which of course cut away to Saira tearing another strip off of Rana for her actions and how badly they've effected her father, and that's of course when Rana dropped the bomb that her and Kate have split up.

Because her mum isn't oblivious Alya and she had the wonderful joy of walking in on Kate/Rana after Rana had said they were done, she doesn't believe her. Imran is sure Rana wouldn't lie and Saira is soon on the case, ordering Rana to swear what she's saying is true. Though she does and even claims the bag she was holding earlier is because she was leaving Kate, her mother still doesn't quite believe her. Twisting the knife into our hearts, Saira forces Rana to say her relationship was shameful, and questions how exactly she feels every time she thinks of being with Kate. I'm pretty sure Rana in this scene was a visual representation of viewers but because misery loves company, you can watch the scene below.
of viewers.

The really clever thing about this scene is Rana is repulsed and sickened by the words coming out of her mouth, to the point that she looks like she's gonna throw up, and she is truly sickened by her own behavior. But it's not because she actually believes what she's saying or what her mum is proclaiming, it's because denying her relationship with Kate and having to speak so awfully of it completely goes against Rana's core. We saw how she reacted so shocked and horrified at the beginning of the night when Kate made the suggestion to her. It's not something Rana had ever considered and whenever she and Kate have fought and then made up, Rana's reiterated it's because she loves Kate with all her heart. Kate truly is the best thing that's ever happened to her, because it has shown Rana she can be loved by someone for who she really is and not someone's ideology of her. They always known when something is on the others mind, they can talk freely over concerns and tease each other at will. They would do absolutely anything for each other, and having to deny all this isn't something Rana's even doing as a last resort. She's doing it because she's beyond desperate and far too pure for this world, continuing to love her parents despite how much they hate her and the thought of her dad dying without being able to speak to him again? It has completely and utterly devastated Rana which is why she's taken the desperate measures she has.

I'm gonna take a moment here though to say what we all know; Rana's mum is pure evil. I mentioned Zainab Masood in my review last week as a parallel to the Christian/Syed story, but at least in that situation we knew Zainab did love him. Here? Ignoring your daughter's existence? Putting every bad thing on her shoulder and then forcing her to say how shameful and against nature she and her actions were? It's absolutely disgusting and horrific, but terrifically played by Kim. I complained last week that I wished Corrie would place more emphasis on the faith part of this storyline, and they've more than done that tonight. It is a shame that parents like Saira do unfortunately exist in the world, and that so many people have to deal with situations like this.

Whilst Rana may have mended fences with her mum by denying who she is, the prognosis wasn't as good for Hassan whose health was fast deteriorating.

Gossip building up over his relations with Carla and Leanne's unhappiness, Peter decided that being a silent partner wasn't for him and resigned from street cars to be more actively involved because THAT'S really going to help matters. As her father lay basically dying, Saira assured him that Rana was back with her family and we were treated to Rana screaming in devastation as Hassan sadly passed, because we obviously hadn't suffered enough for one night.

Away from all of the murdering of feels, Audrey paid a visit to Lewis who proclaimed himself to be a changed man. Thankfully Audrey wasn't buying the sob story as easily as she has in the past, which led to Lewis revealing he handed himself into the police and has also given Gail her money back. Audrey still wasn't being swayed and Lewis asked her to just think things over, which we all know she will. We also got Leanne doing the perfect impression of mum's from her baby group who she finds incredibly annoying, and wishes she had more to her life.

With the whole street basically gossiping over when Peter/Carla get back together, Carla assured Johnny that she was never going back there and he had nothing to worry about. Be a bit more believable if she hadn't already been back there on Wednesday. At the pub Peter was busy getting all of the workers onside as best boss ever, whilst Johnny gave Peter a little warning that their relationship was staying business only. All of their protests ring of protesting too much given what happened on Wednesday and ever since he broke up with Toyah? Well its basically just been a matter of time.

Source: Booasaur

Usually I'd be complaining about the lack of Kate and Rana with other storylines going on, but tonight? I was taking every bit of comic relief and other storylines that I could grasp because everything related to Rana has hurt. We get the absolute softest hug in the world as Kate offers her condolences and then whatever's left of my heart was torn apart as a completely dejected Rana told Kate she had indeed lied about them.


She pointed out Kate was the one who first suggested it, Kate can't argue but they are both completely and utterly devastated and Rana looks like she's had the world taken from her. Obviously it is good that Corrie decided not to prolong our torture by having Rana telling Kate as a cliffhanger for next week, but it doesn't make the situation any less painful for them or us.

What I'm also gonna point out here is how even telling Kate that she's lied is a punch in the gut to Rana and also to Kate herself. She suggested it to try and help because that's what you do when you love someone and are powerless to their situation, but she didn't actually want Rana to lie as noted by her relief when Rana says that she can't. Telling Kate that she has actually lied probably hurts Rana more than the actual lie, because that was to her mum, an act to put on, words to feel repulsed by in that gut wrenching moment but as soon as she leaves her, she can forget about that part and carry on living so to speak. But having to tell Kate that she did indeed go through with the lie, because her parents really weren't coming round, and truly the only way they'll accept Rana is if she's not with Kate, the person that has made her whole? It's terrible. Rana knows it as does Kate but the moment isn't about her, it's about Rana so she has to put her feelings on the back burner and support her love. The slight shock that Kate has though when Rana reveals the truth is enough to make Kate panic and she has to point out Kate is the one that came up with the idea, because she herself could never conjure up the thought of lying about her love. Sensing Rana's panic Kate is quick to reassure her that she knows she was the one to come up with it, and it's all ok even if it's very much not.

OUR FIRST OFFICIAL PAULA SIGHTING. She believes the case against Sally is completely circumstantial and is already slotting right in like old furniture. Unfortunately whilst her case may be looking good, things aren't as good in Sally's marriage because plot gonna plot. But let's just bask in Paula because she's the only good, ray of sunshine in this depressingly good affair. And whilst Imran was drowning his sorrows, Leanne approached him looking for a job because she wants something for herself outside being a mum now she doesn't have the pub. We're treated to a bit of minor flirting between Imran/Leanne which I'm gonna reserve judgement on.

Carla meanwhile dedicated taking the factory back to Aidan and had a lovely dig at Peter in the process, who responded by telling her he was going to be an more active partner in the factory. But who cares about that when you have Kate & Rana in the pub, getting condolences from Johnny and Rana telling Kate she's gonna go to the funeral because her mum needs her. Whilst Kate's full of understanding, Rana's still beside herself with guilt and devastation at her father forgiving her on his death bed because he believed her lie. She's set on telling her mum the truth once the funeral is done, fully in the knowledge that her mum will go back to hating her and proclaim her to be terrible for lying, but it's something Rana feels she has to do. We'll obviously see how exactly that pans out for her as Saira isn't at all going to be happy, and then of course there's Imran.

With that I'm done since it's honestly a miracle this review is even as in depth as it is since I'm basically a bunch of feels right now, so imma just leave you with this clip fro Corrie's twitter because their social media person wants to really drive home those feels and go drown myself in wine.