If there's anything soaps do better than stalkers, it's stalkers inserting themselves into the drama they've created to see if anyone is onto them. In Faye's case, she really doesn't appreciate her window work being labelled juvenile, and points out all the things the stalker has done seem very grown up. Later at the station a detective assures Eileen they have no reason to believe Pat Phelan is alive, which very obviously means he is. It's supposed to be reassuring that his phone and bank account haven't been used, but Eileen still has a few questions. Nicola also reveals she's on a parent chat group where she's made a nice new friend who is of course Phelan. And Faye is still sniffing around in the background asking how it went at the station, because clearly she hasn't read her stalking for dummies manual.
Eileen later reveals to Leanne that she's keeping a diary of everything the stalker has done to her, again reaffirming the police don't think it's Phelan, and again Faye is looming in the background. To an extent her hatred of Eileen is understandable, but it was Faye who inadvertently got Anna locked up.
Today is court day. The Platt's are bracing themselves for what's to come, Josh is claiming David deserves to be sent down, Alya is talking about her relationship with Maria and David is reaching out to Shona over the phone.
She later pays a visit to Imran and wants to present a case to the judge of new evidence. Imran is intrigued to hear what this new evidence is but Shona reveals she can't actually tell him. Josh coincidentally receives a visit from an old friend who reveals that Shona paid a visit to Josh's old gym. Alya finds this weird, Josh shakes her off, and Shona is soon paying another visit to Josh's garage, desperate for evidence that will help David's case. Given how easy it really would be for Shona to just blurt out the truth and deal with the consequences later, she does need to be commended for respecting David's wishes.
Imran visits David in jail to inform him Gary will be attending court to read out his victim statement. Josh and Shona meanwhile have yet another run in and it's nice to see Alya transfer her obliviousness into this situation now Kate & Rana are out in the open. However with that said Josh and Shona constantly shooting daggers and threatening each other is getting a little stale. Sure it's to build up Alya's suspicions over just what is going on between them, but it just isn't interesting to watch. In court Gary declares he can't go through with reading his statement and David just looks on in completely despair. Finally revealing David's fate, the judge sentences him to 18 months in prison which is suspended for 2 years.
Once David has been released and is home, Shona pops into the factory to see Alya who accuses her of having a thing for Josh which Shona's of course disgusted by. Again the back and forth feels very rinse/repeat. We know Shona isn't going to just blurt the truth out to Alya. We know Alya is obviously going to jump to the wrong conclusion since she's under Josh's thumb. We don't need repeats scenes of this to build a picture. Honestly the sooner David does find the strength to tell others what Josh has done to him, the better for the people that surround him so we don't have to keep witnessing this. She does later reveal to David she knows he's not the first person Josh has raped, and probably won't be the last, and this storyline is obviously building for next week.
Later Sarah decides to check in on Nicola with some gifts for the baby. Gary's feeling concerned Nicola doesn't really have anyone around for her, since she is going through this pregnancy as a single mother. Having to make pally with the girl your partner got pregnant is extremely awkward, but Sarah and Nicola make it work. When Gary checks in on them and discovers Nicola's online friend is in Wales, he's immediately suspicious.
Today is also Zeedan's final episodes. Imran can't understand why he wants to pack the restaurant in and neither can Yasmeen. As many fans had speculated, Zeedan wants Sophie to take over running the restaurant which Yasmeen isn't at all happy with. Given the fact Alya does have experience it would make more sense to just have her as manager, but I guess the writers have to keep her free for the Underworld plot. Putting the fact he is her grandson aside, it's a bit difficult to understand Yasmeen's upset over Zeedan wanting to leave. Sure last week's events are still heavily playing on Zeedan's mind, but he really doesn't have all that much keeping him in Weatherfield anymore. He seems to have a plan of managing the business from far away which isn't that bad an idea in practice, but Yasmeen still doesn't think he's thought all this through.
Joining Yasmeen in not wanting Zeedan to leave is Rana. Inserting a bit of logic into the situation, Kate does point out Zeedan can't really move on with his life whilst they're happy and loved up together, so moving on somewhere else where he doesn't have to see them every day would be good for him. Rana questions whether she's being selfish and Kate thinks she is just a little bit. Rana's worried it'll look suspicious with the police and also doesn't want him leaving for her sake, pointing out if she was being selfish she'd want him to go cause it makes life easier. The fact that Kate and Rana can now talk about Zeedan without Kate being seconds away from joining us in eyerolling shows progress for them.
Rana has come an extremely long way in such a short space of time. Lest we forget it wasn't that long ago she was dancing around Zeedan, not up to moving out of the Nazir house and trying to keep everyone happy. Now? She's asked Zeedan for a divorce, moved in with Kate and doesn't have any feelings for him whatsoever outside of a friend. After so many weeks of having to witness her so torn and caught between two different world's, it was really beautiful to watch and shout out to another scene of Rana and Kate in the fan drinking tea like the little domesticated couple they are.
Of course they're not the only ones with thoughts on Zeedan's impending departure, Robert does to. He thinks Zeedan is trying to run away from everything and questions whether he can really be happy to just leave everything behind, which gives him food for thought. He's later visited by Rana who again tries to persuade him not to go, and Zeedan admits it kills him to see her so happy with Kate when he still loves her. She concedes they were once happy once upon a time, which Zeedan places a great emphasis on being a long time ago and things are now massively different.
To be honest given what we had just witnessed minutes beforehand? This scene doesn't really make sense, is once again an example of bad writing, and I once again am glad this is Zeedan's final episode. There's always been a great emphasis placed on how badly Rana has done him wrong. She cheated on him, destroying their marriage and wrecking Zeedan's wonderful life, so therefore she has to eternally feel bad for her actions and only have glimpses of happiness. It's almost as though the writers have forgotten Zeedan outing her to her parents as an act of revenge, agreeing to go along with the contract to get finance for his restuarant, then agreeing to let her and Kate be together in secret as long as he still got something out of it, used her coming down with the flu to keep her away from Kate, was really quite useless when her parent's kidnapped her, throws venom in Rana's face whenever things don't go his way, and when seeing Rana and Kate having their first proper argument was delighted, seizing the opportunity to make a move on her, was then happy when she hadn't told Kate right away, and even when he knew that she was still with Kate gave her flowers, proclaims to anyone that will hear that Rana doesn't know what she is, sees Kate and Sophie chatting and decides they're having an affair, proclaims to a reporter to still be happily married to Rana much to her disgust and then of course spied on Kate & Sophie whilst they were out, hoping to use the 'evidence' to convince Rana of her cheating and get her to come back to him.
All completely, disgusting actions (especially the stalking when you consider Kate's brother has just died). Yet the writers have sought to ignore this and focus most of the time on how badly Rana ruined his life. This scene could've been really good for Zeedan admitting seeing Rana with Kate hurts, but he respects their relationship, is sorry for all of the terrible things that he's done, Rana admit their relationship was once good, Zeedan place the emphasis on once and both of them be on their way. Instead after a week of somewhat solid writing for a soap, we're getting Rana and Kate talking about Zeedan leaving, followed by Rana turning up at the Nazir's all sad that he's going, when only a few scenes ago she was saying him going would be easier all round.
Rana has spent far too long feeling guilty about Zeedan. He's spent far too long feeling sad over Rana. Granted her feeling guilty is part of her emphatic nature and sure, deciding on a whim to leave is a bit out of the blue, but it is what is best for everyone all round. Personally speaking I would've found Zeedan's part of this storyline far more interesting with a better act playing the part. Qas is an OK actor and for what was required when he first joined Coronation Street did well enough, but Zeedan's arcs have very much changed since then and Qas hasn't been able to rise to the occasion.
The full goodbye party is there to send Zeedan off. Except of course for Yasmeen who only just manages to catch up with Zeedan and say her goodbyes. It is nice to see him, and Kate saying their friendly goodbyes, along with Rana of course dropping in one more sorry and Zeedan telling Kate to look after her. It's an extremely low key exit for the character, which just about sums up his time on the street.
Michelle and Robert are back from the hospital and soon recieve a visit from Ali. He can very much tell they're lying about what actually happened on Monday, and does probe with some questions that wrong foot Robert. After a conversation with Maria, Ali is soon taking advantage of his position as a Doctor to look up Robert's medical records, and find out just what is going on. He's later annoyed when Michelle cancels on him to go and pick Ryan up from the airport. After much suspense we do finally get out first look of Ryan 3.0. He's soon drunkenly falling to the floor and I think someone might be rivaling Steve for the comedy jack award.
Michelle can't help feeling bad about leaving Ali in the lurch, and Robert soon adds to that news with his best man pulling out of the wedding. Seizing the opportunity, Ryan offers his services in organizing Robert's stag do which Michelle and Robert are against. Michelle is later confiding in Steve which is of course witnessed by an uncomfortable Robert, and Michelle is soon taking him back home to rest with Steve joining the intrigued list over what exactly is going on.
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