Next week on Coronation Street, Kit’s shared past with Mick and Lou is revealed, Debbie breaks down in front of Abi, and Jenny moves on.

1) Gary takes action against Mick
Liam (Charlie Wrenshall) faces another terrifying ordeal next week, as a prank played on co-worker Mick (Joe Layton) backfires.

Mick started work at the builder’s yard last week under new owner Gary (Mikey North), with 15-year-old Liam also being taken under his stepdad’s wing to get some work experience.

Mick targetted Liam from the off, playing several workplace pranks on the youngster. Liam did his best to laugh if off, determined to fit in with the lads and their workplace bants.

Unsurprisingly, it turns out that Mick can dish it out but can’t take it, as Liam finds out this week when he decides to get his own back.

When Mick takes a swig of his brew, he quickly spits it out in disgust as Liam begins to laugh. He pulled the old salt for sugar switcheroo, and whilst Liam is happy to have finally got one over on Mick, Mick is quietly seething at the humiliation.

Determined to make Liam pay, Mick tricks Liam into stepping into the tool shed, before swiftly locking him in. A panicked Liam calls out for help but it’s all in vain, no-one can hear him.

The following day, Mick sends Liam out on an errand to fetch them all some bacon sarnies, only for him to fail to return. Concerned, Gary and Maria eventually track Liam hiding out in the cafe, where he finally reveals how Mick has been targetting him, and had locked him in the tool shed for several hours.

Gary and Maria are horrified, and when Gary heads back to the yard, he spots Mick heading into the very same shed. Not one to let it slide, a furious Gary follows… and shuts the door behind him, giving Mick a taste of his own medicine.

Gary then makes it clear that Mick won’t be playing any more pranks on Liam, and fires him on the spot!

2) Kit’s motives come into question
Mick later confronts Gary outside the furniture shop and dishes out some more revenge, flooring Gary with a punch.

Dazed but defiant, Gary scrambles up and gets into a full-on brawl with Mick, before grabbing a nearby bottle.

Just as tensions threaten to spiral, Kit (Jacob Roberts) intervenes, stepping in and firmly instructing Gary to back down before he does something he regrets.

Later in the week, in the aftermath of the showdown, Maria and Lou (Farrel Hegarty) clash over what really happened—each fiercely defending their own husband’s version of events. Things escalate when Maria and Gary challenge Kit on his handling of the situation, accusing him of corruption by turning a blind eye to Mick assaulting Gary.

Kit hits back hard, casting Gary as the aggressor and pointing out he was the one armed with a bottle during the altercation.

It’s become clear in recent weeks that Kit has history with Mick, and is being lenient on him as a result. When Kit was called in to question a suspect over a separate assault, he was visibly thrown by who he found waiting for him. Mick, on the other hand, could barely hide his smug satisfaction as Kit entered the interview room, fully aware he had the upper hand.

“I wouldn’t say he’s scared, he knows he’s gonna blackmail him but Kit’s done that to many characters before,” Jacob Roberts recently told EverySoap and other press. “But it is a past that he doesn’t want to bring up again. I suppose in real life it’s like when you have friends from back in the day and you’d never want them to meet any of your friends of today.”

“He was his best mate at 16, he did something for him, and I don’t think that’s left him. He is a bit protective of him at the time. Gary is no angel as well, but he knows Mick’s got something on him. I think if he blackmails him too much, he’ll react back, so I think that’s what’ll happen with Kit, he’ll only take so much.”

Earlier in the week, Kit had already crossed paths with Lou in the Rovers, the first time in many years. Questioned about the brief interaction, Lou explained to Tracy (Kate Ford) that she and Kit go way back.

“The first time you see them together, there’s definitely a sense of shock because for her it’s a blast from the past,” Farrel Hegarty added. “They’ve not seen each other for a while and there’s all those emotions coming up. I think what we’ll discover is that it brings up a lot of things that she’d rather forget, and also a lot of things that she’d rather keep hidden as well.”

After coming across an old photo in the bin in Kit’s flat, Bernie (Jane Hazlegrove) demands to know why exactly Kit is covering for Mick…

3) Kit, Mick and Lou’s shared past is revealed
Whilst Kit initially refuses to open up to his mum, Bernie refuses to take no for an answer and calls by the flat again later in the week, where she convinces him to finally tell her the truth.

During Friday’s episode, viewers will see the clock turned back to 2007, where special flashback scenes reveal what went on in the teenage years of Kit (Brook Debio), Mick (Lewis Walton), and Lou (Charlotte Alex-Riley).

As we jump between their childhood and the present day, we find Kit and Mick on the wrong side of the law, before we gradually start to peel back the layers of shared secrets and buried history that still bind them together.

“I was very grateful,” Jacob explained on first hearing about the episode. “I thought I must be doing something right with the character if they want to get to know him and find out why he is the way he is.”

“I was very excited to see the flashback stuff and read the script and see what happened between these two characters, Mick and Kit. It’s a funny one because it’s obviously a different life that he led back then and he’s changed it around and obviously Mick hasn’t, so it was good to find out what happened.”

When we return to the present day, Mick and Lou are taking son Brody (Ryan Mulvey) out for a meal at Speed Daal to celebrate his release from the STC, where he’s spent his time terrorising Dylan (Liam McCheyne).

But there soon comes a moment where Kit makes a shocking realisation… that following his own dalliance with Lou back in the day, 16-year-old Brody could actually be his son!

“I think it would come as a shock to him, and he’d be upset or angry that Lou never told him he had a child,” Jacob tells us. “He’s not ready for a kid. He wasn’t ready for a baby, so how can he be ready for a 16 year old lad who’s already learnt off his dad Mick?”

“Kit would know that Brody has just come out of the STC and I don’t think you can change a lad, the damage has already been done.”

4) Will Debbie reveal her diagnosis to Abi?
Over at the Chariot Square Hotel, Debbie (Sue Devaney) is holding a wedding fayre, but tensions are bubbling beneath the surface as Leanne (Jane Danson) grumbles about Speed Daal’s less-than-prime spot in the room. Secretly trying to come to terms with her vascular dementia diagnosis, Debbie does her best to rise above the drama, but Leanne’s nit-picking is relentless.

Leanne eventually pushes Debbie to the brink. Already frazzled after misplacing her clipboard, Debbie snaps and attempts to move the Speed Daal stand herself, only to injure her hand in the process. Ronnie (Vinta Morgan) quickly steps in, whisking her off to the A&E at Weatherfield General.

The situation is already awkward given Debbie recently dumped Ronnie without explanation, not wishing to be a burden on him as her dementia progresses. But when a nurse enters the room needing to ask Debbie some questions about her medical history, Debbie immediately panics. Doing her best to hide her unease, she hurriedly dismisses a concerned Ronnie, insisting she’s fine.

Later in the week, Debbie and Abi (Sally Carman-Duttine) sit down for lunch at the bistro and initially opt for soft drinks. But the second Ronnie walks in, Debbie’s mood turns—and so does her drink order, upgraded swiftly to a large vodka.

As the alcohol takes hold and Debbie staggers off to the bathroom, a concerned Abi makes a discreet call to Carl (Jonathan Howard)—the only family member so far to know what Debbie’s secretly going through. On arrival, Carl finds a drunken Debbie opening up to Abi, telling her she’s recently had some bad news…

Is Debbie about to let slip about her diagnosis?

5) Bobby turns his back on Lauren
Meanwhile, although Lauren’s (Cait Fitton) blackmail nightmare is finally behind her—after unmasking the unlikely culprit as 11-year-old Jake Windass (Bobby Bradshaw)—she now faces the fallout of getting her friend Bobby (Jack Carroll) involved.

 

ITV

Lauren had confided in Betsy (Sydney Martin) that she thought Bobby might be behind the threats, in a misguided attempt to get closer to her. When Bobby unexpectedly offered to give her the £500 to pay off the blackmailer, Lauren decided to test the waters.

 

ITV

 

ITV

She and Betsy dropped the cash at the agreed location and waited—only to be stunned when Jake rocked up instead.

When confronted, Jake sheepishly admitted he didn’t think Lauren would take it seriously. He was just trying to scrape together some cash to replace his broken Xbox.

 

ITV

 

ITV

Lauren reclaimed the money and intended to return it to Bobby, until she received a call telling her that she’d be required to put down an immediate deposit on a flat she was looking to rent.

Next week, Lauren is forced to come clean to Bobby about what she’s done. But her confession backfires, leaving her heartbroken when Bobby coldly declares their friendship is over.

 

ITV

Later in the week, Betsy has turned on Lauren too after her treatment of Bobby, and a row ensues between the pair in the cafe.

 

ITV

Lashing out, Lauren goes to squirt tomato ketchup in Betsy’s face, but ends up with Roy (David Neilson) as her unintended target instead!

 

ITV

 

ITV

With baby Frankie finally out of hospital, Lauren’s next task is to find a job, knowing that she must pay Bobby back. Aadi (Adam Hussain) has already attempted to put in a good word for her at Freshco, but will a suitable position open up nearer to home…?

6) Eileen faces a serious accusation
At No.11, as if losing her sister Julie (Katy Cavanagh-Jupe) wasn’t painful enough, Eileen (Sue Cleaver) now finds herself under suspicion in connection with her death.

Julie, who was terminally ill, had passed away peacefully during a day trip to a local lake with Eileen. But it soon emerged that Julie had known this outing would be her last.

 

ITV

Alarm bells rang for Brian (Peter Gunn) when he noticed that all of Julie’s medication had vanished. His concern deepened upon discovering an empty packet of Eileen’s prescription painkillers amongst Julie’s belongings—enough for him to contact the police, fearing Eileen might have been complicit in Julie’s final act.

Matters only got worse when Craig (Colson Smith) caught George (Tony Maudsley) in the act of beginning to embalm Julie’s body at the undertakers—knowing full well that doing so would compromise any toxicology results. George too was beginning to doubt Eileen’s innocence.

 

ITV

Next week, Kit breaks devastating news to Eileen which leaves her reeling—the autopsy has confirmed her painkillers were found in Julie’s system.

 

ITV

While it’s clear that Julie made the heartbreaking choice to end her suffering on her own terms, the last thing she would’ve wanted was for her sister to be left bearing the blame.

Struggling to hold it together, Eileen tells George that the stress of being under suspicion has made it nearly impossible for her to properly grieve her sister’s passing.

 

ITV

Will Eileen be able to convince everyone of her innocence?

7) Jenny moves on
Also next week, it’s a new start for Jenny (Sally Ann Matthews) as she moves out of the Rovers, having accepted defeat over her plans to buy the beloved boozer.

 

ITV

With Carla (Alison King) now in possession of the deeds for the pub, Jenny decides to move back in with stepmum Rita (Barbara Knox), having already accepted a job at the newsagents as Rita looks to step back.

 

ITV

With Ryan (Ryan Prescott) now working for Debbie at the hotel, Carla appoints Glenda (Jodie Prenger) as new pub manager. Glenda soon finds herself overworked however, and points out to Carla that they need some new blood behind the bar.

Is there anyone on the street looking for a job, who’d be able to become the iconic Rovers’ latest barmaid…?