Mother of the Year

An anonymous call to Child Services, Max taken back into care “while we investigate.” Becky’s way of handling this will not earn her any mother of the year awards, despite, in my opinion, being fully justified.

Becky wrung the truth out of Kylie, her first suspect, and believes she didn’t do it. That leaves Tracy. It is a reasonable assumption. So Becky grabs a sledge hammer from Owen’s truck and proceeds to bash the Barlow door in.

Meanwhile, Owen, Jason and Steve stand around with their fingers – well, watching her with their mouths open. They do nothing useful to stop her.

After she finally breaks the door through, she goes after Tracy. Tracy cowers, oh I’m so frightened (she who had no compunction about killing her former lover with a large ornament). Steve still stands around, absolutely useless. So Ken is the only one with the wherewithal to try to physically restrain Becky. She manages to bash pretty much all the furniture and most of the ornaments in the Barlow dining room.

Eventually Steve sees his way clear to tell her it was he who phoned the social workers. Why didn’t he do that in the first place? He had plenty of time to do so. He could have stopped her rampage. But he didn’t. He did absolutely nothing. Afraid of Becky or Tracy? Tracy is my bet.

So, of course, Becky would be deemed unfit to have custody of a child after that little performance. Oh, I just feel so sorry for Becky. If she were the “real” mother, and if social services weren’t involved, her actions would be seen as the epitome of motherhood – a mother Grizzly protecting her cub. But she’s not, and they are. So instead of Mother of the Year for her, there’s a lot of tut-tutting from them and, well, of course he’ll be better off with someone else.

Poor, poor Becky. She was the best thing ever for Max, and he for her. And Steve? She was the best thing for him too.

Surprise! The Aunties

In the Canadian time-line, we got a lovely Christmas present this week from summertime Weatherfield: the return of Sunita’s Aunties from India. They are just a delight, as long as you are not a family member and they do not choose to visit you!