Fabulous Pablo
“Be fabulous,” Maria said to Pablo Wednesday as she gave him a farewell kiss and sent him off to London to a new and fabulous life. Oh, I hope he comes back to Weatherfield.
He is Maria’s green-card husband. His lover Ash is in London, and he wanted to join him. Maria, while in Cyprus, provided the solution by marrying Pablo so he could get legal immigrant status. One might ask, as Luke did, why he didn’t just go the direct route and marry Ash. Pablo’s parents don’t know he is gay, to which Luke asked “have they not met you?”
Maria hadn’t known how to tell Luke, so she didn’t. Tuesday, Luke surprised her with a huge bouquet of flowers at a restaurant where she was supposedly having lunch with a school friend named Anastasia. Instead, she was lunching with a good looking guy.
Es-presso!
She made the introductions: Pablo, this is my boyfriend; Luke, this is my husband. Smooth, Maria, smooth! While Luke was trying to digest all of this, a waiter came by. Poor man, he suggested ‘expresso’. “It’s es-presso not ex-presso,” Luke exploded. Then a tirade about the frequent mispronunciation and how it drove him demented.
Waiter corrected, Pablo open-mouthed and Maria worried, Luke stormed out, shoving the flowers in the arms of a woman passing by, leaving her stunned.
Next day, Pablo came to explain. Buenos Aires’ finest 80 proof ‘moonshine’ and a plea for Maria’s forgiveness because “she looks so ugly when she cries” would do the trick. That last one ticked Maria off but It worked, eventually.
Maria and Luke patched it up and they became engaged. As Sophie said to Luke, it’s “you and Maria and the gay husband.” How are she and Pablo going to convince British authorities that they have a legitimate marriage?
Fabulously OTT
I hope it means Pablo will be back. This despite the fact that I no longer look with delight at newcomers on the Street. Far too many cast members with very little to do and no real reason to care about them. But Pablo? He is indeed fabulous.
Actor Shai Matheson plays it over the top, teetering on the edge of farce but not going over. He and Luke are brilliant together, Luke’s frustration and fury beautifully matched by Pablo’s shrug of ‘what, me?’ Pablo and Maria are great too. I think he’d be wonderful with anyone. In an interview with Samia Ghadie on Bluenose Corrie, she said she had asked the writer of these episodes: “Please can we keep him?” I second that. Please please, can we keep him?
