Coronation Street’s ‘confirms’ who will expose Rowan – as two major legends enter the frame
Leanne Battersby (Jane Danson) has become seriously entangled in the sinister Altovalent Institute on Coronation Street, ever since she met the organisation’s charismatic Rowan Cunliffe (Emrhys Cooper).
While it’s apparent to Leanne’s sister, Toyah (Georgia Taylor), and partner Nick Tilsley (Ben Price) that the Institute is basically a cult in the way it operates, to Leanne it’s provided the answers to many of her problems and she’s thrown herself into it wholeheartedly.
Recently she was ‘promoted’ within the organisation and is now able to recruit new members and it wasn’t long before she was targeting Amy Barlow (Elle Mulvaney).
Of course Amy has been through some serious trauma in her life, having been raped by someone she thought was her friend. In upcoming episodes her induction to the Institute involves the process they call ‘upload,’ where she has to relive her trauma.
Leanne went through this herself and as she supports Amy through the process she’s shocked to realise that Rowan is recording her.
Despite this, Amy decides she wants to continue with investing money in the Institute – money which is an inheritance from her grandmother Deirdre (Anne Kirkbride).
She speaks to Ken (William Roache) about releasing the money, and her granddad is not keen on the idea at all.
Ken, of course, is a formidable foe. But perhaps even more formidable is Amy’s mum Tracy Barlow (Kate Ford), who is back in Weatherfield. Tracy is pretty convinced that everything about the Institute is dodgy and she’s not about to let her daughter get dragged further into it.
Tracy teams up with Nick and together they go to the Chariot Square Hotel to confront Rowan and expose his dubious methods.
Tracy tells Rowan that they’re taking their story to the Weatherfield Gazette. The most frightening member of the Barlow family in full rage mode has even the usually smarmily serene Rowan rattled, and he enlists Leanne’s help to get Amy to call her mum off.
Leanne’s torn. She wants what’s best for Amy and knows that’s not necessarily Rowan and the Institute, but as she’s now ‘senior management’ of the organisation, where do her loyalties lie?
