Creepy cult leader Rowan Cunliffe (Emrhys Cooper) has scored a new victim in Coronation Street – it’s none other than Amy Barlow (Elle Mulvaney).
Amy first came across Rowan and his mysterious Altovalent Institute when Leanne Battersby (Jane Danson), who is firmly entwined in the cult’s ideologies, agreed to allow him to host a meeting at the Viaduct Bistro.
Seeing how well she was doing with her new venture, and also charmed by Rowan’s overwhelmingly nice behaviour, Amy’s interest was piqued.
The following day, with her feeling bogged down by working several jobs and tackling university coursework, Leanne suggested that the Institute’s techniques could be just the ticket.
There was one hurdle though – the finances she’d have to cough up to fund her attendance.
Earlier this week, it seemed that Amy’s mind had been made up, and she was firmly against joining after seeing the AI version of her late half-brother Oliver that Rowan had rendered to help Leanne with her grief.
Utterly horrified, she stormed out.
In tonight’s (17th July) episode, Rowan arrived at the restaurant and questioned Leanne on whether she’d been able to find a new member.
After she explained Amy’s terror, he suggested she persist with swaying her andalso proposed that she invest in his new research centre. This comes just weeks after Leanne’s fiancée Nick Tilsley (Ben Price) found that she’d been paying hundreds of pounds to attend his lectures.
Later, at Preston’s Petals, Leanne approached Amy and suggested that the Institute could help in managing her workload and agreed to give her a hand in managing the flower shop’s books.
Returning home to Victoria Court, she told Nick that she had contacted the bank to look at remortgaging the apartment to fund her new business venture with Rowan.
Furious, Nick suggested that they should be focussing on her sister Toyah’s (Georgia Taylor) cancer diagnosis rather than throwing their money away. For once, she seemed to see some light at the end of the tunnel and agreed.
She then headed to the pub to deliver the bad news to Rowan, and noticed he was celebrating his latest win – getting Amy to sign up!
Clearly narked by the news that Leanne wouldn’t be paying towards his supposed research centre, he suggested that perhaps she’d outgrown Nick and said he would speak with him.
Is he about to blackmail Nick and Toyah and threaten to expose their affair again?
Leanne remained insistent that Nick wouldn’t change his mind, but we’re not too sure…
