Thursday, May 22, 2014

Coronation Street - Who Kills Tina McIntyre?

It was only last month that EastEnders kicked off their own murder mystery saga with the death of Lucy Beale and despite Coronation Street announcing their murder mystery months in advance, it's only a matter of days before it kicks into action.


Tina McIntyre - the feisty (yes, I know how meaningless that description for female characters has become nowadays) barmaid played by Michelle Keegan has been on the show since January 2008, when initially she was brought in as a love interest for David Platt. Since then she's been involved with various men folk, had a close friendship with Rita Tanner (Barbara Knox), worked in the Rovers (a rite of passage for most female characters on this show) as well as carrying a baby for both Gary and Izzy. In recent months though, Tina has also been having an affair with a certain character and now the fallout is building towards her violent exit as the producers have released four videos lining up four suspects, with one of them to revealed as the killer in Tuesday's episode. So who are they and what possible motive could they have for bumping off Tina?


Carla Connor (Alison King): She's been married to Peter for a few months now and given that she's pregnant with his child and trying to keep him on the straight and narrow from his recent relapse, perhaps finding out that Tina has been having an affair with her husband tips her over the edge? In the video alone, Carla makes Tina aware that she's privy to the affair and doesn't give Tina much of a chance to explain her recent actions either. While Carla isn't a cold blooded killer, she certainly has a temper on her and perhaps she snaps at the wrong moment with devastating consequences?


Peter Barlow (Chris Gascoyne): The very man whom Tina has been sleeping with for several months and the same one that she's also convinced herself into thinking will abandon Carla and leave Weatherfield with her. From the scene released by ITV, we know that Peter instead chooses to dump Tina and remain with his wife and unborn baby while at the same time wanting his former mistress to keep quiet about their affair. Could Peter really act out of desperation and silence Tina by pushing her to her death? Peter's done some pretty questionable things in the last couple of years but murder might be one step too far, even if actor Chris Gascoyne is also leaving the show this year.


Rob Donovan (Marc Baylis): The brother of Carla, soon to be husband of Tracy and not a fan of Peter, Rob might have also copped off with Tina once but recently, she's rubbed him up the wrong way by sticking her nose into his dodgy dealings with builder, Tony and even more recently Rob has become aware of the fact that Tina has been sleeping with Peter as well. Out of the main suspects, Rob seems the most likely of the bunch as there always seems to be something about him that isn't quite right. He's also probably the 'safest' option as well, given that Peter and Carla are well loved by the audiences and Tracy has previously killed in cold blood. Out of the four, if I had to choose, I would pick Rob.


Tracy Barlow (Kate Ford): Probably the second most likely person to actually do it. Tracy has a history of going to extremes and this is a woman who murdered a boyfriend because he cheated on her. Over the last couple of months, we've seen Tracy's hatred of Tina intensify over Rob and quite recently Tina becoming aware of the dodgy hairdryers and dealings with Tony as well. In the scene ITV released, Tina even foolishly needled Tracy about being locked up and kept away from Amy and given that Tracy's snapped over less, it does make her another likely candidate to kill off the barmaid.

Then again, it could also be neither of them. In the past Coronation Street have lined up suspects for a murder mystery (Frank Foster, anyone?) with it turning out to be someone completely different. Given that Tina is aware of Tony's arrangements with Tracy and Rob, who is to say that it couldn't be him decides to do her in? After all, Tina is in the builder's yard late at night and it would make more sense for Tony to see her there than any of the four suspects. However it will be interesting to see (along with the current Lucy Beale plot) if this story can be sustained over the several months it's rumoured to be played out. Either way, I'll kind of miss Tina as a character, though I hope for Keegan's sake she does actually keep with the acting.

Who Kills Tina - Carla: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIlXYU4kQS8
Who Kills Tina - Peter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZHxOgJhH_s
Who Kills Tina - Rob: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mohpbbpf6B8
Who Kills Tina - Tracy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0djaSH_w1s

Coronation Street - Tina's final episodes will air Monday at 9pm on ITV as well as seven episodes airing from June 1st. A documentary called Farewell Tina will air Friday 8pm from June 6th.

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