Tuesday, 31st August 1999

Tuesday's episode starts with a recap of the events of Friday night:

Greg and Susannah caressing in the shower.
The sound of the explosion.
The guy flying across the bar.
Shots of debris and falling masonry.
The tidal wave in the swimming pool.
The windows separating The Shelf and the pool blowing out.

Simultaneously, we also see Darren and Vic making love on the sofa in their flat. There's the sound of an alarm in the distance and as the explosion rocks the club, some items fall from an occasional table to the floor.

"Did the earth really move just then?" Vic asks Darren. Oh yeah - *very* corny.

Outside on the parade, people are streaming out of the club; Mick assists Rose Finnegan to safety.

Inside the club itself, Lindsey, cut and bloodied, lies on the floor. Next to her is the body of a waiter who's obviously still alive - just. He's motionless, but groaning in pain. R'Linds manages to crawl over.

"Don't move" [he can't!] "I'll get someone to help."

She staggers to her feet and tries to find her bearings.

Back out on the parade, Mike comes out of Bar Brookie and seeing the commotion runs towards the Millennium Club. Ron and Jacqui are sitting on the ground against the facade of Great Grannies. The shop window behind is cracked and the blinds on the inside are hanging down secured only at one end - a consequence of the blast, presumably.

"What happened?" Mike asks his father.

Ron just shakes his head and says nothing. Jacqui, her head in Ron's arms, just sits there in total shock and doesn't say anything either.

Upstairs in Darren's flat, he and Vic are still lying on the sofa together. Vic gets irritated by the continual ringing of the alarm in the background.

"What *is* that?" she asks.

"It sounds like Nathan's alarm downstairs" suggests Darren, apparently little concerned about what might be occurring in his friend's office.

"No. No. It's exactly like it was at the Manchester Royal Exchange. It's a bomb" declares Vic, and with this they both jump to their feet. Now I'm sorry, but this strikes me as a tad unrealistic - surely in Manchester, there would have been numerous alarms sounding, here there's just the one and neither Vic nor Darren have bothered even to look out of the window yet.

In the club, Lindsey is struggling to make her way across the piles of rubble, dodging falling bricks and shorting electrics, when she suddenly comes across the bodies of Greg and Susannah lying half buried in front of her.

"Oh my God" she says aloud. (Well, you *would*, wouldn't you?)

Greg is obviously dead, but as Lindsey looks on, Susannah manages to move her head and emit a groan.

"Susannah, Susannah, it's Lindsey. Don't try to move. I'm gonna go and get some help. Just stay there."

Lindsey can't decide whether it's safe to leave Susannah where she is or whether she ought to try to move her, herself. As she deliberates, Susannah drifts in and out of consciousness.

Outside on the parade, Darren and Vic have appeared and Darren begins tending to some of the injured. We still await the arrival of the emergency services. Alisdair also emerges, having helped a fellow guest to safety. He sees Mick sitting with Rose:

"Thanks" he says. "I owe you one."

"No problem, mate" replies Mick.

The police arrive, as do Jason and Nikki. Katrina emerges from the club's doorway and as she and Jason comfort each other, Nikki, by now in a pretty distressed state takes the opportunity to slip inside the club in the hope of finding her father.

Gingerly, she picks her way through he debris and it's not long before she catches sight of a dead body lying face down in the pool and the grim reality of the situation starts to hit home.

Outside, Jason is getting agitated and wants to go and look for Greg and Nikki. Against Katrina's wishes, he makes a run for it and disappears into the wreckage of the club.

Ron is trying to reassure Jacqui with his experience of having been blown up before, but makes a poor job of it.

"Dad, just leave it will you?" she says, before bursting into tears.

Making his way through the debris-strewn bar area, Jason finds the still-alive waiter who had lain next to Lindsey. Using the waiter's walkie-talkie, he passes this information on to those outside.

Nikki has got further into the depths of the club, where she finds Lindsey with Susannah. Then she notices Greg.

"Is he dead?" she asks.

"Yes, and we will be too if we don't get out of here now. So, come on. I'm sorry Nikki, there was nothing we could do."

Between them, they manage to half-carry and half-drag Susannah to safety and before long she's on her way to hospital.

Nikki's running around, talking non-stop and wondering if there is any chance that Greg might still be alive - she's in total shock and Katrina tries to calm her down.

Lindsey sits on the wall next to Rose. Rose asks about Susannah, then Lindsey says:

"Did Shelley get out?" Eh? Now, I'm not entirely convinced that the main thing on Lindsey's mind right now would be the welfare of someone she'd only met for the first time earlier that evening and didn't seem to particularly like anyway, but never mind. For the record, Rose advised Lindsey that she was fine and had gone home.

It transpires that Alisdair doesn't have much time for her, either:

"Gives me the creeps, that one" he told Rose.

"Why?"

"Good looking girl, but never with a guy."

"I think there's one or two other important things before that, you know. Like, we were nearly killed in there."

Back inside the club, Jason is still searching for Greg. Eventually he finds him lying half-buried but isn't quite able to reach him. As he gets closer, an unstable wall collapses and pins him to the ground.

On the parade, Ron is telling Mick that the Finnegans should be locked up because "everybody knows they're gangsters". He then goes on to give his views on the recent racist incident in Bar Brookie, although he's forgotten who it is that he's talking to and manages to dig himself deeper and deeper into a hole as Mick becomes more irritated:

"What are you on?, he asks. "Are you doing this deliberately? We're stood in the middle of a bomb site and you're spouting all this garbage just to wind me up?"

Elsewhere on the parade, Lindsey's decided that it's time to ask the Finnegans a few questions:

"I'm right, aren't I? It was, wasn't it? It was him. That scum-bag brother of yours. It was him, wasn't it? Hey, it was, wasn't it?"

Mick's now come across and tries to restrain her. "Cool it", he advises.

"Calm down, Lindsey" agrees Rose.

"Yeah, before I get over my post-traumatic shock" adds Alisdair. "We know as much as you."

"Did you have anything to do with this?" demands Jacqui.

"No" replies Rose, firmly.

"If we had anything to do with it, do you think that we'd have been in there when it went up?" asks Alisdair.

Ron and Mick are talking sensibly to one another for once and are discussing how they could get hold of Margi who is working away (what, again? I hear you ask). Ron heads off to contact Jessie for starters.

Back inside the club, Jason is just about holding onto his life. "Help me Dad, I'm scared" he says, but it's to no avail. Those are his last words as his body finally gives up the struggle...