Margi's fumbling with a hairdryer and a screwdriver. Whatever she's trying to do isn't working, it's getting her all het up and she looks as though she's about to blow a fuse. Well, in actual fact she's already blown a fuse - in the plug of the hairdryer - and it seems that she's having difficulty changing it. Judging by the cack-handed way in which she's holding the screwdriver, it's surprising that she doesn't gauge a huge chunk out of her hand.
She tells the watching Nikki that Greg will be laughing at her but she's not going to give up:
"I'm going to fit this if it kills me," she says, which in my view, it might well do.
She loses her composure again later, when she finds a comb in Jason's room which still has strands of his hair ("my baby's hair <sob sob>") caught in the teeth.
Nikki is approached by Katrina for the first time since the revelation at the funeral, of Greg's affair with Susannah. Nikki insists that she drove Greg and Margi apart and that the rape was the start of it all.
Katrina says how she hates Susannah like she's never hated anyone before. Nikki advises her to drop the kids (not literally, hopefully) and model full-time. Max is back and he can look after the kids, she suggests.
Talking of Max, it transpires that it was Ron who contacted him - a move which Jacqui is not impressed with. In fact, she tears him off a strip for interfering. She also has a go at Mike who insists that "we did it for you and Harry". It makes no difference, so Mike resorts to "what kind of a mother are you?", a comment which results in Jacqui stomping off.
At the hospital, Max isn't being warmly welcomed either. Susannah is still rebuffing his offers of help.
"You stay away from my children. I don't want you anywhere near them."
Max, however, isn't too dismayed. Eventually he leaves saying "I love you. I've never stopped loving you".
He makes his way over to the Close pulling up outside Susannah's place in a battered eighteen year old Land Rover. Heaven knows where he picked that up. Not exactly Hertz, was it?
Inside, he meets Emma for the first time, although it's not long before Jacqui Dixon turns up (this is where she's stomped off to) and asks Max to "do one". The have a major falling out during which Katrina gets to hear all the details about the surrogacy and the thirty thousand pounds.
Max's next port of call is Bar Brookie, where he gets ignored by everyone, including Ron.
Jimmy and Niamh are also in the bar, talking about the proposed residents' meeting. In fact they seem to be getting along rather well. Jim asks her to help with the organisation and round people up for him. She starts with Ron, who is initially keen but then he asks whether Luke will be going. As he says this, he looks across to where Jimmy is sitting with his back to Ron and Niamh.
"Very cosy that, the local druggie and the mother of the rapist."
Niamh is furious and in that calm but firm manner which we've been seeing so much of recently, she says: "If you *ever* call my son a rapist again, I'll have you in court so fast your cheap slip-on shoes won't touch the ground".
Vic has moved herself back into Mark's house (or 'their' house, I suppose), but Mark's not pleased. He feels that she's only turned up because of his illness and *not* because she *wants* to be with him. Perceptive, isn't he?
In the end, he clumsily drops a jar of Ragu on to the kitchen floor where it sloshes everywhere including his hand. He breaks down and starts sobbing. Vic runs to comfort him and in return, he smothers her in pasta sauce whilst begging her to stay.
Mmm, nice.
Summary © 1999 Graeme Selway
Brookside and all related materials are © Mersey Television 1982-2001