Coronation Street: Rowan pushes Leanne to face her demons
Jane Danson, who plays Leanne Battersby in Coronation Street, has hinted at 'trouble ahead' as the downfall of Rowan Cuncliffe (Emrhys Cooper) begins to unfold in the ITV soap.
As fans are aware, Leanne and her mentor have been attempting to persuade Amy Barlow (Elle Mulvaney) to join The Institute and relinquish her inheritance.
In Monday night's episode (August 26), viewers saw Leanne seeking out Rowan who informed her that Amy was reconsidering investing in the resource centre after an upload session and he encouraged Leanne to convince her partner Nick Tilsley (Ben Price) to do the same.
During Amy's upload, Leanne encouraged her to confront her past traumas to eliminate negativity. However, Leanne was taken aback when she discovered Rowan was recording Amy's confession.
Amy then disclosed her plans to discuss releasing her inheritance for investment with her grandfather Ken Barlow, who expressed his disapproval.
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Later this week, drama ensues when Leanne insists Amy is prepared for her malware session. A blindfolded Amy is appalled as she is bombarded with insults from the members, reports the Manchester Evening News.
Despite Leanne's reassurances that it will be worth it, Amy becomes too upset and flees the scene.
In upcoming scenes, Tracy Barlow (Kate Ford) and Nick will confront Rowan at the Chariot Square Hotel, determined to expose him. Tracy makes it clear they plan to take their story to the Gazette.
However, Rowan urges Leanne to convince Amy to halt her attack, reminding her that as senior management, her loyalty to the Institute should outweigh her relationship with Amy, leaving Leanne conflicted.
Next week's Corrie promises to be fraught with tension as spoilers reveal Leanne urges Amy to reconsider suing The Institute after offering her job back at the Bistro. But will Amy capitulate?
Speaking about the upcoming scenes, the soap star said: "The cracks are starting to appear, Leanne's still got this self-belief that the institute is good for her, it's making her happy, however the malware session, which she found quite difficult, felt worse for Amy when was actually looking in on it."
"Watching Amy crumble and seeing that she's a little bit more vulnerable than Leanne anticipated was hard. Afterwards, Rowan says to Leanne this is all your fault because she wasn't ready for this emotionally, which Leanne knows has an element of truth in it, she kind of fast-forwarded the levels to get Amy there, whereas Leanne's journey was a little bit more coercive over a longer period of time."
"Now she's thinking maybe it wasn't the right thing for Amy but let's take the positives and focus on the Resource Center and how it's really going to help other people. The way Leanne sees it is Amy didn't give people the chance to build her back up again in the way they did her, she felt amazing so she's clinging onto that even though deep down maybe she's having doubts."
Asked if Leanne may feel guilty for introducing Amy to the Institute, Jane continued: "We start to see everything falling down around her. Her relationship with Nick has become extremely strained, her relationship with Rowan is not quite what it was. He's not quite as nice with her as he has been and she's reacting differently to him than she has done previously."
"She's still holding onto the fact that the institute is a good thing but deep inside she knows that something's a bit off. Amy's a really young, vulnerable kid, she's connected to Leanne by family, by Oliver, so she feels an added layer of protection. Amy is Oliver sister so this feels wrong. There's quite a few layers to it."
While Corrie fans must wait to discover what unfolds and if Leanne will ultimately perceive Rowan's true colours, when pressed on if Leanne could be doubting everything soon, especially if Rowan gets caught out, Jane admitted: "I genuinely don't know."
"I would definitely say there's trouble ahead, because you can't go through all that and then just be okay. There's got to be some scars from what she's been through."
Coronation Street continues Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on ITV from 8pm.