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Over the festive period, fans of Swarla could relax knowing the two women, plus Betsy, of course, would be spending the big day eating pizza in their pyjamas.
Despite some initial crossed wires about going public with their relationship, with Carla being hesitant at first due to not wanting to be the subject of gossip, the last we saw of the pair, they were out, proud and basically co-parenting Betsy already.
Cue this week. There’ve been ups. There’ve been very literal downs. All in all, it’s been eventful to say the least, so we’re here with another weekly debrief to remind you of what happened with Carla Connor and Lisa Swain this week.
Monday: Burst pipes and broken boxes
In Monday’s (30th December) episode, Lisa explained to Carla that a pipe had burst at her house, flooding the place and meaning her and Betsy would have to move out for a while.
Carla offered for the Swains to stay with her and, whilst Lisa protested initially, she promised that Ryan and Bobby were still away so they’d have the place to themselves. Considering the next time we saw Carla she was asking Bobby to stay with his gran for the foreseeable, she may have been stretching the truth.
Lisa and Betsy arrived with their belongings, including a cardboard box of Lisa’s that broke the moment Carla tried to move it, strewing papers and files across the floor. Lisa overreacted and Carla left her to picking them up.
Later on, she found one file that Lisa had missed, the post it note on the front reading “R. SWAIN”, connecting it to Lisa’s late wife Becky. Carla quipped that the case was “the one that got away” before Lisa went back to work, dealing with the fallout of Leanne’s fraud case.
Our biggest concern is the Swain cat, mentioned once in September by Betsy and not at all since. All we can hope is that it knows how to swim.
Tuesday: A date cut short
Tuesday’s (31st December) episode first gave us Carla, Lisa and Betsy having breakfast together, where Lisa proposed she take Carla for lunch at the café to make up for having to work New Year’s Eve. Carla laughed at the far-from-romantic prospect, but agreed.
When she arrived at Roy’s, Carla found that the place had been closed for her and Lisa’s date, with her favourite food on the menu and roses and candles on the table. Before any breadsticks could be eaten, however, Lisa was called away to a potential incident.
Later, Carla saw Kit on duty and asked after her girlfriend, having heard nothing since she left, but Kit’s radio went off, requesting urgent backup on the estate that Lisa had gone to. Carla had clearly been waiting a while when Lisa came home, sporting a split lip. We know Carla’s serious about this relationship because she offered up her glass of wine.
Tuesday: Midnight declarations
I’m not ashamed to admit that the waterworks started the moment I heard Snow Patrol’s You Could Be Happy as those in the Rovers welcomed in the new year. Carla, in what might prove to be the quickest eating of words ever seen, said that she’d not had such a good start to the year in a long time, before Lisa told her not to jinx it. Given what came later in the week, maybe she should have listened…
Carla started to confess that she was falling for Lisa before her brain caught up with her mouth, but it was too late and the stunned detective didn’t know what to say. Embarrassed, Carla fled the pub, and to make Lisa’s situation worse, her least favourite colleague DC Kit Green was watching the whole exchange.
Back at the flat, Lisa explained that it was hard for her to open up again after what happened to Becky and promised that she’d get there in time, but as Carla moved to go to bed, she almost lost her balance. “When I said I was falling for you, I didn’t mean literally” summed it up better than we ever could.
Wednesday: Carla collapses
The first episode of 2025 started for Swarla with less of a bang and more of a bark, as Carla had hallucinations in the café, first hearing a dog that wasn’t there, then Roy saying things he didn’t.
She left looking worse for wear, holding onto the wall outside to try and ground herself. In her flat, she heard persistent knocking on the door, but opened it to find no one waiting for her.
The next we saw of her, she had collapsed, only surfacing when the buzzer was frantically pressed and only then to knock the entry phone off the hook. Roy came back later, having gone to get the spare key, and found Carla barely conscious. Heartbreakingly, she confessed to him that she thought her psychosis was coming back and he rung an ambulance.
Wednesday: Carla lies to Lisa
At the hospital, Roy was told that Carla had contracted sepsis through her head wound from the factory break in a few weeks prior, whilst Lisa pursued Matty Radcliffe, still convinced that he had something to do with Becky’s death. He goaded her and she went for him, only stopped by Kit intervening.
Once Carla woke up, Roy went to see her and she confessed that she didn’t want her girlfriend to know how ill she was, worried that she’d get dumped because Lisa didn’t want to go through losing anyone else.
Lisa returned from work with wine and flowers for Carla, calling her when she couldn’t find her at the flat. On the phone, Carla pretended to be at the airport bound for Ireland, claiming that she had a last-minute flight to see Michelle for her birthday. Lisa was upset, asking if it was due to the previous night, but Carla assured her otherwise, still keeping up with the lie.
Friday: Carla caught out
In Friday’s (3rd January) episode, Carla celebrated her fiftieth birthday with a muffin in her hospital bed. She asked Roy to get some things from the flat when Lisa was out and, despite his protestations, he agreed. Meanwhile, Ryan showed up at the café, to Lisa’s great surprise, and I think I speak for all of us when I say their next hug should be properly in shot.
Lisa and Ryan arrived at the flat to find Roy in the middle of collecting Carla’s things, with Lisa going into full DS Swain mode and interrogating him. Whilst his “no comment” was funny in the moment, the next thing we saw, the three were at Carla’s bedside, so he clearly crumbled under the pressure.
In an early contender for understatement of the year, Carla explained that she “had a bit of sepsis” to a disapproving Lisa, who compared Carla to one of her suspects lying to her. Carla insisted that she just didn’t want a fuss made, so Lisa left to go to work.
Friday: Bedside confessions
As Lisa made progress in the case against the Radcliffes, Carla was told by a doctor that the sepsis had damaged her one remaining kidney and she may need another transplant. Devastated, Carla catastrophised, asking what her life expectancy would be on dialysis if a donor couldn’t be found.
Having been called by Ryan, Lisa showed up at the hospital and Carla told her that she may need a transplant, trying then to end the relationship and give Lisa a way out. In her defence, the “Bolter” move was one the detective pulled fairly frequently in the early days.
To Lisa’s credit, and showing her growth over the past few months, she told Carla in no uncertain terms that it was too late for her to walk away because she loved her. Taking her girlfriend’s hands in her own, she promised that she was going nowhere.
Next week: Betsy confesses
In scenes to come next week, and in the wake of her boyfriend Mason being stabbed by his brothers, Betsy confesses her part in the factory break-in that left Carla in her current state to her mum, letting slip that Carla knew in the process. This revelation will cause tidal waves, but can the pair get past it?
