Becky Swain didn’t return to Weatherfield for a “casual chat.”

She returned with a clear plan: to win back Lisa by making Lisa believe that Becky was the one who understood and protected her.

And Becky didn’t do it with blatant gestures like grabbing her arm or kissing her, but with something far more subtle: recreating the image of a “trustworthy ex” right when Lisa and Carla were vulnerable.

Becky targeted Lisa’s most sensitive spot: responsibility to her family, to her child, and the feeling of having to put on a brave face.

She intruded on Lisa’s moments of exhaustion, offering quick solutions, saying things that sounded caring but were actually manipulative. Becky created situations where Lisa felt indebted to her, helping with one thing today, another tomorrow, until Lisa turned around and found Becky standing right in the middle of the house. And Carla, witnessing this, was furious. Carla couldn’t stand that kind of overwhelming energy. Carla started asking direct questions, scrutinizing every detail, but the more she scrutinized, the more Becky fabricated: Becky pretended to be innocent, pretended to be hurt, pretended “I only wanted what was best for her.”

This was an old trick, but effective: turning the suspicious person into the villain. From there, Becky only needed one more step to make Lisa feel that Carla was too tense, too controlling, too burdensome. Lisa was caught in the middle, both loving Carla and being pulled back into Becky’s memories, and that’s when she started to waver. Becky’s cleverness lay in the fact that she didn’t need Lisa to betray Carla immediately.