Coronation Street aired its biggest twist of the year so far last week, with the game-changing revelation that Gary Windass is the show's new villain.
Friday night's episode (May 31) saw viewers discover that Gary deliberately sabotaged the Underworld roof in March, sparking a tragic turn of events that led to the death of Rana Habeeb.
While some viewers had slowly started to rumble Gary as the culprit, he was still voted as the least likely suspect in a Digital Spy poll just days before the big reveal. Here are the major clues that some of us should have perhaps paid more attention to.
1. Gary's money motive
While a few of the Underworld suspects had a financial motive for wanting to bring the roof down, Gary's cashflow problems were particularly dire around the time of the disaster.
On March 13, just five days before the roof sabotage, Gary was seen looking dejected after failing to secure any more building work. He told Sarah that he was banking on Carla giving him the factory roof job, but her stubborn refusals to get the problem sorted were standing in his way.
Two days later, on March 15, Gary also tried to chase Carla for the money she already owed him for his initial repair job on the roof. He was visibly angered when a distracted Carla dismissed him – could this have been the point that his terrible plan started to take shape?
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Mikey North, who plays Gary, recently explained: "He was desperate for work. He and Sarah were sleeping on air beds at the Platts' and Gary couldn't get any work – then there was Carla sitting on the fact that the factory roof needed fixing.
"It wasn't going to fall down any time soon, but Gary thought if he could speed up that process, he'd force her hand into getting the work done sooner."
2. Gary's dodgy business tactics
Gary sabotaging the Underworld roof wasn't the first time that he'd used sly tactics to boost his struggling business.
On February 18, Sarah caught Gary quoting David an inflated price for repair work at Number 8 after the boat fire caused damage to the property. Gary reluctantly admitted to Sarah that he was tampering with the figures because they needed the money, but he pressured her to keep quiet.
On April 10, after the roof collapse, Gary was up to no good yet again. This time, he lied to Mary Taylor after doing a small guttering job for her, claiming that more extensive repair work was needed as a matter of urgency.
Mary fell for Gary's bogus claims hook, line and sinker, but viewers knew that he was stringing her along as part of his desperation for money.
3. The sabotage scene
The roof collapse episode on March 18 opened with a hooded figure climbing onto the top of Underworld in the early hours of the morning, before deliberately causing damage with a tool.
While you'd expect fellow suspects like Nick Tilsley or Carla Connor to seem a little hesitant about carrying out such a risky move in the dark, the shadowy figure was quick, confident and seemed to know exactly what he was doing.
This fitted in perfectly with Gary, an experienced builder who'd been up on the roof before. Gary was also familiar enough with the damage to know exactly how to make it much worse.
4. Gary's suspicious early start
After we saw the "fiddler on the roof" at work, a subsequent scene very shortly afterwards saw Gail find Gary in the kitchen at the Platt house in the early hours of the morning.
When Gail questioned Gary over why he was up at such a strange time, he was unable to provide a proper explanation – eventually going along with Gail's theory that he was just excited about his birthday.
Gail also revealed that she'd been disturbed by a strange noise coming from the factory, but Gary mysteriously claimed that he hadn't heard a thing.
With the benefit of hindsight, we now know that Gary had just returned from his sabotage mission and needed Gail to forget about the suspicious sounds she'd just heard.
5. Gary's panic after the roof collapse
Gary was seen looking highly stressed in the first episode after Rana's tragic death. He vowed to go and see Carla to check what she'd be saying to the police, but Peter refused to let him see her.
Hinting at his guilty conscience and his fears of being caught out, Gary told Peter: "I told her that roof needed fixing. She better not try to pin this on me."
Later in the same episode, Gary took on board a handy suggestion from Peter to simply use Pat Phelan as a scapegoat for what had happened, telling everyone that the Street's supervillain worked on the roof a few months before his death.
Gary also accepted a £9,000 bribe from Peter in exchange for not being entirely honest with the police. Hardly the actions of a moral man, and yet another clue to how far he'd go where his desperation for money was concerned.
6. Gary's breakdown
In his first interview about the roof collapse reveal, Mikey North revealed that he deliberately avoided putting too many guilty looks and suspicious glances into his performances, fearful that it would tip off viewers too early.
However, one obvious sign of how much Gary was struggling aired in the closing moments of Corrie's double bill on April 10. After Sarah had gone off to bed, a stressed-out Gary was seen sobbing quietly downstairs.
While the implication at the time was that Gary's troubles with loan shark Rick Neelan were getting on top of him, we now know that he was also overwhelmed with guilt over Rana's death and his subsequent cover-up.
7. Gary's mistreatment of Seb
Surly Seb may be annoying at times, but it was hard not to feel sorry for him when Gary started to give him a hard time while they were working together. The two guys fell out when Seb developed a crush on Gary's girlfriend Sarah, which ultimately left the hapless teenager humiliated when he realised he wasn't in with a chance.
Gary later set a nasty trap for Seb on March 10 while they were doing a building job together, tricking him into holding a sandbag over his head and then slashing it to embarrass him. The nasty stunt led to viewers on Twitter railing against Gary for being a bully – an early sign that he was the new villain.
In an interview with Inside Soap, Mikey later admitted that Gary was becoming "hated" among viewers. He said: "Since the recent episodes, where Gary's kind of bullying Seb, it's gone back to how it was when I started on the show and Gary is hated again – people are shouting at me on the streets!
"That side of him is always fun to play, but it's going to take some time for me to get used to the abuse again, I think."
8. Gary's near-death voicemail
Corrie's clues over Gary's guilt did grow a tad more obvious as the clock ticked away towards the show's big reveal. Last Wednesday, Gary thought he was going to die imminently at the hands of Rick, so he phoned Sarah and left her a voicemail message.
After warning Sarah that Rick would come after her next, Gary added: "There's something else…"
As the scene cut away and the rest of the conversation took place off screen, it didn't take a genius to work out that Gary was hiding a dark secret.
Our suspicions were confirmed when Friday's episode saw Gary listen back to (and delete) the damning voicemail, which contained a confession to his guilt.
9. Mikey's interviews
Mikey North seems excited about his character's villainous new direction – so much so that he may have even cheekily dropped a few hints as early as April. Speaking at the time, Mikey warned that Gary's troubles were only just beginning.
He said: "This is the worst it's been for him, definitely. I suppose there's nowhere to go but up. Having said that, I've read the storylines and if he thinks he's at rock bottom now, things are about to get a whole lot worse for him!"
Suggesting that a major turning point for Gary was ahead, Mikey added: "It's a massive year. There's lots to come. This is definitely a big turning point in Gary's life and it's been my most interesting year so far of the 11 I've been here. This is the next chapter in the character's life and I can't wait to see what's in store."
Reading his words back, why couldn't we see it sooner?
Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 7.30pm and 8.30pm on ITV.
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