Coronation Street spoilers follow.
Coronation Street bad boy Carl Webster makes a genuine promise to turn his life around tonight – but will he get his chance to show that he can finally be a good son to Debbie?
Confusion has been swirling around the rogue's future ever since the ITV soap launched its big murder mystery story earlier this year – partly thanks to Jonathan Howard, who plays Carl, doing such a good job at keeping everyone guessing!
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Carl's future has since been cleared up in subsequent interviews, but as online chatter continues to see fans speculate over a possible exit, here's a quick recap of what we know for sure.
Debbie's troublesome son was initially named as one of five characters who could have been killed off in April, alongside Jodie Ramsey, Maggie Driscoll, Megan Walsh and Theo Silverton.
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At the time, Jonathan played along by chatting about Carl in the past tense in a live TV interview – then announced that he was heading back to the US, where he lived with his family before joining Corrie.
However, once Theo was revealed as April's grisly death victim, Jonathan exclusively cleared things up to Digital Spy – admitting that he'd deliberately spread confusion to help with the storyline. This was partly to cover up a blunder, as he'd posted a picture on set which seemed to give away that Carl wouldn't die!
"I do love the soap fans and the soap world," he told us. "I'm not big into social media, but I have noticed that people are really intrigued to know. People like to guess and they like to find out. So I can have a little fun.
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"I'm under strict instructions not to give anything away. But I have a short-term memory, so I sometimes post things that get me into trouble! So I have to cover that up a little bit…"
More recently, Jonathan has told The Mirror that he initially intended to only stick around on Coronation Street for a year.
He's now changed his mind, though, and wants to at least see Debbie's dementia story reach its conclusion.
"I think we'd be missing out on something for Carl to leave before he's come to terms with his mum's dementia diagnosis. I would at least like to stay until we see what happens to Debbie," he said. "Then we'll see what happens after that."
Jonathan added: "Originally, when I joined, it was like 'OK, I'll do 12 months.' But [my daughter has] settled – she goes to school in Manchester – and so I don't necessarily want to rock the boat right now.
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"The universe has brought me back to the north. I'm an hour away from the village that I grew up in. I go home at the weekend and see my sister, my niece and nephew and my old friends, so my daughter is getting to touch in with her English roots."
In the immediate future, Carl has a major problem to solve – he survives the big gun episodes, but the weapon he's been storing for Fiona Morley goes missing, leaving her out for his blood.
Once that's resolved, could we start to see a more heartfelt dynamic develop between him and Debbie?
Coronation Street airs on weeknights at 8.30pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.
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