Has the damage Megan’s inflicted on Sam spell her own doom? (Picture: ITV/Metro)
On the surface, Sam Blakeman (Jude Riordan) came out on top in his war with Megan Walsh (Beth Nixon) in Coronation Street.
The perennially precocious youngster was the only person who suspected something was amiss with the socially-respected sports coach and her bond with student, Will Driscoll (Lucas Hodgson-Wale).
As far as the rest of Weatherfield was concerned, she was an upstanding member of the community; an educational force of good who’d swept Daniel Osbourne (Rob Mallard) off his feet.
Sam saw through it all, though.
When he discovered Will’s sweater in Megan’s possession, he became acutely aware of what was happening, and despite the protestations of both Megan and Will, he was completely undeterred.
Sam saw the predatory paedophile beneath Megan’s perfectly manicured veneer, and when she realised that Sam couldn’t be sweet talked or manipulated in the same way as the victims of her grooming and sexual abuse, she unleashed the full scope of her cruelty.
Megan tortures Sam
Megan is a predator, through and through, and seemingly possesses an uncanny ability to spot the weakness in her victims; the chink in their armour that she can exploit and ruthlessly pick apart.
She started her campaign by sabotaging his grades, something the studious Sam had always prized.
By damaging his academic reputation, she effectively began to strip away a piece of his identity, driving him to use ADHD drugs to maximise his ability to study.
Sam begged Will to see the reality of his relationship with Megan, but he was far too deep under her thrall to be reasoned with and, despite his guilt at how far she was willing to go to silence Sam, worked alongside her to continue sabotaging his efforts.
When Sam planted a camera in her flat, Megan was almost amused at his effort to take her down. In a flex of power, she orchestrated a performance in which Will confessed his love for her while she kindly and courteously turned him down.
Laying in wait for Sam to come back for the recording device, she relished in her own evil, spelling out exactly how she’d make the world believe he was a creepy, perverted voyeur for trying to film her.
She made no bones about it: if he continued to push against her, she’d utterly annihilate him, and her twisted smirk let the audience know that not only would she follow through with her dark threat, she’d enjoy it.
As Sam continued to take the ADHD medication, his body rebelled, and after a confrontation with Megan and Toyah Battersby (Georgia Taylor), he collapsed.
Perhaps panicked by just how far she’d driven him, Megan followed him to the hospital and threatened him further. Unfortunately for her, she’d made a grave mistake: she’d done so in sight of Leanne Battersby (Jane Danson), Sam’s step-mum.
Sam exposes Megan
Fighting Megan’s words ringing in his ears that nobody would believe him and that exposing her would just intensify her torture of him, Sam spilled all to Leanne.
Before long, the entire family was aware that Megan had been abusing Will.
Will’s dad, Ben (Aaron McCusker) and step mum, Eva Price (Catherine Tyldesley) reported Megan to the police, and his grandma Maggie (Pauline McLynn) personally confronted her, leaving the family in tatters when Will remained under Megan’s thrall and refused to cooperate.
Leanne stuck to her promise to protect Sam, and Megan, like so many bullies, has lost her ability to torment him after he took back the power, but Sam’s been left deeply scarred by his experience with her.
Could Sam’s hallucinations lead to murder?
Recently, Sam’s been experiencing hallucinations, both visual and auditory, with all of them presenting as threats to his own safety.
His paranoia has reached extreme levels, particularly when Hope Stape (Isabella Flanagan) suggested that Daniel was still in cahoots with Megan and that he was being nice to Sam as part of a revenge scheme.
He later confronted Will, though Will relayed to Eva and Maggie that he had no idea what Sam was talking about. Sam later imagined Will preparing to attack him, though when he looked closer, he saw nothing.
Megan currently forms part of the street’s impressive villain line up, alongside Theo Silverton (James Cartwright), Jodie Ramsey (Olivia Frances-Brown), Carl Webster (Jonathan Howard) and Maggie Driscoll (Pauline McLynn), one of which will lose their life in an upcoming ‘whodunnit’.
As Sam’s mental health continues to deteriorate unbeknownst to his family, will his hallucinations drive him to extreme actions and drive him to end his tormentor once and for all?
Could it be an accident, as a result of a vision? Or could the visions themselves lead him to take the twisted teacher’s life?
Through her vicious torture, has Megan created her own demise in poor Sam?
