TRAGEDY for Maria

Flashbacks reveal battered Gary's fate...

- WORDS: SARAH WATERFALL

As Maria frets about Gary, flashbacks reveal how the builder came to be fighting for his life in hospital...

Having held out hope that her AWOL husband would reappear and that her fears about him fancying Lou Michaelis were just paranoia, Maria heads to the police station and report her man missing. As Kit and Lisa discuss the mystery, they learn there's a fella in a coma in Weatherfield General...

'When Maria learns Gary isn't the coma patient, she confides in Kit that she knows it's awful but she wishes it was him so she knew where he was,' says Samia Longchambon, who plays her. 'It's bittersweet for Maria because she's glad Gary isn't in a coma – although little does she know that he actually is – but she's even more worried because he could be in a worse condition or dead.'