Coronation Street’s Pat Phelan has killed, manipulated, forced Anna Windass into having sex with him, lied and generally been horrible to everyone in Weatherfield.
But somehow we’ve found ourselves warming to him as he’s tried to pursue a relationship with his long-lost daughter, Nicola Rubenstein.
As he tries to impress her and get to know her, despite her reservations about him even being her father, we’ve seen another side to the bullying builder.
She’s finally on board with getting to know him, even inviting him for a drink in the Rovers. And, okay, so she thinks he’s dying, but he’s still determined to prove to her he’s a good guy who’s worth a chance.
Of course, we all know he is not a good guy, and frankly, he’s not that worthy of a chance either.
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He made Anna’s life hell, eventually leading to the breakdown of her relationship with Owen.
He also set Kevin up by stealing his van and roped Andy Carver into his rotten plan.
When Andy had had enough though, he tried to catch Phelan out and ended up falling foul of the evil baldy, who murdered him and disposed of the body somewhere we have no idea about.
As if all that wasn’t enough, he then left Michael Rodwell to die when he could have called an ambulance after he found Michael having a heart attack.
More recently, he’s been getting Seb Franklin involved in his dodgy schemes, although now Seb’s connected to Nicola as she’s his caseworker, Phelan seems to be keeping things on the straight and narrow and actually just employing Seb as his apprentice.
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As Phelan spends the next few months getting to know his daughter, we’d be forgiven for thinking he’d turned over a new leaf and is a completely redeemed human being.
How wrong we’d be though. Darkness is part of his soul and there’s no way that cunning and ruthless side is going to disappear for long.
And when things don’t go Phelan’s way, we all know exactly what he’s capable of.
When Nicola eventually realises what her dad is truly like, will she be able to continue forging a relationship with him?
He might be professing to be a saint now, but there’s sure to be some fireworks once the truth comes out – and if Nicola refuses to let him into her life, who knows what he’d do when he lashes out in anger.
Watch out those close to him (we’re talking to you, Eileen, Seb, Nicola), you won’t like Pat Phelan when he’s angry…