The Geoff and Yasmeen drama on Coronation Street continues. Although eventually it's going to pause because of Covid 19. But that's a whole other story.
So....
One evening, Yasmeen (Shelley King) angers Geoff (Ian Bartholomew) by making a meatless dinner. Her reason? She ran out of the strict allowance he has given her.
He takes on the task of making dinner while Yasmeen does something else. I forget what.
When it comes time for eating, Yasmeen heavily praises the chicken dish Geoff has prepared. With joyful sadism, Geoff finds a way to casually let it be known that the chicken Yasmeen is eating is the egg-laying hen she adored.
Yasmeen is angry, horrified, disgusted, and traumatized.
Geoff reacts in various stages. At first he's defensive: The hen was no longer laying eggs. Yasmeen herself had said the chicken aren't pets.
Then later he switches to hoovering mode. He goes from super-asshole husband to sweet, apologetic husband. Why? Well, probably to keep Yasmeen confused and trapped. If a person is 100% horrible all the time, it would probably be easier to leave them....at least in a psychological sense. It's harder, though, when the toxic person is horrible only 80% of time or 40% of the time. Or whatever percentage. And the rest of the time, they're benign. Or even more confusing...sometimes they may put on a mask of wonderfulness.
The toxic person doesn't just put on the mask of wonderfulness for their victim. They'll do it for others as well.
Around the same time that Geoff murders Yasmeen'ss chicken, he talks to his son Tim (Joe Duttine). . He learns Tim is stressed about paying for his upcoming wedding. Geoff responds by offering to pay for the whole thing. Tim is extremely grateful.
It seems to me that when the toxic person is treating their victim the worse, they up their wonderfulness towards the other people.
They become even more charming.
They become more generous. They'll buy expensive gifts for others.
They'll become more helpful. They'll do huge favors for others.
They'll show of their talents to impress others.
I think there are two reasons behind this.
A) To maintain their high self-esteem. I think some people imagine that narcissists, and other very toxic people, LIKE being evil; that they do evil things and then rub their hands together and laugh their villain laugh.
That might be the case for some. But I think most narcissists actually want to be the heroes of the story, not the villain. They want to be the main character, and they want to be the favorite character.
A lot of their toxic behavior comes from the manipulations they employ to keep themselves on their high pedestal.
Then with some toxic people, like Geoff, sadism is also part of the picture.
I guess it's like they have to balance their love of hurting others with their love of adoration.
One thing I suspect is that if a narcissist has a lot of adoration, their acts of sadism will be less frequent and more mild. They get their kicks out of the adoration, so the thrill they'd get from sadism is less needed. Also, they have more to lose if the truth comes out. Therefore, they're more careful.
But Geoff on Coronation Street is not very popular in the community. I mean he's not a pariah, but I don't think anyone really loves or likes him much besides Yasmeen
He's not in danger of losing a huge fan-base.
Okay...and onto the other reason.
B) To build up a defense against their target/scapegoat. The toxic person collects flying monkeys, enablers, fans, etc. Then when the victim of their shit seeks out support, it's very hard for the victim to find anyone who will listen, believe them, and take their grievances seriously.
Fortunately for Yasmeen, Geoff is actually not great at collecting flying monkeys. I think most people in the community prefer her to Geoff. And Yasmeen'ss granddaughter Ayla (Sair Khan) actually hates Geoff and suspects that bad things are happening in the marriage.
Will Geoff be able to turn Tim into a flying monkey by paying for the wedding? I think it's quite possible, although it was Tim who found Yasmeen locked in Geoff's magician box a few weeks ago. And I think he got a bit suspicious.
Actually, now that I think of it...MAYBE that's why Geoff is working to get on Tim's good side. Maybe he understands that Tim is likely to start suspecting that things are very wrong in the marriage. So Geoff is taking strong action to mitigate that.
Anyway, we shall see what happens. Eventually.
From the brief glimpses of spoilers I've seen....it seems Geoff is going to be the winner. It's horrible. But it unfortunately matches what too often happens in real life.
The victim ends up either dead, injured....or disbelieved, unsupported, and psychologically traumatized.
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