Lou Michaelis left Coronation Street last night (Wednesday, July 23), but fans aren’t happy with the decision to let her go.
Only contracted for around six months, Farrel Hegarty departed from her role on the soap.
Her final scenes saw Lou Michaelis say goodbye to her kids as she faced a potentially long prison stint.
Lou Michaelis’ prison exit in Coronation Street
Last night on the cobbles, Lou Michaelis requested to see her kids after pleading guilty to assaulting Gary Windass.
Sally did some persuading and managed to get all three kids, including Brody, to visit their mum at the prison.
Lou then told Sally to do her a favour, with Sally then telling her that she couldn’t get the money to help pay her legal fees.
Lou explained that she knew this and this wasn’t the favour she wanted. She’d come to accept that she was looking at a decent stint inside and asked Sally not to bring the kids to see her anymore.
She wanted them to have good memories of her instead of ones of her in prison.
Lou then stood up and hugged Brody, Joanie and Shanice and said her goodbyes to them.
Fans beg for soap to ‘bring back’ Lou despite exit
Despite Lou’s exit scenes having just aired, Corrie viewers have headed online to call for the ITV soap to ‘bring back’ the character already.
They think she had potential for so much more and shouldn’t have been written out.
One Coronation Street fan took to X and exclaimed: “Petition to bring back Lou already! She’s really grown on me!”
A second person shared: “It’s been long enough now, it’s time to bring Lou back!”
Another added: “If Corrie has any sense whatsoever left they’ll bring Lou back in a year or so, she screams classic Corrie icon in the making & I cannot praise Farrel Hegarty high enough, she is completely brilliant!”
A fourth fan finished: “What was the point of Corrie bringing in a new family for 6 months only to get rid of them again in such a short space of time? Mick and Lou had so much potential to be long term characters. Such a missed opportunity.”
Coronation Street opinion – Here’s why Lou Michaelis exit was wrong move
Lou Michaelis rocked up on the cobbles at the start of the year with a lot of potential. Befriending Gemma, she gave off Kylie Platt vibes, shaping up to be a future Corrie icon.
However, Lou was then soon joined by her husband Mick Michaelis, with the characters proving to be introduced to help move plot forward rather than developing their characters over a long period of time.
With Mick being violent towards Lou, we’d hoped to see her escape her toxic marriage. And, then have a chance at a hopeful future. However, instead, she ended up going down the same path as Mick, being locked up behind bars for assaulting Gary not long after Mick bumped off PC Craig Tinker.
While Lou’s stay in Weatherfield was never meant to be permanent, the character had so much more to give. The small taster of Lou we were given was enough to impress us, and we would’ve loved to see her settle down on the cobbles and make the place a proper home for her and the kids, integrating with more characters.
Her friendship with Gemma could’ve grown, she could’ve gotten a job behind the Rovers bar or in the factory, she could’ve been a really likeable character if given the chance to turn things around. Here’s to hoping she’ll be back further down the line!
Coronation Street usually airs Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8pm on ITV.
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