For Betsy, who had grown up with two mums, Carla has finally filled the empty place in her heart.
We have never seen Becky. Not really. The Corrie gods haven’t blessed us with her ghost just yet. A quick glance at a photograph on Lisa’s desk back in an early January episode, is all that we’ve seen. Yet, for better or worse, Becky has been a consistent presence in the whirlwind relationship between Carla and Lisa. She’s there in Lisa’s grief. She’s there in Betsy’s trauma. She is there with them both, even though she is long gone. And what do we know about the late Becky Swain?
She was Betsy’s mum, the soft and gentle one, if the teenager was to be believed.
Fans have been speculating about who Betsy’s biological mum is for months now. There is so much we don’t know about the Swains. Whilst interrogating a pregnant Mandy couple of weeks ago, Lisa dropped the lore that it was Becky who carried Betsy. We can assume this means that she is her biological Mother, although Lisa may have donated her egg. That remains to be explored. We may also later discover a connection to their sperm donor. Although in my humble opinion, we do not need to insert a man into the newly formed Connor-Swain clan.
We know she was a constable and was killed in the line of duty by the Radcliffe brothers. She was knocked over in the street and died before she could reach the hospital. It’s no wonder Betsy wants her mother to have nothing more to do with the police. There’s enough trauma to unpack there without including Lisa getting “clipped” by a car back in November.
Betsy Swain can easily be called a polarising character. As someone whose Corrie-loving mum has said is a “horrible brat”, she certainly knows how to push buttons. Push her Mum’s buttons, or Carla’s, or anyone she thinks she can. Sydney Martin, in her first proper role, has nailed the gobby teenager and is growing in her ability to portray the complicated nature of grief and trauma. I was thoroughly impressed by her ability to react to the stabbing death of her boyfriend, Mason.
Betsy has had to go through the toughest part of her childhood, having lost one of her parents, and dealing with seeing her remaining mother doing the same job that killed her. Even as recently as November, she had been so staunchly against Swarla that she orchestrated the factory robbery. I believe that it was the fact that Carla was attacked, sending Lisa into a spiral of worry, that made Betsy realise the extent of their connection. The chance of losing her made her see that Carla represented what she had been missing. A second voice. A second pair of ears. Someone caring to balance Lisa’s overwhelming dedication to her job.
For Carla, Betsy reminds her of herself. More privileged, yes, but just as gobby, and just as defiant. For years Carla has been a maternal figure, first to Simon, then Ryan, and sigh even to Bobby. For me, Carla represents the height of feminine power. Her self-assured nature and the ruthless way she runs her business just scream Girlboss. She is a girl mum through and through. She lost the chance to mother a daughter, and we all experienced the pain she went through during that period. I believe Carla gave up on being a mother. Until the Swains came along.
This broken family consisted of Lisa, a grieving, passively suicidal widow, and Betsy, an angry, lonely teenager, desperate for her mother’s attention. It was their arguing and disintegrating relationship that led to the fateful conversation in Lisa’s car back in May 2024. Carla came along at the right time. She was the salve that would start to slowly slowly heal the horrific scar that had developed between mother and daughter.
Now, after much rambling and preamble, to the point. For Betsy, who had grown up with two mums, Carla finally filled the empty place in her heart. She represented her mother’s future and her happiness, and we can see just how much the two have bonded over the last few months. As someone who has had two parents in a stable relationship for my entire life, I can’t begin to imagine how it feels to lose a parent, let alone at the cusp of being a teenager. The cheeky, gobby part of her likely emerged to protect herself and try to provoke a reaction from Lisa.
As children, we never truly understand how much parents, especially good parents, sacrifice for our happiness. Lisa, who so wishes she had been the one to one to die, who admitted to not caring whether she lived or died, would move heaven and earth for her family. Carla, who has gone through more than Jesus, who would have every right to be a bitter bitch, loves so deeply it hurts. All she wants is someone to love her as much as she loves them. Lisa and Betsy are ‘it’ for her, they have become her world, and she has become theirs. She isn’t trying to replace Becky, and she never will. But she can be more than enough for them.
Betsy had two mums.
She then had one mum.
Betsy has two mums again.
She might never call Carla ‘Mum’,
And that’s okay.
