What happens to Carla in Coronation Street and is she leaving?

This article contains spoilers for tonight’s Coronation Street, which has not yet aired on TV but is available to watch now on ITVX.

Poor Carla Connor (Alison King) has had one of the worst festive seasons on record, which is really saying something for Coronation Street.

In fact, the whole of 2025 was a bit of a rollercoaster for the factory boss.

She started the year in desperate need of a kidney transplant after a brain injury led to sepsis, and the only way to get it was from criminal brother Rob Donovan.

Of course, it was never going to be an easy task, but facing two kidnapping ordeals in the process was excessive, even for Carla.

Things started looking up in the spring as her relationship with DS Lisa Swain (Vicky Myers) continued to flourish, even despite the tragic death of Lisa’s colleague, Craig Tinker.

By the summer, the couple had bought a house together and got engaged, on their way to enjoying a long and happy life together.

However, through all of this – the bad times and the good – they have been haunted by the ghost of Becky Swain (Amy Cudden), whose tragic death shaped the way Lisa and daughter Betsy Swain (Sydney Martin) have approached life for the last few years.

Just as it seemed that Lisa was ready to move on, who should crawl out of the ashes but Becky herself?

The second half of 2025 took Swarla on a downward spiral, with Becky at the wheel.

Determined to claim back her family, Becky went to great lengths to drive Carla and Lisa apart, and after months of keeping her mouth shut, Carla couldn’t take any more.

Over the course of a few days, Carla and Lisa battled with their split, with both clearly still hopelessly in love with one another. Unfortunately, Lisa ultimately decided that they needed a clean break, and Carla headed off to Lanzarote to mend her broken heart alone.

Or so we were led to believe…

Where has Carla been?

In reality, Carla was significantly closer to home, very much not having the ‘time of her life’, as her social media suggested.

Instead of sand between her toes and a cocktail in hand, Carla ended up with restraints around her wrists and ankles and a gag in her mouth. A cupboard in a low-rent Weatherfield flat is certainly not a 5-star resort in Spain.

With Carla’s phone in her possession, Becky had been sharing fake social media posts to her account, and replying to Lisa’s texts with the clear indication that Carla was done with their relationship.

All the while, she had Carla at her mercy, with nobody any the wiser.

This wasn’t for want of trying though, as Carla made every possible effort to lead her loved ones to the truth.

After being forced at knifepoint to speak to Betsy over the phone, she hinted at her location by making up the name of a hotel and suite, which we later discovered was a nod to a three-word location marker.

She even took the opportunity to attempt an escape herself, using the fragment of a broken plate to cut through her restraints and make a run for it.

Unfortunately, this only landed her back in the closet with a head wound and an even more furious Becky holding her life in her hands.

How did Carla end up as Becky’s captive?

During Carla’s imprisonment, we learnt that she had come close to exposing the truth she’d suspected all along – that Becky was a dirty cop.

Having worked out the location from DI Costello’s (Daon Broni) seemingly random mumblings, she headed to the flat to look for further evidence.

Unfortunately, Becky caught her red-handed.

Determined not to let Carla reveal the truth to Lisa and Betsy, or come between their family unit again, she locked Carla in the closet while she continued to work on pulling Lisa back under her spell.

What happens to Carla next?

This week, things started to look more promising for Carla, when Kit Green (Jacob Roberts) finally cracked the case behind her disappearance. He’d been suspicious for a while, but had no way of proving anything concrete.

Having worked out the location clue, he headed to the flat – but he was too late. The place was completely empty, with only the remnants of the locks on the cupboard door and an empty blister pack of pills hinting that anyone had been there.

At the same time, Becky was somewhere in Manchester doing something especially concerning – though exactly what was never confirmed.

However, the ropes, bloodied fabric and cleaning supplies in the boot of her car, and the distinct lack of her cupboard-dwelling captive certainly didn’t look great.

Fortunately, there is light at the end of the tunnel, and Kit might be able to avoid the award for Weatherfield’s most useless cop.

In tonight’s episode, Sarah Platt (Tina O’Brien) once again stepped up as Kit’s reliable second-in-command, as she made the stomach-dropping realisation that the truth had been staring them in the face the whole time.

Having been handed Carla’s engagement ring by a defeated Lisa, Sarah realised that her boss’ social media pictures must have been doctored, as she was supposedly wearing the same ring on the beach.

As Kit filled baffled Sarah in on the truth about not-dead Becky, they sped to the flat, where Kit took a closer look at Carla’s closet cell – and found one of her hairs!

Is Carla leaving Coronation Street?

In upcoming scenes, Kit gets a tip-off for the location of Becky’s car, and Carla’s ordeal finally comes to an end. At least for now, anyway.

Carla is set to appear in the upcoming Corriedale episode, which will see some of our favourite characters from Coronation Street and Emmerdale cross paths for the first time in history.

Unfortunately, they take ‘bumping into each other’ way too literally, as a head-on collision leads to a devastating multi-vehicle pile-up that will cost lives, and leave everyone else’s worlds forever changed.

With Carla set to be part of the carnage, it’s understandable if fans are worried. However, actress Alison King has confirmed that Carla will survive Corriedale.

Talking about how she reacted when first reading the script for the episode, she said:

‘Obviously, I hoped Carla would still be alive at the end of it, and when I got to the end I was like, “Yes!” I’m not even maimed!’

So, it’s good news where Corriedale is concerned, but after that, the future is uncertain. Will Carla decide that Weatherfield holds too many painful memories and call it quits for good? Or will she put one foot in front of the other to rebuild her life, as she has done so many times before?

What happens to Lisa and Becky next?

As well as tormenting Carla, Becky has successfully manipulated Lisa’s emotions and grief enough to convince her that they should be a family again.

Having persuaded her that they will be safer in Spain, Lisa, Becky and Betsy speed off to the ferry port in hull, hoping to make the crossing to Rotterdam.

However, a when Lisa receives a phone call from Carla, her world shatters, and distracted Becky loses control of the car…

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