Episode Spotlight: Episode 4772 (Jan - Feb)

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Episode 4772


In the previous episode, we saw events at the school formal take a turn for the worst as a drugged-up Melody shut the doors and wandered into the middle of the road, with Kane's car swerving into the hall to avoid hitting her. Whilst at the development site, Tony was inconsolable as he found his son Jack's body lying lifeless on the ground after having been shot.

4772 was a highly emotional episode, with tears the main order of the day. One of the first scenes was a 'dream sequence' in which we saw Martha laying next to Jack at the hospital and him responding as though he was still alive. In this scene Martha blamed herself for what happened. She felt terrible for having encouraged Jack to go back to the force, but Jack insisted that she wasn't to feel guilty. But this didn't stop Martha from blaming herself again, as she went on to talk about her many regrets at the time they hadn't been together - such as when she went to the retreat on her own. Again, Jack told her that she wasn't to feel guilty. The next few moments were truly agonizing as the scene changed from a brightly lit colour back to the cold and grim reality. Tony slowly entered the room and watched as his daughter in law, who had been with Jack all night, said goodbye to her husband. She left the room in floods of tears as Rachel entered and pulled the sheet over Jack.

Back at Martha's, there was an eerie silence. As she headed for the bedroom to be alone, Tony looked around, lost. As the news circulated, Roman brought food for them and was a listening ear for Tony as he talked about the night's events. As Tony started to recall his memories, we saw various flashbacks - one of Martha looking worried outside the hall, along with Tony finding Jack and a new scene highlighting the fruitless efforts by the ambulance crew to revive him. Tony then went on to explain that Jack had to be taken to hospital for confirmation of his death and that he knew he wouldn't be able to tell Martha. Instead, we saw Alf break the news to his distraught grandaughter. With Martha having been in her room since her and Tony arrived back, Roman went in to check on her. Though she told him that she didn't want to talk to anyone, Roman made sure that she new he was there for her when she did.

At Summer Bay House, Alf and Miles talked about the tragic events and said that it would be a senseless death if Kane died. Back at the hospital we saw Kirsty beside his bedside, visibly hoping he would pull through.

As Ken Harper left and asked Tony and Rachel to send his condolences to Martha, an overwhelmed Rachel burst into tears and was comforted by her fiance. The next scene saw Martha picking up Jack's uniform from his wardrobe and smelling it, before crying once more.

The following scene saw Kane wake up and ask for Kirsty, who was still sitting by his bedside. Though she was obviously overjoyed, it was clear that she was still very much torn in two as to her feelings for him and Miles.

Back at Martha's, Tony entered and began to talk about how he needed to be near her right now as she is the one he is sharing this pain with. Martha then spoke about how she thought Jack was going to wake up and talk to her, before bursting into tears on Tony's shoulder. The last couple of minutes included a montage of Colleen and Alf in the diner kitchen, Rachel crying on the front patio, Tony simply staring into space in the living room and Martha laying on the bed with Jack's clothes laid out beside her.

This episode had a stream of comments, the vast majority of which were positive.

Many praised Jodi Gordon's (Martha) performance especially, calling it 'incredible' (Skykat), 'amazing' (caitrules), awesome' (Drew), 'absolutely brilliant' (stepthrose4). Jon Sivewright (Tony) and Amy Matthews also impressed many members. 'Jon was fantastic, loved his recounting it to Roman, those two talking it through really worked and I loved his telling Martha that he needed her.'(SkyKat) 'Well done to Amy Matthews, I couldn't believe how real her acting was tonight. I especially liked the start of her solo crying scene where she has her hand on her stomach where the bump will be (that was a nice touch). The Breakdown scene she had after Harper left was well acted too + the scene at the hospital where she can't bring herself to pronounce Jack dead. (suzannelgnz) 'Jon was awesome tonight. He's the only character who has made me react to Jack's death. (Natasha)

Some weren't quite so keen on the dream sequence, saying that it was'overdone' for them (john003au) and that the echoes were 'really annoying after a while' (emmasi).

And a few of our members weren't quite sure about the crying montage. 'Gotta say, crying montages do nothing for me. They're awkward and disconnected from any exposition... I feel nothing. Rachel crying into Tony's arms was what nearly set me off.' (bobliveson) 'I find it hard to take it seriously especially when I can't get out of my head that they're just acting. To me they have to be REALLY, REALLY BELIEVABLE! I can only recall some scenes from last year that have really had me fling out the tissues but that was only three times.' (bailey4)

The majority of members did appear to generally enjoy this episode, however, with JackWilkins adding that Home and Away 'deal with and portray death and grief beautifully'.