Ben Astoni collapses in dramatic new Home and Away promo

Home and Away has this week released an extended promo showing off some of the storylines Australian viewers can look forward to in the coming weeks.

The promo comes as Seven announced they were ramping up the episode schedule for the first time this year.

From this week going forward, there will once again be triple episodes every Thursday.

Here we take a detailed look through the promo, which you can view below, and speculate on what it could mean for our Summer Bay favourites…

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Who is Ziggy’s father?

One of the main focuses in the promo is of course the Astoni family, whose lives are being torn apart at the moment following the arrival of Ben’s (Rohan Nichol) brother Marco (Tim Walter).

After blackmailing Maggie (Kestie Morassi) to talk Ben into investing in Marco’s family business, Maggie was forced to admit the truth to Ben—that she had once slept with Marco.

Although it was before their marriage and at a time when Ben and Maggie had split, Ben struggled to come to terms with the fact that Maggie had kept this secret from him for over two decades.

The situation got worse when Marco revealed that his night with Maggie was around nine months before she gave birth to Ziggy (Sophie Dillman), leading to Ziggy’s paternity being brought into question.

Although Maggie was adamant that Ziggy could only be Ben’s daughter, the family agreed that they should go through a paternity test to be certain.

“When Marco first turned up in Summer Bay, Ziggy did all she could to help form a new beginning between him, Maggie and Ben” Sophie recently told New Idea magazine.

“Marco made a big plea to start afresh with his brother, and Ziggy thought she saw some genuine care and regret in Marco’s eyes” Sophie continued. “She thought she was helping her father and his brother—and they did temporarily reunite—but now this discovery changes everything.”

The promo shows the Astonis as they receive the results of the paternity test in the post.

As Ben heads to the beach with his envelope, Ziggy holds her copy of the results as she tearfully tells boyfriend Dean (Patrick O’Connor) that she can’t open it. “I can’t do it, what if he’s not my dad?”

In a separate scene, from a different day, Ben assures Ziggy that the results will not make any difference as far as he’s concerned – “I’ll always be your dad, and you’ll always be my daughter.”

As for whether Ziggy is Ben’s biological daughter, that remains to be seen…

However, one shot in the promo shows Ziggy finding Ben at the beach, seemingly after they’ve read their results. As Ben embraces her, it almost looks like he breathes a sigh of relief…. could that be a good sign?

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Why does Ben collapse?

If that wasn’t enough drama to contend with, it also appears there’s going to be a medical emergency for the family!

The promo shows Ben, who is dripping with sweat, collapse in the farmhouse in front of a terrified Maggie.

Ben is rushed to hospital, and we later see Maggie stroking Ben’s face at his bedside.

Although there’s no current indication of what could cause Ben’s ailment, we believe these hospital scenes will be airing in Australia in the week beginning 11th May.

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What happens to Bella?

As we reported previously, this week sees (Courtney Miller) hit a crisis point as she embarks on a new relationship with Nikau Parata (Kawakawa Fox-Reo).

Believing she was already ready to go all the way with Nikau in yesterday’s episode, despite them only having been an item for a week, she invited him over with the intention of sleeping with him. Although Nik was reluctant, knowing of Bella’s past, Bella insisted that she wanted to have sex.

But everything will go wrong in tonight’s episode when Bella screams at Nik to get out after things start to get heavy between the pair, as her horrific ordeal with Tommy last year comes back to haunt her.

Locking herself in her room, Colby later breaks down the door to find a distressed Bella self-harming, by cutting her arm with a pair of scissors.

Rushing Bella to hospital, Colby is told by Tori that Bella is in a serious crisis—it’s the second time she’s self harmed, following her overdose to get Colby’s attention during the season finale storyline.

With this in mind the new promo features some very curious scenes for Bella.

Colby and Willow are seen smiling as they appear to take Bella on an outing to some sort of ranch. Bella is smiling and clearly content as she strokes and admires a horse.

But in a later shot we then bizarrely see Colby driving away as Bella runs after the car shouting for him to stop. A gentleman from the ranch follows Bella and approaches as she collapses on the ground in tears…

Upcoming spoilers for the rest of this week indicate that Colby has some very difficult decisions in order to help save Bella. Could Colby be leaving Bella at some sort of retreat in order to force her into getting some treatment?

EDIT: The latest episode in Australia has confirmed this to be the case, with Tori confirming that Bella requires full-time psychiatric care.

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Is Jasmine really pregnant?

After feeling under the weather and with her period long overdue, Jasmine (Sam Frost) has been delighted over the past couple of weeks as she shared the news with all her loved ones that she’s expecting late husband Robbo’s baby.

However, as many viewers have pointed out, Jasmine has yet to take an actual pregnancy test, instead relying on her natural instincts as a nurse to diagnose herself. Not even her good friend Tori has brought this up in conversation as yet.

This has caused many to believe that Jasmine is setting herself up for a huge fall—could it be that Jasmine isn’t actually pregnant after all? Has stress delayed her period, or could she even be experiencing a phantom pregnancy?

Spoilers for next week indicate that as Tori and Jasmine continue to bond further, Jasmine has an unexpected visitor. In the episodes following this, Jasmine is said to be struggling, and later makes the decision to focus on Grace.

We have been speculating as to whether Jasmine’s ‘unexpected visitor’ could in fact be her period!

Towards the beginning of the new promo, we see Jasmine on the beach carressing her stomach in bliss.

However, later on in the promo, in scenes from a different day, we see Tori rushing down onto the beach as a fully clothed Jasmine walks into the surf, seemingly in a shock-like state.

As the promo comes to an end, Tori reiterates to Jasmine that she’ll always be there for her, they’re family now.

Could these scenes be the result of Jasmine realising she’s not really pregnant….?

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Tane Parata’s arrival

Finally, other scenes in the promo tease the arrival of Tana Parata (Ethan Browne) in Summer Bay.

Tane has been seen on-screen on fleeting occasions over the past few months, firstly on the phone to both Nikau and Gemma, and again when Nikau and Bella rocked up at Tane’s house one evening, staying overnight following a party.

As we’ve previously reported, Tane’s arrival in Summer Bay will come in Episodes 7321-7325, which will be airing from Wednesday 6th to Monday 11th May in Australia.

In shots that were previously shown in the 2020 season promo at the beginning of the year, Tane and brother Ari (Rob Kipa-Williams) square up outside the surf club, as Ari reminds Tane that he told him to stay away. As a crowd gathers, sister-in-law Gemma is forced to rush in and try to break them up.

With Tane set to stick around, the brothers will have to get used to each others company!

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For the full list of synopses for upcoming episodes as they become available, check out our dedicated Australian spoilers page.