Neighbours Spoilers for Next Week – 29th January to 1st February

Next week on Neighbours, Chelsea’s gold-digging continues, Melanie continues to pretend she’s dating, and the tragic getaway arrives, with one character saying goodbye forever.

It’s going to be an emotional rollercoaster on next week’s Neighbours, as one long-term character won’t return home after what was meant to be a well-deserved break from Erinsborough.

Will it be David (Takaya Honda), Aaron (Matt Wilson), Nicolette (Hannah Monson), Leo (Tim Kano) or Krista (Majella Davis)?

Elsewhere, new arrival Chelsea Murphy (Viva Bianca) continues to weasel her way into Paul’s (Stefan Dennis) life, while Terese discovers something surprising about Melanie’s new ‘love interest’.

Here’s what’s coming up on Neighbours between Monday 29th and Thursday 1st February.

1) Chelsea’s gold-digging continues

New face Chelsea – the sister of Cara Varga-Myrphy (Sara West) – remains determined to reconnect with millionaire Paul next week, but his busy schedule keeps getting in the way.

When he gets distracted by his ex-wife, Chelsea realises that she needs to be a bit more like Terese (Rebekah Elmaloglou), and goes out of her way to talk business with her, gathering intel.

Later, she gives herself a full Terese-esque makeover, copying her gestures, applying her favourite perfume, and even copying her dress sense.

The plan works, and when Paul registers the familiar scent, Chelsea uses his sentimental attachment to the woman he’s still in love with as a way to draw him in.

However, just as Chelsea makes another attempt to ask Paul out, she’s interrupted by Sadie (Emerald Chan). After a pep talk from mum Wendy (Candice Leask), Sadie approaches Chelsea and demands to know when she can expect payment for her recent work at the pop-up stall.

Embarassed to be called out in front of Paul, Chelsea falsely claims that their agreement was payment within 30 days, and berates Sadie for asking for the money sooner.

Wendy and Andrew (Lloyd Wills) are incensed that Sadie has been manipulated into feeling in the wrong, and take up the cause on her behalf, insisting that Chelsea pay their daughter by the next day.

The demand reveals to Cara that her sister is broke. Not wanting to re-ignite drama with the Rodwells after their tense first few months on the street, Cara lends Chelsea the money, but asks Chelsea not to say a word to Remi (Naomi Rukavina).

Yet things never stay secret for long (apart from JJ’s paternity, of course). When Remi comes across the napkin on which Chelsea practised signing ‘Mrs Chelsea Robinson,’ she confronts Chelsea and claims that she’s only in town to shamelessly gold-dig.

Chelsea deflects the accusation as she ‘accidentally’ reveals that Cara has lent her money, intentionally causing yet another argument between the two wives.

Meanwhile, Paul is flattered by Chelsea’s ongoing interest and accepts her offer to take him to dinner. Yet it’s not long until his mood sours, when he spots a loved-up photo of new couple Krista (Majella Davis) and Leo (Tim Kano) on social media.

Off the back of this, he makes an intriguing proposal to Sadie…

What does he have planned?

When a work emergency pulls Paul away from their next attempt at a date, a frustrated Chelsea lashes out at Cara and Remi’s marriage, telling her sister that she’s settling. A hurt Cara finally tells her sister to head back to the Gold Coast – she’s no longer welcome at No. 30.

Down on her luck, Chelsea makes an increasingly desperate attempt to get Paul’s attention. She checks herself into Lassiters, and after putting in a complaint, she lures Paul to her hotel room.

Telling him that she doesn’t like waiting for what she wants, she pulls him in for a kiss, and it seems that she’s finally got him exactly where she wants him…

Will the tragic events of the end of the week ruin her chances of getting close to him, or will a rock-bottom Paul be even easier to manipulate?

2) Toadie comes to Melanie’s defence

This week’s episodes saw Melanie continue to get back into dating, after she built up the courage to ask the Drinks Diva’s fruit supplier Santo Oliveira (David Serafin) for a drink.

Despite their best efforts, the pair soon realised that they weren’t right for each other, and agreed to remain friends and business associates.

Yet rather than admit to her friends that the date didn’t go well, Melanie continues to talk up her new ‘romance’ with Santo within earshot of Terese and Toadie (Ryan Moloney), wanting them to believe that she’s finally moved on.

She’s later forced to while away time by herself after telling Karl (Alan Fletcher) and Holly (Lucinda Armstrong-Hall) that she’s off for a second date. Elsewhere, Terese tells Toadie and Karl that Melanie’s dating success has released some of the guilt she feels over her own happiness with Toadie, and it seems like her jealousy over Toadie and Melanie’s connection is finally abating.

However, things quickly come crashing down when Terese bumps into Santo on a date with their rarely-seen neighbour Vera Punt (Sally-Anne Upton), and is further troubled to learn that Vera has no idea that Santo is also ‘dating’ Melanie.

The next day, Terese probes Melanie on her romance with Santo, looking to see whether they’re keeping their options open. She’s stunned when Melanie dials up the pretense, claiming that she and Santo are already exclusive and that she can already tell that they’re “meant to be.”

Believing it’s better for Melanie to be focussed on Santo, Terese initially decides to keep quiet about the fact he’s dating other women. However, she eventually confesses the development to Toadie, and is shocked when his reaction is far away from what she expected…

When Toadie and Terese later come across Santo and Melanie at the complex, Toadie can’t contain his anger at Santo’s supposed two-timing, and lays into him.

Will Melanie admit to her lies?

3) A dream holiday turns into a nightmare

What better way to pre-empt a tragedy than for some uncharacteristically happy moments? Next week, David – who has refused to engage with his dad since the events of Flashback Week – finally begins to soften towards Paul.

He calls him ‘Dad’ for the first time in over a year, oblivious to the fact he’s done so, but Paul savours the moment and hopes that reconciliation with his son is a tiny step closer.

The following day, David, Aaron, Nicolette, Leo and Krista are all getting excited for their beach house getaway. Yet Nicolette has an obstacle to overcome first, when Sasha McLain (Sunny S. Walia) makes a surprise arrival in Erinsborough.

Nicolette tracked Sasha down last week, where she told him all about Veronica’s (Ellen Grimshaw) recent stalkerish behaviour, and begged him to tell his estranged wife that they’d never actually had an affair.

Nic also told Sasha that she’d never had feelings for him, and that she’d only been manipulating him to prove he would be unfaithful. Of course, Sasha ignores all of this, and he arrives at Lassiters hoping to pursue the promise of a relationship that Nicolette had previously tempted him with…

Unbeknown to both of them, Veronica is watching on from the shadows, and when she sees Nicolette and Sasha embrace, it only spurs on her belief that they’re actually an item.

As the fivesome head off on their beach getaway next Wednesday, they have no idea that Veronica has tagged along in secret.

When the two couples head off on a walk before dinner, Nicolette is left alone at the beach house, totally at Veronica’s mercy.

When Nicolette spots a figure sneaking past the window, she heads upstairs to the roof, where she comes face to face with Veronica. Time is of the essence as she works frantically to talk her down.

Veronica is certain that Sasha is on the trip with her, and Nicolette is forced to call Sasha, proving to Veronica that she can’t hear the phone ringing and thus Sasha isn’t in the house with them.

Will it be enough to convince her, or will she do something stupid?

Meanwhile, Leo and Krista’s walk is interrupted by a second terrifying surprise – Eden. He’s out on bail and reveals to Krista that he knows about their unborn child.

As Leo steps in to defend Krista, a fight breaks out, perilously close to a large drop. Will someone go tumbling down the embankment?

4) Jane delivers some devastating news

In Thursday’s emotional episode, the holidaymakers rush to the bottom of the embankment… who or what will they find?

Back in Erinsborough, Paul is curled up in bed with Chelsea at Lassiters, while over on Ramsay Street, Terese and Toadie are enjoying dinner with Andrew and Wendy.

As they enjoy drinks, a dishevelled Jane (Annie Jones) arrives with some awful news that rocks them all…

As the shock of what’s happened reverberates through Erinsborough, Toadie grows uncomfortable when all Terese wants to do is be by Paul’s side.

5) Who dies in Neighbours‘ big tragedy?

The identity of the deceased is being kept secret until the day the episodes air, on Wednesday 31st January and Thursday 1st February.

However, it seems almost certain not to be Aaron, as actor Matt Wilson was spotted filming what appeared to be the aftermath of the emotional episodes back in September.

When Neighbours returned to Amazon Freevee and Network 10 last year, a segment on 10 News First, broadcast from Nunawading Studios, briefly showed Matt on the set of The Waterhole, filming what appeared to be a wake.

All of the characters in the scene were formally dressed, and an out-of-focus photo on a table showed the deceased.

The clip was removed from the show’s social media channels shortly after, but it was too late – fans were quick to re-share the clip and a death was confirmed for the first few months.

Now, we’re less than a week away from discovering who dies…

New episodes of Neighbours air Monday–Thursday on Network 10 and 10 Peach in Australia, and on Amazon Freevee in the UK.

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