Episode 521

Extended Summary

Alf, Ailsa and Emma arrive home from Celia’s farewell. Emma heads to bed and Ailsa comments on how far she’s come since she’s been living in the Bay. Alf suggests Ailsa doesn’t talk too soon, telling her about Bridget coming to the store and wanting Emma back. Despite it being after midnight, Ailsa storms round to the caravan park to have it out with Bridget. Bridget tells her that she’s kicked Barry out and knows she should have believed Emma. Ailsa has a go at her for abandoning Emma but Bridget isn’t bothered by her words. She accepts she should have called but says it’s up to Emma who she wants to live with. She tells Ailsa to leave so she can go to bed.

At the caravan park house, Steven and Viv are dancing while Ben, Carly and Sally are helping themselves to the last of the food. Pippa asks them to help her with the tidying up, despite Sally trying to get out it by saying it’s her bed time. Tom offers Pippa a cup of tea but she’s too busy to accept it. Carly hands out wedding invitations to Steven and Sally. Steven notes they can each take a friend and jokingly suggests he might take a new girl at the school. Sally wonders who she could take and Ben and Carly suggest Mullet. Pippa, having finished the clearing up, sarcastically thanks them for their help and heads up to bed. At the Stewart house, Ailsa tells Alf she doesn’t trust Bridget, thinking she’s a liar, and Emma doesn’t need her in her life. She thinks Bridget will take Barry back and even if she doesn’t she’ll take up with someone just as bad. Alf decides to head to bed and tries to convince Ailsa to do the same.

Next morning, Carly is kissing Ben goodbye at the Fletcher house while Pippa ties up Sally’s hair. Pippa gets Steven to call Tom. Sally is waiting for Mullet so Steven heads off to school. Mullet arrives and Pippa sends Carly on her way; Carly whispers to Sally to ask him. Sally asks Mullet to go to the wedding with her while Pippa is annoyed that Sally didn’t get her dirty washing like she asked. Tom comes down, having been changing Christopher, and Pippa snaps it’s about time he did something. Meanwhile, Emma is on her way to school when Alf and Ailsa tell her that Bridget’s back and wants Emma to live with her. Emma is horrified at the idea, saying she doesn’t want anything to do with Bridget. Alf tells her Barry’s gone but it doesn’t change her stance.

Emma complains to Steven and Viv at school. Steven is sympathetic towards Bridget, suggesting Emma talk to her, but Viv reminds him Bridget took Emma’s stepfather’s side. Grant comes past and calls them into the history class. Ailsa goes to see Bridget at the caravan and tells her that Emma doesn’t want to talk to her. Bridget says she just wants to explain but Ailsa thinks she’s only interested in getting what she wants. Ailsa goes to see Pippa at the house to discuss it, recalling how Bridget turned her back on her after she killed their father, both during the trial and after her release. Pippa points out Bridget ended up married to a similar man and probably hasn’t had an easy life but Ailsa says she can’t feel sorry for her.

Grant has divided the class into two lines, grouped behind tables to represent the trench warfare of World War One. He tells the group that includes Steven, Viv and Emma that they are the Australian soldiers ordered to attack the German position by their English superiors. The two groups throw balled up paper at each other and the Australian group goes down (except for Emma, who hasn’t moved). Grant asks about the wounds the soldiers would suffer and says the lack of medical facilities meant many of them would die, which he uses as a segue into producing a poster encouraging them to give blood. Once the class has settled down, he gets Viv to hand out permission forms for the students to donate blood. One of the students, Gavin, says his mother would never give permission because you get AIDS from donating blood. Steven and another classmate, Sue, mock the attitude and Grant tells him the blood is screened.

Ailsa notices that Pippa has a lot of ironing to do and Pippa says that she can’t get Tom and the children to help out. She complains that she wishes being a housewife was a proper job so she could resign. She wonders if Ailsa is opposed to Emma going back to Bridget because if Emma stays with Ailsa then she’ll have beaten Bridget. Ailsa says that’s not the reason and she thinks Emma needs stability. Later, at the Diner, Carly is boring Ailsa, Sally and Mullet with chat about her wedding dress. Pippa arrives with some dinner money for Sally but Carly has already got her something. She asks Pippa when she’ll get round to making her wedding dress and Pippa says she hasn’t had time. Once Pippa’s gone, Carly starts chatting again until Ailsa sends her to a table. Mullet asks Sally about having to dress up for the wedding and seems worried about the idea.

Bridget is hanging around outside the school. Emma appears with Steven and Viv. When she sees Bridget, she tells the others to keep walking and ignores Bridget, even when she calls out to her. Bridget goes to see Alf at the store to buy some cleaning fluids and tells him what happened. Steven and Viv arrive and Bridget recognises them. She asks them to tell Emma to meet her outside the school at the end of the day and they agree. Alf isn’t entirely happy with Bridget’s behaviour but accepts it’s the best way to get Emma to talk to her. Steven and Viv pass on the message to Emma at school. They both think Bridget is genuine. Steven tries to convince Emma to talk to her, despite Viv trying to get him to go easy on Emma.

At the Fletcher house, Carly is talking to Ben about Pippa’s recent short fuse when Sally arrives and says Mullet’s changed his mind about going to the wedding with her. Carly recalls he seemed strange when Sally said he had to wear a suit. Sally thinks Carly’s saying it’s because Sally’s too bossy but Ben explains that Mullet’s family don’t have a lot of money and probably can’t afford a suit. Ben goes to see Mullet down by the river, where he’s fishing, and asks him about going to the wedding. Mullet says his mum said he couldn’t come. Ben thinks he hasn’t asked her and is worried about looking out of place. Ben says his family never had much money and he had to go to a school concert in a cardigan when everyone else was wearing suits. He says they can find Mullet something to wear if he wants to go but Mullet insists he doesn’t.

Emma meets Bridget outside the school but says she’s got nothing to say to her. Bridget says she’s not leaving Summer Bay until Emma hears her out. Emma starts to walk away from her but, when Bridget calls after her, she stops and agrees to get it over and done with.