Matt Page
Matthew Page (2013-2017)
Alec Snow
Episodes: 5856–6622
Parent: Gray Page
Sibling: Ellie Page
Marital Status: Evelyn MacGuire (2017-present, symbolic ceremony)
Occupation: Student; Pizza Deliverer; Apprentice Mechanic
Matt was one of the students who transferred to Summer Bay High from Mangrove River after it was burnt down. He was given a hard time by Jade Montgomery, the old Mangrove River High principal, and in turn bullied Oscar and argued with Sasha in class, resulting in Zac giving him yard duty on his first day. He got into another fight with Oscar then was accused by Bianca of vandalising her office. However, despite finding him spray painting a wall, Bianca told him he wouldn’t be punished without proof.
He started playing truant but Leah was able to convince his father to send him back to school through sheer persistence. He gave Josh a hard time for wearing Summer Bay uniform and got into a fight with him but Andy stepped in. Montgomery belittled his coming back to school and soon after someone started a fire in a litter bin; Leah and Bianca wondered if Matt had done it to get back at Montgomery. He let slip to Bianca that he was responsible but told her she couldn’t prove it. In fact, he had been paid to do it by Montgomery, who then told him to tell the police Bianca had made advances on him. However, when Leah told him that she and Bianca felt he had potential, he told Montgomery he wouldn’t do it. He invited Evelyn to a beach party and ended up in another fight with Oscar. Zac forced Oscar to apologise to him. At the party, Matt sold some drugs to Andy who used them to spike Maddy’s drink, causing her to dance flirtatiously with Matt. As a result, he was given the cold shoulder by Evelyn at the music festival and settled for taunting Josh over his plans to sleep with Maddy, prompting Josh to tell him to get lost. Montgomery paid him to keep quiet about their dealings but they were seen together by Leah, who questioned him. He confessed everything that had happened and revealed that it was Montgomery who had burnt down Mangrove River High and threatened to frame him if he didn’t go along with her.
He began spending time with Evelyn again and kissed her, resulting in Oscar starting a fight with him. Evelyn admitted her father had just died and Matt comforted her but was attacked by Oscar again. He then took Evelyn to a party at the beach house. When Sasha stood as school captain, Matt vandalised her posters and heckled her during her speech. Tamara stepped in to defend Sasha but Matt suggested she stand instead. He enlisted Josh, Maddy and Jett to take Sasha down a peg or two but kicked Maddy out of the group when she suggested organising a debate between Sasha and Tamara rather than the harsher tactics he planned. Instead, he and Josh dumped her in the middle of nowhere so she couldn’t give her candidature speech. After the male candidates had spoken, Matt declared that they were only interested in having it on their resume and he would do a better job. However, he applauded when Sasha arrived in time to give a speech supporting Tamara. Despite not standing, he found himself elected as school captain alongside Tamara.
Matt seemed reluctant to make any decisions but, when Zac told him to do something, appointed Sasha head of the student representative council. He asked Sasha to help him write a speech and then kissed her. Sasha rebuffed him but he told Spencer about the kiss, provoking a fight between them in the Diner. He wound Spencer up both before and during his speech, prompting Spencer to tell him he was welcome to Sasha. Afterwards, he apologised to Sasha. When Sasha found he’d dropped out of school, she went to his house and found him looking after his sister Ellie. He explained their mother had walked out years ago and since his father had been drinking since losing his job he had to stay at home and look after her. However, a few weeks later Matt went to Sasha for help, explaining his father had been arrested and sent to rehab and DoCS wanted to send Ellie to live with a distant aunt. Sasha let him and Ellie stay overnight at the Diner but told him her own brother Felix was happy with his new family so Matt allowed Ellie to be taken into care.
Sasha let Matt spend time at her place but was upset when he tried it on with her. He turned up at the beach house and revealed they had been evicted from the house; Sasha took him to Leah, who arranged for him to stay with her temporarily. When Sasha went away for two weeks, he admitted he’d miss her, confirming their status as a couple, before going to stay at a hostel in Yabbie Creek. Tamara convinced him to help set up the school prior to a memorial for Gina but he just ended up arguing with Spencer. Leah realised he was missing Sasha and allowed him to phone her, before convincing him to return to school.
When Sasha won the memorial writing competition with a story about him and Ellie, Matt suggested she write an article telling Zac’s side of the story when he was accused of running over Tamara. This resulted in Oscar confessing to her that she had been driving and Matt supported Sasha when she decided to publish the news. He was reluctant to identify Sasha as his girlfriend and talked Josh out of confiding in Maddy about his study problems. He defended Sasha when Evelyn blamed her for Oscar being charged but Sasha felt he’d embarrassed her and wasn’t sure if she wanted to be with him. When Jett encouraged him to make a grand gesture, he danced naked on the beach with “Sorry Sasha” written on his chest and Sasha accepted his request to be his girlfriend.
He was kicked out of the hostel and ended up sleeping at the school. When Sasha and Leah found out, he ended up moving back in with Leah. When he learned Sophie had asked Sasha to take over from Tamara as school captain, he encouraged her to do it but also felt he should step down, thinking they couldn’t be captains together. However, after a talk from Leah he agreed to be co-captains. Sophie felt he wasn’t taking the job seriously and instructed him to change into Summer Bay High uniform. However, Sasha was impressed at him knuckling down to work and spent the night with him for the first time. He ran into Spencer during the night, negating Sasha’s attempts to smuggle him out the next morning. He then ended up arguing with Sasha and Spencer and announcing that he and Sasha had slept together to the school corridor. When Sophie tried to discipline him, he brought up the fact she had slept with his housemate Nate. Both Nate and Sophie warned him to keep personal and school life separate but he got back on good terms with Sasha when he admitted he loved her.
He found himself short of funds and pestered Kyle into giving him a trial shift at Angelo’s. Sasha was pleased he had a job but Kyle told him he couldn’t take him on permanently. Matt kept quiet when Sasha offered him celebratory sex in the Diner, only for Irene to walk in on them. When Matt made wisecracks that didn’t improve Irene’s mood, Sasha ended up quitting. Matt was saved from having to admit he was unemployed as well when Kyle gave him more work. He tried to ask Brax about the job but just got snapped at and delivered a pizza to Sasha at the Diner only for her to be unable to afford it. When Sasha got her job back at the Diner, they had trouble spending time together when they were both working. Sasha asked him to get the evening off and he got Phoebe to cover in exchange for posing as an old landlord to give her a reference, but by then Sasha had agreed to work an extra shift.
He was left in a depressed mood after careers day after which Sasha heard him listening to a song he’d written himself and played it to the school; Matt was upset but understood why she did it. He was horrified when Sophie moved in with Nate but Jett told him there were advantages to living with the principal. He tried to convince Sophie to give him and Sasha one afternoon off a week for school captain work but instead she said she would let them into school early so they could do the work then. When Sasha was depressed about receiving a low mark in poetry, Matt tried to give her some pointers by rewriting one of her works but it left her even more depressed, so Matt entered one of his poems in her name. However, Sasha was horrified when she found herself being complimented for Matt’s work. She admitted the truth without revealing Matt had written it and Zac threatened to fail all her coursework for the year until Matt owned up and he agreed to let Sasha submit some more poems. Matt was put in charge of a team to come up with business ideas but proceeded to abandon his team and go off to buy pizza, then swooped in with a last minute idea about a skateboarding pizza delivery service. He ended up being named as a finalist along with Spencer. He asked Phoebe for help with research and when he helped her use the restaurant’s new mixing desk she suggested he use a jingle in his presentation. He gave an enthusiastic, hip spiel to the judges but lost out to Spencer and Sasha’s fumbling but well researched presentation.
He ended up helping Phoebe with her songwriting but refused to take credit and when he belittled the idea he ended up being attacked by Kyle. He and Sasha then found they only had two days to organise the market they’d intended to raise funds for the school formal. The first day of organising left them with only two stalls but Matt was determined to give Sasha the event she wanted and after calling in favours from everyone he presented her with a full market. He got Zac to mind the kissing booth then tricked Leah into kissing him. He then announced he wasn’t taking his HSC. Phoebe felt he should play at the school formal and she and Sasha tried to get him to perform at Angelo’s but he refused. He explained to Sasha that he had left Ellie with their father while he went out to a gig, resulting in his father drink driving and being involved in a crash in which Ellie broke her arm, and hadn’t performed since. However, when Kyle disappeared during the formal, Matt took his place with Phoebe on stage. When Casey was killed, Sasha told him about their history and worried Matt would end up like him, prompting Matt to decide to do his HSC.
When Sophie announced Muck Up Day was cancelled, Matt and Sasha decided to commemorate the end of school with a video instead. Matt sneaked into school after hours to film himself “finding” frilly underwear in Spencer’s locker and also videoed Leah and Zac kissing. Despite Sasha telling him to delete it and Zac and Leah telling him to keep quiet until VJ knew about them, Matt included it in the film he showed to the school, including VJ. Everyone was furious with him, prompting him to pack his bags and move out. When Sasha discovered he was planning to sleep on the beach, she sneaked him into her place. Spencer found out and agreed to keep it from Irene on condition he didn’t stay again. Matt rudely rejected Leah’s invitation to move back in and instead slept in the Diner until Irene caught him and forced him to work a shift to pay board. Leah convinced him to move back in and face up to what he’d done.
He delayed getting down to studying by devoting his time to helping VJ prove Tyson Lee was bullying him, offering to give him a black eye as “proof” before Sasha suggested using make-up instead. He was reunited with his father Gray when Gray stormed up to him on the beach and punched him. Gray blamed him for losing Ellie and the house, and Matt arranged him a place to stay at the caravan park. He worked extra hours and missed study to pay for the caravan, then spent the night before his first exam drinking with Gray. Leah found him asleep in the van and got him to school but he fell asleep during the exam, then blamed Sasha for convincing him to split up his family. Sasha gave him a schedule to spend time with both her and Gray but Gray told him that Sasha was trying to change him. After his last exam, Gray turned up with Ellie and convinced Matt to join them on the beach. Gray and Ellie went with Sasha to watch Matt at open mike night but then Senior Sergeant Emerson turned up to arrest Gray, who had taken Ellie without permission, and agreed to let Matt help take her back to her aunt. When Gray was released, Sasha told Matt to choose between them and Gray later took a drunken swing at Matt. He accepted Sasha was right that Gray needed to hit rock bottom on his own and when Gray turned up drunk while Matt was performing at Angelo’s, Matt decided to have nothing to do with him.
He was reluctant to accept Zac’s offer to go on a boys’ trip on the Blaxland that he and Alf were organising, until Sasha tried to get him to go to a uni open day instead. However, when he arrived he found Spencer was going too. They spent the outing bickering; Alf convinced Matt to apologise to Spencer but instead they ended up arguing again and, when Matt taunted Spencer over his internet girlfriend Amy, Spencer punched him. Sasha explained that “Amy” had turned out to be an internet predator. When Sasha again tried to get him to go to an open day, Matt declared that their relationship wouldn’t work with her at uni and him not so he broke up with her. Zac pointed out he’d broken up with a girl he still loved and he rushed to the bus stop to make up with her before she left.
When Sasha stayed on instead of returning with Denny, Matt spent the evening with Evelyn at Angelo’s and they ended up going swimming fully clothes. Evelyn spent the night on his sofa but Sasha came round the next morning to find her wearing one of Matt’s shirts. Matt explained the situation but Sasha remained angry, and when she turned up at a party to find Matt and Evelyn playing Twister with Chris she overreacted again before telling Matt that she felt their relationship was broken. However, they agreed to make the effort and Matt was soon giving Zac advice about being a friend to VJ. He made a speech to Zac and Leah about how they should let VJ drop out of school which pleased no-one and caused VJ to point out Matt had no idea what to do with his own life. He asked Leah if it was possible for him to still apply to uni but kept it from Sasha, not wanting her to get too excited. She realised he was hiding something and hung around Angelo’s with Spencer bugging him until he told her. He was frustrated that neither Irene nor Leah would let him and Sasha spend the night together so suggested they get their own place in college, then asked Leah if Sasha could move in with them as a trial. Sasha made it clear it wasn’t what she wanted so Matt and VJ began making plans to turn the spare room into a studies and games room, only for Leah to move Nate in instead.
Kyle told him that Phoebe wanted him as her support act for her launch in the city. He was reluctant when Sasha talked about how most musicians didn’t make it and Phoebe had nothing to fall back on but VJ convinced him to go. He was left performing to keep the crowd entertained when Phoebe had her drink spiked and injured her hand.
He accompanied Andy and Ash when they went to rescue Phoebe from Neive’s assistant Grant and comforted Sasha on learning she had been in a bus crash.
With Sasha worrying about her exam results, Matt organised an afternoon together to cheer up her and Evelyn, who was worried about Hannah being in hospital. Although Sasha got into her first choice uni, Matt received no offers, and admitted to Sasha that he felt he had failed Leah, who was still in a coma after the crash. He suggested to VJ that they go back to school together but VJ was in a foul mood and punched him. VJ later apologised but Matt got a less than warm reaction to the news from Sasha, before settling back into bickering with Spencer at school. He arranged a last date with Sasha before she left for uni but ended up getting into a fight with Spencer and, when he refused to give Zac a reason, was given indefinite detention. After talking it over with Zac, he managed to make it up to Sasha with a candlelit dinner. However, he was unhappy when Sasha returned from uni early, since it just meant going through the upset of her leaving again. They tried to spend the night together before she had to go back to uni, but were unable to use his place since Zac and VJ had returned and VJ reminded them of Leah’s rule about sleepovers. Instead, they spent the night in the Diner. When they overslept and Sasha missed the bus, he borrowed Irene’s car to drive her.
He acted as Josh’s confidante when he wondered how to make Evelyn’s first time special. He ended up banned from Sasha’s dorm for making too much noise and learned Sasha had failed her assignment because of handing it in late. He told her to concentrate on her studies but she responded by deciding to transfer to Northern District. Knowing it meant taking a course that wasn’t as good, he broke up with her, claiming he didn’t feel that strongly but was unable to tell her he didn’t love her. Sasha invited him to lunch but he didn’t turn up. On learning Spencer and Oscar were at odds, he adopted Oscar as his friend and deliberately stirred up trouble between them in front of Sasha, resulting in Oscar being punched by VJ. He then told Sasha he didn’t love her but she realised he didn’t mean it and offered to stay at Redwell and they keep seeing each other. Matt reluctantly agreed but Sasha quickly realised the arrangement wasn’t working and ended things. They spent a chaste night together and had a farewell lunch at the Diner arranged by Irene, Marilyn, Roo and John before he waved her off at the bus stop.
Matt began shirking his duties, failing to represent Angelo’s at a meeting about the colour run as he was supposed to, then not turning up to work. Oscar found him at a loose end and took him back to the farm but he got angry when Josh turned up wearing Angelo’s uniform, having taken one of his shifts. Josh offered to give up the job but Matt decided to quit. He then failed to turn up to perform at the colour run. After disappearing for several days, he arrived home drunk with a bag full of money, and sent Evelyn away when she tried to talk to him. He hid away in his room when Leah came home from hospital and got a serve from Zac for his drinking, then went home and got wasted. When Evelyn turned up, he kissed her and she ran off. He shared a fond reunion with Leah but ended up staying off school to get drunk. Josh and Evelyn found him and took him to Leah and he promised to clean himself up. He took some snacks from Angelo’s for the Anzac Day trip to Canberra, but when Josh overheard him and Evelyn talking about the kiss, Matt ended up stealing some vodka as well. He was dismissive of the memorial, calling it boring, until a lecture from Marilyn caused him to look at it from a new perspective. He continued to bicker with Josh however and they came to blows during a night in the trenches. When he was given first watch, Oscar had to stop him walking away but he later helped find Alf when he wandered off while having flashbacks.
He was invited to take part in the teens’ Anzac Day celebrations but left without doing anything. After exchanging some last words with Spencer, who was leaving town, he packed his bags, leaving a note saying not to worry. Josh and Evelyn found him in Mangrove River, getting drunk with some old friends. After arguing with them, he went home and passed out. He was found by Leah, who called Nate. Initially he dismissed their concerns until he found out Leah blamed herself; he handed over his bottle to her and they comforted each other. Leah and Nate arranged for him to have counselling at the hospital but Phoebe suspected it wasn’t his thing so he decided to go to a young person’s camp for people with his problems instead. On his return, he smoothed things over with Josh and Evelyn and also gained Maddy as a study partner. The four of them went on a camping trip together where he and Maddy ended up sharing a tent. When Evelyn quizzed him about whether anything happened, Josh admitted that Evelyn was trying to set him and Maddy up. He worried that Maddy had feelings for him and got Oscar to check it out. He also went to Leah for advice but she snapped at him. Maddy assured him she only saw him as a friend.
Then Kat turned up to question Matt about a stolen ATM. Despite her showing him photos placing him at the scene, he claimed not to remember what happened that night or to recognise the boys in the photos with him. However, when Leah found the money in his room, he admitted it but refused to offer an explanation. He was charged and released on bail and seemed ready to give up fighting until Kat had a word and convinced him that if he co-operated and named his accomplices then with his remorse and it being his first offence as an adult he could escape jail. After initially trying to cover up Leah’s erratic behaviour at school because of her aneurysm, he and VJ told Zac. He then helped get Leah to hospital when she had an accident after getting lost in the bush. He didn’t let any of the family know he was due in court but Nate and Kat went to support him and Kat acted as a character witness; he was given a good behaviour bond. He told Leah he was going to move out for a while.
During a study session, he picked up on the chemistry between Maddy and Oscar and, after separately checking with them that they had feelings for each other, announced it to them both and was pleased when they got back together. However, he quickly started winding them up about not being as affectionate as Josh and Evelyn, resulting in Oscar overcompensating and getting drunk during a party. He felt out of the loop on learning Leah and Zac were engaged and he hadn’t even been invited to the party. Zac invited him but he turned up to see them taking a family photo without him so he went to Angelo’s instead. He slept with Charlotte King, a woman he met there, only to learn the next day that she was the new biology teacher. She insisted no-one could know and Leah and Zac convinced him to move back in with them. Their continued to be tension between him and Charlotte and he kissed her in a classroom.
Maddy set him up on a blind date with classmate Sandra Budd but he deliberately made a mess of it and went back to Charlotte. When Maddy saw him giving Charlotte a flower, she teased him about having a crush on a teacher and he retorted that they’d slept together. He continued seeing Charlotte and took a photo of them in bed together, before admitting he’d told Maddy about them. Maddy told him that Charlotte had threatened her; Charlotte denied it but broke up with him anyway. He was furious when she pretended she’d been seeing Andy and threatened to show people the photographs, ignoring her attempts to threaten him. Andy forced him to delete the photos but he told Charlotte he had copies on his computer. He and Oscar were later trapped in the house when it was set on fire, and rescued by Zac and Billie. He had to move into a caravan while the rest of the family moved into the caravan park house. When he learned the fire had been started deliberately, he accused Charlotte but apologised after learning Billie had been charged and told her the photos were gone.
He loaded himself up with brochures at the uni open day but didn’t read any of them. Oscar confided in him about Josh taking drugs to stay awake and he warned Josh that his dealer, Damo Adams, made them himself in a shed, but also advised him against going to the police. When Hunter turned up, Matt warned Zac that the situation was hard on Leah. He got Maddy and Oscar to do a soul mates quiz and ended up getting more answers right than Oscar. He encouraged the other teens to get to know Hunter and was pleased with his test results until he learned he still did worse than Oscar and Josh. He came up with an over complicated plan to get Josh and Evelyn back together, where he and Maddy set up the Braxton house for a romantic dinner which Oscar was meant to bring them to, but not only did neither of them turn up but Matt discovered he was attracted to Maddy when she fell on top of him while putting up decorations, which he confided in VJ. Oscar then asked to use his caravan so he and Maddy could sleep together and he reluctantly agreed. However, he began giving Maddy a hard time, culminating in a bile-filled rant at her in the Diner. Evelyn realised it was because he liked her and told him if he didn’t back off he would lose her completely. He apologised to Maddy but refused to give an explanation for his behaviour, prompting her to say they didn’t have to be friends.
Matt managed to regain some ground by convincing a visiting Ed Sheeran to put on a concert for the town which helped Leah and Zac get over their difficulties. He unsuccessfully attempted to dissuade Josh from warning Evelyn off Tank Snelgrove. When Maddy was doing a trial shift at Angelo’s, Matt walked in on Kyle making unwanted advances on her but Roo stopped him going after Kyle. Oscar asked Matt to put in a word with him with Maddy when he accidentally called her easy; instead, Matt told Maddy how great she really was, then watched from a distance as she and Oscar reconciled. He ran into Charlotte on the beach and she kissed him; they spent the night together again. Andy warned him off her and realised he liked Maddy. Matt went back to Charlotte’s for his keys and slept with her again. He bragged about it to Josh, and when Josh told him Charlotte had threatened him he refused to believe it. Charlotte asked him about threatening notes she was receiving. He bought Maddy a violin for her birthday but seemed to enjoy the show when Tank and his friends ruined her party.
He turned up at Charlotte’s flat for another liaison and found a bag full of money; she admitted she was being blackmailed. Hunter then walked in on them naked. Matt tried and failed to stop Hunter telling Zac and Leah, resulting in Charlotte being fired. Matt went to Charlotte saying they could be together now but Charlotte rejected him. As a result of their liaisons, he turned up to his first exam not having studied at all but was saved when the exam was postponed because of a bomb hoax. He launched a rant at Charlotte when he saw her hugging Kyle and had to be escorted away by Maddy. This resulted in Maddy realising he had feelings for her and walking away from him. He told Oscar to sort it out himself when he asked for advice making up with Maddy after an argument. Maddy told him she was flattered but loved Oscar; however, the conversation didn’t seem to resolve anything for either of them.
When Maddy felt ill and feared her cancer had returned, Matt accompanied her to hospital and, when it turned out to be an iron deficiency, held her hand a bit too long. When he mentioned the incident to Roo, she suggested he loved Maddy. Oscar found out and, when Matt admitted he’d wanted Maddy to reciprocate, punched him. Matt found himself joining Maddy and Asia Chalker in the school formal committee, where he and Maddy sided against Asia but found themselves overruled. He agreed to take Asia to the formal, telling Maddy that he was going to get with other girls to get over her, only for Maddy to tell him not to. He confronted her and she told him she had feelings for him but nothing could happen. However, when he went to a schoolies party with Asia, he ran off when Asia tried to kiss him and instead spent the evening with Maddy, pulling her down on top of him during a limbo competition and earning a rant from Asia. Zac told him to make things up with Oscar, since they were both meant to be groomsmen at the wedding, and when Maddy turned up to see him he sent her back to Oscar without hearing what she had to say.
He agreed to go to the formal with Asia anyway, then overheard her and Oscar talking about the fact they’d kissed. He kept quiet but Maddy quickly found out anyway. She rejected his attempt at comforting her while Oscar told him he’d won. Matt was initially dismissive when Oscar went missing but when Maddy went to look for him he went with her, only for them to get bogged down and for Matt to suffer a minor injury from a falling tree branch. After spending the night in the car, he kissed Maddy but she said they’d talk about it later. When Oscar was found, Maddy told Matt she liked him. After they learned of Denny’s death, Matt tried to distract everyone with prattle, which Maddy recognised. He performed his groomsman duties at Zac and Leah’s wedding and, at the reception, he took Maddy to get changed when she ripped her dress. Oscar walked in on them and told them if they wanted to be together they should just get on with it. They shared a kiss in the house, shortly before they learned about Charlotte killing Denny.
He and Maddy spent the next few days holed up in his caravan, busy consummating their relationship, and he invited her to move in with him. They admitted they loved each other but things soon started to go downhill with the arrangement, as Maddy freaked out on meeting the possum Matt had adopted and had difficulty coping with the noise at night, demanding they find somewhere else to stay. He went along with her attempt to rent the Diner flat, only for Roo to rent it instead and invite them to move in with her. He was initially horrified at the prospect of effectively living with Maddy’s mother but when Roo put the hard sell on him he agreed. On moving into the flat, he tried to put his stamp on things by displaying a decorated skateboard but soon took it down. Roo then walked in on him and Matt about to have sex on the couch, before Matt walked in on Roo in the bathroom. When an attempt at a house meeting descended into him and Roo trading complaints, Roo agreed to him putting the skateboard back on condition that he and Maddy did their own cooking and cleaning. The flat soon descended into a pig sty and Maddy bribed him with beer to get him to help with the cleaning but he shrunk her handwash only clothes in the machine. They continued to bicker during orientation week, where Matt was beaten by Hannah during a balloon hammer bout. After Evelyn lost her temper with them, they made up. He then dropped Maddy in it with Roo when she blew her rent money on a dress.
After Hannah was found to have the BRC gene, Maddy confided in Matt about her fears of her cancer returning. Maddy and Roo tried to get him to study, but he only made a token effort before abandoning it in favour of alone time with Maddy. Soon after, he told Maddy he was going to drop out of uni, feeling it wasn’t for him. A promising argument was halted when Matt was called by a journalist, who revealed that Charlotte had sold a sex tape the two of them had made to a dodgy site. With the story all over the news, Matt found himself questioned as a suspect in her murder. He was quickly released but then interviewed again when Kat overheard him and Andy discussing the fact he had threatened Charlotte over the photos. He was hassled by customers in Angelo’s over the video and, when one of them, Clifford Brown, had a go on the beach, he punched him and was charged with assault. Maddy quizzed him about what he was looking for in a future career and he mentioned he’d always been into cars. He started work with Andy and Ash at the garage and quickly proved his worth by fixing a starter motor, but when the garage was vandalised he suspected it was because of him and quit. He was also subjected to online abuse. Ash convinced him to come back to the garage, telling him the vandalism was nothing to do with him. When he learned Maddy was being cyber-bullied for defending him and the police were doing nothing, he stormed round the station and gave Kat a list of the perpetrators, only to learn there was no chance of a conviction. He and Maddy were both left depressed but agreed to go to a hotel in the city with Josh and Evelyn, which improved their mood.
He was hired to handle the music at the hospital fundraiser, much to his disappointment since he was hoping to give it a miss. The event was then hit by an explosion and Matt summoned help for Maddy, whose arm had been trapped. When he learned it would have to be amputated, he initially tried to stop the doctors doing it against her will but was convinced of the necessity and afterwards assured Maddy that nothing had changed. However, she rejected his attempts to support her and broke up with him. Roo convinced him to fight for the relationship and he insisted to Maddy that he’d stand by her, only for her to disappear from the hospital. He and Alf checked out a sighting of her at Oscar’s grave and found a photo she’d left behind but no sign of her. They eventually found her at a motel and she was taken back to hospital, where she told Matt she was considering going back to the city with her mother Tanya. He took Maddy home and they tried to spend time with their friends but she got fed up of everyone doing things for her. She told him she was going to go to the city for her rehab and then go travelling and asked him to go with her. He eventually agreed on realising she was going anyway, and at their going away party, he thanked Leah for taking him in and Ash for giving him a job, but next morning he found Maddy had already gone, leaving behind a note saying she knew he wasn’t ready to leave.
He moved back into the caravan park but found Roo passed out on the sofa after taking too many sleeping tablets. She pretended to throw the pills away but Matt lingered long enough to see her retrieve them and told Alf. They staged an intervention and Matt decided to move back in. He did a few shift at Angelo’s to help Phoebe out when she was left managing the place and made bets with Mason on who would win the conflict between Phoebe and Brody. He tried to support Josh and Evelyn after Josh was bailed for covering up Jake’s murder. When he saw Alf giving Roo a hard time after his stroke, he had a go at him which convinced Alf to go easy on her.
He went to confront Josh when he refused to see Evelyn before his sentencing, convincing him to let her visit, and approved of Josh and Andy’s decision to go on the run, at least until he realised Evie was upset about it. Ash confided in him that the garage was in financial trouble after having to pay Andy’s bail and he helped him hide the $50,000 Andy had left them from his car rebirthing, coming up with the idea to have Justin pretend to invest it. He went to a uni party with Evelyn and Mason but failed to stop a depressed Evelyn writing herself off.
After hearing someone in the flat during the night, Matt found Ellie hiding there and she told him she had run away from school camp and hated living with their aunt May, who she felt had only taken her in because she had to. Matt initially tried to hide her in the flat but soon had to reveal the truth to Roo. Matt met with May who at first wanted Ellie to come back with her but eventually agreed to her staying with Matt after warning that she could be trouble. Ellie took money from Matt’s wallet while he was in the shower but it was just to buy ingredients for dinner. However, Ellie failed to turn up to her first day at school and Matt’s attempts to lecture her about it fell flat. When she tried to feign illness, he got Phoebe to talk to her and learned she was worried about an exam. After she had a meltdown in class, he realised she had difficulty reading and she was diagnosed with dyslexia. He learned of Evelyn and Mason’s friends with benefits arrangement shortly before Evelyn was assigned to tutor Ellie as a teacher’s aide. When Ellie claimed Evelyn had walked out on her, Matt blasted his friend. Roo convinced him to listen to her side of the story and he realised Ellie had simply been embarrassed about how little she knew.
He advised Mason to go back to the friends with benefits arrangement after Evelyn rejected the idea of a relationship, while at the same time telling Evelyn Mason would never be able to stick to it. He gave over the top praise to Ellie’s assignment, despite both Roo and Evelyn feeling that it needed more work and he was just setting her up for a fall. He discovered Ellie had started a fire at the school in order to avoid getting a bad mark and Tabitha Ford was being blamed. Evelyn convinced him he needed to tell Zac and Ellie was suspended for two weeks but told Matt he’d done the right thing.
Matt began disciplining Ellie, forcing her to stay at home and do her homework. He received a text, supposedly from Evie, inviting him to lunch at Salt where they quickly realised Ellie and Raffy had set them up, hoping that if they were together he wouldn’t give Ellie such a hard time. To teach her a lesson, they pretended they were a couple and were going to spend the next day together, with Matt hoping it would prove to Ellie that she did want him round. However, Roo took him to task for neglecting Ellie and he agreed to back off with the discipline. He also felt weird after kissing Evelyn in front of Ellie as part of the act and was unable to bring himself to delete a photo of her he’d taken during the pretence. He then had an awkward encounter with her on the beach and she and Phoebe convinced him to go on a date with one of her uni friends, Stephanie Suttle. However, Stephanie told Matt it was obvious that Evelyn liked him so he went to Evelyn’s place and kissed her. She kicked him out and, having driven there in Mason’s car and have it fail to start, he spent the night in the car outside her house before asking for some gaffer tape to fix it. They then had another moment when he touched her hand. Matt decided to end the weirdness by deleting the photo, then offered to help her organise a charity volleyball tournament. He was paired with the attractive Jeannie Woods and amused when Evelyn was quick to allow Brody to replace him as her partner, suggesting she was jealous. He rang Evelyn for advice when he and Mason were trying to work out if Jeannie liked Brody, calling it an “emergency”, but Evelyn got upset, since it was her first birthday without Oscar. Matt bought a pair of binary stars for them as a present.
Evelyn made him dinner to thank him then invited him to the beach for a picnic. However, as they were about to kiss, she got a call that the police knew where Josh and Andy were and rushed off. Matt helped her check out the shack where they had been staying and found a sketch Josh had done of her, which he gave to her. He went along on VJ’s bucks party, where he met Zoe Gardner and got her number. He tried to invite her to the wedding but Evelyn talked him out of it. When Evelyn began an intensive tutoring of Ellie, Matt taught her trigonometry with a game of pool while also spending time with Zoe, telling Evelyn that he needed to move on. However, when Evelyn heard that Josh had been arrested, he left Zoe to support her. He tried to arrange for Evelyn to see Josh but kept quiet when he found out Josh had a new girlfriend only for Evelyn to find out anyway and be angry he’d kept it from her. She later calmed down and came round to cook him a meal but kissed him instead. Although she ran away, after talking things over with Roo Matt ended things with Zoe and told Evelyn he was free if she wanted to start something.
He helped out Evelyn when she ran a safety zone at the caravan park for schoolies. Despite having to deal with a small fire and a drunk Hunter, they at last managed to kiss, cementing them as a couple. They quickly found themselves dragged into Phoebe’s plan to hold a fundraising music festival, an idea that seemed to appeal to Matt more than Evelyn. While Evelyn was visiting him at the garage, they found a set of oil drums on fire and Matt kept it under control with a fire extinguisher until the fire brigade arrived. He joined Evelyn in acting as chaperone at the school formal and told her he loved her. Evelyn was worried, since she’d lost everyone else she loved, but Matt told her she couldn’t let that stop her doing things. He tried to help Evelyn with the festival when Phoebe neglected her duties and sang on stage when Phoebe delayed going on.
When the festival was threatened by a bushfire, he ended up taking shelter in a shack with Evelyn, Phoebe, John, Zac and Hunter. After getting safely back to the farmhouse, he and Evelyn had a shower together. He felt awkward when Evelyn got an invite from Maddy for them both to join her touring the Greek islands, since he couldn’t pay, but Alf convinced him to let Evelyn pay for him. He then saw Zac meeting Sam at Salt which Zac wanted kept quiet from Leah, although she overheard them discussing it. He and Evelyn considered putting off their holiday when Billie died but Alf told them to keep going. He then learned Evelyn had been offered a teaching position in Vietnam and encouraged her to take it; she invited him and Ellie to go with her. He worked out that Zac had slept with Sam and stopped him telling Leah, forcing Sam to leave town. He then told Evelyn they should go to Vietnam. However, Ellie refused to go so they both decided to stay.
He and Evelyn decided to apply to be Ellie’s guardians to make her feel included but she thought they were trying to force her to go to Vietnam. However, she ended up agreeing not only to that plan but to the Vietnam move. He did his rounds of goodbyes, including Alf, and when he and Evelyn discussed their future he ended up agreeing to marry her the next day. They had a symbolic ceremony at the farm, after which they spent their wedding night at the Diner flat. Leah was unhappy to learn he had kept quiet about Zac’s cheating but they made up and he went for a last walk on the beach with Evelyn and Ellie before leaving.