Oscar MacGuire
Oscar MacGuire (2013-2016)
Jake Speer
Episodes: 5822–6417
Date of Birth: 23rd September 1997
Date of Death: 3rd May 2016
Parents: Ethan & Sarah MacGuire (both deceased)
Siblings: Evelyn MacGuire; Denny Miller (half, deceased)
Occupation: Student; Gym Worker
Oscar was the mutual nephew of Zac MacGuire and Hannah Wilson, whose siblings had married each other. After his mother Sarah’s death, his father Ethan took him and his twin sister Evelyn to the commune at Sanctuary Lodge. Oscar met Zac for the first time since he was a child when he came to the lodge to visit them. Zac sensed that Oscar had not embraced the cult’s ideal as much as Ethan and Evelyn had, and surreptitiously gave him his telephone number. After Hannah was turned away from the commune, Oscar called Zac for help but was discovered by Ethan, who handed him over to the group leader Murray Granger to be beaten for his disobedience. He tried to run away but Evelyn talked him out of it. Soon after, he was rescued by Brax, Heath and Kyle, along with an unwilling Evelyn, and Zac hid them at a motel. Leah took him to a hospital for treatment in secret and he was given the all clear.
Oscar tried to convince Evelyn that they had a chance of a new family, but she responded by hitting Zac over the head; Oscar tried to talk her out of running away but had to stay with Zac and summon help. After Evelyn was found, Oscar and Hannah moved in with Leah while Zac and Ricky took Evelyn away to try and get through to her. He hid when Murray turned up at the house but eventually faced him down by threatening to tell the police about the beating if he didn’t leave them alone. However, he was shocked when Evelyn then chose to return to the cult.
Oscar missed Evelyn and began acting up, although he accepted Zac and Hannah were trying their best. They arranged for Evelyn to visit him. He still felt at odds and, after bonding with Leah over a game of pool, told her he felt he wasn’t being allowed to make any choices about his life. He met with Spencer and Sasha and learned Evelyn had given Spencer a letter warning Oscar that the lodge were trying to recruit Spencer. He warned Sasha the lodge was a cult, but they failed to convince Spencer. He started attending Summer Bay High, but his first day coincided with the arrival of a group of new students from Mangrove River and he quickly clashed with Matt Page, telling Zac and Hannah he didn’t want to go to the school. Maddy convinced him to return but he left again after getting into a fight with Matt. Zac decided to move out on being told he was smothering Oscar.
Oscar suddenly sensed that Evelyn was in danger and showed Leah and Hannah her letter. This resulted in Zac and Hannah rescuing Evelyn and Spencer from the lodge and Oscar finally being reunited with his sister, before returning to the lodge one last time to collect their things. He bonded with Zac after hustling him at pool and Evelyn convinced him to return to Summer Bay High. Then Ethan turned up at the house, wanting them to live with him again, but Oscar refused and Evelyn accepted his decision.
When he and Hannah learned the Walker farm was being rented out, they convinced Zac and Hannah that they should all move in there. He was frustrated when Matt took an interest in Evelyn and got into a fight with him again. Zac took him back to school and got him to apologise. He and Evelyn decide to attend the Bay Meets the River festival and were thrown when Ethan turned up beforehand, telling him they’d built a life in the Bay. At the festival, Ethan suddenly turned up with a group of thugs and revealed he had restarted the cult. Convinced they belonged with him, he kidnapped the twins, along with Kyle who tried to assist them, and locked them in a shipping container. They were rescued by Zac, Hannah, Casey and Tamara.
The next morning, Oscar and Evelyn learned Ethan had been killed in an explosion at the hospital. After going down the beach, they returned to find Zac and Hannah kissing. Zac assured Oscar the kiss was all it was but Evelyn realised they’d slept together and the pair promised their relationship was over. Oscar was unhappy when Zac began organising Ethan’s funeral without his and Evelyn’s input and when Evelyn began spending time with Matt. He started a fight with Matt when he found him kissing Evelyn, then punched Zac when he intervened. He followed Evelyn to a party she and Matt were attending at the beach house, where they were both accosted by Zac and Hannah. The two adults mollified the pair by inviting them to take part in the funeral arrangements and Oscar convinced Evelyn to attend the funeral.
A few days later, they saw Zac with Denny Miller and were shocked when Zac told them she was Ethan’s daughter and their half-sister. Oscar was eager to know more about her until he realised Evelyn didn’t. However, as Zac was telling Denny they didn’t want to see her, Oscar suddenly turned up and told Denny he did want to get to know her after all. He tried to set Evelyn and Denny up, telling Denny that Evelyn had agreed to meet her then arranging for Zac, Hannah and Evelyn to come to the Diner without them knowing Denny would be there, but it just resulted in an argument. Oscar refused to talk to Evelyn and met up with Denny when she planned to leave town, although she changed her mind when Evelyn came round. When Denny ran out of money and it looked like she’d have to leave anyway, Oscar stole money from Hannah’s purse to give to her, annoying both Denny and Zac, but the incident resulted in Denny moving in with the family.
He and Evelyn saw Hannah with Andy and realised they were a couple. He was unhappy about keeping it from Zac and heard Zac ranting about how the twins had stopped him and Hannah being together. He tried to stop Evelyn stealing exam papers from Zac’s bag and developed a crush on Maddy, comforting her after she’d argued with Josh. John gave him tips on how to win her over but he felt embarrassed when she confided in him about Alf finding out she was sleeping with Josh and when Zac teased him about his feelings. When he and Evelyn found Zac passed out drunk in his car, Oscar was determined to prevent Hannah or the students seeing him like that and, after Evelyn had walked away from the situation, attempted to drive Zac home. When he was distracted by Zac retching in the back seat, he collided with something but drove on when he didn’t see anything in the road.
He kept quiet about driving without a license, only telling Evelyn, but when he discovered Tamara had been run over at the spot where he had the collision he realised it was him and also that Zac thought he was driving. He skipped school in order to avoid Tamara and learned Zac had been arrested. He told Zac what really happened but was told to keep quiet. He tried to confess to Emerson anyway but Emerson didn’t believe him. After speaking to Tamara and learning she had a bleed which could make her go blind, Oscar went to Sasha, who’d wanted to do an article giving Zac’s side of the story, and told her the truth, giving her a sound file of him arguing with Evelyn as proof. When the article was printed, he convinced Zac and Hannah to stop trying to cover for him. He met with Tamara to apologise, then went to the station to make a statement. He was interviewed and formally charged, and couldn’t face school. He ran away, suffering from panic attacks, and Andy found him and calmed him down.
He refused to let Evelyn and Denny accompany him to court, only letting Zac come along as driver. He was given community service but felt he’d been let off lightly and had another panic attack. John, Spencer and Evelyn took him to hospital and Spencer talked to him about how hard it was accepting help for his bipolar. He started receiving counselling and came back from his first session seeming fine but spent the night on the floor in Hannah’s room, claiming he’d sleepwalked. Zac took him out for a run but he had a panic attack when Hannah suggested returning to school. Hannah took him to the gym but he was annoyed when Andy referred to it as babysitting, although Andy eventually gave him some advice about coming to terms with what he’d done. However, after being assigned 100 hours gardening duty for his community service he felt he’d been let off lightly. He tried to do a self-portrait that revealed something about himself for a school project and drew a monster reaching out of a mirror. He went to the gym suffering from a panic attack and was found by Leah and Nate. Nate suggested he go on medication and he agreed. He still came close to having a panic attack at the Diner but Nate helped him calm down and he stood up to Matt at school. He began to feel better after a trip to the gym.
When Zac suddenly announced they were going camping after Hannah invited Andy for dinner, Oscar went along with it but gently teased Zac about avoiding them, prompting them to return early. Before his community service, Zac told him to keep his head down while Andy told him to stand up to people. After being driven in by Zac, he was bullied by Mitch Todd and turned up at Andy’s caravan with a bloodied nose after being punched. He blamed Zac, deriding him as useless. However, he felt guilty when Zac decided to move out and thought it was the reason why Evelyn was angry with Andy. When Andy was accused of dealing drugs, Oscar pleaded his case to Hannah, suggesting he had been set up. They then found drugs in the barn and Hannah told him Zac had used them to set up Andy. When Zac didn’t call the police after Heath tried to see Darcy against instructions from DoCS, Oscar accused him of having something to hide. He tried to convince Josh and Evelyn that Zac was to blame, even after Josh was beaten up by local drug dealers, but was forced to accept Andy was the guilty one and apologised to Zac.
Oscar felt Josh and Maddy should break up after seeing them argue, before discovering that Josh had cheated on Maddy with Evelyn. He began spending time with Maddy, even choosing an evening with her over a family dinner, despite Evelyn trying to convince him to stay away from her. They spent the night together but he was upset when Maddy told him the next day that they should go back to being friends and realised she’d used him. They cleared the air when she walked him to community service and she kissed him in front of the workers to try and give him some street cred, but Mitch just suggested she must have taken pity on him. Oscar punched Mitch, later turning up at the gym in a dishevelled state and maniacally punching a bag. Spencer called Zac to take him home and they both tried to talk him out of overdoing it, with Spencer warning that he’d keep an eye on him. Oscar stole a copy of the gym roster and briefly collapsed while running. Spencer and Maddy tried to talk to him about it but he refused to listen, even when he started choking while training. Maddy, Hannah and Andy all attempted to convince him to stop and he tried to discredit Maddy by telling Hannah they’d slept together. He lied to Hannah that Zac was giving him a lift back from community service, overdid his work and got Mitch to drop him in the middle of nowhere where he collapsed while running. He was found by Andy and admitted he felt his appearance was the only thing he had control over.
Hannah let him go back to the gym with restrictions on how much time he spent there and Nate gave him advice on nutrition. He annoyed Evelyn by talking about her and Josh’s relationship with Maddy, but advised Evelyn not to be in a hurry to lose her virginity as he had. When the Year 11s were invited to the formal, he considered asking Maddy but Hannah told him Maddy had said she didn’t want to go with him. He was therefore surprised and delighted when Maddy asked him. He admitted he knew she’d rather be there with Josh and Maddy apologetically gave him a dance. He then got dragged away by Evelyn to help with the aftermath of Casey’s death. He attended Casey’s wake and witnessed Evelyn attacking Maddy on finding out she had slept with Josh. He visited Denny in hospital when she collapsed from dehydration after the funeral and ended up stealing and taking her sleeping pills. Sophie realised what had happened when she saw him spaced out at school and told Nate and Hannah.
He continued to spend time with Maddy despite Evelyn’s disapproval and tried to get Josh and Evelyn to talk. He attended John and Marilyn’s wedding as her date and looked after her when she got drunk. Maddy dragged him out shopping but he found Roo’s credit card in her wallet and realised she’d stolen it, forcing her to return it and pretend she’d just found it. Maddy claimed she’d owned up to Roo but when Oscar realised she was lying he told Roo himself. He made peace with Maddy but rejected her when she kissed him. He attempted to matchmake between Josh and Evelyn on an art excursion. He accompanied Maddy to a movie night at the surf club but she fainted. Nate sent him away when he accompanied her to the hospital but next day she told him she was pregnant and Josh was the father. He worried about how close Josh and Evelyn were getting and, on learning Maddy was considering leaving town without telling Josh about the pregnancy, sent Josh to talk to her. Although it resulted in Maddy staying and Josh supporting her, Oscar found himself left out and warned Maddy Josh wouldn’t fall in love with her again.
John hired him to tutor Jett; Alf and Irene told him John would try and knock his fee down but when John instantly agreed to the fee he requested Oscar ended up knocking it down himself. When he learned Maddy was refusing to have an ultrasound, he worried something might be wrong with the baby and offered to go with her but Maddy admitted the ultrasound might show he was the father. Oscar told Hannah but Evelyn overheard. Maddy told him he wasn’t the father but he realised she was lying; Maddy told him it was a way out for him. He considered the offer, to Evelyn’s fury, and took advice from Zac and also Denny, who reminded him she had had to experience their father wanting nothing to do with her. He arranged to speak to Maddy but on his way to see her he ran into a confused Sophie. He called Hannah, who admitted she had made things worse for Sophie by lying, then told Josh the truth, resulting in him demanding an ultrasound. He and Josh both went to the hospital with Maddy and waited outside. Maddy told them she wasn’t pregnant and Hannah explained the test results had been wrong.
Oscar thought things were over until Spencer had a go at him for not visiting Maddy. He went to see her and she told him she had cancer, resulting in him accompanying her to an appointment. When she delayed chemotherapy, he went to the house, despite her telling him to stay away, and told her that he loved her and thought she was strong enough to fight it. He was left out in the corridor when she had an appointment but when she came to the house he agreed to stand by her. He took the news she was having her ovary frozen in his stride and bought her a teddy bear, since he had had one as his own best friend as a child. He accompanied Maddy to hospital for her chemotherapy but when he left the room momentarily he returned to find her gone, leaving a farewell note.
He then received the news that Hannah had been in a car crash but Andy sent him away when he went to see her. Spencer encouraged him to go and look for Maddy and he went to the city with her scrap book, which Spencer had helped him sneak out of her room. Acting on advice from Irene, Roo and Spencer, he found Maddy playing her violin in a rotunda. When she refused to go home, he insisted on staying with her, which meant joining her in doing a runner from a restaurant and sleeping outside. They managed to get a hotel room to stay in after Maddy stole her violin but Oscar realised he had to return home on learning Hannah was more badly injured than they thought and might never walk again. Maddy went with him.
He supported Hannah’s desire to come home from hospital but turned up late for Maddy’s first chemotherapy session, explaining the bus broke down, and worried she was only leaning on him because she was sick. He gave her a wide berth for a few days but when he went to see her to explain why she kissed him. He admitted to Zac he was worried about being hurt but seemed to accept it when Maddy told him she loved him. However, he told Zac he wasn’t sure they could move out of the friend zone. Alf suggested she needed normality so he took her for a candlelit dinner on the pier, but she had a nose bleed straight afterwards and he went back to treating her as if she was fragile. He encouraged her to start planning for the future. When she sent him away after a chemo session and then summoned him to the caravan park the following morning, he thought she was going to break up with him and prepared a break-up speech only to find out she simply wanted to surprise him with the news she was going back to school. He found himself putting his own work on hold to help her catch up, and seeing Josh and Evelyn and Andy and Hannah being affectionate around the house caused him to believe that he and Maddy didn’t have the true love that they had. He went to see Maddy and broke up with her.
When he realised Josh and Evelyn were sleeping together, he warned Josh not to hurt her. Spencer criticised him in class for breaking up with Maddy while she was ill, and Oscar was bemused when Matt stuck up for him and adopted him as his friend. He offered to let Spencer hit him, although it was VJ who took him up on the offer. He tried to help out with the organisation of the colour run Spencer was arranging to honour Maddy and other teenagers with cancer but received a hostile reception from Spencer when he turned up for a meeting. He tried to console Matt over his break-up with Sasha and took him back to the farm but things got awkward when they ran into Evelyn and Maddy. Oscar learned Maddy’s chemotherapy wasn’t working and she was reluctant to try again, so ended up blowing the surprise of the Colour Run in an attempt to convince her that people cared. This derailed attempts to get her to the event so Oscar took it upon himself to try and convince her to attend. When she turned up at the last minute, he walked the course with her.
He attended the Anzac Day trip to Canberra, where he stopped Matt walking away when he was meant to be on watch. He returned to find Maddy was considering going to stay with her parents; he joined her in meeting with her mother Tanya and convinced her to stay, reminding her family was about more than blood. He took a job working for Andy at the gym and was annoyed when Hannah came to check up on him but assured her he’d quit if his old issues resurfaced. However, the real problem was Andy; Oscar had just seen the job as a fun way to earn some extra money so when Andy went over the top and started treating him like an apprentice he quit. He sensed trouble between Andy and Hannah and pointed out to Andy that he could be full on at times. He convinced Andy to follow Hannah to Phoebe’s gig.
Matt asked him to check out if Maddy had feelings for him; after talking to her, Oscar was convinced she did and felt jealous that she was moving on. He started avoiding her after his feelings for her resurfaced but ended up agreeing to go to a party to celebrate Maddy’s chemotherapy working. He also stuck up for her when a confused Leah shouting at her in class. After chatting with Maddy at the party, he was glad to be back on friendly terms with her and told Evelyn he wasn’t going to spoil it by telling her about his feelings. They worked together to bake a cake for Josh’s 18th birthday but her comments left him thinking that she only saw him as a friend. During a study session, Matt revealed that he and Maddy liked each other. After a talk on the beach, they kissed and attended Brax’s memorial as a couple. When Matt observed that they weren’t as affectionate as Josh and Evelyn, he proceeded to get drunk at a party to try and loosen up. After embarrassing everyone, he apologised and Maddy assured him she liked him as he was. When Maddy found a condom in his wallet, he quickly sent her home and told Denny he was worried she’d think he only wanted one thing. They talked and agreed to wait for a while.
He was roped into surf carnival preparations in order to distract Denny from her break-up with Ash. At Leah and Zac’s engagement party, he and Evelyn gave them the money Leah should have paid for their first kiss as an engagement present. He attended Jett’s farewell party with the other teens. He tried to play peacemaker between Evelyn and Hannah but Hannah admitted she sometimes regretted giving up her life for them and Oscar joined Evie in moving in with Zac and Leah. He was trapped in a fire at the house along with Matt but rescued by Zac and Billie and everyone moved to the caravan park house. Oscar began taking on more tutoring to get money for the family.
He made plans to study aeronautics at college and was disappointed to learn Maddy was planning to take a gap year. He discovered Josh was taking drugs to stay awake and told Matt and Evelyn. He and Maddy took a soul mates quiz but he was upset that Matt knew more about her than him. He conspired with Maddy and Matt to try and get Josh and Evelyn back together but his suggestion to lock them in a toilet together was rejected. Instead he was tasked with the plan of keeping them both busy at a party while Matt and Maddy prepared a romantic dinner for them, but instead they both walked off after arguing. He asked Matt if he and Maddy could use his caravan and did his best to make their first time since their one night stand special; Maddy was appreciative and they slept together. However, he briefly fell out with Matt when he taunted Maddy about the incident.
He encouraged Maddy to give living with Roo and James a go. He and Evelyn took Denny out for a farewell breakfast when she was planning to go travelling and he accidentally freaked out an amnesiac Marilyn when she turned up at the house. He was the only person other than Josh to be immediately suspicious of Evelyn’s new boyfriend Tank Snelgrove, feeling he was trying too hard to make them like him. His worries increased when he learned they had had unprotected sex and he shared the news with Zac and Leah. When Maddy pointed out they had had unprotected sex when they weren’t even dating, Oscar tried to claim that was different and ended up leading Maddy to believe that he considered her easy. He asked Matt to talk to her but ended up sorting things out with her himself.
Oscar organised a surprise party for Maddy’s 18th which she was delighted with and bought her a gold bracelet, apparently unaware she didn’t like gold jewellery. He tried to bring things under control when Tank and his friends gatecrashed the party and trashed it, and ended up in a fight with Tank. He tried to warn Tank off Evelyn and was hurt when she refused to believe Tank had threatened him. When Evelyn ran away with Tank, Oscar was briefly ready to give up on her but ended up helping the other teens search and bonded with Maddy over the person they were closest to choosing their partner over them, given that she was in a similar situation with Roo and James. However, he was soon reunited with Evie after she called Josh for help. He helped keep an eye on her while Tank was wanted for attacking Josh and, when Tank tricked Evelyn into meeting him, used an app he’d had installed in her phone to help the police track her down.
He revealed to Maddy that he’d applied for a scholarship in Perth, leaving her upset that he’d just assumed she would go with him. When Maddy returned, he tried to talk to her about it but she said they’d worry about it if it happened. He asked Matt for help in making things up to her but Matt told him to sort it himself. He bought Maddy a nursing textbook to show her that he thought her career was as important as his. He thanked Matt for looking after Maddy at a hospital appointment while he was at an exam but then overheard Roo and Matt discussing the fact Matt had feelings for Maddy. He found out that Maddy knew and punched Matt when he admitted he wanted Maddy to like him back, being assigned caravan cleaning as punishment. He formed the organisation committee for the formal with Maddy, Matt and Asia Chalker, and began flirting with Asia when Maddy and Matt repeatedly sided against her. Afterwards, he apologised to Maddy and invited her to the formal with him.
They went to a schoolies party together but Maddy ignored him and spent most of the evening with Matt. Oscar ended up confiding in Asia and kissed her. He asked her to forget about it and patched things up with Maddy. However, Asia then tried to convince him they should be together. When Matt overheard them discussing the kiss, Oscar assumed he had told Maddy, giving Asia the opening to do so herself. He tried to convince Maddy they could fix things, while also confronting her about her feelings for Matt, but she coldly told him they were over and could never have worked anyway. He told Matt he’d won then went down the beach for a swim to cool off. He was swept away by a rip and washed up on a beach but found by Billie, who convinced him she wasn’t responsible for the fire as everyone believed and summoned help. Safely back home, he talked to Maddy and accepted the relationship was over even though they still loved each other.
He comforted Evelyn when they received the news of Denny’s death and acted as one of Zac’s groomsmen at his and Leah’s wedding. At the reception, he walked in on Matt and Maddy together and told them if they wanted to be a couple they should just get on with it. After the news broke that Charlotte had killed Denny, he was seen by Kyle smashing up chairs outside Angelo’s in a fury.
Seeing Maddy wandering around the caravan park in Matt’s shirt gave Oscar an uncomfortable reminder of their relationship; however, after he befriended Skye Peters, who gave him advice about letting go of anger, he wished the couple the best when Maddy moved into Matt’s caravan. When he went round to thank Skye, he found her mother Carol trying to force her to come home and helped Skye stand up to her. He attended Denny’s funeral in the city but failed to get into the course at Perth, meaning he had to attend Northern District with the rest of the teens. John asked him to talk to Skye and he offered to go with her to visit Carol in the psychiatric hospital. After the visit, he convinced Skye to stay in Summer Bay and also lectured Josh over his recent treatment of Evie. He learned from Hannah that Evelyn was having a biopsy on a lump on her breast and rushed to support her. After it came back benign, Evelyn suggested they all be tested for the BRCA gene and after a chat with Maddy about her own fears of her cancer coming back Oscar agreed. He dressed up as a hipster for orientation week after initially being ignored, resulting in his friends making fun of him, but Leah told him to be himself and he ended up getting on well with a group of girls.
He returned from a trip away with Evie to learn Zac had been charged with Charlotte’s murder. Skye invited him out for a pizza to cheer him up but he invited Matt, Maddy, Josh and Evelyn along, then spent the evening kissing one of his uni classmates, Zara Leonard. His and Evelyn’s gene test came back negative but Hannah was positive. She went into hospital for a double mastectomy and Evelyn, Oscar, Josh and Andy got the house ready for her return. He attended a uni party where he kissed one girl, Alessia De Luca, and left with another, Tanya Hardy, only to be confronted by an angry Skye who blew his chances with Tanya. Evelyn explained that Skye had a crush on him and he did his best to let her down gently. However, when Evelyn made an ill-timed comment, he was on the receiving end of a tirade from Skye, who insisted she was over him.
Not long after, Zac was released and they welcomed him home. He tipped Roo off to the fact that Maddy was receiving online abuse for defending Matt over his sex tape with Charlotte. He was oblivious to Skye pretending to date VJ until Billie filled him, prompting him to invite Billie on a night out with his uni friends. He was initially shocked when he learned Zac was helping Tank, who had helped him in prison, get parole but accepted it when Evelyn did. Josh and Evelyn told him about their engagement in advance of their party and he was happy for them. He wanted to report Tank for breaking his parole when he turned up and also warned Skye off him. He tried to get Skye to spend time with him instead but Skye quickly realised his reasons and told him she didn’t want pity.
Suspecting VJ was going to ask Billie to the hospital fundraiser, he invited her himself as a friend, reminding her of how he’d been her wingman when she’d convinced a guy she was a professional surfer, only for her to break down and tears and admit she had been raped the previous night. He took her to hospital but she refused to be examined or report it, thinking no-one would believe her, and instead went away for a while. When he and Josh saw Tank with a flyer for the fundraiser, they warned him not to attend. The fundraiser was then hit by an explosion, caused by Andy when he attacked Tank to stop him attending. Oscar was found crushed under a car by Chris and Ash, but declared dead at the scene by Tori Morgan. The next morning, Evelyn had a dream of finding him in the house as if nothing had happened before visiting his body.