Episodes: 4996-5215
Main characters arrivals: Marilyn Chambers, April Scott, Sid Walker, Indigo Walker, Dexter Walker, Bianca Scott, Roo Stewart
Main character departures: Geoff Campbell, Aden Jefferies, Martha Mackenzie, Hugo Austin, Tony Holden, Rachel Armstrong
The year began with Charlie being held prisoner by Hugo and Martha being held prisoner by Derrick. In a series of unlikely team-ups, Charlie and Hugo captured Suzy and Martha and Angelo captured Derrick, before Angelo finally arrested Hugo and it was revealed Hugo had been present when Derrick shot Lou De Bono the previous year. However, as he was being taken to court, Hugo was shot and killed. In fact, this was a set-up and Hugo was placed in witness protection, with only Angelo and Alf knowing he was still alive.
The uncovering of the people smuggling operation caused a certain amount of controversy, with the local newspaper publishing an inflammatory article about the hospital's resources being used to treat illegal immigrants, which included a quote from John Palmer. Ruby tried to organise a rally in support of the refugees but it resulted in a racist mob beating Leah's new boyfriend Hazem and firebombing the Diner, with Geoff being badly burned. The experience left Geoff feeling he'd lost his way and, after a chat with the new reverend Elijah Johnson, he decided to leave Summer Bay to work as a missionary before studying to become a minister.
The experience also left Leah with extreme claustrophobia and, at the reopening of the rebuilt Diner, she ended up having a panic attack and locking herself in the storeroom. Tony suggested she take self-defence classes to build her confidence, which turned out to be run by Elijah. Leah and Elijah found themselves attracted to each other but he admitted he was hiding a secret: Eighteen months previous, he had been at Vinnie's bedside when he had died from injuries sustained in a farming accident and Vinnie had told him all about the life he'd had to leave behind. Elijah took Leah and VJ on a pilgrimage to Vinnie's grave, after which he and Leah started dating.
After their kiss at the end of the previous year, Aden and Nicole settled into being a couple. Aden's life was shaken slightly when his brother Justin, who he hadn't seen in years, reappeared suffering from partial amnesia after being in a car accident. While Nicole was distracted dealing with Britt Hobart, a fashion designer who took a job at the school and stole some of her designs, Aden and Justin were horrified to learn their father had disappeared after being paroled and Justin had had his blood on him when he was found. Searching the scene of the accident, they found Larry's body and, worried it would look bad if found, buried him in secret. As a result, they were nearly charged with conspiracy to murder until a phone message a dying Larry had left Aden proved his death was an accident. Justin felt Aden was wasting his life staying in Summer Bay and persuaded Nicole to break up with him, after which Aden left town with Justin.
Marilyn Chambers returned to Summer Bay and moved into the caravan park house. Meanwhile, at the beginning of the year Miles had been woken up on the beach by a girl named Rabbit, who soon started hanging out at the caravan park. She claimed to be psychic and warned him about the fire at the Diner. Viewers soon noticed that only Miles ever seemed to talk to her and their suspicions were confirmed when Alf and Marilyn found Miles talking to himself. Miles claimed she was the ghost of his daughter Amber and most of the town feared for his sanity, although they became less sceptical when one of Rabbit's predictions helped Miles save Leah, Elijah and a group of schoolchildren from a gas leak. The next day, Rabbit said goodbye to Miles on the beach before disappearing with the spirit of her mother.
Romeo spent the first half of the year dealing with a succession of female problems. First his sister Mink turned up and it was revealed she had spent time in jail for supposedly killing his stepfather while he was beating him, when in fact she had taken the fall for their mother. She wanted Romeo to join her as her surfing manager and was annoyed when he chose to go back to school instead but a chat with Gina saw them part on good terms. Then Annie returned to town and she and Romeo rekindled their romance, only for her to decide to go back to Japan. Finally his mother Jill arrived and turned out to be an alcoholic existing on his stepfather's insurance money, who had a fling with John. Romeo tried to get her to sober up but she left town without saying goodbye, leaving only a note.Hugo returned after an absence of nearly four months, having realised there was a leak in witness protection and his former associates were after him. Soon, half of Summer Bay was involved in hiding him from both his associates and the police, who were after him for breaking his witness agreement. One of the former, a hitman known as 'Killer', kidnapped Xavier, Martha and Gina to force him out but was stopped by Tony and Hugo and arrested. He was then killed by the leak in witness protection, Detective Eaves, who headed out to Martha's farm to kill Hugo. He was captured after a brief firefight after which Angelo arrested Hugo and Martha, only to let them go a few miles down the road and encourage them to go on the run. His superiors soon realised what he'd done and, to save the rest of the station from being implicated, he confessed and was forced to resign.
Elijah proposed to Leah and they sought the approval of his adoptive parents Song and Lijuan. However, Leah was shocked to learn Elijah was still interested in doing missionary work and, when he heard of a disaster in Africa, he felt he should go there. Leah told him she couldn't cope with him constantly being absent and ended the relationship.
After their brief stay the previous year, the Walkers returned to Summer Bay, taking over Martha's farm house. Sid started dating Marilyn while Indigo started seeing Romeo. Dexter had less luck in the romantic department, having crushes on both Marilyn and Detective Graves and briefly dating Adrian, a girl who worked in a pet shop, before she decided she wasn't really into him.
Tony had sold the gym to John and gone back to teaching at Summer Bay High, although he clashed with both Rachel and Gina when he tried to start up boxing classes. Then Rachel was visited by an old friend, Daniel Lovallo, who was setting up a new clinic in Boston and wanted her to head up emergency medicine. Tony was reluctant to go and upset when Rachel accepted the job, admitting he didn't want to leave the town where Jack was buried. At the last minute, however, he changed his mind and the two of them and baby Harry left town together.
Since he was no longer working as a police officer, Angelo decided to start up an Italian restaurant at the newly refurbished surf club, which he named Angelo's. No sooner had it opened than he received a visit from his brother Paulie, who admitted he'd got involved with loan sharks and used their parents' restaurant as a guarantee and wanted Angelo to help him out. After a failed attempt to win money at the races, Angelo took Charlie's advice and let their parents know what was going on so they could bail Paulie out. Although initially annoyed, Paulie accepted Angelo had done him a favour.
After having a brief fling with Martha at the beginning of the year, Liam took a job as a guitar tutor at Summer Bay High. He ended up helping Ruby out with her singing for the school play which resulted in her developing a crush on him, which meant the end of her relationship with Xavier, who she'd reunited with after Geoff left. Despite Liam insisting nothing could happen, Ruby's behaviour got out of hand, with her turning up at his house in her underwear drunk. In the end, her drinking got so bad she ended up in a rehab clinic. Charlie decided to take over responsibility for Ruby and the two of them and Angelo moved into Tony and Rachel's old place. When Mitzy Fraser, a psychic friend of Marilyn's, told her she would find true love within two months, Ruby was soon on the lookout but the two boys she targeted, Alexander and Jackson, were only interested in a bit of fun. However, by the end of the year she seemed to have decided her true love was Romeo, even though he was still dating Indigo.
Penn Tiberius Graham booked into the caravan park and started dating Nicole. However, it soon became clear he had a dark side, as he framed Colleen for theft then persuaded the victims to drop their complaints, claimed Alf had beaten him up then changed his story and said it wasn't Alf, stirred up old troubles between Nicole and Sid by telling them both that the other had feelings for them and finally caused Nicole to prick herself with a needlestick so she thought she had HIV. It was eventually revealed he was the son of a woman Alf had an affair with shortly after his first wife and her daughter died, who died of an overdose soon after Alf broke it off. Around the same time, Will Smith returned to town with Lily and revealed Gypsy had walked out on them after he cheated on her. He had a brief fling with Shandi Ayres, who visited town claiming to be John's daughter. When Penn went missing and was later found stabbed to death on the beach, Detective Robertson and his sidekick Detective Graves were put in charge of the case. Robertson quickly named Alf and Will as his chief suspects.
More new arrivals were the Scott sisters, who soon moved in with Irene. Younger sister April was a student at Summer Bay High who soon started dating Xavier, who was just coming to terms with the fact his mother was seeing John Palmer. Older sister Bianca was a language teacher at the school and sparks soon flew between her and Liam, but just as they seemed about to get together her ex-fiancé Vittorio, an Italian prince who had cheated on her during their engagement party, arrived in town. He proposed to Bianca again and, to April's horror, she accepted. Liam disappeared for a few weeks and returned with a new girlfriend, Nina, but she quickly left town when she saw the way Liam was around Bianca and realised his heart wasn't in it.
April started a campaign to ban the sale of bottled water to get rid of waste, so people would fill up their own bottles from water fountains instead. She and Xavier roped John into putting their proposal to the council but then he suffered a heart attack. After he recovered, he proposed to Gina but she turned him down, thinking he was only proposing because he thought he was going to die, and they broke up. John pulled out of the campaign but then changed his mind and made an impassioned speech to the council. Although he only succeeded in getting more water fountains, it impressed Gina enough for her to get back with him on condition they didn't talk about marriage.
When Marilyn had returned, she had revealed that she had less than a year to live. However, it wasn't until Mitzy's visit that it was revealed that it wasn't because her cancer had returned but because Mitzy had told her the day she would die. Mitzy herself had terminal cancer but insisted on her death bed that the prediction still stood. On the day it was supposed to happen, Marilyn, who was now living with Sid and his family, dived into the sea to save a baby from drowning but, after pushing the child's pram back onto the wharf, nearly drowned herself and had to be resuscitated after being clinically dead for several minutes.
The last few weeks saw Alf's daughter Roo arrive in town, looking somewhat different to how she had twenty years previous, and reveal that she had been in touch with Martha and Hugo in the States, asking Gina, John, Xavier and Alf to help her smuggle the money from the people smuggling operation, which Hugo had left with Xavier, out to them to help them with their new life. In the season finale, Bianca abandoned her wedding with Vittorio to run off with Liam, John and Gina were married in their place, Nicole revealed she was pregnant with Penn's baby and Alf was arrested for Penn's murder, after Will had told them he'd seen him with blood on his hands that night.
