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For me the 2006 Season Finale was a fairly mediocre
episode until the last two minutes when it finally
sort of caught alight. In a way, it was kind of like
the previous two season finales merged together into
one. Starting off there were a few strands of
story that might have interested some people they
didn't do anything for me. The Belle/Drew/Lucas love
triangle which took up a fair few scenes in the
episode and it just interesting. Drew appears to
have the charisma of a brick and whilst Lucas may be
nice, he's not overly interesting and to be honest,
I couldn't say I cared who Belle would ultimately
end up with, which kind of means, mission failed for
that storyline.
The Summer Bay Pageant took up most of the middle
of the episode, and it was actually so bizarre it
was difficult to know what to gather from it really.
Some of the actors seemed born to comedy and other
times it was just painful. Lance, probably miscast
as a wise man, showed that he had the comedic timing
required for the play, whilst Brad's performance
felt particularly jarring. I also couldn't work out
whether Alf was acting for effect or whether he was
just grumpy at being part of the play.
Another thing is that they've got to make sure
they don't overdo the Colleen doing a play. I think
that's the fourth time they've done it since 2002
and maybe it's beginning to get ever so slightly
tired.
There was also the Cassie and Macca leaving part
of the episode, and it was in a way quite a poignant
touch to it, a sense of foreboding, that for however
much it was all smiles, when they weren't crying, at
the moment, that there would soon be tears.
The two minor cliffhangers that were left to be
revealed after the break in Australia were Kit
returning, pregnant with Kim's baby and Ashton Nader
actually having a family. Whilst an improvement on
last seasons two dozen finale, both were complete
surprises and it will be interesting to see where it
leads in the new year.
However, even if the episode itself wasn't firing
on all cylinders, the last scene really was. Firstly
Ian Meadows, playing Rocco, did a really convincing
job that he didn't actually want to do this and
portrayed a young stuck between what his conscience
is telling him to do and what his brother says he is
going to do.
Not only, however, unlike the finale three years
previously, the outcome seemed relevant to what had
gone before. This wasn't randomly sticking a
character in position solely for the purpose of a
finale, this was a character in a life or death
situation that the storylines had led them in to.
So, to finish, though the episode may not have
been the greatest, it finished with a bang and that
will be, when we look back in a few years time
primarily what we remember. 1998 is considered a
great finale, but apart from Gypsy being kidnapped
at the end, how much more do we remember of it.
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