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Abby (potentially) not having an RSA being the reason for her not to serve alcohol seemed really odd, surely the focus should have been a recovering addict (of any kind) serving alcohol in the still early days of recovery.

Theo leaving the Lyrik house eating a stolen tin of Tuna with a stolen fork was not on my 2025 Bingo Card.

Roo calling the veranda at Summer Bay House a balcony was odd.

Nice to see upstairs at Summer Bay House again, although I guess it’s nice just to see Summer Bay House these days.

Justin & Theo both wondering what they’ll do without the band… Maybe they should GO TO WORK!

That group negotiation story is a new one on me, but I love it. No wonder Judy, Ray & Norman seemed such firm friends - Judy was laughing all the way to the bank, well paid, getting everyone else to cover Ailsa’s Diner shifts while she had her side hustle writing books.

I’m not sure, I think the parallels worked, having Pippa & Angel going through it together. They definitely didn’t waste it, it turned out to be the making of Jack 4 years on. I think we’d also have missed out on Shannon & Pippa becoming so close too.

Ada seemed more like she was playing Katerina again than Leah today.

I see the Kirby storyline has developed into a rehash of the Stunning Organics story with the same characters.

Not if the character had still been axed.

Despite not really seeing what the Bait Shop added to the show, Alf having the Caravan Park bookings in there makes so much sense. I think he could actually do with a bit of a grocery store too, milk, bread etc… It’d be a good location for the much loved Coffee Cart actually. The curtains at The Beach House really don’t go with any of the decor. I’ve never really realised before now, but the sound effect the show still use for a fridge door opening is the sound of glass milk bottles rattling, but we tend to see cartons or plastic bottles.

They also used her relationship with Lance to connect her to Colleen. I agree, I felt the same, but they’d taken her from being ditzy and naive to being a little more Worldly wise and more ‘alternative’ with being vegetarian, into tarot etc… so because of that and that her friendship with Irene was forgotten, it wasn’t really until her relationships with John & Jett I started to like her again, but I still don’t really connect the Marilyn of today with the Marilyn of the 80s & 90s. I appreciate this is a woman who has lost a child (and apparently given another up) and gone through cancer, but if they could bring back a little bit more of the Marilyn who’d pick up a box and have the contents fall out the bottom that’d be good. Marilyn & Leah both used to speak a million words per minute, but that’s been lost too.

I wonder if they can’t, maybe there’s something in the length of life contract as it pre-dates 5Star.

I wonder if the difference is that whereas UK soaps seem to think they need a cast of 60 to deliver 4-6 episodes a week, Home and Away do it with less than half that. I’ve never understood that need aside from when Corrie had a 10-strong aging legacy cast so probably needed 30-40.

New closing credits too to go with the new title sequence. Sadly not a return to the closing theme.

Is Kirby’s medical background brand new information?

My 5Star signal is shocking recently so I keep having to switch between the app and my recording. I like that I’ll be able to watch when I like, particularly with Neighbours ending again.

Roo saying she’d had a caravan moved off the slab where the Bait Shop was going to go made me laugh, they’re all just plonked on the lawn!

I wonder if the Astonis had given him a long term lease on a peppercorn rent before they sold it.

What does the Bait Shop really add to the show? Alf has the Caravan Park to run and the Surf Club, maybe we could just see the Caravan Park or Summer Bay House a bit more and have some people stay at the park.

Ahh, ok. I guess Good was better than Wonderful, but yeah…

Didn’t the 2008 premiere go from the Fletcher house flashback to Ric’s birthday cake saying TWENTY WONDERFUL YEARS? I doubt it was referencing Ric’s traumatic childhood.

I find it really odd seeing characters like Remi at Summer Bay House, there was a time when almost everyone went there fairly frequently, but now it’s so disconcerting, almost like Remi had gone through a portal to a parallel universe.

Was the development that Alf & Michael fell out about linked to The Sands?