Red Ranger 1

Alf's episode count this week:Three, and he was credited on Tuesday for no appearance. Well, there were only two suspects for Tim's attack and we were pretty sure it wasn't Cash, so no surprise that Nerida's confirmed as the culprit here. What is a surprise is Tim's utter lack of self-preservation instincts: He's apparently just seen Nerida whack Cash over the head, and made a failed attempt to talk her into dropping the weapon, then just turned his back on her and conveniently crouched down to give her a clear shot at him? Some people really are too dumb to live. So Nerida has obviously learnt her lesson about running her mouth off to Abigail, leaving it as just Cash's word against hers, and we all know who Townsend's decided to believe. I was getting pretty sick of Eden playing the victim with Abigail, so at least she had the decency to put a sock in it. Abigail didn't say anything about Tim that wasn't true and wasn't deserved. And it doesn't help that it now looks as though Eden put Abigail's counselling and Tim's career at risk for the sake of a rebound relationship that she only sees to be sticking with out of guilt and obligation. I don't know how you've drawn that conclusion. Tim's been going around telling everyone, including his employers, that she's lying, notably Eden, and her rambling journal entries are pretty much public record.

He's literally been told there's another suspect. He's chosen to ignore all other suspects, and indeed not bother to do a proper investigation, and instead charge someone within 24 hours with no real evidence beyond three witnesses who didn't see anything. It's left to Rose to follow up on the information behind his back. Mali is already showing how an age gap relationship can be a problem, treating Abigail like a little sister that he wants to boss around and keep out of trouble.Maybe he'd be the same with a girlfriend his own age, but the difference in ages makes it feel like there's a power imbalance, and Abigail's left sneaking around behind his back like the wayward teen she is.Nerida has definitely gone into the highly suspicious category, even if there's no firm evidence she's responsible, telling Abigail a string of lies.Rose's hands are tied though and she's probably exceeding her authority even by authorising a wire. I kind of got Mali's point with regards Kirby, in that there's no point her asking for her job back if she doesn't actually want to do the job.Still, I'm glad Theo went to bat for her, both pleading her case to Mali and giving her a pep-talk. Some nice scenes between them again.

Exactly. They don't want to make 5Star the "flagship" transmission. That's the one on the main channel.

I'd say Townsend is definitely biased: He decided Cash was guilty pretty much the moment he saw him which means he can conveniently ignore anyone who says otherwise because, in his mind, they're either lying or wrong. The Summer Bay grapevine definitely seems to be flawed at the moment: I get that we're only a day or so on from last season's cliffhanger, but it's well into the episode before Mali and Abigail find out what's gone on.So, Abigail thinks it was Nerida as well.And it turns out that, despite the small time frame, things have definitely progressed between them since we last saw them. Again, I can see why Mali would be going for it, but I'm not really sure why Abigail is, her liking him seems to have come out of nowhere, which does leave me wondering if Mackenzie might have a bit of a point, however much she's in no position to judge given the similar list of red flags when she and Levi got together. Then again, talking of relationships that have come out of nowhere, I struggled to maintain interest in Tane and Harper's scenes, not helped by the fact they're just so boring together. Tane wants to move in with her? With Cash in a cell, that's going to leave the house rather empty. Seems it's not just Bree then, Kirby's got a confidence boost from her medical heroics. I did like her chat with Theo, but it's a bit odd that, John appearing yesterday aside, there's been a distinct lack of stalwarts so far this season, and then Alf, Leah and Marilyn all pop up for one scene!

The question seems to come up a lot, with us watching the show at three different paces at least so, hopefully for the last time, yes, Kirby has mentioned that her family wanted to be a doctor and she studied medicine before joining Lyrik. Townsend has quickly turned out to be one of those frustrating police officers who decides straightaway that they know who the culprit is and doesn’t look at anything outside their narrow view. Sure, Cash is the obvious suspect and they should be investigating him, but it’s a mistake to ignore all other possibilities, not least because you can bet that if it goes to court, his lawyer will be quick to point out that the case is based on circumstantial evidence that can be explained by things the police didn’t bother to investigate. I don’t blame Remi for going to the police, especially with Cash heading straight for Eden the moment he got out of hospital and generally acting like he’s the person she most needs protecting from. It’s a shame Eden cut him off as a result, but I think they’ve been through too much for it to be permanent. Rose is not doing anyone any favours by being so blatantly Team Cash. This was not the time to bend the rules, when she’s got a detective who already questions her loyalty breathing down her neck. So, it seems Bree rediscovering her mojo is enough to get her back at work. I still feel like she hasn’t done enough to safeguard against things getting on top of her again, but I think we’re meant to think “Storyline over.” Harper comes through the surgery then. Tane was being obnoxious still, snapping at Dana because he thinks people should be coming out of theatre to talk to him rather than focusing on Harper and the baby. To be frank, Dana loves Harper more than him, she did not deserve to be his punchbag. Anyway, she’s basically gone “Well, that’s my episodes for the week done, I’m off.”

Well, you can tell it's a new season from the new intro and outtro! I'm guessing Australia still has the same generic Channel 7 closing titles that they've had for 20 years or more, so those shots of the Bay at the end must be just for us overseas viewers! And as is often the case after a big cliffhanger, nothing's really been resolved at the end of the episode: Tim's still unconscious and Harper's still in surgery. And Cash and Tane are both starting to grate somewhat. Not much else to say about the medical drama but there continues to be a mystery over what's happened to Tim. Remi seems to think Cash is responsible and Eden seems to think it's Nerida. Going by who's a main character and who isn't, Eden's more likely to be right but Nerida would have to be a bit of a ninja to knock out both Cash and Tim. Maybe that's not what happened? Cash seemed to get a flash of seeing Tim hit the ground... Meanwhile, Victor Stone from Neighbours has turned up as a detective who isn't taking any of Cash's nonsense and is probably going to be even less inclined to indulge him than Rose is. Cash has at least managed to move on from "You need to stay away from Tim!" to saying they need to be protected but still isn't very convincing even without the concussion. Bit remiss than neither Remi (who found out from John last episode) nor Cash (who was there) mentioned the vandalism to anyone until Justin, Theo and Kirby walked in on it. Did Cash not even mention it in his rambling voicemails?

Alf's episode count this week:Three. Things go mad in finale week once again with Mackenzie, Cash, Tane, Eden, Levi and Abigail all appearing in four episodes...but bizarrely, Leah doesn't appear at all, despite a number of references to her being around. Thinking about it, the cliffhanger is better than I thought. Nerida might have been parachuted in at a late stage to provide a catalyst for it all, but this isn't really about her, it's the culmination of the self-destructive behaviour Cash has been exhibiting even since Felicity died and his irrational belief that everything he's doing is to protect Eden when in reality he's just making things worse and worse for her.Yet again he goes charging in acting like a crazy person and achieves nothing except getting Tim's back up.It was even worse timing than usual, as Tim's rather poor lack of insight finally kicks in as he realises he's the rebound guy. Kirby's insecurities are flaring up as well with her getting prickly at Justin filming her. Mali did a spectacularly bad job of communicating with Abigail, who was apparently completely unaware of the gala being cancelled and the issues with the promo posters. Fortunately, he managed to take it in his stride, with a bit of help from a reluctant John. Mali going to kiss Abigail and then laughing was very weird, and her kissing him was even weirder. We know he likes her, and she's grateful to him for giving her a chance, but there's not really been any sign that she sees him like that. Harper finally twigs that "Do nothing and hope for the best" wasn't the best plan she could have come up with and opts for the surgery. Levi really doesn't seem comfortable with it but I guess we'll see how that pans out!

It's the way the world seems to be going so I guess it was inevitable. It doesn't seem to have affected the linear broadcasts, with the 6pm 5Star showing of the day's Channel 5 episode apparently not being touched.

Certainly in the only phone call we heard, to Tim's sister, he identified himself as a police officer. Cash might be slightly more plausible if he didn't insist on boiling everything down to "You need to stay away from Tim", as if that's an automatic guarantee that Nerida won't just go after Eden anyway, rather than just a solution that suits Cash. Tim's declared that Nerida isn't violent and Eden and Rose seem happy to accept it. To be fair, assuming it was her behind the vandalism, she's only gone after property so far, although that could still lead to someone being hurt. And yeah, you'd think by now that the folks of Summer Bay would avoid going to remote spots near the end of the year. (It's not like Eden and Remi didn't make that mistake last year!) It was a nice touch to have Cash and Tane touch base on their respective crises. Harper's almost certainly right that she and Tane wouldn't be together without the baby and he doesn't love her the way she wants him to, although she may also be right that it's not affecting her judgement over the baby. But yes, there's still a risk either way. At least she's agreed to talk to Levi. It was a bit odd that Mackenzie, Levi and Abigail suddenly popped up for one scene that could have been saved for next episode (and even odder that Levi isn't credited and the other two are!).

You know, you can be too rebellious.

Frankly, I think my biggest takeaway from that was that Eden needs to get her head out of her backside. Any sympathy for the way Cash is treating her (which is pretty awful) is offset by the way she seems to be paying it forward to Abigail. Her rant at her was completely narcissistic: Abigail's realised she made the wrong call and is trying to apologise and make up for it, and Eden just keeps on trying to make out she's the superior one and Abigail should have listened to her, ignoring the fact that as soon as Eden said Nerida was lying, Abigail looked into it and realised she was right. To be honest, I'm in two minds about Abigail withdrawing her complaint: I can understand her wanting no part in Cash and Nerida's vendetta, but everything she said was valid and Tim has behaved very unprofessionally, which he's probably now going to get away with. To be blunt, both Cash and Tim deserve to be hauled over the coals now and I think Rose was a bit too kind to Cash with Tim's complaint. It feels like the main point, that Cash was identifying himself as a police officer to try and get people to give him dirt on Tim, kind of got glossed over. Even now, when Cash realises he's wrong about Nerida, he still can't let go of his agenda and is just doing the same thing for a different reason, just using it as another excuse to try and scare Eden into staying away from Tim. It's no wonder everyone's out of patience with him. Not much else going on except for Lyrik regretting buying those bigger amps still, and Alf and Marilyn popping up to make up their episode counts. I guess we're at the point where these episodes were shown mashed up together in Australia, which may explains why the cast list was a mess, with no credit for Abigail and instead credits for Kirby and Harper, who didn't appear. (Also, somewhere along the way the spelling of Nerida's surname has changed from Mullens to Mullins?)

I had to roll my eyes at Eden here, insisting that Abigail's only listening to one side of the story when she's even more guilty of that, given that she decided Nerida's lying on the basis of nothing but a few seconds of conversation and "Tim says". She's almost certainly right, but she's hardly being objective, and even she admitted that half of the complaints about Tim are right, so he's hardly as white as snow.In fact, Abigail's the one coming over best here: She may have done this for the wrong reasons, having listened to Cash and Nerida more than she should, but she hasn't done anything wrong.The penny finally seemed to drop for Cash that he's been so fixated on Tim being a wrong 'un that he's ignored any evidence that didn't fit and leaped on the one thing that did. Tane definitely put Levi on the spot there and Levi had to give him something.Mackenzie's attempt at a pep-talk didn't seem to work so it's up to him now. Roo was another one having everything click into place as she finally realised just why Alf was asking her all these questions.Some fun moments between the three of them there.

After I found Harper tolerable last week, she's back to being annoying and actually making me feel sorry for Tane with the way she dogmatically insisted what they were doing and gave him no say in it. It feels like she's burying her head in the sand and failing to grasp the fact that there's risks either way.Levi blatantly breaks patient confidentiality by ringing up Mackenzie to tell her what's going on, he's lucky no-one seemed to object. If the nephew who died that Tane mentioned was Ari and Mia's baby, didn't we already know he was born premature? I should probably have more sympathy for Kirby than I do.I get it's not much fun to have your self-esteem take a hit and I guess you can't help how you feel and even she wishes things were different, but she's bitten some poor girl's head off (I hope she got her lesson in the end!) and left Mali in the lurch. Even him cutting ties with the ad agency hasn't helped her much, she's probably wishing she'd never suggested all this publicity. Roo completes the set of annoying characters by railroading Mali and dropping John in it in the hope that he'd cover for her with Alf. Alf, meanwhile, has apparently decided to have some fun at her expense.

Alf's episode count this week:Five! Well, that turned out to not be the fun sisterly day out that Harper envisaged. We did get to see Dana's reaction when Harper finally let her in on the fact they're having a boy before that. I'm surprised Tane was so willing to step aside given how excited he'd been moments before, and I wonder how much John's comment about the way to find love stung for Harper... Levi's having to give up his fun day as well! Any Doctor Who fans watching are probably going to be amused to see the other doctor is named Dr Liz Shaw according to the credits, the name of a regular from Doctor Who's 1970 season! Elsewhere, the stalwarts (minus Roo, who seems to be on a strict two episode a week ration these days so gets packed off to see the council) are building Alf a shed in his rather large back garden. I wouldn't have said Justin was the first choice to put something like that together, John even less so (so it's probably a good thing his main contributions were to stand and watch and to look forward to the sandwich run). Of course, despite all her efforts, Leah turning up again on the basis of "I brought you a sandwich" got Alf's spider-sense twitching and he's more alert than they think...

I did smile a bit at Tane pretty much forgetting Harper was there and focusing on the baby.I might actually be softening towards them a bit, since I didn't find them too bad there, but just because they managed to have a conversation when they tried their hardest, it doesn't change the fact that they wouldn't be together without the baby. Dana seemed to be focusing on that because it saved her from catastrophising over her long distance relationship. It is a shame that Xander cancelled their first weekend together but John had a point that she needs to be able to manage for longer than that. It seems everything's forgiven with Bree then, with Roo getting a taste of her own medicine by getting railroaded by Remi here. Of course, Roo can't just be straight with Alf, she has to come up with an over-complicated plan that even left John and Justin groaning. After all that desperation to rehearse, Remi ends up sending Theo away so he can enjoy Bree's carnal delights...

Well, Theo noticed Kirby's photo had been altered instantly as well, so kudos to him. He and Eden did their best to perk Kirby up, but I guess when you're down like that, nobody can give the confidence back to you. A shame that it seems to have scuppered Remi's hard work. I must admit I rather enjoyed seeing Lyrik perform again, and I liked Rose trying to give them encouragement while doing her job. Alf's idea to set up a bait shop in the caravan park is a good one but it wasn't long before Roo was doing her usual thing of taking over. So, are Marilyn and Bree all good now or something? Last time we saw them together, they were still being stand-offish, but they were positively friendly there! Although people abuse it horribly these days and refer to "one month anniversaries", the dictionary definition of the word is "the date when a specific event occurred in a previous year". Yes, it was January 2024 Oz time.

Tim says he hasn't had a relationship with a client and Nerida says he did, and we don't really know either of them well enough to tell which (if either) of them is telling the truth. But we know he behaved badly with Abigail, so frankly it's only fair she submits a complaint, even if Cash railroaded her into it somewhat. It was a bit of a slap in the face for Cash to hear Abigail describe his motives for going after Tim so dismissively while he's trying to pretend he's being noble and good rather than arrogant and controlling. Kirby gets a slap in the face that definitely wasn't deserved but it's nice that her friends rallied round her. It's a shame it's taken the shine off something that both she and Mali were looking forward to, they may end up wishing they'd never gone to that ad agency. It was a nice touch that Eden instantly realised the photo had been altered. Remi, as he said, wasn't really paying attention, and while his problems are more minor in comparison, he was obviously about to snap. I was wondering how the heck Levi decided this was his and Mackenzie's anniversary and wondered if it was meant to be the anniversary of when they first met but nope, he thinks it's the anniversary of the fundraiser event when they had their first kiss. Er, patently not, since we're still on the same season as that: In terms of the Oz broadcast, it was only ten months earlier!

The bottle shop did cross my mind but I'd largely ruled it out, but yeah, that may be what I was thinking of when I thought Alf had run three bait shops. At this point, I'm still not sure I trust either Cash or Tim. Frankly, for all Eden's attempts to invert it, Tim might make a more convincing innocent party if he did report Cash, and it's hard to take his claims he'd never sleep with a client seriously when he's pretty much one step away from it already.On the other hand, Cash is quite clearly delusional and it does feel like he's using Abby.His shutting down Rose demonstrates that he's only interested in listening to people that agree with him.Eden rushing round to pressure Abigail was a spectacularly bad idea which always had the chance of pushing her closer to Cash. Alf's new lease of life didn't last long then.By the sound of things, the landlord's rent increase may not have been as unreasonable as they all thought. That's a pretty high-handed thing for the ad company to do with Kirby and Mali.Does it not occur to them that if the clients pick out a photo to use, that's the photo they want used?

Alf's episode count this week:Four. It's hard not to see Eden as someone caught between two pretty awful suitors, to the point I was pretty relieved that she seemed to kick them both into touch here. Cash is a complete nutcase at this point, whose grasp on reality is bordering on non-existent, but Tim comes across as fairly slimy and selfish as well. Just how long was Tim's car parked outside the Lyrik house for him to have only just noticed his glove box had been tampered with? (I should probably look at what the timescale of the last few episodes has been but it seems like an eternity ago that Tane was dragging Cash out of there.) Cash has been looking for dirt and he thinks he's found it, but he's only been hearing what he wants to for a while now and he's certainly jumping to conclusions by calling it a "pattern of behaviour". On the other hand, while Tim pleads innocence, he seemed to quickly deduce who Cash was talking about, so it seems like there's a story there. To be frank, Eden probably could have questioned him in a more diplomatic manner which didn't help. Tim's solution of going and picking a fight with Cash doesn't exactly make him seem the calm and rational type: Cash has done more than enough to get reported, so why do this? Rose really does have her hands full dealing with that kindergarten. Elsewhere, John seems to have given Alf the kick up the behind that he needed and even got a grudging thank you out of it. Marilyn did seem to be being a bit melodramatic about Alf moving. I thought someone else was going to chime in on Alf's bait shop history. My instinct is that he's had three of them: He ran one back in the 90s with Jesse, which got burnt down around 1999. This current one next to the third Diner was set up in 2008 (the year the current Diner first appeared) and he was originally meant to be running it with Ric. I feel like there was one in between but I can't remember any details so I might be imagining it...

That was a pretty swift exit from Xander, and a pretty involved one as well with the show making a point of giving him moments with Dana, Rose and Mackenzie. A reference to Jasmine would have been nice when Xander and Rose were talking about how Summer Bay has been the making of them, but you can't expect miracles, I guess. It was nice to see Dana's softer side come out again with her support of Xander and her chat with Mackenzie about Abigail, and then her and Rose keeping each other company. Well, it seems we're having a trial for Lyrik's second/third/fourth/whatever coming anyway, with Theo agreeing to sign up for a month. I guess a lot will depend on the workload and what they can do in that time. I wasn't expecting Alf and Roo to give up so easily at a few grumpy online comments.John seemed to be running around with his halo on, giving a despondent Alf an unexpected pep-talk.

Abigail wavered but didn't give in, although she probably would have done if she'd had drugs readily to hand. It was nice to see Dana showing her caring side to someone who isn't Harper, John or occasionally Xander, and making use of her own history to have some insight into Abigail's mental process. Eden, after years of cutting Levi out of her life, suddenly finds herself the outsider in the family. Remi got given the opportunity to ask some pertinent questions but isn't going to tell her what to do. Bree decides not to go back to work yet, which is probably for the best. I'm still not all that keen on her refusing to tell anyone other than Remi the truth. Roo's being rather dogmatic about Alf needing to keep the bait shop, but having been dragged back there, I guess she needs something to do.

I'm sure Abby's name will continue to be misspelt all over the internet, given that the correct spelling was confirmed last year and it wasn't enough to stop it. Well, the right choice for Theo it seems, but not really for Abigail. She did look very different from her usual casual attire dressed up for her date, shame it went to waste. Justin did seem to be pushing Theo down a certain path, even if the final choice was left up to him.Of course, the ending suggests he may have a point, since it seems Abigail isn't above temptation (and the promo suggests it goes even further). It didn't really occur to me that Kirby was breaking a confidence but she was kind of put on the spot. For all his promises to Tane and Harper, Cash is continuing being stalkery, although he seems to be just on the right side of the law this time. Or maybe not, given that phone call. But he seemed to be using his personal laptop for things that are publicly accessible rather than the police computer, which he could have probably done just as easily at the library rather than insisting on doing it in front of the police. Alf and Marilyn's scenes felt very much like them needing to fill their episode quotas somehow.

I pointed out last year that we saw Abby's name written down in a text message but ho-hum, maybe people will remember this one. So it turns out Cash didn't know about Tane and Harper, but he's too busy being a crazy jealous ex to care, because apparently Tane can move on but Eden can't. It's hard to tell whether Cash has even the slightest point here, given that Tim's not exactly a saint and it's hard to tell whether he was deliberately putting Cash's buttons or not. But he's still coming across a lot better than Cash, who really is all kinds of ridiculous. Even if the constant insistence that Tim makes Eden happy feels like a case of "Tell don't show", it's none of Cash's business and he needs to process the fact that Tane is being more level-headed than him. Remi was being more than a little presumptuous.His intentions were good (and I was amused that he had the self-awareness to exclude Tim from his "You people are the ones that make my life happy" speech), but while Eden will probably be happy to ditch Salt, both Kirby and Theo actually quite like their day jobs and the people they have them with. Bree was being a hypocrite in turning down Remi's money after sneering at him last episode for not wanting it, but I guess she backed down quickly. No Leah at the party, even though they said she was coming last episode, and Theo didn't get there until after the big announcement. Maybe he wasn't available for the exterior scenes. I can see where Justin's coming from, but Kirby is right that this is a different situation: Valerie was fully embracing the drug lifestyle and encouraging Theo to do the same, whilst Abigail's in recovery and trying to stay clean. Still, Justin's not the first person to question whether they're in the right place for a relationship, and he's the first without an agenda.

I realise I might be letting my personal feelings cloud my judgement but I have a hard time believing Harper would ever be Tane's first choice. If you look at everyone he's ever had serious feelings for, not just Felicity but Mackenzie and Ziggy too, Harper doesn't really seem like his type, he's always preferred women with a bit more life to them, and I don't think Ari dying has changed that. I'd venture to say that, if Felicity was still an option, I'm not sure he'd be with Harper even with the baby as an incentive. Alf's episode count this week:Three. Well, Rose and Remi both did their best to pull Cash into line but stalkerish is definitely the word. His insistence that he's protecting Eden seems completely delusional, and I'm glad Remi well and truly called him out for messing her about and still acting like he has a say in how she lives her life. He's actually managing to make Tim look like the better option and it's not like Tim or Eden have done anything to be proud of, for all the show trying to build them up. I actually had quite a bit of empathy for Remi here.I'm very aware that I'm comfortably well off (if nothing like a millionaire!) for reasons that have nothing to do with me and everything to do with the family I was born into. I felt that Bree's "poor little rich kid" jibe was a reminder that, mental health issues or not, she's not actually a very nice person, so I don't know why Remi ended up apologising to her. So, Alf may be losing the bait shop for all his bluster. Kirby's found herself in the awkward position of being a kind of mutual agony aunt to Abigail's two suitors.It was typically tone deaf of Mali to insist you can't just switch off your feelings to the woman he apparently did just that with!

I'm guessing they're having Cash go off the deep end again in order to make Eden look sympathetic, because while Cash doesn't have any reason for playing the victim, Abigail most certainly does. Eden and Tim definitely deserved both those serves she gave them, and Eden's "No conflict of interests now, right?" attitude was rather self-serving. I can understand them wanting to make sure she was okay, but on balance, rocking up at Abigail's place wasn't a bright idea.Meanwhile, Mali finds himself caught in a lie. I can understand him not wanting to tell Theo the real reason he lied, but it feels like he doubled down on it by trying to manipulate Theo into staying away from Abigail instead of backing off and accepting it's her decision who she wants to spend time with.It fell flat anyway, because she went straight to Theo after her latest run-in. Rose was debating whether she could discipline Cash not so long ago and now she gets to find out.Pulling Tim over for a driving offence is petty but not crossing the line.(Incidentally, Abby tells Eden that it was Cash who told her about her and Tim, when in fact it was Kirby that decided to open her mouth in public and blow the whole thing wide open.But I guess Eden needed to find out Cash knew somehow!) Now, however, Cash is hurtling over the line, still acting as though breaking up with Eden was somehow him doing something noble and self-sacrificing, and ignoring the fact that he's the one that wrecked Eden's life and snatched her future away from her for spurious reasons. I'm not too impressed with Tim either, but there's no doubt that Cash has treated Eden worse than he has.