Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[Red Ranger 1]

I'm finding it hard to sympathise with Bianca again, it seems like she's burying her head in the sand and expecting Heath to make all the sacrifices:She says she tried but she didn't really.At least she did seem to respond to Irene.Watching the 7Two episodes adds a different dimension to Irene telling Heath about the difficulty of giving up a child, since while they ended up on friendly terms she never quite managed to rebuild her relationship with her own children.

So now Hannah's in on the secrecy surrounding the accident and, worryingly, she seems to be taking the exact same tack with Zac as Evelyn is with Oscar.Possibly more so:I think we're meant to assume that she and Andy are behind the car going missing.Well, we don't need to assume, the promo gave it away.So that's another professional woman who starts sleeping with a criminal and ends up turning into one.We did get to see Josh's answer to Andy, shame he didn't actually leave.Nice to see a use of the friendship between Spencer and Maddy, and Spencer getting his spider-sense tingling about Evelyn.It does feel like Spencer's been shunted off to the sidelines since the end of his relationship with Sasha, which I never thought was the right decision for his character anyway, so good to see him getting something to do.

[Psychic Wombat]

Yes, princess Bianca has got her own way and banished Heaths ill gotten child to Melbourne! Poor kid should be with Heath, there's no excuse for him not to be really.

I've been watching John and Marilyn's storyline over the last week or so, now I'm willing to believe that they are an item, unlikely but I'll go with it. But has anyone ever seen them kiss?... I mean real kiss not a peck on the forehead. I'm beginning to think that one of them has it written in their contract that it should never happen. The result is they look more like uncle and niece and Marilyn comes across not just ditzy but at times emotionally immature. Is this supposed to be her charm?

Otherwise enjoying the story-lines at the moment, good to get away from all River Boy stuff.

[H&Alover]

Hannah turning into Evie with knobs on!!!! I would have thought she'd be much more sensible than a 16 year old girl. Zac said it all what is he supposed to do wait until the cops knock on his door, which they actually did!! Both Hannah and Evie used the same (lame) excuse, you only think you hit something, well isn't it better to make a twit of yourself to the cops rather then leave it? What on earth was she thinking using Andy by getting him to steal Zac's car, it's just made things a whole lot worse for Zac, he'll have a real hard time convincing Emmerson and co he didn't arrange for it to be stolen. Plus we also saw Tam having a flashback so knows it was Zac's car. Come on Oscar stop dithering the longer you leave it the worse it will be for you.

The way Andy is talking you'd be lead to believe Mangrove River was the other side of the world not just a couple of towns away.

Felt so sorry for Heath when he had his melt down over taking Harley back. I think Bianca has convinced herself Heath is OK with it just because he's told her he is. Irene gave it a try with both of them and I was thinking about how she got estranged from her three, though they were a lot older than Harley plus she didn't give them up they gave her up.

Nice that Maddy was able to pick up on Spencer's longing after Evie, though why he's bothering at the moment I really don't know. She nearly weakened when he spoke to her at school then cut him dead again.

Small but important point Oscar actually had the top button of his shirt undone and his tie loose!!!!!

Good point Psychic, I'll have to watch Marilyn and John next time they are together.

[Red Ranger 1]

I think we have seen John and Marilyn kiss:Nothing particularly hot and heavy but definitely lingering and on the lips in a way that you probably wouldn't kiss your uncle.

Maddy's unknowing Shakespearean parallel actually worked quite well, with the added bonus of Evelyn and Hannah being Lady Macbeth, as both Oscar and Zac lose their temper with them.Hannah's actions are potentially going to cause trouble if it looks like Zac tried to cover it up.Shame she talked Andy into staying too.The interaction between Tamara and Zac was great, with her sudden wariness of him after her flashback and then that scene on the park bench with them both piecing together what they remember.So it really is crunch time now:If Zac's going to take the blame, Oscar needs to step forward before any more innocent bystanders get hurt.

I'm not sure we needed a lengthy sequence of Casey and Linda's romance in the recap for the sake of a brief moment where he gets his hat in the post.His dismissive attitude towards Josh annoyed me again and I was worried when Ricky took Josh away, since I thought she might peddle the Braxtons' side of things and try and convince him to stay away again.But as it turned out, she handled the situation well and gave Josh good advice, and it looks like they're taking baby steps.Josh's nonsensical query about what to call Casey actually helped hammer home the awkwardness of him not knowing what to say.It's a shame that, with Heath out of town, he's still not involved in this storyline:It sounds like he and Casey haven't even met since it came out.Still, the promise of an appearance by Cheryl could definitely move things forward.

[Brian]

Why does it matter if Heath knows or not about Casey/Josh ? He probably wouldn't help much and make some stupid comments that might make things worse. Nice to see the two new brothers trying to come to terms with each other, softly, softly, that's the way. I hope Andy doesn't stay, but, if he does, it will give Josh somewhere to continue staying. Where else would he go? Alf wouldn't want him in Maddy's room fulltime!! I wonder if Andy has got much of that 5000 left - must run out sometime and then will he ask Casey for his job back AGAIN!

[Red Ranger 1]

Why does it matter if Heath knows or not about Casey/Josh ? He probably wouldn't help much and make some stupid comments that might make things worse.

Because he's Casey's brother, they've built up a close relationship over the years, he was supporting both Casey and Josh while Brax was in prison, and they all live in the same household and are meant to be a family so realistically he'd be involved.It's this kind of fracturing of the cast, with Heath only having scenes with Bianca, Kyle mostly stuck chatting with Phoebe after the first couple of episodes and only Brax and Ricky actually appearing in the same episodes as Casey, where the show often falls down since it means the viewer misses out on important conversations.

[Slade]

It was worth watching that episode just to see Cheryl's face when Brax told her that Casey knew Johnny Barret was his dad. It was priceless. How many different expressions did she pull within a minute. And she had the nerve to blame Brax for doing the right thing, although I could understand why she didn't tell Casey. I did actually really like the scene with her and Casey towards the end though. That showed a different side to her and an expression I don't recall ever seeing.

The idiotic behaviour with Chris re Denny continues. Pulling a sickie at work just because he didn't have the bottle to face her. Why can't he just grow some backbone and be upfront with her. I see they've introduced Casey into the equation just to complicate things a tad. If anything does happen with Denny and Casey, Chris will only have himself to blame.

Quite liked the interaction with Denny and the little punk and I supposed it was a good way to get Casey involved.

[H&Alover]

I liked that Macbeth allegory and the shots of Oscar and Zac faces knowing exactly what she was talking about., clever that H&A writers. So glad Oscar turned on Evelyn now all he needs to do is follow it up. Hannah has made things so much worse for Zac, the police, although it's only a small town station they must have resources to hand, will find out the headlight has been replaced. Zac is going to be the main name in the frame and Andy is bound to piece things together once the news gets out. Will Emmerson believe Oscar if/when he confesses or will they think he is trying to cover up for Zac?

I thought Tam dealt with her discovery wonderfully she could have had a melt down in front of everyone and accused him right there and then. Zac only thinks he remembers though and is going to be pretty vague about events once the cops start questioning him.

I'm relieved Casey finally got talking to Josh, he's not to blame for any of it. I liked the answer gave Josh when he asked 'so what di I call you' and Casey said 'how about Casey' with a smile, it's a beginning as long as Josh doesn't push it too much. Both Ricky and Brax played it just right with their respective advice. Good that Casey decided to give Cheryl another chance to explain and good job she took Ricky's advice to tell him how it really was and why she was had the affair with Johnny. Why didn't Brax tell her Andy knew about the whole thing and decided to tell CCasey before he did? Bit of a shocker to find out Brax was a mistake and Danny 'deciding' he wanted another child - Heath. Her confession Johnny was the only man she ever loved was sad. So does Linda returning Casey's hat mean we won't be seeing her in the bay?

Heath has been tied up with his own problems at the moment but it will be nice to see how he reacts to Casey when they finally manage to get to talk, he'll, I think, will feel the same as Brax, Casey is still their brother. He has come a long way from the hothead we first knew and can now have a sensible discussion about it.

Chris' behaviour did bring a bit of light relief and his being 'sick' didn't fool Irene, shame her sending Denny round didn't work out as she thought it might.

He (Chris) is not liking the friendship and that's all it is, between Denny and Casey, hopefully this will make him decide to admit his true feelings. I still think it's because of what happened between him and Indi, he fell for her big time and she left.

Nice little friendship between Jett and Denny too, I'm glad Casey apologised to Jett about his behaviour to him.

[Red Ranger 1]

If it was as hot as was claimed, why was Chris still wearing his tiger outfit which looks like a cause of heatstroke if ever I saw one?I'm surprised Irene didn't cite that as the reason for his temperature. While it was nice that Irene saw through the charade, what did she think was going to happen when Denny went round there?The most likely outcome was what happened:She finds out he's faking and gets angry.Spencer again worked well as a sounding board for Chris.In a sense, Chris only has himself to blame:If he'd talked to Denny instead of trying to make the grand gesture, Casey wouldn't have cut in.At least he talked to her in the end, and her seeing him with Phoebe doesn't seem to have had any lasting consequences, but he didn't really say anything:He needs to make his feelings clear. Denny doesn't seem able to just go back but I hope she gives him a chance.I'm not too keen about her hanging out with Casey even if it does seem purely platonic, I really don't think he's in the right head space for a relationship right now and she could potentially get more hurt by him than by Chris, who does seem the better option.That said, I can't really fault Casey here, he handled the situation well, the only thing that made me uncomfortable is him telling Denny that Chris was talking about their relationship in the past tense:I didn't recheck the conversation to make sure how accurate it was but it seemed against the spirit if not the letter of what Chris was saying.I'm not sure if the fact Denny's been around about three months (and the May gap makes it seem longer)and still doesn't know people like Casey, Kyle and Tamara is realistic, given you don't know all your neighbours and she's spent a fair amount of time stuck out on the farm, or a sad sign that the idea of Summer Bay as a small community where everyone knows each other has long gone.(As an aside, Denny was actually in the same room as Tamara when Chris organised that meeting to find a donor for Leah, although she was just a face in the crowd so she's no reason to remember her.)Either way, it just makes Denny and Casey hanging out seem even more out of nowhere.

Talking of out of nowhere...I'm finding it hard to believe in Johnny Barrett being the great love of Cheryl's life, it just seems too much of a departure from how he was portrayed last year.If she hadn't said the same thing to Brax, I'd suggest she was just peddling a line to Casey to stop him feeling bad.It's also still not clear whether it was just a brief but meaningful fling or whether they're meant to have carried on seeing each other up to the point when he died/disappeared.

So, we finally get the answer for where Phoebe's getting her money from:Her dad.I'm not sure if she made much of a point with her one-woman show:Sure, it's a profitable one-off but unless she's going to pitch up in front of the surf club every afternoon it's not enough to support herself long-term.While the guy that harassed her probably deserved that punch, I think Kyle jumped in a bit too quickly and should have hung back and see how Phoebe handled it.Good to see a chat between Casey and Kyle, I wondered if the show was going to have them in the same episode and keep them apart for a bit.Incidentally, it's somewhat annoying that the dreaded episode counts mean we've had no follow-up to Zac's confession aside from a couple of mentions from Denny.

[H&Alover]

Is it a tiger onsie or a giraffe? I think he explained his wearing it by saying he'd been shivering.

Why didn't Chris believe either Denny or Casey when they told him they were just friends, the more people don't believe it the more likely they will start a relationship! Is it because Denny told Chris they were through the reason Casey told Denny Chris said their relationship was not is. Good that Casey left Denny and Chris to it at Angelo's. Apart from the time Denny has spent out at the farm she has disappeared off to the city twice so would have been out of loop a bit. She certainly wouldn't have known Tam was Casey's ex girlfriend.

When Brax first tackled Cheryl about her and Johnny she did say he wasn't always the scumbag he become. Seeing what Danny was like anyone would have been an improvement.

Who would have thought Phoebe was a rich kid, being bankrolled by daddy, how old is she for goodness sake!!! Such a different lifestyle to Kyle who seems to have always worked to support himself. I suppose performing is all she knows and roping in Chris and Nate to be a part of her audience isn't an unknown ploy. I'm more than sure she could have handled that guy who pinched her bum, probably would have punched him herself. Dad did across as the protective type, going by the trailer, ringing a mysterious someone to check up on Kyle. Is it coincidence that Kyle, Brax, Heath and Casey's surnames all start with B - Bennett, Braxton and Barrett - sounds like a firm of solicitors!!!!