Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[haaf14]

And since when did Casey drive a sports car, anyway?(It might have been a company car but it was hard to tell.)

Red that is Brax's car.

What "company" would Casey have a car from, Red?

:

The gym Brian. Red was thinking that the gym bought a car for work purposes and Casey had it but that is Brax's car.

[H&Alover]

Not sure why being around Denny turned Casey into a tongue tied, clumsy 14/15 year old. It was funny though. So if Casey was driving Brax's car, where's he disappeared to seeing as he was so territorial about it earlier in the week? Chris did act very adult about seeing Denny and Casey together, though it must have hurt.

Well we nearly had all the MacGuire family all together, not counting Zac's bail from the event and dragging Oscar off with him, just Evelyn missing. I loved the exchange between Oscar and Zac about who was the adult and Oscar's return about Zac not being able to be in the same place as Hannah's boyfriend. Tad awkward Zac going back just in time for Andy to wander out in his undies!

Maybe Irene did overreact about Matt and Sash, but Sash didn't do herself any favours by getting on her high horse and quitting, thought she knew Irene better than to give her an ultimatum. Talking of Matt very considerate of Kyle to offer him a shift when he can't really afford it to help Matt save face with Sasha.

I really believe Phoebe didn't mean to tell Darcy that Heath was looking into getting custody (was she in on the fact it was supposed to be a secret) they actually seemed to be getting on having found they had something in common, she did apologise to Heath. Apart from the fact Darcy now has to keep it a secret from Connie she is older and can understand why Heath doesn't to make a big deal of it.

Not looking good for Roo and the scene with Alf was so moving. Very like him not to want to seen to be 'weak' by others. From what John said he and Jett have moved back in to keep Marilyn and Maddy company.

[Brian]

Unusual not to see Josh kissing Maddy after they had that heart to heart talk. Was he thinking about someone else, I wonder?

[Red Ranger 1]

I liked that we got the Josh and Maddy stuff, showing that they actually do make a good couple and have decent chemistry when Evelyn's not being forced into the mix.The stuff with Roo seems to have accelerated all of a sudden after plodding along for most of last week.Nate seems to be taking it oddly personally, not sure if he still feels bad about missing the page.Nice continuity with the reference to Maddy having meningitis.Alf was again a bit snappy but I can see he's scared.

I'm actually finding myself not liking Irene much at the moment, Sasha offered her an olive branch, for the second time, and she threw it back in her face.I'm hoping that something happened while she was away to make her like this because what we've seen is pretty hard to justify.Mind you, I'm not liking Sasha much either, the way she was bullying Matt into talking to the Braxtons felt a bit materialistic.She should really look into finding a job somewhere else rather than waiting for Irene to come round.Oh, and it seems Brax doesn't know Matt either, even though Heath and Casey seemed to.

Well, if we're meant to see Casey as Denny's Prince Charming, it probably wasn't a smart idea to have him treat her worse than Chris ever did when they've only been together a day.I can understand Casey not giving in to Brax's interrogation, which does seem to be Brax interfering in other people's lives rather than facing up to the mess of his own, but he shouldn't have fobbed Denny off (three times!) instead of being honest with her and he definitely shouldn't have treated her like nothing in front of Brax(who was the one encouraging Casey to make a move on her in the first place, so it's not like he isn't aware of the situation).The only explanations I can think of are that Casey is ashamed of Denny (unlikely but it looks that way to her) or he's ashamed of his family and thinks she'll be put off if she meets them or he's so determined not to back down with Brax that he'd rather treat Denny badly, none of which show him in a particularly favourable light.Plus side: Denny's first proper bikini scene, I believe, although we have seen her in a top in the past.

[Slade]

Well, if we're meant to see Casey as Denny's Prince Charming, it probably wasn't a smart idea to have him treat her worse than Chris ever did when they've only been together a day.

Not sure sleeping with someone then deliberately avoiding them is treating them any better TBH.

Thought Irene was out of order to Sasha. OK so she's annoyed at her and Matt but she's already made that clear and should just let it go. Seemed to go way beyond that though. Almost as though she's had enough. Maybe she feels she's getting to old for this. Found I didn't really have much sympathy for Sasha anyway. Ever since the newspaper article I've found I don't like her as much and have liked her even less now she's with Matt.

I wonder if Brax is walking around with a lot of self-contained anger. For him I thought he did very well dealing with Phoebe, especially how she was around his house, the garage sale, standing up to him etc. Then there was Josh and Evelyn last week when they were resting on his car. And with Matt yesterday Brax only threatened to sack him. Admittedly those are all kids but I wonder if the wrong person pushes his buttons whether he will end up smacking them.

[H&Alover]

Casey and Denny haven't slept together yet if that is whom you are referring to Slade, Casey wants to take it slowly. His behaviour is very odd though, definitely don't think he's ashamed of Denny and after all this time, he's ashamed of his family? She may have not been in the bay long but she must have heard about the Braxtons (Chris would have mentioned them at some time). Why can't he just come out and say he doesn't want her to get involved with all the hassles that go with knowing them, look what happened with Tamara, she got kidnapped and suffered amnesia. Seems he is trying to do a Phoebe and just wants it to be them apart from the family.

Brax taking his grump with Ricky out on Casey and Matt who asked a perfectly innocent question (or tried to) about his pay and shifts, in the absence of Kyle, is going to end in an explosion of some kind. Brax is the boss, although he mostly leaves the day to day running of Angelo's to Kyle, he ought to know who is working for him.

Maddy has made another promise to stop it being all about her, though under the current circumstances I'll forgive her. Like Alf she is blaming herself for not going home earlier, but how many other times have people been left home alone and nothing has happened to them. I guess Nate does still blame himself for missing the call, but as I said before there was seriously no other doctor who could have treated her?

Even given Irene is worried about Roo which partly explains her attitude towards Sasha she caught Sasha and Matt before she found out about her. Normally she might grudgingly accept someone's apology and take them back but she's just cutting her nose off to spite her face with Sasha. So far nothing has been mentioned about her cruise, though of course the worry over Roo has been top priority, maybe as Red suggested something happened while she was away. What's happened to Sasha's newspaper job?

So now we have a diagnosis for Roo though they are not certain which type of meningitis which if the more serious could leave Roo brain damaged. I suppose it's something most relatives do ask, but until the patient comes round there is no way the doctors can know how the patient is going to be affected. I have read something which may explain it all but will keep it zipped. Has Nate asked Alf where Roo had been lately?

Oscar's start to his community service doesn't seem to get off to a good start and tellingly he turns to Andy when he gets a bloodied nose.

[Red Ranger 1]

So, it seems it's basically Option 2:Casey's ashamed of his family and worried what'll happen to Denny if she gets mixed up with them.Well, maybe he should have thought of that before he broke up her relationship?Denny really should have walked away, even if Casey did give her a half-baked explanation, but unfortunately she's got Evelyn vicariously living through her and basically saying "Who cares if he's treating you like a dirty little secret, the important thing is having a boyfriend."So she basically goes and does a strip tease for him.Are we meant to assume that after all that talk about waiting they went and had sex in his office, because otherwise I don't want to know what they got up to in there?It seems like this relationship is only working, if you can call it that, because they're hiding away in a bubble and sooner or later the real world's going to intrude.

Still, with Hannah as an example it's no wonder Denny's handling it the way she is.We finally get all the MacGuires in a scene and it involves Hannah cavorting half-naked with her boyfriend while her niece and nephew are trying to eat breakfast.The concept of self-respect is alien around here, isn't it?The community service storyline was just appalling.Maybe I'm being naïve here but I have a hard time believing community service is anything like that.It felt like someone dredged up every prison bully cliché in the book and applied them to a bunch of guys gardening.For a start, why are a bunch of hard-core thugs doing community service?Do their daddies play golf with judges or are they just there for parking fines and it's all an act?Why was the supervision bordering on non-existent?And most frustrating of all, it seems like the episode is trying to convince us that Andy was right with his "Hit them before they hit you" attitude, instead of Zac being mature and sensible and telling him to just keep his head down and get on with:Sure, Oscar's "quiet kid who doesn't say anything" performance didn't help him but it annoyed me that Casey seemed so quick to agree with Andy.We are seeing the cracks in this arrangement:Zac and Hannah dating other people and giving the twins a multitude of adult figures was never going to work.Oscar running straight to Andy (which, incredibly, we saw in the promo even though it's the very last shot) annoyed me greatly as well.Are we really meant to see that obnoxious jerk as a cool big brother figure, and nice guy Zac as out of touch and useless?Because I've got a huge problem with Andy being portrayed as a better role model than Zac.

So, Kyle gave Brax a bit of food for thought but the flat hunting seems to be floundering.Not sure how Brax expected to help Kyle out (anyone who'd turn Kyle away because of his record is unlikely to be won over by Brax vouching for him) and Phoebe telling him to lie is probably going to backfire.Normally I'd say Kyle going to Alf would be a good idea but he's got other things on his mind at the moment.Failing that, what about Leah or Zac, who both lived with him for a bit?

[Brian]

The community service setup looked alright to me. Of course there will be undesiribles there who won't do much unless they are forced to and the supervisor didn't seem to care. Oscar was bound to be picked on and i don't blame him going to Andy for help, even though i didn't want him to.. He got a much more understanding reaction than he would have done from Zak. Oscar was dead right at the end to tell Zak to get his life sorted. I feel sorry for Oscar and Evie having a guardian like that!

What a great gal Phoebe is. Always smiling and positive despite all that the Braxtons throw at her. What a lucky fellar Kyle is (does he realise it?) and why doesn't he just put her first every time? His brothers will always be there.

[c120701]

I know it's been around a while now, but I really love the clappy recap tune.

[Red Ranger 1]

Well, if we're meant to see Casey as Denny's Prince Charming, it probably wasn't a smart idea to have him treat her worse than Chris ever did when they've only been together a day.

Not sure sleeping with someone then deliberately avoiding them is treating them any better TBH.

At least Chris took her on a few dates and cooked her a free meal first.Casey took a free feed and copped a few free feels, then acted like he didn't know her.

Has Nate asked Alf where Roo had been lately?

I know they seem to be acting as though half the town don't know each other these days but I'd hope Nate would know anyway.

So, today's ep.You know, at first I thought we might get an improvement on the MacGuire dynamic, with the revelation that Oscar only went to Andy because he didn't want to worry Zac and Hannah, and Andy actually showing a bit of respect for his guardians.But no, we're soon back to the show sending out the message that if you walk away from a fight you'll just get beaten up and we should all act like Andy and throw the first punch.Which is a horrible message to give not only to Oscar but to any teens who might be convinced by the implication that Andy's a good role model.And then we have to sit through Zac, the nicest person in the storyline, being the target for Andy's odious bile, having Oscar throw a brattish tantrum and having Hannah sneer at him.I don't blame Zac for wanting to get away from them, I just wish Hannah was leaving because she's an utterly appalling guardian, the only time she gets involved in the kids' lives is when she wants to belittle Zac.I accept Zac stepped over the line by talking about protecting his family from Andy, but the whole thing was completely provoked by Andy looking for any excuse to have a go.And then Andy does a reverse of Hannah last week and treats her coming round for a chat like a booty call.Was he serious about them having a proper relationship?Because he acts like he's only interested in her as a sex toy.And then we get that package under Andy's van.No idea what it is or if he knows it's there, although that phone call suggests he's mixed up in something.It did cross my mind that it was a bomb, in which case can it go off now and get rid of two annoying characters?

Talking of annoying characters, without Casey, Denny and Evelyn to dilute it, Phoebe grates even more.Did she really think lying about Kyle's record would help?(Kyle says it made no difference but who knows, if they'd been upfront...)And then she has the audacity to blame it on his family, likes hers is any better, although to be fair she did apologise.Is she working at Angelo's permanently now?I guess she needs to get money from somewhere now she's cancelled her account at Bank of Dad, but are we just meant to forget how rubbish she was when she first worked there, even before she started messing up deliberately?

And we get another excuse/reason for Brax not wanting kids.Well, okay, he flips between being fed up of having to solve everyone's problems and being fed up that they're not letting him solve their problems, so I'll buy that this week he thinks he's done enough of looking after people and wants some time to himself.(Mind you, Heath still being alive is in spite of him as much as because of him.)Ricky seemed to accept his decision but I'm guessing that shot at the end was meant to indicate she has mixed feelings...