Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[Red Ranger 1]

It was pretty much impossible to be saddened by this episode since every time it almost got there, there was something that made me shake my head in disbelief or disgust.It didn't take much to make Brax forget about respecting Casey, attack an innocent bystander and storm off in a vengeful rage.At least Andy persuaded him to come back: I never thought I'd say this but he might just be a worthy successor to Heath yet.Alf and Brax's chat on the balcony felt like an attempt to answer criticisms about the Braxtons' place in the show but instead it just reinforced them, emphasising that the Braxtons live in this world of revenge killings that the rest of the town just look at in confusion.What Cheryl said to Andy was nice, although if I'd been Brax I'd have asked where he and Heath fitted into her new family.Denny just comes across as someone who thinks she was an important part of Casey's life but wasn't: Her talk of "He tried to stay out of his family's business" seems incredibly myopic given that recently he's been charging in and the rest of the family has been following.Given all the talk of how the whole town loved Casey, the funeral seemed very sparsely attended.Where were Leah, Roo, Sasha, Spencer, Zac, Nate?

And...Heath.I'm guessing that that scene was filmed before Dan Ewing left.Part of me wishes they hadn't bothered.It was nice to see him pay his respects to Casey and I'm glad that Brax told him to go back to his family rather than getting involved with the revenge hit but the fact he even wanted to be in on it in the first place...The rest of the family are already allowing themselves to sink right back down to Jake's level, I kind of wish Heath hadn't been a part of it.

Evelyn is an absolutely disgusting character.She made no attempt to even acknowledge Denny at the funeral, preferring to hang off Josh like she's staking her claim.(At least Oscar said a brief word to her.)And then, when her boyfriend says he cheated on her, her answer is to storm off to a wake and assault the girl whose boyfriend she made a move on in the first place, whilst not saying a single word to Josh who she'll probably take back in a week or two.I feel like I'm going into areas that belong to Character Discussion but I don't buy the idea that Maddy deserved to be cheated on: She wasn't a bad girlfriend to Josh, she was a better girlfriend than he deserved, constantly supporting him, defending him and putting up with his putting her down to appease Andy.People say she belittled him, I say "When?":Even at the end, he belittled her far more than the other way round, while she was thoughtless and self-absorbed at worst and half the time seemed to be blamed when he was the one in the wrong.Regarding H&Alover's other points, why wasn't Josh with Evelyn and frankly, if he'd tried the same to her she'd probably have run a mile, they don't have that same sort of connection yet where she could automatically comfort him in that manner.And yes, Alf's speech angered me: There were some valid points in there but Maddy just didn't do what Evelyn accused her of.She's the victim in all this, Josh used her and frankly he took advantage of her, yet she's the one who gets spat on time and time again.Evelyn uses Roo's illness to get closer to Josh and Hannah basically pats her on the back and says "Congratulations." Josh is revealed to have cheated on his girlfriend and Andy buys him a beer.Why wasn't Alf upstairs, having a go at him for the way he's treated Maddy?Instead, as with his treating Evelyn like a cute little cherub last episode, he seems to demonstrate a massive lack of care or loyalty to the girl that lives with him.(Incidentally, having traduced them last week, I was pleasantly surprised to look in Australian Discussion and see that while there were negative comments, more people than I expected sympathised with Maddy.)

And John and Marilyn eloping? What's all that about? Have they forgotten Jett's speech already, about how the Bay needs something to look forward to, a happy occasion to bring them all together? Sadly, it just came across as another moment of selfishness, of the kind we seem to get a lot of.And Phoebe dropping heavy hints to Kyle about Ricky's pregnancy and then saying "Well, I didn't blow that secret" wasn't as cute as she seemed to think it was.

[c120701]

I thought that too about Heath, if that's the last time we ever see him it's a scene which almost undoes how much he'd changed. It would have been nice if he'd been Brax's voice of reason and convinced him to go to the Police. I do feel he needed to be there though to show his respects as they were so close it wouldn't have sat right otherwise. I presume it was filmed at the same time as his farewell to Rocco.

[Brian]

If Evelyn is a disgusting character, so is Maddy.There's nothing to choose between them, both trying to get one up with Josh. I feel sorry for him caught between those two, especially when he is grieving over the loss of his brother. He needs to get away from both of them, but that's not going to happen in Summer Bay. Nice to see him carrying the coffin with the other brothers. Thought that there wopuld be some sort of a service at the graveside with soothing words spoken. Agree that Kyle did very well throughout.

[haaf14]

Where were Leah, Roo, Sasha, Spencer, Zac, Nate?

Out of the names you have mentioned the most notable absentee has to be Zach because of what he did for Casey when he helped in prison, I also think Zach meant a lot to Casey otherwise Zach wouldn't have found Brax when Casey was looking after Brax moved into another prison. Another person who had an impact on Casey's life was Natalie but we were definitely never going to see her there.

[Red Ranger 1]

The whole Braxton storyline continues to make me uncomfortable, so it's perhaps good that we've got Phoebe there, as her role as the voice of the ordinary person caught up in this world actually works really well for once.There is logic in the argument that it's not just a case of revenge but of kill or be killed, but the fact that the issue of why Jake doesn't stay in prison has never been explained (aside from the fact that this is Home and Away and ridiculously early releases are par for the course) means we don't quite buy the whole "The police can't stop him" philosophy.I can understand Andy going along with Brax: He obviously feels a lot of guilt over helping Jake and wants to make up for it.Kyle obviously seemed uncomfortable with the whole thing and I wish he'd turned round and said "This isn't what Casey would want and I don't want Phoebe ending up like Denny, so no."Thankfully, a close-up look at Denny brought him to his senses, and to give him his due Brax didn't try and change his mind but it's a shame he didn't receive a similar epiphany and instead he's potentially leaving Ricky a single mother again.

John and Marilyn insisting Jett wouldn't mind them getting married without him felt like they were trying to convince themselves.At least they've relented slightly and are inviting a few people close to them along, although I think a few others, like Irene, would be a bit hurt not to get an invite.Once again, I have a hard time going back to viewing Alf as a curmudgeonly grandfatherly figure when he was being a harsh guardian to Maddy last episode.

I wish I could say I enjoyed Oscar and Denny's scene together, but it's been so long that they felt like strangers, which is a massive shame given how close they were when she first turned up. Hannah's quasi-maternal behaviour towards Denny was interesting: I don't think I'm going to genuinely like Hannah any time soon but I don't really mind her at the moment.I accepted Nate's subtle questioning of Sophie about the missing pills but then when he approached her at the end and I realised he was going to accuse her outright I cringed.Is there not some CCTV footage they can look at to see if Sophie went near Denny's room?

[Brian]

Yes I'm glad that Kyle isn't going for the revenge or whatever. He's put his girlfriend before his family for the first time. Well done.

No good can come with what Brax and Andy are trying to do - it's not going to work killing and burying him. Perhaps if they found him and roughed him up a bit, no a lot while they questioned him and left him with a few broken bones, so he'll never be the same again, it might be the revenge they seek. Should make for interesting viewing. Can't see Brax and Andy working well together though.

I'm glad grandfatherly Alf gave Maddy the serve she deserved. Will we see her chastened and being nice any time this week?

The elopment is never going to work. How can Alf go if he's going to be looking after Jett? And who's going to run the cafe with Marilyn and Roo both away? And who's runung the gym with Andy away? Problems problems!!!

[haaf14]

The elopment is never going to work. How can Alf go if he's going to be looking after Jett? And who's going to run the cafe with Marilyn and Roo both away? And who's runung the gym with Andy away? Problems problems!!!

John and Marilyn decided to take Jett, Shandi. Roo and Alf along to the wedding. As for the cafe that will probably run by Chris and Irene. I don't have a clue who will be running the gym but knowing H&A they will look to keep it in house so I would imagine it would be run by a combination of Maddy and Spencer for the time being.

[H&Alover]

I thought Casey's funeral was very moving, the River Boys being there was a given, but when Brax saw the town, well most of them, turning up he looked absolutely stunned. As others have said, where was Leah and VJ, she said she was taking him into Yabby Creek, why? Zac too should definitely been there, he'd been such a good help to Casey when he was inside and although he and Brax got off on the wrong foot they sorted out their differences a long time ago. I guess some people had to stay behind to sort out the food. Poor guy who had the misfortune to have to hand over the note Jake left, made it apparent Cheryl didn't know before that who was responsible. I suppose in a weird way it did make sense for Andy to talk Brax down. Lovely eulogy, Brax kind of took it on himself to look out for Casey. As an aside did the dates on the cross, I couldn't read them very well, make Casey 20? Alf did a good job of looking after Denny.

Alf's little chat to Brax at the wake said it all, Brax and the family may life their lives outside of the norm, but they are part of the bay. Opposite of Alf told Brax a long time ago that 'their kind' wasn't wanted in 'his' town.

I'm glad Cheryl apologised to Brax for what she said and her talk with Andy about how Jonny wouldn't leave him when she told him she was pregnant with Casey because he loved him and looked upon him as a son can't have been easy for her.

Phoebe didn't blow it, all she did was to take the glass of wine off Ricky, Kyle worked it out for himself. Ricky is in a difficult position, she tells Brax which may make him more determined to finish off Jake to protect her and his unborn child or gives it up and in his words spends the rest of his life looking over his shoulder. Short though it was I'm glad we did see Heath, I thought maybe Bianca may have persuaded him to go, but he came to the decision on his own.

Maddy deserved all she got from Evie and Alf, that slap has been a long time coming whoever delivered it. It did take guts for Josh to admit to Evie what he had done, but she, and Alf, got that Josh was not thinking straight or at all, when he slept with Maddy. No she didn't force him, but it does take two to tango and she knew what she was doing. From what I remember of Maddy and Josh's relationship most of time she acted like a diva and kept promising she'd be a better girlfriend which lasted all of two weeks. When he passed his exam it was all about her failing hers! I've said before Josh would never have been 'stolen' if he had truly been happy with Maddy, which is the point he wasn't happy.

It seemed to me Kyle wasn't that keen in joining Andy and Brax in getting revenge on Jake in the first place and I could understand Phoebe's response, him seeing what Casey's death had done to Denny decided him against it. Talking of Denny, yes I know her and Casey hadn't been together long and their romance may have fizzled out, but that is something that they will never know now. They may have been together for ever, married, had kids, who knows.

I know, and no it's not a spoiler, who took Denny's sleeping pills, someone a lot closer to home than Sophie. It may have happened off screen, but we never saw her enter Denny's room so she had no chance to take them. Nate leapt to one hell of a conclusion by automatically assuming it was her, I'm not her biggest fan, but I was on her side last night. It's actually nice to see Hannah so caring about Denny as they aren't related, Hannah is a kind of step-aunt, if there is such a thing.

I can see Marilyn's argument for eloping, considering the big wedding Roo has planned when they just want a simple one. I got the same feeling Red about them convincing, or trying to, themselves Jett wouldn't mind them eloping, seems now that they are taking Jett, Roo, Shandi and Alf they'll be changing their mind about that as well. John and Marilyn really should have got their stories straight for going tot the city at short notice.

Could Spencer and Maddy run the gym, Spencer still has school, Maddy isn't qualified, there may be other staff who are, but could they run it, do the paperwork, order equipment, pay wages, do rotas etc?

[Psychic Wombat]

I think Marilyn and John will be eloping with the whole bay at this rate!

Maddy is well on the way to having zero friends, can't say I have much sympathy.

My, my, hasn't VJ grown, I hardly recognise him today lol.

[Red Ranger 1]

Phoebe didn’t just take the glass of wine away from Ricky, she nodded pointedly in her direction, wriggled her eyebrows and practically gave Kyle a comedy wink.I shouldn’t go on about this but I don’t think Maddy deserved a slap any more than Evelyn and no-one’s giving Evelyn what she deserves.They say it takes two to tango so why isn’t anyone blaming Josh?(Except for Oscar, the only person to ever say anything to either Evelyn or Josh about what they’ve done.)Maddy made a few diva-ish comments near the end but is that meant to wipe out a year of being a better girlfriend than Josh deserved?Even then, when she actually tried to help Josh, his response was to snigger about her behind her back with Evelyn.I just don’t get why she is constantly blamed for doing the sort of things others get up to on a regular basis. And you could say that if Josh was happy with Evelyn, he wouldn’t have slept with Maddy.

Matt was surprisingly obnoxious in this episode, especially with his attempt to play a childish prank on Spencer.It’s nice that Oscar’s troubles are still being referred to.But I’m thoroughly confused by Nate and Sophie.I thought he broke up with her last week but now it seems they’re still together, which makes his lack of trust all the more disturbing.I really think they need to make a clean break of things.

I’m glad John and Marilyn didn’t go through with the elopement, even though they ended up inviting half the Bay to elope with them.I’m not sure what the point of that storyline was, to let John and Marilyn have the quiet wedding they wanted in the first place before Roo took over?It’s slightly soured the wedding for me, which is a shame, and hopefully I’ll have got over it when/if the wedding actually happens.So is Chris running the gym?!

And apparently VJ has been kidnapped and replaced with a completely different boy.When I first heard he’d been recast with a guy who played a 19-year-old on Neighbours a few months back, my heart sank and then sank further when I saw clips of him.So maybe I’ve got my anger out of the way, because watching him in context he isn’t too bad and he manages to more or less convincingly act as though he’s the same age as Jett.(The line about Jett having outgrown his clothes felt like an injoke, though.)The real problem came when we saw VJ with Matt and Sasha…and he acted as though he was the same age as them too.It was just impossible in that moment to accept that he’s the same boy who was half the size of them a few months ago and I just don’t think Matt Little (who is going to get confused with Matt Page very easily) has the right mindset to convincingly play someone younger than the Year 12s and 11s who look the same age as him.