Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[haaf14]

This storyline between Nate and Sophie is getting ridiculous now. This whole situation keeps going round in circles. Sophie keeps seeing Nate with different women is becoming a joke because how many times should she Nate with someone else just at the right. Next we will see Nate sneezing and Sophie will appear with a bag of tissues in tow.

I find it quite amusing actually. The slightly barmey, possessive wife always seems to turn up at the right time. Although the last couple of episodes with Sophie and Nate have only served to prove that she has a point as far as I'm concerned. I do quite like the way Sophie intimidates Hannah and also how she indirectly warned Hannah to stay away from her man. However she can tell Hannah to back off all she wants, if there's a genuine attraction between Nate and Hannah, really nothing Sophie can do about it. And judging by the way Nate kind of rolled his eyes after he told Sophie he wanted to buy the house and the fact that he isn't communicating how he feels with her again, it's only going to be a matter of time before something happens with Hannah. Nate really should do the decent thing and tell Sophie it's over and there's no going back.

I wouldn't be surprised if Sophie had a violent streak. If things don't go her way she easily gets angry and can't stand Nate with any other women no matter if they are friends. For me it would have been better if the reason for Nate leaving Sophie was because she was abusing him. It would make more sense due to her control but they went with her addiction.

My prediction was correct, it took a week but Matt moved back to Leah's.

[Psychic Wombat]

haaf14, remember a week's a long time in soap land :-)

I think I'd put Sophie down more as an overdose girl than a bunny boiler to get Nates undivided attention. I guess she's very insecure after Nates past affair (which seemed a bit made up on the spot). She's smart and attractive so I don't see why should feel that way, although I was surprised they were daunted by the prospect of taking on a mortgage, so perhaps they both have commitment issues.

Did someone mention a wedding going off in Summer Bay? lol.

[H&Alover]

Forget to mention Nate and Soph. Been said before even if he had cheated once before, if she keeps being suspicious about him being close to any/every woman he speaks to, when it is innocent, eventually he (and anyone) will think I might as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb. Soph does in a weird way have a point you never see Nate chatting to a bloke, unless he's a patient, it is only women!

Is there a wedding going on then!

[Red Ranger 1]

I was dreading that episode when I saw the promos and even more so when I saw the recap:Six clips of Brax and one of John and Marilyn shows what the makers considered to be the most important storyline.But actually, for the most part it didn't jar as much as I expected it to.While the cutting away to the other storyline in the middle of the wedding didn't really work, the wedding was sweet, I'm glad Nina made it even if she didn't do much and the candle lighting was a subtle moment, with interesting reactions from the characters (I like to think Maddy was thinking about Casey and Leah was thinking about Vinnie).Chris' MC performance left a lot to be desired but John and Marilyn seemed to like the music (although that might have been because Shandi couldn't slow dance to it) and I'm glad Chris and Shandi got their dance.Roo still isn't handling Maddy right in my opinion:If she'd let her have that glass, she might have left it at that but instead Roo kicked off her rebellious streak and hurling insults at her isn't going to help matters.(How old is Maddy anyway? She must be nearly 18 by now if she's not there.)Plus side, Oscar seems to be back to being a good moderating influence and keeping Maddy out of trouble.Actually, I'm just as worried about Spencer now: He cut a lonely figure when all the couples got up to dance and it actually looked like he was deliberately burning himself on that candle.

Brax being let out of lock-up without charge is ridiculous.I'm not sure if Emerson was being kind or incompetent.There were multiple witnesses to him trying to kill Jake, including police officers, and I think he was still making threats while under caution, so that's even more evidence against him.But I was impressed with Kyle and Ricky, who are determined to save Brax from himself and stop him ruining his life by becoming a murderer.

And then we got that last scene, which was horrible, horrible, horrible.First we have the most ridiculous Distract the Guard plan in history.Just what orders did Emerson give that officer?"Stay there and don't let any of the many people who want to kill that man in, unless you get a call which just screams 'Diversion', in which case you should just abandon your post"?Only having one officer there was ridiculous in the first place.And then Andy murders a man in cold blood as he lies helpless.And I've no idea what we're meant to feel about that.Are we meant to cheer?Are we meant to be worried Andy will get into trouble?Are we meant to find it uncomfortable viewing?Because my main thought is that Andy is now irredeemable scum.I think we're meant to believe he did it to stop Brax doing it, to stop him throwing his life away.But if so, I don't think he needed to, I think Ricky had done it, she showed Brax that there was something more important than a revenge no-one wanted, something to live for.So basically Andy just murdered Jake for nothing. And I can't help thinking back to when Sam Holden murdered Johnny Cooper in similar circumstances, when even though a lot of people were better off without him (moreso than with Jake: Johnny targeted genuine innocents, Jake only ever went after people on the same side of the law as him), we knew that she'd have to be punished (and rather harshly as it turned out).Andy's hardly an innocent even without this and there should be consequences.But I don't know if there will be, this show's long past the point when wrongdoing was punished.And if they don't follow through on this, if Andy's actions aren't shown to mean anything, or worse are shown to mean the wrong thing, are presented in a noble light, then this show has seriously crossed a line and it'll be hard to come back from it.

[H&Alover]

Some points I agree with you on Red and some I don't. At least it started off well with the Wedding, I'm glad Alf ditched the hat! I see the rent a wedding guest crowd was there. Was Sasha not invited because I don't remember seeing her? May have jarred a bit with that and the other scens, but I suppose TPTB were trying to show that not everything would stop for a wedding and other people have other things to worry about. Great to see Nina and showing that long distance romances do work , especially given Jett and Nina's ages, older folk have trouble handling it so well done them. Loved the old 'I can't find the rings' gag pulled by Jett, not original but it brought a laugh. Jett and John's faces when they saw Marilyn were a picture. The candle lighting was a beautiful touch , especially as it was so soon after Casey, most people would have been thinking of someone, Alf thinking of Alsa, Roo thinking of Harvey (although I know he's not dead) and maybe Martha, Leah thinking of Vinnie and Peter.

Liked the little cart Chris arrived in to take Marilyn and John to the reception and the banner was a sweet touch. Roo made the Surf Club look really, really special, I hardly recognised the place. I had to smile at John's remark to Chris about him keeping his hands off his daughter, not that it stopped her. Jett asking Maz and John to make it official and adopt him was very sweet and Shandi got included in the toast to family. I'm with you Red, Roo could have let Maddy have one glass of champagne, I think Maddy is what 16/17, underage true, but she wasn't sold it. I bet Roo was drinking at that age, a case of 'don't do what I did, do what I say' perhaps. It would have stopped Maddy going off in a strop and necking the bottle, Oscar swore of it I'm guessing due to the meds he's on and he did more or less manage to rein Maddy gong completely overboard. Isn't going swimming in the sea at night a thing of hers, she last did it when she was drugged.

Then in a completely different vein, we had the Braxton drama. it did seem against police policy for Emerson to let Brax go when he knew he had unfinished business, surely he couldn't have been hoping Brax would do what he had been threatening and therefore save them the job of arresting Jake again. Ricky gave it her best apart from telling Brax she was pregnant which she did in the end anyway when she had no choice. I do think if Andy hadn't overheard the conversation between Kyle and Ricky (twice) the idea that he could do the job for him wouldn't have entered his mind. Also of course he's now fully atoned for getting them all involved in the first place.

It was something that had to be done, however distasteful it was, at least we were spared Jake gasping for breath, as he was in a coma. You would have thought seeing how vulnerable Jake was to possible attacks there would have been two guards, after a single guard has to go to the loo at some point, bringing it down to basics I know. The thing that positively shouted at me was surely when the life support machine stopped working and Jake flat-lined an alarm would have sounded at the nurses station and brought people running, but nothing. Brax of course is going to be the first in the frame and he only has Ricky as an alibi, if as Andy said to Kyle in the trailer he'd confess if Brax was arrested, he can tell the cops how he created the diversion. Plus - and I'm putting my CSI hat on here - they'd be able to get Andy's prints from inside the surgical glove Andy used .

[Homeandawayfan.]

I agree about the views of H&A being a show of 2 halves today. One half is the lighter and fluffier show that the overall show once was mainly, and then the other half, the very dark and nasty cruel half involving the Braxtons and Barrett's and Pirovic.

I think Andy needs to atone for what he has done and it is not very good for Brax to say "I will shake his hand" to the police officer after he told him Jake's life support had been turned off. As said, I think Andy is irredeemable.

[Brian]

Certainly not the best episide today. The wedding and the police investigation just do not go together. It took the magic away from the wedding. And the stupid police actions ; only one man guarding, Brax being let out so quickly. What were they thiking? Or perhaps they weren't! And what will happen to Andy's character now? We haven't had a muderer living as a main character n Summer Bay before, have we? It puts a new unpleasant aspect on the series. Shame!

[Red Ranger 1]

I keep forgetting about Jett asking John and Marilyn to adopt him but it seems a decent moment to revisit the idea.I had to raise an eyebrow when they asked him if he remembered what happened last time:Gina died, it'd take monumental bad luck for history to repeat itself there.I'm sorry to see Shandi go, for Chris's sake if nothing else.Was he implying that something happened between them the previous night, or did they just dance a lot?He's had a good effect on her and I hope she's back soon.

Oh, Maddy.I'm not going to try and justify her behaviour here.It seems like she's always sorry but it never stops her doing something else stupid.I do think her self-esteem has taken a big kick with losing Josh and failing school, and people queuing up to kick her while she's down hasn't helped: This sudden obsession with expensive new clothes seems like a way of trying to feel attractive.(Ironically, I thought she looked better in what she was wearing when Alf and Roo got home.)Oscar continues to be a good supportive friend.

The fact that Brax was so at peace with himself at the start of the episode shows that Andy's actions were completely unnecessary.Either Jake would have died anyway or he'd have been carted off back to jail: Twice now he's got out and twice he's killed straightaway, surely it's either a secure prison or a secure psychiatric hospital.(Can you imagine if this had happened in real life?The news channels would be running it on a continuous loop.)Instead, Andy continues the cycle of revenge that Casey died trying to stop and lands the family in the middle of a murder investigation.This is not redemption, this is the opposite of redemption.I'm not expecting any of the Braxtons to be sorry Jake's dead but Kyle disappointed me greatly: He should have let Andy turn himself in, that would be genuinely making up for what he's done and doing the right thing, instead he treated him like a hero and covered for him.The lack of CTTV seems absurdly convenient.Andy going to jail to save Brax would be an effective pay-off but the police never seem to be able to hold on to Brax and he's got Kyle and Ricky as an alibi anyway.

[Psychic Wombat]

I couldn't understand Rikki taking so long to tell Brax about her pregnancy, it didn't make sense when everyone else knows already. Seems obvious if anything would stop him getting into more trouble it would be that. Also surprised it's one secret Phoebe managed to keep too.

If Marilyn is married to John does she have to adopt Jet, I thought John had adopted him and they come as a package. Then there's Jets father who's still alive I believe. Anyway, good luck to them :-)

I didn't think Maddy disgraced herself that much, getting drunk at a wedding is pretty common she was just being a teenager. Stealing credit cards is another thing though, I'll be surprised if Alf doesn't hand her back to her parents when this all unfolds. Roo needs to stop trying to control Maddy and instead offer advice and leave it, she was a tearaway teen herself so should know playing bad cop will make things worse. I think Marilyn is actually more on Maddys wavelength strange as it seems.

I found the murdering of Jake a bit dark, makes Andy a bit of a psychopath as there's no way anyone can justify cold blooded murder.

[Red Ranger 1]

I think it was only Kyle and Phoebe that knew about Ricky's pregnancy, although that's pretty much all of the family now.I can't get too worked up about Brax being released, since to be fair he was innocent.But I'm very disappointed in Kyle.I thought he was a bit better than the rest of them but his insistence on covering for Andy, who's suddenly being treated like his long lost brother, rather than just letting him turn himself in and be done with it is making him seem almost as bad.He even plays the "How would that help Josh?" card:Mmm, well, quite a bit actually, it might mean he stops being kidnapped or beaten up by Andy's dodgy friends.Frankly, I didn't feel any sympathy at all when Phoebe walked out and he deserves to lose her, but she'll probably slope back as if nothing happened.

I sympathise with Sophie and understand her wanting to test Nate but she's fighting a losing battle here.When Sophie suggested Hannah bring someone, it occurred to me Denny was about the only person she could pick and the promo suggests I was right.John and Marilyn's scenes felt like filler, aside from John's chat with Phoebe, which underlines how the rest of town have learned to turn a blind eye to the sort of thing their neighbours get mixed up in.As I recall, Jett being adopted was abandoned when Gina died and John's still just fostering him.