Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[Red Ranger 1]

That's a good point, H&Alover, about Zac.My first thought was that Leah and Zac were in bed when Matt and Evelyn arrived back and didn't know she'd stayed over until the morning, but he seemed to be coming home so...how did he miss her when he went out?Maybe I'm being a bit hard on Evelyn but it feels like she often wants things with Josh to be on her terms, especially when they're apart:It was the same last time when she sent him packing every time he tried to talk to her, then complained that he didn't let her know about Jake being murdered.Anyway...Matt and Sasha are back on but it feels a bit like they're delaying the inevitable.

Awww, Chris.He put his foot in it a lot but got there in the end, and he had a good chat with Sasha at the start of the episode too.Where exactly was Irene while the party was going on?She was there at the start so, what, she went to bed?Spencer learns that casual sex isn't for him (it's worth noting that Monique's only the second person he's slept with, after Sasha), but his moping about Maddy is a bit hypocritical, since he didn't even tell her about his bipolar when they were together and she seemed to be one of the last to know.(It's hard to tell since we never actually saw her find out.)So now Chris knows about her pregnancy, it's getting to the point where the list of people that don't know is shorter than the ones that do.

Zac caught between a rock and a hard place again with regards Leah and VJ.He's handled it well and come up with a workable solution, that VJ can use him as a sounding board but Leah's the one that makes the decisions.At least VJ apologised for being a brat.

Nate's return really doesn't seem to have done Sophie much good, as she's suddenly jittery.I'm not sure that Ricky running to Nate because Sophie lost her temper, and him running to the house, did much good, it's just sending out mixed messages when she needs to move on.I can kind of understand her blowing up at Leah, who did seem to take Hannah's side a bit, but she's back to being paranoid.

[CaptainHulk]

I guess Maddy will always be Spencer's One true love, I was hoping they'd work it out somewhere down the track sans Maddy's 2014-present cow mode.

[Angelica]

I can understand why Spencer feels a bit left out of the loop with Maddy, but then again, it is a bit hypocritical given that Maddy doesn't know about his problems at the moment.

Was it just me or did Sophie and Nate look like someone in makeup had been a bit generous with the tanned colour foundation? It may have just been my TV but I found it very distracting. That being said, I think Ricky rushing to Nate, and Nate rushing to Sophie's house have made things worse for Sophie.

[Slade]

I actually quite enjoyed certain parts of the party. As someone who really likes Evelyn I have to admit I found it quite funny when Sasha gave her a serve but I also like Denny's "you need to back off" in defence of her younger sister. Evelyn impressed me the next episode when she made the first move and apologised to Sasha. I actually don't think an apology was necessary but she was making an effort nonetheless.

I did wonder at one point whether Sophie's tirade towards Leah was purely for Ricky's benefit to report back to Nate just to bring him out into the open. I think Sophie was a bit over the top and I don't think Leah was two-faced. I just felt that Leah felt she was caught between a rock and a hardplace (as telling Sophie about Hannah would have dropped Nate in it and as she was friends with both wanted to remain neutral) so she thought it was best to stay out of it.

Felt a tiny bit sorry for Spencer when she he found out about Maddy being pregnant. Although I thought he should have simply accepted that he means so little to her now and moved on rather than allowing it to upset him to the point where he would force himself to have a one night stand with someone he obviously didn't want to.

On a side note I could hardly contain myself when I saw Sasha and Sophie in their dressing gowns.

[Red Ranger 1]

The show's feeling very directionless at the moment: I think the longer than usual season took them by surprise and so they're having to drag storylines out before reaching the planned endpoint.So we get the same scenes between Nate and Sophie, with the same ending, every single week.And Ricky's involvement is starting to seem a bit too much like interfering, even if she does have a point.

Kudos to Maddy for not letting Josh throw his education away but...I don't know, this storyline is starting to feel all over the place.Please don't tell me they're trying to turn Andy into a family man.He's been portrayed as far too bad for far too long for them to suddenly go "No, it's okay, he's nice now!"Characterisation and continuity are going to pot, Maddy's suddenly got a baby bump out of nowhere just in time for Marilyn to gain the ability to tell how pregnant someone is just by looking at them.And what on earth was that conversation between Roo and Maddy about the ultrasound?Josh and Maddy booked an ultrasound at the hospital last week, so why is Roo suddenly trying to get her to have one and Maddy suddenly saying no, and why is it suddenly about who the father is rather than about Maddy not wanting to see the baby until she'd decided whether or not to keep it?Either vital parts of episodes have been removed at random or each episode is being written by someone who's got no idea what happened in previous episodes.

On a similar note, the characterisation of Brax, Ricky and Ash is up the spout, as Ricky has suddenly gone from wanting Ash to help Brax to thinking he's a nuisance again.And, for the first time, Ash actually does come across as a nuisance, even though he hasn't been one up to now.Brax called Ricky to say he was running late just before he found Ash, so unless he left it really late to call or had to pick Ash up from another state, it seems unlikely that he'd miss the appointment.Presumably we were meant to be cheering for Ricky at the end, but instead I found her a bit self-righteous.

[Slade]

Found some of the characters slightly annoying. It was annoying the way Alf was just watching Sophie and Nate then just tried to stick his oar in then later on when he, Marilyn, John and Roo were watching Maddy and Josh. And it was also quite annoying the way Ricky was just watching Nate and Sophie at Angelo's and once again got involved in their business. Don't these people have anything better to do with their time?

So Marilyn and Roo think Maddy might be further gone that they originally thought...now that sounds promising! When you combine that with Maddy refusing to do an ultrasound almost in denial to what Roo was suggesting, then perhaps the baby might not be Josh's after all, maybe it's Oscar's. So perhaps there is a way for Josh to morally get out of this.

Well hopefully, it's over for Nate and Sophie this time because the whole thing is now extremely tiresome. The question is where does she go from here as her sole purpose is Nate. TBH I would be happy if he put in a transfer like he suggested to her at near the end of that episode. Thinking back to yesterday's episode when Sophie laid into Leah, I think the reason why Leah just sat back and took it was she could put herself in Sophie's place with her three or however many failed marriages. However I'm not sure why Leah would want to be friends with her given how she made her look like an idiot with Nate and Zak before and now this.

[Brian]

Yes, I agree Red, some of the storylines are getting repetitive. Go away Nate and find another hospital, but hasn't he got a stake in the mortgage of the house? Matt and Sasha's on-off is getting boring too.

It will be Interesting to see how it plays out with drama queen Maddy. Does the uncertain date mean that Oscar could be the father? Could Roo and Marilyn see a bump after only 8 weeks? I feel very sorry for Josh if it plays out that way. He has been so supportive of Maddy and "his" baby and he could be devastated.

Still can't get used to the new VJ!

[H&Alover]

Glad I wasn't the only thinking that about Maddy and the ultra scan Red, she and Josh had booked one a couple of weeks ago, plus she has decided to keep it, and would she really be showing at eight weeks or even 12 if Marilyn and Roo are right? Both of them have been pregnant, Marilyn twice, and while no two pregnancies are the same, they would recognise the signs. Maybe Maddy is having doubts of her own and wants it to be Josh's more than she does for it to be Oscar's. She's going to need one sometime soon, then we'll know, remind you of Bianca anyone, she was sure her baby was Liam's but she got her dates were wrong and she was a grown up woman of the world. Maddy is too wrapped up in her own situation to be concerned about Spenser's.

I do love the Chris/Spencer talks, Chris admitting to Spencer he isn't as confident as he likes everyone to think. He may come across as an idiot sometimes but he does have a serious side and can give good advice as he did with Sasha and Spencer. Spencer isn't into one night stands, hadn't he been dating Sasha a while before they slept together? I think Irene was in bed, we saw her going up the stairs with a mug in her hand, probably had headphones or ear pieces on to drown out the racket.

On the subject of Zac not seeing Evelyn when he left Leah's the night before, he left before Evelyn and Matt returned.

So Matt and Sasha are on again for now.

I was wondering where Alf was and lo and behold he's back. He still seems OK with Maddy being pregnant and was fine with Josh when he turned up at the bait shop. He was impressed that Josh is looking for a job to help with the baby. On that subject Andy's personality change does seem dramatic but it's good to see a different dimension to him. I liked he has decided to help out financially but has drawn the line at changing nappies!

Strangely enough the thought that Ash may now be a problem crossed my mind, which seems odd after him insisting Brax tell Ricky all that had gone on in prison so as not to cut her out of his life. He did know that Brax was due at the ultra scan, didn't he? If so was him calling for Brax to help him a ploy to drive a wedge between him and Ricky or was it genuine? Plus him suddenly being a babe magnet is bought to the fore.

Despite her protests Sophie is far, far from fine as we all saw at the end. That's the trouble with a small town you can't avoid running into someone you ate trying to keep your distance from. Her blowing up at Leah was uncalled for, did Leah know anything about what was going on with Nate and Hannah and if she had and had told Sophie she probably would have still got in the neck, the old 'shoot the messenger' syndrome. Nate made the right call, let's hope he sticks to it this time, by telling her he's not going to keep running to her everytime she has a wobble. It's only giving her false hope.

What's happened to the 'tomorrow/next time on H&A', is it because they are getting ahead of themselves down under and don't want to confuse us?

[Red Ranger 1]

Slade:Arguably, Leah hasn't had any failed marriages, since both her husbands died on her, albeit in the wrong order.(I guess Vinnie's a grey area, since they both made choices that kept them apart.) It's the ones she didn't marry that tend to go belly up.H&Alover:I seem to remember we both commented at the time on how Spencer and Sasha slept together very quickly, a month at most.(Less if you took out the time they were dating in secret.)I keep meaning to comment on the disappearance of the promos.I don't know if it's a result of the show being on six episodes a week in Aus at this point or if they've gone for good.

Anyway, today.I don't think Ash had any sort of agenda and I believed his story of a jealous husband, but he was out of line.I don't even like Andy but Ash requisitioning his room was a bit rich.I did think though that his sleeping on Brax's sofa can't be a permanent arrangement, unless he really is waiting for Kyle and Phoebe to move out.He seems to have sorted himself out, but given that he's only just joined, I imagine his quest for his family will only last until next week.I loved Brax's expression when watching the ultrasound DVD.

Phoebe's new look actually looked quite classy.Her song was fairly uninspiring and didn't seem to feature much singing at times.To be frank, neither Kyle nor Phoebe are coming off particularly well. (And Phoebe still seems like a nymphomaniac, although I do accept that, aside from that one-night stand with Chris when she first showed up, she is pretty monogamistic.)Kyle seems to be whinging a lot about artistic integrity, while Phoebe is being a bit brattish and seems as if she's only interested in being a famous singer and doesn't really care about what she's famous for.Neive is obviously used to getting what she wants.And looked confusingly like Martha in some shots.(On a vaguely related note, has Denny's hair got lighter the last few weeks?Because I keep mistaking her and Maddy for each other.)

[Dan F]

Just to note that's it up to Channel 5 as to whether they edit in the promos or not. The tapes sent out to international broadcasters have various things included on them so that they can mix and match to suit their own needs. Seven's in-house closing credits are included, as well as clean versions of the promos (no audio apart from the isolated dialogue so their own music can be added), the international closing credits, and clean versions of the ends of the scenes going into the ad-breaks. In fact last time I saw them they also included an option for opening titles, which just consisted of a clean version of the helicopter shot used for the closing credits with the opening theme laid over it.