Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[Red Ranger 1]

Maddy definitely crossed a line at the end of the episode, moving from denial to deliberately covering up the truth.I do think that she genuinely thought the baby was definitely Josh's at the start and the doubt has only come in recently.She might even have agreed to the scan if it had been an issue at the start.But now she's had these weeks of being a family with Josh, she's become a bit obsessed and is prepared to do whatever it takes to hang on to it.I really wish Evelyn hadn't got involved.I think at first she was fuming that she may have broken up with Josh for nothing and probably hoping Oscar was the father so she could have a shot at getting back with him.But after Oscar's panic attack, I think she's actually in a lose-lose situation here:Whatever the outcome, someone she cares about is going to have their life turned upside down.I was glad to see Alf tell Evelyn to back off, ironic it happened pretty much the first time Evelyn had a point, even if she was wrong to stick her oar in.I'm liking the return of the old Alf/Maddy relationship:He's being supportive but also pointing out when she's wrong.Hannah also came over surprisingly well, and while I'm hoping Oscar steps up if he needs to, the return of his anxiety issues is believable and welcome, he wouldn't just get over it.Maddy's deluded if she thinks she can avoid finding out the truth:Even if Oscar agrees to stay schtum, does she really think Alf, Hannah and especially Evelyn will keep quiet, not to mention Roo, Marilyn and anyone else who'd put two and two together if baby arrived earlier than expected?

Marilyn actually came across a bit creepy here, with her continued references to "my little friend" and hanging around Jett acting like a teenager: It almost felt like she was trying to pick him up.I'm glad Irene pointed out the obvious: Why adopt him if she didn't want to be his mum? I was worried this would end with Jett having to go along with what Marilyn wants and say he wants her as a friend rather than a mum, so I'm glad Marilyn seems to have realised that being a mum is an important job, even if the realisation did seem to come out of nowhere.

[Slade]

Don't really have time to post much but what I suspected would happen with this pregnancy storyline (i.e. several characters dragged in) has happened although for different reasons to what I originally thought. I've actually enjoyed seeing Maddy make a mess of everything and dig herself deeper and deeper...Best thing would be presumably when Josh finds out and when the crap hits the fan although I am kinda hoping Evelyn is the bearer of bad (or you could argue good) news.

Marilyn really made me laugh and her intentions were ok, just a shame Jet just saw her as a nuisance.

[H&Alover]

I didn't know who I wanted to slap more Marilyn or Maddy!

Why lead Oscar to think the baby might be his then deny it because as she admitted to Alf she wants it to be Josh's. If it does turn out to be Oscar's and Josh finds she has been lying to him she is going to lose him anyway. Is she aware of Oscar's condition and what effect news like that would have on him? It had him fretting that he'd have to leave school and get a job.There wasn't any way Evelyn could have been left out and I think she held on to her temper pretty well, when Oscar was having his panic attack I was fully expecting her to charge off right then and tackle Maddy. Hannah is right no-one can force Maddy to have the ultrasound though it's not just to establish her proper date but to check the baby is doing OK, has anyone thought of mentioning that little fact to her? It was good to see Alf giving his advice without ramming it down her throat. Even if they do all agree to keep quite, it's inevitable the news will leak out, as it always does in soaps. Someone on the Aussie thread has nicknamed her the pregnant pout and she did actually pout yesterday. Was it necessary for her to clumber up from the sofa as if she is eight months gone instead of the two/three that she is? She didn't do it earlier, just stood up as normal.

As for Marilyn she was definitely over compensating there, all that over chumminess with Jett, poor kid. She didn't do any of that when she was his friend as opposed to his step mum/mum, she was just the Marilyn we know and love. While I can accept she hasn't had any experience of being a mum or step mum to a teenager, which is tricky enough for a parent who has had them grow up with them, she needs to back off a bit now. He'll come to her when he needs to, because he knows when she's not being hyper she is a good person to confide in. She just needs to adjust to being a mum.

[Brian]

Why don't Marilyn, Chris and Evie just shut up and let the nice people talk?????

[Red Ranger 1]

I think I may have given Evelyn too much credit last episode: She didn't seem to care about Oscar at all for most of this episode and acted like she'd happily push him under a bus if it meant Josh wasn't a father.Maybe I'm being hard on her and she was just annoyed that he seemed prepared to go along with Maddy, but she's one of these characters who's so aggressive and makes so many nasty comments about people that, even when she's talking sense, the way she says it puts me of.Oscar's chat with Denny was actually okay, I was expecting a contrived "I wish Casey and I could have had a baby" speech but instead she drew on her own experiences well.I'm glad Oscar got Zac involved as well.Part of me thinks it's too soon to talk about telling Josh, I think Oscar's first step should be to tell Maddy he's not going to go along with her plan and won't keep quiet indefinitely, and see what she does next.But I accept that's just me going easy on Maddy and I certainly think Josh needs to know if he isn't the father.

While both of them annoyed me at points, especially Marilyn who's meant to be the grown-up, I was again pleasantly surprised by the outcome of Jett and Marilyn's storyline.When John made assumptions of Jett at the start, I worried it would go down the road of him getting it wrong and Jett not thinking of Marilyn that way at all, but instead it has a sensible chat, a good use of both characters' histories and an understanding that they need to work at this.Leah and VJ was just more of the same sadly.

I continue to like Chris and think he got a bit of a raw deal in this episode.I was laughing when he fumbled his way through attempting to ask Denny for help but then I hated the way she basically assaulted him for no good reason and especially the way that she and Evelyn then walked off laughing at him in a fashion that I found quite nasty.It was presumably meant to be funny but wasn't at all, and I wonder how it would look if it had been the other way round.And I don't think he deserved the tirade he got from Spencer but then it does seem like that's part of the point and Spencer is meant to be stressed out and in need of support.

[Angelica]

I liked that Oscar went to Zac for advice - I feel like Zac is often too disconnected from what is going on with Hannah, Evie and Oscar. I think Evie definitely seemed to care more about the implications of the whole paternity question in terms of Josh (and thus her relationship with him) rather than the effects on her actual brother. I imagine it will either be Evie or Oscar who break the news to Josh. The whole thing isn't reflecting well on Maddy.

I liked Jett's and Marilyn's final conversation - I liked that it made the whole issue seem in keeping with their characterisation up to date, while only referring to past events (there was a lot of that in the Tues episode - references to the past, like the writer for that episode was trying to show they do remember continuity sometimes). Initially, I was worried because it seemed like Marilyn didn't want to be Jett's mum (which didn't fit with her adopting him etc) - it made more sense when she explained that she was just so scared of messing up.

I did think Denny overreacted to Chris, as did Spencer. I did wonder why Chris asked Denny to look out for Spencer rather than Irene or Sasha.

[Red Ranger 1]

I found the pay-off to Spencer and Chris' storyline a bit disappointing, basically amounting to "Irene tells Spencer Chris worries about him, Spencer tells Chris he doesn't have to worry about him, Chris leaves."I'm hoping Chris didn't actually leave in that episode without anyone noticing, I'm slightly nervous about him still being guest cast but given that he's been on the show for over a year you'd expect a proper goodbye scene.

Matt's speech about VJ was funny if inappropriate.I actually found Leah's reaction a bit over the top, it's not like Matt said anything that VJ wasn't already thinking.I was hoping we'd see the "VJ leaving school" plotline put to bed for good in this episode but instead it's left dangling.

Kyle and Phoebe really should have shut the front door before, ahem, getting down to it, it pretty much screamed "Someone's going to walk in." It was good to see Brax sticking up for Kyle, even if his kicking Neive out probably hasn't solved anything in the long term.The smart thing at this point would be for Kyle to hold onto the ownership of the song but give Neive permission to use it in the mix. What's happened to Kyle becoming a partner in Angelo's, by the way?He seemed ready to walk away from it here and Brax talked as though he's sole owner.I took Neive at face value at first but after her manipulation of Phoebe at the end, I suspect she deliberately included Kyle's song in the record to cause an argument.

[Slade]

Something I forgot to mention about Monday's episode is that I believe we saw what could be quite a controlling side from Maddy. This occurred to me when Oscar was talking to Josh on the beach and although admittedly Maddy was trying to keep Josh from finding out that should could be further gone than she originally thought there was just something about the way she was that made me think if she does succeed in her plan, she will keep him under lock and key and it will reach the point where he won't be allowed to even talk to Evelyn and Maddy will find any excuse to call Josh over regarding the baby but really to spend time with him. Forget about Oscar, if Evelyn really loves Josh she must tell him the truth and stop him throwing his life away to be with someone who he's not in love with and is quite prepared to deceive him out of desperation.

Something else that I also found interesting was the announcer referring to H & A just before Tuesday's Neighbours episode. She said "Maddy's pregnancy is causing a lot of bad feeling around the bay and she's not really doing anything to help the situation". Very telling, considering Maddy wasn't even in the episode.

I'm not going to get my hopes up but I'll be glad if Chris leaves for good as I've always found him at best slightly annoying.

[H&Alover]

I was also relieved Zac finally got involved, was Oscar looking for someone to give him an opinion from a bloke's point of view? It isn't really anyone's place but Maddy's to tell the truth about who the father is, but the more people who do know the more likely it is one of them will let Josh know either by accident or design. She has been warned by Evie she'll tell Josh and I like your idea Red about Oscar telling Maddy he won't keep quite for ever. I liked Denny and Oscar's talk about missing dads though wasn't the decision for hers (and Oscar and Evie's) being missing from her life taken out of their hands by their respective parents? Oscar is going to be right there watching his son/daughter growing up.

I liked the resolution between Marilyn and Jett, who had a light bulb moment after talking to VJ. He has never had a mum in the usual sense and he only knew Gina for a relatively short while and Marilyn has never had a proper chance to be a mum, they'll both have to learn as they go on.

Funny how it was Matt who helped solve things between VJ and Leah, his 'speech' floored Leah and maybe it helped VJ to decide to stay on for another year at least and a lot can happen in that year. Was it looking like Matt was having second thoughts about his future?

I'm going to miss Chris, sorry Slade, yes he can be very annoying at times, but he loves Spencer and has shown he does have a vulnerable side which he covers up with his mad antics. He's not the best diplomat hence Denny getting completely the wrong idea when he asked her to keep an eye for Spencer. After their initial misunderstanding Spencer understood Chris wasn't looking for someone to nanny him while he was away, just that he had someone to turn to if he needed help at any time. Disappointed he just slipped away like that, very un Chris like! I'm guessing he asked Irene because he does live with her and didn't ask Sash as she will be going off to uni soon.

While I might have bought Neive not knowing it was Kyle's voice on the tape, which was done after Phoebe had left the studio, when she could have told her, the fact she still used someone else's tape to mix with Phoebe's has to be breaking some sort of copy right law. Her trying to buy Kyle off wasn't going to work, but she then doesn't know him like we do. So now her solution is to break them up, first by telling Phoebe it's your career or him, then as we saw in the trailer her telling Kyle to break up with Phoebe so she can have the career she wants, very conniving. Kyle wanting to go on the road with Phoebe is no different to Brax disappearing like he does from time to time and leaving Kyle to run the place. Brax did say 'I'm the owner' when Neive had her hissy fit. Never mind who she is and supposedly important to Phoebe's career she was very rude to Brax and deserved getting thrown out for that alone. You certainly would think they'd know by now to lock a door in the bay, especially if you are going to get up close and personal.

[Red Ranger 1]

Maddy's done a lot in the last week or so that I hoped she wouldn't, so I guess I can't say that she wouldn't be controlling:She's definitely capable of being manipulative and I could see her guilt-tripping Josh into spending time with her, although she's never tried to stop him spending time with anyone before, even when she had good reason to.At the end of the day, I don't think she's got a hard enough core to be able to keep up a deception if she's confronted in the right manner:She can hold her own against Roo or Evelyn when they charge in full throttle, but Alf gets the truth from her with a few probing questions and so does Oscar for that matter.I have to admit, I can't actually think of a good reason why Evelyn shouldn't tell Josh, other than that it really would be taking his side over Oscar's and putting her brother in the firing line to potentially get Josh off the hook.

Anyway, today's ep.Well, the Kyle and Phoebe stuff wasn't as bad as trailers and spoilers suggested.Despite being a bit too taken in by Neive's world view, Phoebe doesn't even seem to consider sacrificing Kyle for the sake of her career.I wasn't too keen on Denny getting involved and in fact her talk with Kyle seemed completely redundant given that his chat with Phoebe could have been enough for him to take Neive's deal, so it turned into Denny putting a guilt trip on Kyle to force him and Phoebe into a dubious deal.Since her chat with Oscar, Denny hasn't really been coming across that well.

So, Ash came back.Um...why?He was on the verge of finding a lead, he could easily have stayed away for a bit and then gone to see his sister's boyfriend on his own, so his return was a rather weak excuse to get Brax and Andy involved again.Although Ricky came across as a bit self-righteous, I can see her point:Brax might feel he owes Ash but this isn't his fight and he needs to stop chasing off on crusades and focus on his family.He realised there was a point when he had to stop involving Heath in things, now he needs to make the same realisation about himself.

Wow, Leah sucks as a counsellor, turning her back on a stressed out Sophie so she can tell Nate she's going to talk to her instead of actually talking to her.I wonder how out of touch Sophie is because she seems to pull off a very successful gambit here, feeding Ricky a load of crazy talk that results in Nate moving into the caravan park...where, it seems, she was already waiting for him.