Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[atrus]

A good episode today with a nice balance of light and dark. Evie was quite funny, doing her giddy cupid routine. I'm glad it's not succeeding so far, although still harbour suspicions that it soon might.

I'm not sure whether the stuff with Billie was funny or creepy, or a mixture of the two. Her behaviour so far already has me thinking 'a little too wacky to be regular'. The way she suddenly assumed Kyle was her boyfriend betrayed either total immaturity or a slightly unhinged personality, and whichever is true you get the feeling he needs to steer well clear. Not that he's likely to have much choice in the matter now Ash has intervened.

Really not cool of Alf to upset Irene like that. Lovely to see the photo of Ailsa though and him talking to her.

 

[Brian]

Good to see Kyle happy at last, doing what he does best, with a keen, eager young lady with no baggage. Why did Ash have to come by at that moment and feel that he has to protect her? Can't  she make up her own mind who she wants to be with?

I hope Evie gives up now and listens to Josh telling her that Matt and Maddy don't want to be together. She should concentrate on Josh as he asked. 

[Slade]

Billie is going from obsessed to virtually stalking now.  I found Kyle's uneasiness throughout that episode quite amusing.  I'm actually quite pleased Ash caught them.  Serves him right as he was the one who pushed for Kyle to let Billie stay in the first place.

I don't get why Evie is going out of her way to get Matt and Maddy together.  Even Josh is fed up with it.

Even though it was out of line I really, really enjoyed Alf laying into Irene.  That was another part of the episode I found really funny.

[Red Ranger 1]

I was surprised that Kyle and Billie had slept together again given how against it Kyle seemed last week. I continue to think that in the right circumstances they could be good together, but these might not be the right circumstances. In a sense, they’re using each other: Kyle seems to want comfort after a messy break-up, Billie perhaps wants stability after basically losing everything when you stop and think about it. It could develop into more but Kyle’s cycle of sleeping with her and then giving her the cold shoulder is an extreme mixed message while Billie is coming across as a bit desperate, going from wanting a committed relationship to being happy to let him use her for sex. I hope Ash doesn’t go too far in his disapproval: He’s been on the other end of this with Brax ordering him away from Denny, and while walking in on your half-naked sister straddling your even more naked friend is a bit confronting Kyle is hardly another Dean no matter how dark he’s got recently and she could do worse.

 

I don’t think Chris telling Maddy she’s not as selfish as some people think necessarily means he was one of them, just that some people think that. (He may have been one of them, but except in the early days when he was trying to split up her and Spencer they’ve basically got along fine.) Matt, on the other hand, did used to think she was a princess. I actually found Evelyn very annoying here and ironically she seems to be playing the role Maddy played last year when she tried to set Evelyn up with Spencer: Given that that resulted in Evelyn hooking up with Maddy’s boyfriend, you’d expect her to realise it can backfire. I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt and assuming she’s got good intentions and thinks a new relationship would make Matt happy. Her intentions towards Maddy are even odder given that Maddy’s romance with Oscar imploded because she’s not in the right place to start a new relationship (there’s the possibility here that Evelyn wants Maddy with someone other than Josh or Oscar, but her hostility towards Maddy seems to have gone now) but maybe Evelyn’s not thinking about it too hard and just thinks she’s happy around Matt. The fact that absolutely nothing happened leaves me with a bit of hope that they really might just be friends. (Was Evelyn expecting them to start making out in front of her and Josh though? Ironically, they do seem to be fairly tactile when they’re alone.)

 

It does seem like characters are voicing the fans’ views again, with Alf basically telling Irene “I liked you better in the 90s, when you had a personality instead of being a walking plot device.” And then we get the “kiss to the past” of him looking at a photo of Ailsa. (Shame the promo suggests that goes sour.) I actually think there was no need for Irene to get involved. Roo talked to Alf in a calm and thoughtful manner and left him with a lot to think about. Irene storming in to lecture him made him feel like he was being ganged up on and probably did more harm than good.

[H&Alover]

Billie announcing to Kyle that he was the first boyfriend she has had that Ash has liked made me think ' but Ash doesn't know Kyle is your boyfriend'!  Neither for that matter Kyle didn't know he was her boyfriend. Ash would probably have been fine with Kyle seeing his little sis, but know he knows about his dark side he's got to be thinking about what happened with her and Dean. Does sleeping twice with a guy (or girl so we don't make it sexist) make them your boy/girl friend?  I don't think Kyle is consciously using Billie, she did make the move on him, not knowing at the time he was in a vulnerable state and yes he could have refused her but guys are built differently to women and can't always control their reactions if you know what I mean.  I'm with you Red and Slade I think she could be very hard to shake off and build it up to something it isn't. Yep it was Ash who pushed for her to stay there, probably because he thought she'd be safe with Kyle.

As for the other possible boyfriend/girlfriend scenario I think Evie should butt out and let it happen naturally, if it is going to happen it will. Matt does to seem to enjoy Maddy's company and their teasing is refreshing to see. Josh was very patient with her going along with her mad plan of getting Matt and Maddy sitting on the sofa to see if anything 'happened'. Loved his way of shutting her up.

At least Maddy toned down her greeting of Alf when he got home, shouldn't Roo know by now Alf doesn't like being fussed over!  I'm glad she did pin him down later and have (or tried to have) a serious conversation with him about the PSTD. As I thought he didn't want to admit someone his age didn't ought to be suffering from it and after so long. Far too soon to be suggesting he goes to a counsellor, and she can't force him to no matter what she says, it's got to be in his own time otherwise it just won't work. As Roo said it was finally visiting the memorial aside from the trench experience that must have triggered it. The symptoms are very real and similar  to  a heart attack but with his history of heart trouble it could turn into the real thing. Maybe Irene shouldn't have stuck her oar in, but she has known Alf a long time and only did it because she saw how upset Roo was and thought a little tough love was needed. His outburst  proves he is worried and scared, I think he knows very well what Alsa would advise. He'll have Marilyn to cope with when she gets back, it may just Roo, Maddy and Irene who know at the moment but Marilyn though ditzy is pretty astute picking up on people's moods and atmosphere.

[CaptainHulk]

Good ep today.

Matt wasn't so annoying. That Honour went to Evie. Bet Josh was thinking "Ugh, Well. This is a mood Killer". I know that'd put me off my game if my significant other was obsessing over a non-existent couple.

Fit as Billie is, I can't be doing with this storyline!

Alf is the bright spark in this arc. It's been ages since Ailsa's been mentioned.

[Red Ranger 1]

I hate to admit it but I really didn’t like Ash in the first half of this episode, and even though he got better in the second half the necessary climbdowns were seriously absent. He seems to be the latest person to think he has to turn into Brax, beating up friends and family members at the slightest provocation. So I’m glad Billie stepped in and refused to let him act as though any guy that sleeps with his sister deserves to be in intensive care. After neither of them came across particularly well last episode, I was glad that Kyle and Billie both acknowledged their responsibility and were honest with each other. Possibility of it being resurrected later? Maybe; Billie’s look back suggests she regrets that it didn’t work out, so hopefully Kyle will be ready to move on from Phoebe some time. Everyone else in every thread seems to disagree so maybe I’m wrong, but wasn’t it actually Ricky who invited Billie to stay, even if it was Ash who arranged for it to be permanent?

 

Evelyn continued to be massively irritating and hopefully there’s a big fall awaiting her. As has been noted in the past, Maddy seems to be automatically flirtatious so it’s hard to tell who she’s interested in, but if you look past the tone to the actual words then both she and Matt were basically acting like she’s one of the boys: Playing video games together, doing dolphin impressions and commenting on the smell of their feet. Did they really leave the campfire burning while they went to bed? If Alf gets called out to a bush fire next episode, we know who’s to blame.

 

It’s a bit frustrating that every episode seems to give Maddy a token scene with Alf and Roo, in which Alf snaps at her and Roo tells her to go back to the teen relationship drama and let her handle it. Not sure what to make of Maddy having lived with Alf for over two years without ever seeing a photo of Ailsa before, although the episode kind of covered it by suggesting Alf doesn’t talk about his past much. I have to say I’m not sure those tears at the end were entirely earned: I felt sorry for Alf but what were they meant to signify, that he’s scared? Still, it shows how out of sorts he is that early morning fishing doesn’t bring him any comfort anymore.

[c120701]

I meant to mention this at the time, but Irene said to Leah the other week that she's known her for 15 years. So with that in mind, whenever I see VJ, I'm not sure what I'm meant to think is Leah's backstory. Was VJ born before she moved to the Bay?

[atrus]

So any interest that could have been squeezed from the Kyle/Billie storyline instantly evaporated as Ash started throwing his weight around. Which is a shame, as so far I've rated him above Brax, even if they've had similar types of storylines. It was legitimate for him to be concerned that Kyle and Billie were sleeping together after barely knowing each other a week; but there are ways and means of expressing that concern, and pinning people against walls isn't one of them.

Speaking of the Braxtons Plus, Andy seems to have undergone a total evolution/regression (delete as applicable) from Braxton-clone to Chris-clone of late, so it's no wonder Hannah's feeling a bit shellshocked. I find myself warming a little to Hannah since they've been doing a lot more light-hearted stuff with her of late, but can't decide whether I like her with Andy because there's still a sense we're being cheated a bit by the enormity of the change in Andy's character. If he's still like this in six months, then perhaps fair enough, but memories of his entrance storylines and his murder of Bluto or whatever the second-to-last Brax nemesis was called, are still fresh in my mind.

Evie took things a little far on the great matchmaking camping trip, but it was amusing to watch nonetheless. I'm glad that Maddy and Matt seem to be confounding expectations, for the moment at least - but with Sasha (and Spencer) gone there are of course only so many romantic permutations for Matt. So I wonder if some of the boyish banter between the pair smacks a little of the writers protesting too much.

We continue to have some of the strongest Alf scenes in many years. The emotional breakdown on Tuesday was very convincing; and there was that lovely scene with Maddy and Alf on Wednesday. It's rare that one of the teen characters has the courage to face up to 'Mr Stewart' like that these days, but it was good advice which he needed to hear.

I'm trying not to let my own political views colour my opinions about the Jett storyline, but I'm finding it difficult, compelling viewing though it is. On one hand you have John and Marilyn as key advocates of the 'aren't our armed forces wonderful/essential' position surrounding the Anzac Day celebrations - and now both of them are railing against Jett joining the military. Well, if he was my son I'd be doing everything in my power to stop it too. But there is a fundamental hypocrisy there. It's not enough to say 'jolly hockey-sticks to the forces, but not for our son'. Because otherwise you're essentially cheerleading for other people's kids to go out there and do the job instead, which doesn't strike me as an especially moral position.

[James Martin]

All I have to say is... "You'll only be five minutes."

Some sex life those two have then.