Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[Psychic Wombat]

While a house with the 4 girls could potentially be fun, I do think it is a bit ridiculous that Hannah is moving people into the farm house while the twins are sleeping on the sofa at the caravan park.

Couldn't agree more, typical Hannah, not even a hint of offering them their home back as a peace gesture. Now she's free to pick up blokes from bars and have casual sex though. Hmm, not a good role model for watching kids, but at least the guy wasn't married.

Denny has always been a bit of a square peg, I'm not sure she's really needed for the show. But I like her independence when she's single, it seems to desert her as soon as she gets involved in a fella.

 

[atrus]

A couple of strong episodes with some great location filming again, culminating in a literal cliffhanger on Tuesday. For a moment there I thought Billie would give Kat a shove; or worse, that Kat was going to fall by accident and that everyone would think Billie pushed her - so I'm happy that it didn't go that way. It was a genuinely sweet moment between Ash and Billie in the hospital afterwards, and very well acted too. Unfortunately it was spoiled a bit by the writers resorting to that most respected of investigatory techniques: 'Look me in the eye and promise me you didn't start the fire.' Of course with Billie redeemed and swiftly bundled off to The City, Kat and the viewers can be as confident in the veracity of her statement as Ash can. Especially with Mystery Stalker #3,584 watching Leah and Zac from the bushes. It didn't look a lot like Charlotte, who up until now has been the prime suspect. And with Billie's note to Ricky still awaiting discovery, there seems to be lots to keep viewers tuning in at the moment.

Elsewhere, I'm not sure whether Charlotte's serious about Andy, or more likely, just using him to get close to Josh so she can have a crack at another student. And yawn at Hannah's transition to fun-loving singleton who sleeps with randoms at the drop of a hat. Fair play if that's what she wants to do, but it's not helping me warm to her at the moment.

[c120701]

I assume Leah is trying to rebuild her house, hence the need to sell the Diner as if not she could surely just rent somewhere as with two wages from professional jobs plus an income from the Diner they could surely afford something to rent.

Maybe Zac wouldn't feel so bad about not having any savings if he knew that Leah was given half the diner, the house was given to VJ (I think it's in his name) and she's presumably had a couple of life insurance payouts too.

Did no-one in the Bay have any photos of Vinnie or Dan? 

Alf's reference to SB house's history of taking people in seems a bit too self aware for the show, unless he and Martha did the same for the majority of his time in the bay it wasn't the case.

[CaptainHulk]

Hold on, Leah owning Half the Diner? So I'm guessing Roman must have sold his Third to her when he went down....

[Red Ranger 1]

Couple of things I've forgotten to mention last couple of episodes: Andy said he had no help at the gym because "Billie's in hospital", apparently forgetting that he, ahem, accepted her resignation.Also, Nate tells Ash he's phoned a psychiatrist about Billie but doesn't actually seem to do so until the next morning.

Anyway, I thought the scenes on the cliff edge were good, although I was disappointed that after realistically struggling to pull a grown woman to safety without anything to get purchase on, Billie ends up doing exactly that.Could have been an adrenaline surge but I'd have preferred her to just hold onto her until help arrive.Incidentally, what happened to the policeman with Kat?I thought he was meant to be approaching the rocks from another direction but he never turned up.Still, the real emotional hit came with the scenes between Ash and Billie at the hospital, which were real lump in the throat material.Tessa de Josselin has to be one of the biggest recent finds (she has wonderfully soulful eyes) and I hope this isn't the last we've seen of her.The last two weeks have shown that she isn't really a bad person, which I'm glad about.I liked that Chris came to see her, since his involvement in the search was largely forgotten about.So, it seems there's now strong circumstantial evidence that Billie is innocent, despite it not being definitively proved either way.Phoebe, I felt, seemed out of place: She didn't contribute anything and I haven't accepted her in the role of "Ash's significant other" enough for her presence to be automatic.

I actually really liked Alf's speech to Leah and Zac and thought it was 100% in character.Ever since Sally left, Alf has been the custodian of the Spirit of Home and Away and the one to reinforce (a bit strongly at times) that the house accepts everyone who needs a family.I'm glad we got the reminder of how Alf lost everything: He relied on the Sutherlands for a roof over his head, and Leah played a big party in getting the Stewarts back on their feet by getting the second Diner set up.There's some nice quasi-sibling banter between VJ and Oscar which shows the baby hasn't been thrown out with the bath water and the new family has just moved rather than being abandoned during the fire ("I turned out all right... Relatively speaking").It's good of them to want to help and it shouldn't make Zac feel emasculated.If Leah sells her share of the Diner then that really is the end of an era (and yes, I seem to remember she did buy Roman's share when he was in prison).I did find the photo album disappointing though, there was a real opportunity to showcase the character's history and get some past characters in there but instead it was all recent people.So, who was that watching Zac and Leah at the end?Probably not Charlotte.One of Matt's old "friends" and/or someone Charlotte paid to start the fire as others have suggested?

CURS: What was with those clips of Billie's note?It didn't feature at all.

[c120701]

Yes, Leah bought out Roman's share of the diner - so she should technically own two thirds of the Diner but when I mentioned it to Ada & Lynne on Twitter a while back they were insistent that they were equal partners, so maybe Leah was meant to be acting on behalf of them both, but she was the one with all the money at the time.

[H&Alover]

Two good nights of H&A.  Good mixture of real high drama and more domestic scenes for balance.  Billie really did gather a lot of strength from somewhere, especially as she had spent all night on that cliff face and must be weakened from her injury. Wouldn't have been so dramatic now would it had the other cop or one of the other rescuers turned up early to help. No mention, other than at the beginning, of Billie breaking her bail conditions, did saving Kat's life write it off? Nice scene with Ash reading Billie's notebook, neatly letting us in on more of her background and yes lovely scene between Ash and Billie, how she had stayed by his side when he landed in hospital after pranging their late dad's car.  Don't suppose we have any idea as to how old they both are do we? So it was partly down to him she got mixed up with Dean, though as Phoebs said she had a mind of her own. Ash saying he believed her about the fire was all she needed to hear. I hope we get to see her again once she has been sorted out physically and mentally.  I liked Chris turned up to say bye also that he turned out to help to look for her. Now all Ash has to do is convince Kat to look for more evidence which would clear Billie.

The old 'letter with earth shattering news meant for someone that gets lost' ploy coming into play. I guess Billie popped it through Ricky's door on the way to the cliff. I knew as soon as Ricky put it on the cabinet shelf something was going happen to it, in this case Andy and Charlotte getting jiggy and knocking it down the back. I'll put it down to more traumatic events going on that Billie never mentioned it at all to Ash.

Just as well the twins aren't back at the farm if Hannah is going to be bringing stray men back, that guy may have seemed Ok, but I hope the site isn't some kind of  'which woman is the most easiest' sort. Maybe it's something Hannah thinks she needs to do at the moment, but it doesn't seem like her to my mind. I've got an uneasy feeling about Andy and Charlotte as well.  That wallet/purse she dropped seemed quite chunky for her not to have noticed it was missing until Andy texted her about it. Is it usual for someone to have a picture of a friend's baby in their wallet?

I was kind of disappointed in Leah's photo album, apart from an old photo of the real' VJ and some of Leah and Irene there wasn't anything really there, surprised Irene wouldn't have had more. Someone must have had some of Vinnie and Dan. Good idea from Maz about the fund raiser.  I thought Alf's speech was great as well, that is what the caravan park house was all about, taking people in when they needed a home/help for as long as it took. Leah & VJ are part of the family so by extension so are the rest of them. Didn't Zac say he didn't have any savings and even as acting principal can't earn that much in a small town. Leah probably took home a good return from the Diner, did she pay herself a wage? Now she is selling her share so will be putting more into getting a new place than he is able. It's the usual man thing of feeling useless especially as VJ has got himself a job and Oscar is going to be tutoring students and also earning some money. Nice little talk between VJ and Oscar.

Yes mystery man lurking in the shadows!   Depending how old that photo in Charlotte's wallet is, could it be him? Perhaps the target wasn't Matt's PC but a way to get to Zac via Leah or is my imagination running away with me?

Josh is going to have his own problems, hinted at in the trailer.  Btw I read something is going to come out in next weeks episodes I certainly didn't see coming!!!!

[atrus]

I'm not sure about James. He seems nice, but the fact that he's basically been signposted as 'love interest for Roo' rather than a new character for his own sake, and only really interacts with her, makes me worried as to the longevity of this romance.

It seems unfair that Leah has to pick up the financial tab for Matt, Oscar and Evie as well as VJ. I guess Matt is over 18 and therefore probably isn't getting any support from the state (?), but doesn't he pay Leah any rent from his pizza delivery job?And surely Hannah and/or Zac are getting some finance for taking on the twins - either from whatever they got from their dead parents or from the government?  

Speaking of said dead parents, I was wondering if the creepy gloved stalker was Zac's brother, back to draw the kids into his cultish ways - until I looked it up and remembered that he's dead. I guess it's sensible to assume that the guy/gal wandering around Summer Bay House is the same person who burned down Leah's, which is why I gasped when they momentarily seemed to be making a beeline for the stove. The way we lingered on the photo of Leah, Zac, VJ, Evie and Oscar more or less rules out any of Matt's dodgy Mangrove River associates, in my view, and also casts a fair amount of doubt on the stalker being Charlotte (unless she has some kind of grudge against/unresolved crush on Zac? But he seems too old for her to bother about, if her recent tastes are anything to go by.) Whoever the stalker is, it would seem to me from that photo that Matt probably wasn't the intended target.

I was eye-rolling aplenty at the two issue-of-the-week storylines that kicked off today: Zac's flirtation with loan sharks, which will no doubt see him destitute by the time the year's through; and Josh's 'study-addiction', which I feel like the show has done numerous times before, even if I can't actually name any examples.

[Red Ranger 1]

Today's thing I forgot to mention: It was a week too late but at least the show did raise the possibility of Oscar and Evelyn moving back in with Hannah and make it clear it's Zac and Leah's choice to keep them with them.

Zac mentions cooking for four teenagers but there's five teenagers living there.(Possible explanation:It sounded like Josh and Evelyn were meant to be joining them for dinner but maybe Evelyn was actually going somewhere else?)Some good interplay, although Matt continues to feel like the odd one out, contributing little other than jokes.(And given how keen he was to go to uni around the turn of the year, wouldn't he take it a bit more seriously?)I absolutely loved the Madscar interaction, from Maddy briefly defending him against VJ onwards.When Maddy mentioned she was going to take a gap year and go travelling, my first thought was that they were setting up her exit (she hits the three year mark early next year) and I wasn't expecting anything more than that reaction shot from Oscar.So I was pleased we had a proper conversation between them and that Maddy wanted to make it work (although I think she was being naively optimistic about that).And then she had that U-turn about wanting to be a nurse, which, like Oscar, I think she'd be really good at.I take it Oscar heading off to tutoring is a way of leaving him out of the next episode, since he's done one more than the other older teens?A nice brief moment of Maddy and VJ jostling like siblings near the start, which again leaves me thinking this new extended family set-up could work well.History repeating itself with Josh?It was him studying all the time that marked the beginning of the end for him and Maddy, although Evelyn seems more aware of his situation than Maddy was.

I must admit I'm not really engaged by Roo and James, which is a shame because I like the idea of Roo having a storyline, and the uni storyline and James apparently working at the hospital should provide more opportunities than they seem to.Zac could really mess things up here and should listen to VJ about keeping secrets from Leah.She might be sad about losing her last connection to the Diner, but that doesn't mean she wants Zac to put them into debt.So, looks like the chances of Leah and Zac marrying in finale week just got reduced.Unless their friends throw together a last minute job on the beach?

I can't really get intrigued about the prowler: The lack of credible suspects means it'll probably be someone we've never seen before.I did briefly wonder if they were going to set fire to the caravan park...and it's ironic after the disappointing photo album that we're treated to such a clear view of a photo of Cassie and Maddie.(Yes, that's Maddie, not Maddy.Easy to get them confused.)So, is the stolen photo them forming a hit list?Is it going to be pinned to a wall somewhere as they all get slowly crossed out?

Re:Billie, there did seem to be a police officer with her when she was transferred so possibly her bail did get revoked, at least temporarily pending the psych assessment.

[H&Alover]

Re financial arrangements for the kids.  At the moment Matt's kipping in a van so likely he is paying his own way direct to Alf/Roo, Josh doesn't live there, Evie and Oscar - has that been sorted between Hannah and Zac seeing as they are not at the farm anymore? Josh was supposed to be joining them for dinner (which would have made six) but cried off due to him studying but that still leaves five.

Josh isn't the last student to go down the using uppers to keep awake and he certainly won't be the last, I think the last one was April, she had OCD as well and was taking meds for that?  Maybe I'm too suspicious but it did cross my mind that guy who offered Josh the drugs is connected to Charlotte.

Certainly was a sudden U-turn from Maddy from wanting to take a gap year, so she could think about her future, which after the time she has had makes sense as she thought at one time she may not have one. Oscar although disappointed they wouldn't be together at uni, was behind her decision. Matt sounded so ken when he set off for the UNI Open Day, but just seemed to be drifting about once he got there, unless it was a bluff on his part, you know what's he's like, doesn't like anyone thinking he's serious about anything.

Why does Roo go all giddy and act like a teenager whenever James hoves into view? I'm not sure about him either.

Looking more and more like it's Zac the prowler is interested in, especially, as according to Leah, it was the photo of their engagement party that went missing. Btw Red, did you mean Matty? Sometimes I still think that is what they are calling Maddy. 

If, as I think anyway, the new Summer Bay Prowler is connected to Charlotte could he be the person she has been speaking to in her secret phone calls.  She did tell 'them' right back when she arrived she hadn't seen Zac yet when she had. Maybe 'they' had got fed up with waiting and come to the bay to hurry things along.  Which does beggar the thought, maybe Charlotte didn't have anything to do with the fire but was something 'they' did off their own bat. Btw are they staying at that motel?

I'd forgotten Zac's criminal record would prevent him taking a loan via the conventional way, but him turning to legalised loan sharks is not the way and $50,000 how is he going to hope to pay that back without raising Leah's suspicions about where his money is going and he'd better hope he doesn't have a serious accident or illness. As an aside the insurance company were very hard hearted, not even being willing to make an exception due to the policy holder being in a coma and totally unable to renew said policy.  How does Charlotte get involved in Zac's mad scheme? He nearly backed out then overheard Leah talking about the Diner, male pride, it gets them into such a mess. How big  a do were Leah and Zac planning for their wedding, which was supposed to be six months away, I'm sure they could make it a small intimate do, so then they won't need Roo, Everyone would pitch in and ensure it would be a special day for them both without it costing an arm and a leg.