Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[H&Alover]

Not the first time Nate has treated a Braxton at home becuase they didn't want to go to the hospital, didn't he also treat Andy at the  Braxton's as well? It didn't go down well with Kat though, but no laws were broken though could be a touch unethical, it does seem Nate is 'their' doctor a la old time gangsters.  Kyle almost at death's door again, but he'll be home tomorrow!  Kind of weird those odd camera angles when Kyle was wandering about in the garden, guess it was to emphasis his feelings of disorientation. No wonder he is so obsessed over Phoebe especially when she keeps leaving him out of the loop.  Btw what was that remark 'the baby may be my last chance to have a family' all about, is he planning to spend the rest of his life on his own and not expecting to meet anyone else ever again?  At least Phoebe has decided to keep the baby, though there is also the chance she could lose it.  She was telling Ash she didn't think she'd be a good mum, but didn't Ricky go through the same thought process?  Yes Slade it would be good to get an update on Billie.

I think (and hope) Casey won't be following the Braxton criime route, remember Ricky put a halt to any revenge for Brax's death saying  all this tit for tat had to stop before anyone else got killed.

Well that's an end to Hannah and Chris even before it got started!  It left Hannah a bit red faced. Marilyn's imagination works overtime sometimes.

I may be shallow but I enjoyed the topless waiters!  Kat's objections over bikinied waitresses didn't stop her wanting Nate to get his kit off!!!

Yes atrus I  when Leah came out with that remark, definitely the kiss of death. So Charlotte and Hunter (again Hunter)?, with his surname he's Hunter King! live with her mum in the city.  That's the trouble with mobiles you never know for certain where the person you are talking to actually is. It was a cent to a dollar he was in the bay. Does Alf usually ask that many questions when someone wants to rent a van, OK how many for, how long, but wanting to know where they are from, are they on holiday?

Talking of Evie where was Josh, all the other youngsters were there, Oscar, Maddy and Matt, odd no-one mentioned his absence either.

Hunter certainly likes to make an entrance doesn't he, one thing about his announcement, it won't have to be kept a secret!  When Andy saw Charlotte disappear behind the tree with Hunter he must have thought 'oh, oh another young lad she's a thing for'. When Zac bumped into Hunter earlier and asked if he knew him was it because he reminded him of a young Zac or Charlotte. You can understand in a way why Hunter got fed up with waiting for Charlotte to tell Zac, he's just forced the issue, though possibly not as resentful of Zac as he was before. Has Charlotte some reason of her own about not telling Zac earlier like she told Hunter she would. Don't think you'll have long to wait atrus, we did see VJ tackle Hunter about the assualt on Josh. Guess most of tonights episode will be taken up with the fall out.  Did Charlotte come to the bay purely by chance by answering the ad for a biology teacher and really not know Zac was there or had she been keeping tabs on him in recent years so knew exactly where he was?

Thought it was too easy for  the drugs story to be wound up so quicly, seems this new lot aren't as harmless.

[Slade]

Given how Kyle acted towards Phoebe in Tuesday's episode I was glad he ended up in hospital again, semi suffering.  And even then he was harping on about the baby rather than concentrating on getting better.  It was that attitude which caused him to relapse in the first place.

One thing I love about soaps in public outings.  And I did enjoy Hunter announcing Zac was his father in front of everyone like that. even though it was a little bit rushed.  Just the kind of thing I like.  It's hard imagining him as Oscar, Evelyn and Denny's cousin.  I still find very little likeable about him although the stuff with Zac towards the end of the episode was OK.  In terms of nutcases and sociopaths he should think about forming a club with Billie.  I actually didn't enjoy VJ starting on him like that and part of me wanted Hunter to smack him, not sure why.  After Charlotte told Andy to stop Hunter from trying to leave the hotel room I was left wondering what Andy would have done if Hunter had resisted.  Would he have forcefully physically restrained him?

Not sure what to make of Charlotte seemingly wanting to keep things going with Andy.  It looked for a moment like he wanted out because he couldn't be arsed to deal with the baggage and I only thought he agreed not to cool things because he couldn't be arsed to argue with her.  I don't blame Leah for confronting Charlotte.  And I could see her point of view with the underhand way Charlotte maneuvered herself into their lives.  Perhaps Leah thinks Charlotte's playing a long game and this is all part of some sort of elaborate plan to win Zac back.  I wasn't sure about Charlotte's explanation for keeping Zac from his child for 16 years.  Interestingly Natalie had something to do with it (or rather that was part of the excuse).  Ah Natalie, Summer Bay's worst counselor ever.  She was dreadful.  Leah did have a point about not taking what Charlotte said at face value and Zac should not make the same mistake that Rhys did.  He should at least have a DNA test to know if Hunter is his son for sure.

[Red Ranger 1]

I think Zac asking if he knew Hunter was because of the way Hunter was looking at him, but I'm not sure.Anyway, now he knows.The episode seems to be trying to show us a side to Hunter that isn't completely unlikable, even resorting to a soft underscore but...Seeing Zac bonding with him without knowing that he nearly died because of him and so did his stepson, his nephew and the mostly innocent girl Hunter framed just because makes for somewhat uncomfortable viewing.And I can't help feeling that by the time Zac does find out that he'll have bonded with Hunter so much that he'll instantly forgive him, probably cover for him and no doubt at worst he'll get the usual suspended sentence and/or community service.We've already had the fact he left Josh for dead dismissed with a "They've got enough troubles."We're told he's in the same year as VJ so it feels like they'll be the ones propping up the school next year in Year 12 (probably with Josh repeating).Unless they want to surprise me and we're talking Steven befriending Dodge not knowing he killed his uncle?Like Slade, I found myself wondering if Zac assuming Hunter is his son just because Charlotte says so is setting up another "Oh, whoops, he's not your son after all" twist further down the tracks.I loved VJ standing up to him and cheered when he pushed him over, I was disappointed that Evelyn acted like a prig and stopped him doing more.Shame no-one's made the connection to the fire: Where's Ash when he's actually needed?Loved Andy putting him in his place too: "She hasn't mentioned you either."

Guess we know where Hunter got his habit of blaming everyone else for his wrongdoing from.Charlotte's reasons for not telling Zac he had a son feel like excuses, and it does seem like she was trying to punish him.As Leah said, what's she doing here?Assuming that was Hunter she was talking to on the phone all along, seems she's been lying to him too and probably fobbing him off.Am I being overly suspicious in wondering if she's keeping Andy around because she could do with an ally in the Bay?Nice little scene between Alf and Leah, they're starting to develop the sort of relationship he had with Sal.At least Leah doesn't call him Mr Stewart when she's in her 30s.I think Leah should be having a word with Zac about how she feels about all this rather than being all reasonable and hands off.

[H&Alover]

Now Hunter has got over his resentment of Zac due to the fact he didn't know about him, and is happy for them to get to know each other seems a shame that could all fall apart when the truth about the fire and assault comes out. Hopefully Zac has more of a moral conscience than Charlotte and either persuades Hunter to hand himself in or does it himself. Would Hunter being in Year 11 make him 16?  It was good to get Charlotte and Zac's background from when they were younger rather than leave it to us to try and work it out, she was 18, Zac same age?  Only Zac can say for sure if Charlotte was the playing around type therefore casting doubt if he's the dad. Zac certainly didn't come across as the most reliable of boyfriends and their break up seems mainly down to him and he didn't waste time in moving on, breaking  all ties with Charlotte because he thought it was the 'kindest' thing, or  to put it another way the cowards way out. Her dad wasn't keen on him, then she found out about his being in prison for the drug dealing.  Hunter said his granddad was always kind to him and did all the dad things, but as Charlotte said he was different with her which could be true. Seems like the grandparents did most of the child rearing as she was building her career so perhaps one of the conditions of doing that was she didn't contact Zac? 

So one of my assumptions was right, she did know where Zac was and she couldn't put Hunter wanting to meet his dad any longer. There just has to be an ulterior motive for her wanting to wait for the 'right' moment. Leah's right to want to find out more why she waited so long, don't think it's because Charlotte wants him back, far too much time has passed.  Charlotte did say to Hunter the other day Zac was a good man, seems like she has been sussing him out.  Well he's now effectively a family man, lovely finacee, good job, clean as in drugs free.  It's been done before but could she be dying and she's wanting Zac and by extension Leah to take him in when she does die?

Shame no-one else believed VJ who seemed to be the only one to cotton on it was Hunter who pushed Josh down the stairs and although lighter than Hunter wasn't afraid to stand up to him, not so much a punch more of a shove. Oscar put two and two together with his remark that he, Evie and Hunter were cousins.

Andy handled the 'baby sitting' well and I liked his remark about not knowing about him as well. Seemed Charlotte hadn't had many (if any) boyfriends in the past. Andy is a lot bigger than Hunter so he took the wise choice not to push it when he wanted to leave and Andy blocked his way. If Andy does break it off with Charlotte does that leave the way open for him and Hannah to get back together?

[atrus]

Although her story seemed credible to a point, I still don't believe a word that comes out of Charlotte's mouth - so I'm fully prepared for this to all be part of some long con and that Hunter isn't related to Zac at all. That and/or she's making a play for Zac, judging by the wistful looks she was giving him on Friday.

Aside from looking eight years older than he's supposed to be (and I get why they don't cast 15/16-year-olds, but why not 18-year-olds?), Hunter just seems poorly characterised. On Wednesday he was a total brat, relishing in making a public spectacle of Zac - then by Thursday he was all "I want to make things right/get to know my dad." (Wasn't at all sure what to make of the tonal shift-to-heartwarming; if they're setting up Hunter as a long-term proposition, they're going to have to provide some better justification for his actions before they start trotting out the touching father/son bonding-over-basketball moments.) And by Friday he was behaving disgustingly again, despite Leah's best efforts to build bridges (and if there was any part of him that wasn't sociopathic, surely he'd be overcompensating by this point for having burned her house to the ground?)

Anyway, I'm glad that Leah was understanding towards Zac for the most part. She was even determined to forgive Hunter for his totally unnecessary (and surely counterproductive, if he really wants to be part of Zac's life) rudeness towards her. But I don't blame her for thinking there's more to Charlotte's actions than meets the eye.

Yawn at the study-drugs. Josh's zombie-moment in the garden was almost as disconcerting as Kyle's a few days ago. And judging by whatever Braxton craziness was going on in the promo, I might give Monday a wide berth - or just have it on while I'm doing the washing-up. 

[Red Ranger 1]

Alf's episode count this week: Five! Roo was also in all five, although she was only in the background without dialogue on Thursday.Maddy and Matt were in two but didn't seem to have any audible dialogue on Wednesday.Denny was only in one.

Ah well, stability is restored, Hunter really is a psychopath. Hopefully. Zac seems to be burying his head in the sand and ignoring the likelihood of wrongdoing on Hunter's part.I get that he wants to make up for the years he's missed, but he needs to face up to the fact that his son really doesn't seem to be a very nice person.I don't think Leah did the situation any good by pandering to Zac's delusions and keeping quiet about the contempt Hunter showed her.I have to wonder what on earth Hunter's trying to achieve: He apparently wants to spend time with Zac, but isn't interested in anyone else?What's he going to do, clobber him on the head, drive him out to the outback and force him to play basketball with him?I'm not sure if that scene between Matt and Hunter was meant to convince us that Matt sorted himself out so Hunter can too or not. Aside from being a drug dealer for one episode, Matt was nothing more than a jerk and a bully at his worst, not the sociopathic narcissist that Hunter seems to be.

So, Josh decides to be an idiot again.Having him stagger around the back yard breathing heavily did prompt a "Didn't we have this scene two episodes ago?" At least he remembers the police exist, remains to be seen if he can be sensible.

I quite liked the Roo/Maddy/James scenes, I always enjoyi watching Maddy and it was nice to get a reminder of some aspects of her history and to hear that she's still committed to the nursing.(It would be nice to get a definitive end to her cancer storyline though! She talks here as though her hospital visits are over but has she got the all clear or not?!)A nice little moment of her being concerned for Leah as well.

[Slade]

When I saw the preview of part of the scene with Leah and Hunter I didn't think I would like it and when I actually watched it my initial assumption was correct.  I felt slightly uncomfortable and I was shaking my head and rolling my eyes at Hunter's rudeness and coldness towards Leah.  I actually ended up feeling sorry for her.  She looked quite hurt in the scene with Matt afterwards.  And I said this already but I really, really don't like him.

Judging by the way Charlotte was looking at Zac during their conversation at the Diner I'm going to assume that she does in fact want him back or at the very least is seriously considering it now.  So perhaps she didn't cool things with Andy because she didn't want to arouse any suspicion after the truth about Hunter came out which revealed the disingenuous way she reintroduced herself into Zac's life and befriended Leah.  Just seeing Matt again it reminded me about his fling with Charlotte.  I couldn't understand her then and I especially can't understand it now given that the plan was to introduce Hunter to his father and Matt is the same age give or take a couple of years.

So Simon has Facebook stalked Maddy.  To me that seems as though he's trying too hard.  I think Alf cottoned onto that previously which I guess is partly the reason for his attitude towards Simon initially.  I don't think there's anything sinister about it but I would have thought it would be better to get to know her and find things out about her on the spot and discuss rather than doing his homework and having something prepared.  So I guess he really likes Roo and went to the trouble because he wants to get everything right and doesn't want to mess anything up.  Found myself laughing when Maddy was telling him about her preference for nursing as opposed to medicine.  I was waiting for the reveal about the big C and Simon to get on his knees and pay homage about her bravery.  It didn't happen though.  It was good to see Simon spend time with Roo at the Diner without the presence of Marilyn or Irene.

[H&Alover]

I guess that was a deliberate error on your part Slade calling James Simon!   Guess it must just me who was made uneasy by the thought of James looking up Maddy on her FB page, I know he was upfront with it, but she is  still a young teenage girl who he has just met.  I was thinking the same and her cancer, has she been told she is in remission or are we just meant to assume she is?

I was nearly falling for Charlotte and her story about just wanting Hunter to get to know his dad and not wanting to get back with him, until that look she gave him when he wasn't looking. Is Hunter being hostile towards Leah because he wants Zac and Charlotte back together so he can have a 'proper' family? I suppose Leah didn't say anything to Zac about his attitude towards her so as not to rock the boat, it's early days for him and Hunter and is not wanting to  make it seem she's jealous. She does need to wary about Charlotte, but has to play it right, not come across as too suspicious as that would play straight into Charlotte's hands.

It was nice she felt able to confide in Matt and his defending her by warning Hunter off shows how much he thinks of her and appreciates how much she has done for him.  He's a lot more street wise than VJ so his quite threat 'you hurt her, I'll hurt you' went a lot further than VJ's physical attack.  Not content with that he also warned, a tad belatedly, Josh about dealing (sorry) with Damo remembering him from his Mango River days. Was a rather de je vu moment with Josh staggering around the garden, but he was lucky it wasn't  a lot worse. I'd like to think Josh would do the right thing, yes, he's used illegal drugs, but Damo has been selling them and the next kid who tries this latest lot may not be so lucky as Josh.

[Red Ranger 1]

I found myself violently disliking Ash and Phoebe at the start.(They've actually made me start look forward to scenes with Hannah and Evelyn: I had another "Oh no!" moment when I forgot who lives at the farm these days and thought the establishing shot was leading in to a Josh/Evelyn scene.)They'd rather get another quickie in than put Kyle out of his misery, despite knowing how sick he is.I wish Ricky had had more of a go at them, although I understand that a friendly word would be more effective.Anyway, once Phoebe did go and see Kyle, they surprisingly slipped back into being relaxed around each other very quickly.Taking him for a walk was a really bad idea though given his condition.So if Kyle's in renal failure, does that mean he needs a kidney transplant?Could be an interesting long-running storyline if so.I'm not sure what exactly Nate was meant to have hidden from Kat since she already knew everything important, yet it's treated like a big revelation.I must admit I cheered when Kat yelled at Ricky, given how smugly superior she was acting.

There are times when Matt's a good person to have around...and times, like here, when he gives incredibly bad advice.Josh should have ignored him and gone to the police earlier, then he could have explained things to Evelyn on his own terms and things might not have escalated so much.(Ironically, things started to go wrong between Josh and Maddy because Matt convinced him to keep secrets from her, although here the secret itself was pretty destructive.)A nice scene between Roo and Evelyn increases the feel of the caravan park crowd as a makeshift family, and it also means Evelyn's getting more stuff with Alf.Despite the melodramatic promo, Damo isn't the most threatening of villains.He even waits for Evelyn to leave before confronting Josh!

[Brian]

Agree with you Red. There was so much chemistry between Kyle and Phoebe in the hospital, just like they were before. I'd still like to see them back together again. So if it does turn out to be Kyle's baby, that might be a good excuse/reason for them to get back together. Maybe Ash might not be able to handle that. Anyway what is Phoebe doing for money these days? Is she still working in Angelo's? Haven't seen her there lately.

One thing that does worry me is the paternity test coming up soon. Surely for that to work they have to get a sample from the baby. A needle into the foetus? Couldn't that be really dangerous?

Feel very sorry for Josh. Doesn't look as though he can do anything right. He's only trying to improve himself and really make something of his life. Evie could have given him another chance, if she really loved him.