Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[atrus]

As Denny rips up The Note, it looks like Brax's not-deadness has been buried again for the time being. But no doubt Denny, Billie and Brax himself remain highly volatile quantities in this regard; and I can't envisage it not cropping up again before all's said and done.

The scenes between Ash and Kyle in the hospital were surprising and really rather refreshing, with the usual macho bulldust nowhere in evidence for once. Not sure exactly what it was that Ash mumbled about Kyle's six-pack, but in any case it constituted enough of a love-in for me to reconsider my comments from Thursday about cavemen, clubs and tape-measures.

So Nate and Kat's story seemed to come to a natural resting point for the week, much to my relief. James and Mr Emergency Medicine seemed fairly reasonable - they understood why Nate did what he did, but were also fairly clear that he'd messed up. A month's suspension seemed reasonable, but judging by current evidence I'm not sure Kat and Nate are going to last out that long.

[H&Alover]

Strictly speaking it wasn't Denny's secret to reveal, she's just got caught up in it. Ash could see what it would do to Ricky if she'd been told and I suppose he feels partly guilty for Brax 'dying' so wants them both to make new lives for themselves. But as you said atrus there is still Billie who knows or has she forgotten about it now? As it turned out Ricky herself made the decision for Denny by admitting she did have feelings for Nate and wondering if she should have stayed with him when Brax came back. I think then she did make the right decision, it would have been more of a rebound romance with her and Nate than a proper one. Hope she waits a while before letting Nate know, she does have to be really sure.

Did I miss something because I'm sure they had settled the who was going to donate the kidney talk on Friday?  Yet last night it appeared the doctors  were  looking for alternative donors then deciding no it's going to be Ash. Phoebe was only reacting the way any loved one would if that person was thinking of donating a kidney be it to a stranger or other relative/friend. She had seemed fine, but then all of a sudden it was really going to happen. Ash could be the father of her child and as James admitted Ash's recovery will be longer than Kyle's, there are risks and if his remaining kidney fails/gets damaged he'd could be the one needing a transplant. I do have to say Ash is going above and beyond the call of friendship, do you reckon it's down to the reason I mentioned above - guilt. Good to see Kyle and Ash reconciled. I thought Ash meant Kyle owed him a six pack!

James may have a dodgy private life, but he's a good doctor and as he hasn't known Nate long he was able to be completely impartial in his judgement and I think his and the Head of Emergency's decision was the right one, a months suspension and I dare say he will be monitored when he gets back. I don't think Ricky's interruption was helpful, no matter if what he did was right or wrong at the time, he should have followed up the home treatment even Kyle wasn't showing any worrying symptoms.

Was there another error because I thought I heard Kat say she'd go with Nate and wait for him and she seemed to take it OK when she heard Ricky was there. Be interesting, if we see it, how their break away together will go.  Kat mentioned taking holiday leave but wouldn't she be on sick leave, although she doesn't look like she needs it.

[Red Ranger 1]

Leah is on a complete hiding to nothing here.If she tries to ban Zac from seeing Hunter, then she looks like the bad guy, but having him spend time with him and being put second all the time is clearly tearing her apart.And Zac continues to be blind to his maybe-son's manipulation.(Looks like the DNA test's been forgotten about...)Interesting that Charlotte isn't pretending to believe Hunter's lies anymore, although she's careful not to say anything in front of Zac and she seemed very quick to encourage Zac to stay longer.She's taking a bit of a risk telling Andy she still loves Zac but maybe she thinks she can turn it to her advantage.Good to again see Alf being fatherly towards Leah, there really doesn't seem to be any "them and us" in that household.

The kidney transplant...happened, but I guess that's preferable to some false drama where something goes wrong.(The promo turns out to have been misleading in that regard.) Phoebe's assessment of the paternity was curious even if she did have a point and I guess it's good that she's thinking about what's best for the baby when it's not necessarily best for her.

Nice call back to the days of John running the school bus (back in Gina's days as principal, I think?) and he can surely put up with dealing with Greg for a bit.

[atrus]

Good to see Kyle and Ash reconciled. I thought Ash meant Kyle owed him a six pack!

Yes, I'm sure that was it!  Sweet as their scene was, I think that the pursuit of Kash as a storyline is something we aren't going to be seeing for quite some time yet...!

Onto Tuesday - and if H&A ever gets round to releasing a range of 6" articulated action figures (and I wish it would, by the way, because that would be brilliant), I swear that the Ricky one is going to be packaged with a free hospital waiting room surround: she seems to do nothing except stand around there at the moment. Hopefully the conclusion of this transplant storyline will finally get her some respite - for a few days, at least.

"Ever since I found out I was pregnant, it's just been one thing after another." Well, hang on a minute, there, Phoebe - it's been one thing after another for a fair bit longer than that. I'm not sure she's right that Kyle would be the better father for the baby; Ash might still be getting used to the idea, but he's more mature than Kyle in lots of respects, and more level-headed. Still, I think Phoebe and Kyle make the better couple.

So we're back with Leah, Zac and Psycho-Spawn. I feel that Leah requesting Hunter doesn't come to the house has neutered storyline opportunities somewhat - but it didn't stop him staging a drowning to elicit some extra time with Daddy Dearest. Once again, though, the fact that viewers know he's capable of that doesn't really justify Leah suspecting it immediately - even if Charlotte, who is surely wise to his games by now, can probably get away with jumping to that conclusion.

The whole 'Zac and Hunter have fun on the beach' scene was a bit cringy, so that at one point I was expecting them to break out the sandcastles; Hunter isn't ten years old, and doesn't need to be supervised on a public beach (well, not for his own safety, at least), as Zac seemed to imply when he called him in from the sea. But with even Andy deciding that Charlotte is desperate to rekindle her relationship with Zac - and her own wistful gazing at that photo at the end seeming to confirm it - where will this leave Leah?

[Red Ranger 1]

So, we get an explanation for all those references to "this week being hard".Again, am I being overly suspicious about Charlotte sitting out in the open crying so she can conveniently tug on Zac's heart strings and then offhandedly drop Leah in it?Alf should have steered clear really, not sure how I feel about him saying Leah's "like a daughter to me", their interaction recently has been heading in that direction but it seems a bit soon even if they have known each other donkeys years.Did Zac not see Leah when he was on the wharf?He seemed to look right at her.Leah's decision at the end is disappointing but in a way she's been forced into a corner: Hunter won't accept her, Zac won't reject him, might as well cut to the chase.

John should have been better prepared for his meeting with Greg rather than relying on being able to wow him with a charismatic speech, although it seems like Greg was planning to give him a hard time whatever he said.If the DoCS lady turned up an hour early as was implied, it seemed a bit harsh for her to bail as soon as Marilyn turned up, and presumably be early for her next meeting as well.Maybe she felt she'd seen enough?Anyway, nice of Greg to give them a second chance and seems like there's the beginning of a friendship between him and John.

So, if neither Josh nor Andy nor Evelyn sent for the HSC course pack, who did? Ricky? Zac? Maddy? I do wonder if Andy did send off for it after all but said he didn't as an excuse to get Josh and Evie talking.Anyway, it seems Evie is willing to forgive but not forget and quickly backed off when they began drifting too far towards couple territory.

[atrus]

A bit of a meh sort of episode, with Josh's interminable romance and HSC woes taking up rather more airtime than I would've liked. And while the John/Snelgrove scenes were quite amusing, the sooner Marilyn and John get a foster-family going, the better, I feel - they've really lost their way a bit in storyline terms since Jett left.

I must confess to enjoying the Hunter storyline even if (and perhaps because) he is a total psycho. So who's placing bets on him having bumped off Grandad because he was sick of fishing? I was surprised at the haste of Leah's decision to call off her engagement to Zac - I'm not sure anything they've been through of late really merited that. Hoping she'll change her mind soon.

It strikes me as interesting that the paternity test storyline for Hunter seems to have been dropped for now. Probably a fair sign that his paternity will rear its head again at some point in the far future, when Zac least expects it.

[Brian]

Good thinking Atrus. Hunter might have bumped off his granddad because he was sick of fishing. But why then did he agree to go fishing with Zac? Just to be close to him for an hour or so? Perhaps he'll try to bump off Zac as well, as he is such a psycho!  But then he does want a father in his life.  Poor Charlotte, having to deal with that for a son. She seems to be doing the best she can and is desperate to get some help.

However I disagree with you Atrus about Ash being more mature than Kyle. Kyle has been through a lot of turmoil in his life, foster parents, then fitting in with "brothers" in Summer Bay, relationships with the mighty mouse and then Phoebe, all the time holding a job down in the restaurant and then becoming the manager  and doing a bloody good job of it as well. Hardly anything ever goes wrong there. That's maturity for you  What has Ash done in his life?????

[atrus]

Fair points, but I think I'm thinking less of their life achievements (in which case Kyle does win hands down, Ash having apparently been in jail for most of his) and more of the way they conduct themselves day-to-day. I just find that Kyle comes across as quite unreasonable, sometimes violent and often prone to temper-tantrums, whereas Ash seems a little wiser and more restrained/chilled out. Granted we haven't seen as much of Ash, though, and as a member of the Braxtons Plus, we might well see him develop more of those characteristics as time goes on.

[TessyBear]

Thank you Dan F! A bit embarrassing.  Thank you.  Anyway as I was saying...

Hi! I'm a returnee (as you might be able to tell from my username and sig. )

I decided to call it a day a few years ago when the "Braxton take-over" was in full swing. I just got so fed up.

Anyhoo I recently returned (when they were in the discussions about how to break Daryl out of prison the fools) and it's been pretty good so far! Hunter obviously is a troubled young man (to put it mildly. I feel we overuse the word psycho) but apart from that everyone else is cool! I could live without Ash too and sometimes Kyle oh and Ricki of late obviously Chris too but apart from those guys everyone else is cool!!

I do have a theory about James that I wanted to share with you guys. Speaking of which how cute were those "I love you"s on Friday?! It was a bit weird what Roo was saying about Alf although I have been away for a while. Is he really that strict or whatever? Anyway so my theory is: James clearly did something when he was a lot younger (and stupider probably too) that was dodgy. That's probably why he doesn't want Roo to meet his Mum and family and why too he didn't want to discuss the issue with Denny. I don't know about the severity of this thing however and it's pretty clear now that James is all good! He's sorted his life out and he's become a doctor he's fallen in love with our lovely Roo and vice versa!!  It's all good!! I for one really like James! I look forward to seeing him and Roo together each week! Now I hope TPTB don't decide to ruin this lovely new character they've given us in James. I really hope they don't decide to dredge up all this negative stuff from James' past and ruin his character and his budding romance with Roo just for the sake of it.

My theory on how Denny knows is that she saw it in the paper or on the local news. If she was a witness she'd remember more clearly what happened right? That's what I think anyway.

The stuff in the most recent ep. with Zac and Leah was pretty heartbreaking. Especially at the end.  It makes it worse because we all know what a twisted freak Hunter is. There's all the mind games and the fact that he's a young arsonist. "Never meant to burn the whole house down". I mean what did he think was gonna happen?? Anyway if Zac doesn't tell Leah that Charlotte and Hunter are going away for a few days anyway and he just accepts that she's released him he's sure gonna have egg on his face when the truth inevitably comes out about his brand new son huh?

No but seriously, just for the record I am upset that it looks like Zac and Leah are gonna break up. I really like Zac as a character "Wheely wheely glad you came!" How hilarious was that?!! And Zac gets along really well with VJ and vice versa which is really cool and VJ's not a freak. I do think Leah and Zac's relationship is lovely too! They really genuinely do love each other and they handled the whole "arson attack" really well and Oscar and Evie moving in too and just everything!!  Anyway the bottom line is: Zac really does truly love Leah and he's actually had a genuine revelation about that right. I was watching unofficially for a few weeks before I came back and started recording on TiVo like I do with all my other shows. I saw when he was gonna leave Leah and VJ and all that stuff before the proposal(s)!  I hope TPTB don't screw up this amazing couple and also that Zac comes to his senses and doesn't accept Leah's decision from the end of this ep.

So we're back with Leah, Zac and Psycho-Spawn

I did enjoy that!!

I do think it's cool that Kyle Pryor is English and I do love Nate although his made some pretty rubbish decisions all across the board lately.

I thought they might make more of a big deal about the girly share farmhouse than they have so far. I thought that was a brilliant idea! Share houses are a lot of fun!! I did love Denny's impression of Nate when he was there with Kat and Hannah was throwing up. That was fuuuuny!!  At first I was a little offended but then I saw the funny side! 

And finaly: This whole pregnancy storyline... I really like Phoebe but I don't think much of her relationship with Ash tbh. The chemistry's not great I'd say and Phoebe discussed with Ricki the other day how she thinks Ash isn't keen on becoming a Dad which we know to be correct. He told Ricki right? Plus he's said some pretty dumb things:"I don't wanna look after another baby". Really Ashford??? I mean how utterly stupid and selfish and rage inducing was Ash's reaction when Phoebe told him the news? Good old Ricki for stepping in there! If the baby was to be revealed as Kyle's it could pave the way for a reunion there. Phoebe and Kyle were good I thought just before this whole thing with her and Ash!

[atrus]

It seems like forever since we've been with Maddy, Oscar and Matt, who've had precious little to do lately - so no real surprise to see what looks like another almighty love triangle kicking off here. I'm not going to moan about that this time, because they're the bread-and-butter of soaps after all - and this one feels like a rare occasion when I'd be invested in all three characters involved. I enjoyed the Matt and Maddy scenes - whether it's matey or couple-y, I  don't know, but they undeniably have a great on-screen chemistry. I'm almost regretful to say that, because I also think Maddy and Oscar are a very sweet couple with a lot going for them. But I guess an Accidental Sofa Moment never lies. I was a little surprised that Oscar wasn't suspicious when he walked in, given their positioning - but blissful ignorance is often the defining trait of the hypotenuse.
 
Very relieved that Leah changed her mind about breaking up with Zac, but it's a sorry state of affairs when it takes a pleading VJ (at Alf's suggestion) to force the issue. If they were going to tease a break-up, I think they should've waited until further into the Charlotte/Hunter arc and then done it properly - Leah definitely jumped too soon, then again the next day to reverse the decision. I don't believe their problems surrounding Hunter are insurmountable; Zac simply needs to make it a precondition of his relationship with Hunter that he treats Leah fairly and politely. It's not rocket-science, and if Hunter cares that much about seeing his dad, he'd have no choice but to eventually fall into line.

Poor Hannah - just when she summons up the courage to admit out loud that she likes Chris, she sees him pashing a random. Still, at least we're seeing some movement on this storyline now. Hopefully Chris will realise his mistake before it's too late.