Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[H&Alover]

22 hours ago, H&Alover said:

PS to the above Evie and Oscar must be coming up to their 18th birthdays, they joined two years ago and they were both turned 16 while is the sect when they were due to be 'married' in that weird ceremony.

How spooky was that!  Jem asked Evie how old she was and she said she was 17 soon to be 18.  Was there a reason why Jem asked as in Tank was known for dating younger girls (I'm guessing he may be 18)?  Of course Tank would say what he did when questioned by Evie about what Jem said.  I do have to admit the other lads did behave themselves, practically ignoring her in fact apart from when of them offered her a drink.  Yes Leah did overreact with her stressing about Evelyn being brought home on time and her insisting on waiting outside for her, how embarrassing. He was very good with his excuse for not arriving until the dot of 11pm, almost too good, like he's had practice at it.   But, as I said before neither Leah or Zac know Tank or anything about him, not in the way they knew Josh.

The study session went better than I thought it would, Josh behaved himself and kept his mouth shut, then after he left of course Tank made that remark to Maddy and she was right it wasn't so much what he said it was the way he said it. It can't be said she was suspicious of him (like Oscar is) not long before that she was defending him to Oscar so was in team Tank. I suppose she felt she ought to tell Oscar about the unprotected sex after that.  Actually I think Leah would ask Evie to cool a new relationship, which is when you want to see that person as much you can,  whoever it was with, what with her HSC coming up, she'd likely do the same with Oscar and especially VJ, it is only for a couple of weeks. I think Roo would be the same with Maddy. Once a relationship has cooled from the initial fervour, the desire to see a someone new (in this case a couple of weeks) isn't so intense.   How many other times have we seen parents/guardians asking their kids to hold off seeing their boyfriends/girlfriends until the exams are over? Tank definitely didn't take the news well, but maybe that was because Evie asked him about what he said to Maddy first.  It would certainly make me think a bit seeing him get so uptight over a simple request, she didn't even get to finish what she was trying to say. Maybe we will find out more tonight as we see the confrontation between Greg and Tank/Wayne on the beach.

I thought the whole goodbye ceremony was very well done, it would only be naturally difficult  for anyone to try and express what you wanted to say without falling back on the old clichés and platitudes.  Ash was right it didn't have to be anything fancy or long winded, just to speak from your heart which is what she did, had to smile when the others kind of smirked when Phoebe said Ash had helped her with the speech, almost as if just because he isn't usually the deep thinking kind he's incapable of doing just that.  Kind of typical of Kyle to write a song, and said just what he needed to say. I'm with Red about Kyle being sensitive enough  to be able to compose and write lyrics the way he does against his violent side, as Red also said he's a complex guy. Ricky naturally would be there she would have been a kind of aunty, but also good to see Kat, Nate, Hannah and Chris who had his sensitive head on.

I did catch the look Ricky gave Nate, as did Kat which made me wonder  if that is the real reason why Kat called round to see Ricky saying she's OK with Nat and her being friends, more like heading her off at the pass imo and that hug didn't ring true either.

[TessyBear]

Oh yeah!! Forgot to mention in my post just before that I think Kat is playing the whole "Friends close and enemies closer" game with Ricky. I'm back on board with Kat and Nate again! But Ricky yeah and A. Roo's (for once unhelpful) comment about her and Nate. Although Roo didn't know that Kat and Nate were thinking about reuniting when she was talking to Ricky. Anyway yeah weird situation. Gotta keep an eye on that Ricky.

 

Speaking of Ricky's one of these who atm. just exists to get in the middle of other characters storylines' without having a single one of her own. Well apart from the whole thing with Nate a few weeks ago but that seems to have been tabled for now.

 

*nods head* Watch this space Kat.

 

OK so now I really am off to enjoy today's eppy!! 

 

Ciao peoples.

[H&Alover]

15 hours ago, atrus said:

The point I'm making is this and only this: that, without going into the anatomical differences of which I think we're all aware, there are clear biological reasons why the male-on-female rape statistics are far higher than that of female-on-male. Hence there is an element of physical threat in male-on-female harassment or assault which is much reduced the other way around.

To be clear, I'm not saying sexual harassment of any employee by anyone of any gender is acceptable - far from it (and certainly not of any teenage school pupil, by any teacher, which is abhorrent). What I'm saying is that statistically, a male-on-female encounter of that description is more likely to end in some kind of assault or rape - and therefore a female victim of such an approach is more likely to be seriously traumatised and upset by their ordeal. Therefore men need to be doubly mindful about how they approach such situations. Not saying the reverse can't or doesn't happen, because it does - simply that it's statistically less likely. And I think objectively speaking, that's difficult to deny. I'm saying all this, by the way, as a man who could definitely describe previous behaviour directed towards me at work as sexual harassment. So I'm not saying it's only ever a male-on-female thing.

I completely get your point atrus, it is normally male on female sexual harassment we hear about, mainly due because when it's physical men are stronger than women, but women can use different methods to  harass men and sadly men are less likely to report it as to them it makes them feel less of a man as well ashamed so it can traumatise them a lot more than a woman by feeling they have to keep quiet. It's also much more difficult to prove if there is no physical signs of an assault/rape. Other men friends of a guy being harassed by a woman may find it amusing and would go as far as to suggest they wish it had been them, especially if the woman was good looking and that's from a females point of view so not being sexist.

[Red Ranger 1]

10 hours ago, Changelo shipper <3 said:

What was that whole thing about Maddy and Oscar having a pregnancy scare? When M seduced him just for the sake of it or whatever it was that one of you lovely people told me about? 

Ooh!! So what happened to Oscar then? It's still very sobering [literally] to wake up and think you've run someone over and have those shocking thoughts running through your mind! Even when you find out it wasn't you. I think this all happened long before he got together with Leah right?

Yes and yes. Maddy had a pregnancy test come back positive, she wasn't sure if Josh or Oscar was the father since she'd slept with both of them in the preceding nine months and wasn't sure of the conception date, then when she went for the ultrasound it turned out she had cancer.Oscar, typically, got community service (and a whole load of depression) for the hit and run.And it was long before Zac and Leah.Character profiles on the main site!

http://www.backtothebay.net/characters/zac-macguire/

http://www.backtothebay.net/characters/oscar-macguire/

Anyway, today, and finally confirmation that Tank is Greg's son.So...we hear both Tank and Greg's version of events and I suspect we're meant to believe Greg.I'm not sure how to feel about all this.I don't want Greg to be the bad guy, I may have said this before but he's the most competent principal we've had since at least Sally, possibly Paris. But I don't want Tank to be the bad guy either, I want him to be more than some bad boy who's there to show Evelyn she was better off with Josh.Tank did seem to look through the window and see Evelyn before going into the Diner and he could have got someone to hit him for the bruise.The row with Greg on the beach would have been harder to stage though, and despite saying he's never hit him he does seem to grab hold of him.The dates given here seem to suggest Tank's around 20.His going to TAFE does suggest some attempt to better himself. Leah is on a hiding to nothing: Evelyn's not going to listen if she tries and splits them up, so sitting back and hoping for the best might be her best option.Loved VJ's reaction.Is he working at the gelato bar?His talk of "work" confused me a bit.

Loved the Kyle/Ricky scenes, especially his teasing her about trying to get out of the lunch.Recent experience has made him over-protective of Casey but perhaps not excessively so.Kat kissing Nate after Ricky laughed at one of his jokes felt a bit like trying to stake a claim; I think Pete picked up on something too, when he made that comment to Ricky about nothing coming between them I think he meant her.Mind you, the looks Ricky's giving him with Casey seem to suggest she mainly wants a father for her child.Chris hooking up with Hannah hasn't made him as central as I hoped but it has provided a route for him to interact with more characters, even if we do still get him hanging around the Diner for Nate and Ricky to make fun of.I loved his scene with Ash and he turns out to be spot on.

[Brian]

Just found out that H&A is going to be off for 5 weeks over Christmas. Woe is me!!!! How can I have a happy Christmas without kyle and Josh and Phoebe and Hannah and Maddy and VJ and .................................................................................................................?

[atrus]

Aside from some fairly standard 'wars of the sexes' fare chez Phoebe, and the continuing bore-fest that is the Kat/Nate/Ricky triangle (so Ricky's a photographer, is she? Genuinely news to me, and reminds me how seldom we've ever seen her do any form of work whatsoever), the last couple of episodes have been very watchable indeed, I thought.

Good that we're finally getting some more detail about this mysterious new principal who we've seen so little of. While I'm more inclined to trust Snelgrove's account of things than Twerk's, I was reminded that we actually know next to nothing about the father either - and there's enough ambiguity in the son's behaviour to keep him interesting. Like Red, I don't want him to turn out to be a 2D plot device designed to reunite Evie with Josh, who's a far inferior character in just about every respect, save the name. And speaking of names, is it really plausible that Evie wouldn't have asked what Tank's surname was by now? Probably not, but she seems so carefree about every other aspect of him that I suppose we should hardly be surprised.

Again, hypocrisy abounded from absolutely everyone ranting about the evils of not using protection - not least Oscar, who might as well have been a virgin judging by the pious tone with which he dropped Evie in it, and Zac, who (at least, we're led to believe) spawned Hunter by accident when he and Charlotte were very young. At least Maddy's attitude on this score had become a little more nuanced than it was when she first found out. But then Evie cranked things up a gear by lying (very poorly) to Zac and Leah to the effect she'd broken up with Tank, before diving headlong back into his questionable world. I feel this can only end in tears.

As for Maddy and Oscar's row, I can understand why she was hurt, but I also think Oscar didn't actually criticise her, tactless as his phrasing perhaps was. He didn't say she was easy - just that sex was less of a big deal for Maddy, having had more experience than Evie. And there's nothing wrong with her having had more experience; as she more or less admitted herself, Maddy's hurt really stems not from what Oscar said, but from the societal double standard that men are allowed to have as many sexual partners as they want, and women aren't. The result being that Maddy feels ashamed of her past, even though she absolutely shouldn't have to.

While no doubt Oscar ought to have thought before he spoke, it felt like this row was manufactured primarily to start pushing Matt and Maddy closer again. And I almost hate to say it, but the chemistry between the latter pair was spot-on again. So from the writers' perspective, quite why Matt landed up back with Charlotte by the end of the episode was a mystery to me; it just seems like we're going round in circles.

    Out flew the web and floated wide -
    The mirror crack'd from side to side;
    "The curse is come upon me," cried
        The Lady of Charlotte.

(Well, almost.)

What, will these hands ne'er be clean? Certainly not if she keeps chatting away to Evie on Face-space, or whatever the in-house generic social network is called. It's only a matter of time before she either says something that gives the game away, or has to stop responding in order to avoid doing so, which in itself will look highly suspect. But I'm finding her gradually more compelling as a character as we get into some really murky, tortured-soul territory with her. I particularly like how Denny's ghost keeps popping up. Meanwhile, Charlotte now seems to be totally indiscriminate in terms of who she's trying to seduce. I can't for the life of me think why she'd want to further risk her position by continuing an affair which she knows could cost her her job. It's almost like she's in self-destruct mode.

[Red Ranger 1]

I get the feeling we were meant to support Oscar in his opinion of Tank, but he just came across as a jerk, with the way he announced "Evelyn had unprotected sex with Tank" in the same tone of voice he would have said "Tank pushed Evelyn down the stairs and broke her arm." Leah and Zac seem to have crossed over, with Leah realising that laying down the law to Evelyn won't work and Zac suddenly thinking that banning her from seeing her new boyfriend is even an option.At least we got a mention of STIs, although the fact it came in the middle of an incoherent rant meant the issue was kind of skirted over.In a sense, the fact Leah and Zac saw through Evelyn's lie doesn't matter: They've basically done Tank's work for him, turning her against them, and communication between them has broken down.I really liked the scene between Maddy and Evelyn at the beginning of the episode: Maddy doesn't back down, notably failing to respond when Evelyn tells her to admit she made up Tank flirting with her, but does do her best to remain on good terms and keep the lines of communication talking.The others could learn a lot from Mads here.

Except then it's her turn to overreact when she rightly points out Oscar's being a hypocrite, only to accuse him of calling her easy when he didn't really do anything of the sort.It seemed to be a pure case of Oscar being in a hole and forgetting to stop digging, as he does a knee jerk "That's different!" then has to try and justify it.Some of what he said was true (but irrelevant), some wasn't.It's true that Evelyn sleeping with Tank probably meant more to her than Maddy sleeping with Oscar the first time round meant to her, although I'm not sure what proves.But how is Maddy "more experienced"?The only person she'd slept with prior to that was Josh, who she was dating.So...exactly the same as Evelyn.Evelyn is just as experienced as Maddy was then, frankly she's just as experienced as Maddy is now.Oscar's later claim that Evelyn is more naïve...depends on the storyline.Maddy is definitely not easy: She was with Spencer for years without sleeping with him, she waited with Josh, she waited with Oscar second time round.Oscar is more easy than her.Matt is turning into the town slut...Ah yes, Matt, the real reason for this contrived argument.I am trying very hard not to react to this but, trying to be objective, it seemed like Matt's priority was cheering up Maddy rather than smoothing things over between her and Oscar.Oscar would have been better off talking to Maddy himself (and once he did make a heartfelt apology it was cleared up pretty quickly) than trusting it to a friend who has his own stake in matters.Maddy presumably has forgotten that Matt said stuff just as bad to her deliberately a few weeks ago. Maybe I'm resisting it but I think Matt and Maddy have an at best very ordinary chemistry.Like Ash and Phoebe, the fact they worked well together as friends does not mean they should be a couple or that they'd work as one.I'm not seeing anything that would justify throwing away the months spent building up Maddy and Oscar and establishing them as a different but solid couple, just for a relationship reshuffle that would give us a bland identikit pairing.I know Matt has his fans but I've always found him a bit of a by-the-numbers Bad Boy With Soft Side character.

Talking of which, we have Barrett struggling with the concept that other people feel guilt.He's now justified his letting an innocent person suffer with "Billie's getting the help she needs": Well, Andy, if you think the best thing for troubled young people is to be locked up on criminal charges, maybe you should have given Hunter "the help he needs" instead of letting him run around loose so more people got hurt? My main problem with Charlotte unravelling is that it feels like they're making her the bad one to try and excuse Hunter.To be honest, I just want them both gone, which I think comes from a fear that someone's going to try and foist a redemption storyline on us.Mind you, if she does hook up with Matt again, at least it keeps him away from Maddy, so that's a plus.

[TessyBear]

On 11/25/2015, 12:57:18, Red Ranger 1 said:

Yes and yes. Maddy had a pregnancy test come back positive, she wasn't sure if Josh or Oscar was the father since she'd slept with both of them in the preceding nine months and wasn't sure of the conception date, then when she went for the ultrasound it turned out she had cancer.Oscar, typically, got community service (and a whole load of depression) for the hit and run.And it was long before Zac and Leah.Character profiles on the main site!

Oh boy! Just gets better this thing with Maddy!  Oh right then that was when the cancer storyline began. Was it something to do with the cancer that made the test turn out positive? Boy that's rough!!  Ah community service. Although he was trying to help/save Uncle Z at the end of the day. Oh well community service is fair I suppose. Thanks for the link to the profiles. I might give them a perusal when it's not 01:00 in the morning.

 

Loved VJ's reaction.Is he working at the gelato bar?His talk of "work" confused me a bit.

Now allow me to return the favour - It's something like that isn't it. He's working with/for John.

Though I do kinda have another question to ask now: In light of this new info. about the pregnancy scare Maddy still thinks what she did with Oscar was legitimate? By that I mean that it was a desirable experience? I mean even if I don't agree with what E and T did on top of that mountain and that it was very very fast they did both make the decision to both do it together, you know because they're attracted to each other. This was not the case with Oscar and Maddy's first time yes? Am I missing the point a bit? I just don't understand how Maddy can compare those two first time experiences?? One was not borne out of romantic feelings and the other was right? How is that comparable?

I do recall saying I believed Maddy to be promiscuous during the early stages of her relationship with Josh. I have a contention: The thing about men never getting labeled - I wouldn't say I'm in that category. I might be in the minority here but I don't believe it's right for men to sleep with many women just as I don't believe it's right for women to sleep with many men.

I just wanna go on record as saying I know Maddy put words in Oscar's mouth and also what she said before they made up re: the thing about men never get labelled as "easy" - is that even a possibility. Stick with me; Maddy was talking about when men go around and sleep with lots of different women all the time. That's not what being easy's about right? Just on a basic level. There's no need to go into any details. I'm just trying to understand and make sense. Anyway moving swiftly on... 

On a lighter note did anyone else have the temptation to go "Ahh, ahh, ahh, ahh" whenenever someone mentioned "easy"? Just me? There's a video with Tom from Busted and his little boy Buzz on youtube singing the song "Easy". It's really really cuuuute!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5spfx6Q6BQ

It was interesting to see on Weds. how Zac and Leah's roles switched over. Leah became the cool headed one and Zac was the one who suddenly wanted to "lock Evie away in a tower" (not that I didn't mildly enjoy his comment (although it's different than his joke on Mon.)). Interesting role reversal no? Then again it comes back to the fact that Leah has been a parent (mostly by herself no?) for a number of years and Zac as amazing, amazing as he is still clearly learning the ropes. But again that's why these two make such a fantastic team!! They compliment each other so well!!   

Then when Zac and Leah found Evie on the beach they had a mature conversation with her about things. Well they did. Can't say the same for Evie but "the guardians" were rational and level headed!

I wanted to mention how we've been seeing so much of the actual front of "Summer Bay House" lately. Like it's clearly not a set right. Especially the night time filming. Philippa, Charlie and Ada went inside then. H&A probably has a contract with whoever lives there but just wouldn't it be a bit of an intrusion at night? Just throwing it out there. You have to have the camera team and everything there too so it's not gonna be a quiet process. Just saying.

Of course on the other hand during the day: That'd be like a dream come true for me! Especially with those particular actors!!  I'd just pull out my deck chair and sit out of camera view "Don't mind me!" I could make the tea! It'd be great!! (Almost worth being on jobseeker's allowance for ) Anyhoo time to move on...

Evie and Oily = Whatever. I mean I know it's not the greatest thing for Evie to be involved in right now but I'm past caring tbh. If she's gonna let Tank lead her and then she goes behind Zac and Leah's backs then... Whatever. Good that they figured it out. I think we all did!  

Charlotte is continuing to crack up. No it's not gonna help her if she keeps coming back to the social media account. I had that thought. I'm tellin y'all Lady Macbeth. The thing with Matt really wasn't cool.  Matty (who it seemed like never actually went in the sea) was trying to be mature about everything and be there for her and she totally and completely took advantage of him in every single way. Is Charlotte still Matt's teacher or not just to ask? 

So Roo and James must be around on Thurs. and Fri. then. Place your bets now on what the issue's gonna be with James' parents. I'm gonna go with "fell down the stairs" or "food poisoning". Probably food poisoning. Not that it makes me happy we're not gonna meet James' parents but I just got a feeling. I am looking forward to seeing James and Roo though!  

[H&Alover]

As someone who is normally good with words Oscar really screwed it up with his conversation with Maddy!  He didn't mean it come out the way he did, but someone should have taken that shovel off him. Maddy has just more confident around guys than Evelyn. Sad fact but true that girls who have a lot of partners or even a few do tend to get called easy, not to mention a lot worse, whereas as guys can flit from girl to girl without a stain on their characters.  It doesn't make it right but that is the way it's always been and always will be. Maddy did tend to get very intense with her relationships and think each one was 'the' one. But as Red said both girls have only slept with two guys, one of them being the same one!

Must have been tough for Matt with Oscar asking him to intervene with Maddy on his behalf seeing how he feels about her, I really felt for him there,  he played a blinder though while Maddy was completely oblivious to his real feelings about her.  Of course seeing Oscar and Maddy making up is what imo anyway is what lead to what happened (and happens) between him and Charlotte later who herself had just been rejected by Andy.  Btb did I hear him say to Charlotte he hadn't seen her at school recently?

Evelyn did, very briefly, break up with Tank/Wayne, or rather he broke up with her.  Then she saw him arguing with his dad and went to speak to him and he told her what his dad used to do, well according to him. They went back to hers and made up, where they were disturbed by Leah and VJ, loved VJ's throw away 'don't let us interrupt you' line.

I'm more tempted to believe Greg, we though Evie didn't hear him say 'stay away from me' though if there was an 'I've warned you' before that we don't know. It does appear widowed dads in the bay and it environs have a tougher time of bringing up kids than widowed mums. Greg being a principal wouldn't help matters he would expect more from his child than an average parent. I'm not saying there wouldn't have been faults on both sides and we don't know the full story. Btw Red you forgot Gina, she was the last competent principal we had.  Tank is a big lad/man so could Greg seriously have hit Tank like that and got away with it without Tank being able to defend himself and hitting back? Greg needn't have mentioned Tank being manipulative with young girls and Leah would do well in keeping Evelyn well away from him. I was also afraid Leah would go OTT about keeping Evelyn and Tank apart, another reversal, this time is was Leah saying Evie was level headed and sensible but that was before she and Zac found out about the unprotected sex  Both Leah and Zac are novices regards teenage girls Leah hasn't had to help bring up one before and Zac has no experience of bringing up either.  I had to smile at Zac's idea of locking Evelyn in a tower!  Leah had exactly the right idea and although the talk sort of went OK both were very reasonable and glad to see Zac raise what we've all been talking about the risk of STI's, it didn't stay that way and Evie walked off in a huff.  Her later apology to Zac and Leah and her saying she had broken up with Twank didn't fool me either, but Leah and Zac are going to have to play it carefully if they want her to believe they believed her. It did make me think he's had experience at this to come up with such a ruse.

Onto Charlotte, loved the Lady of Shallot reference atrus, my favourite poem, with the unravelling web. I had to keep leaping up to get nearer the screen to see what Evie and 'Denny' were 'writing' to  each other so didn't get to see if Charlotte's message had a date which may be another give away that 'Denny' isn't 'Denny'. Neat reference to Denny dating another bad boy Ash, but Denny was an adult, but as you said atrus Charlotte is going to slip up at sometime.  Both Andy and Charlotte have killed someone but Andy's was murder whereas Charlotte's was manslaughter and when did he get all wise and realise  Charlotte only wanted to jump him to distract her from what was on her mind.

 

On ‎25‎/‎11‎/‎2015‎ ‎00‎:‎57‎:‎18, Red Ranger 1 said:

Oscar, typically, got community service (and a whole load of depression) for the hit and run.And it was long before Zac and Leah.Character profiles on the main site!

That was after both Zac and Evie tried to convince Oscar to keep quite and let Zac take the blame so as not to ruin his (Oscar's) future.  Truth though Zac had a lot more to lose, his job, freedom and reputation.

[H&Alover]

17 hours ago, Brian said:

Just found out that H&A is going to be off for 5 weeks over Christmas. Woe is me!!!! How can I have a happy Christmas without kyle and Josh and Phoebe and Hannah and Maddy and VJ and .................................................................................................................?

Aus finale is 9th December.