Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[CaptainHulk]

As for randomly being in the UK, It's not too much of a stretch to assume that after settling in the City for a bit, James and Olivia took off back to London (as James was living there at the time) probably to A) Start Fresh B) Get the hell away from Diana.

 

 

[JUDE]

It really annoys me how Home and Away continue to show that Women cannot do without a man.  This whole storyline with Kat going off the rails with Nate cheating on her, is complete rubbish.

So Nate leaves you and of course you off on a bender, but not just one, this one seems to lasting quite a long time.  Kat you were not married or engaged to him, you went out with him for a couple of months. You are not a teenager, but a young woman in their late 20s early 30s.  Not saying that she should just get over it, but why oh why to the scriptwriters continue to write the females on the show as idiots when they are dumped etc by their partners.

Would it have been too much to ask to show Kat being strong, for goodness sake she is suppose to a be a policewoman who would have dealt with a lot of things.

Dont get me started on this new character Oliva. 

The writers of H&A need to move the show into the 21st century.

 

[CaptainHulk]

9 hours ago, c120701 said:

It's very hard to describe, but the bounciness she had a times and her gesticulations.

Maybe they had her study tapes of Kristy.

And Olivia  is using both names to keep the memory of both Lachie and Chloe alive.

 

19 hours ago, c120701 said:

Olivia seems to have a lot of Chloe's mannerisms, although her personality reminds me a bit of Justine.

Let's just hope she doesn't turn into a Smackhead or try to row off to certain doom into the path of a cyclone or be accused of Baby Bashing....

[atrus]

Well Olivia certainly has Irene wrapped around her little finger. Butter wouldn't melt when she was lamenting about how difficult it would be to make new friends without stealing their mothers' cars - and then all she gets by way of punishment is a hug, which is unusual since Irene's usually more hardcore than that. VJ may have been led astray but he could have just said no, so his punishment was well deserved, I felt. While keeping an open mind, I'm starting to take a bit of a dislike to Olivia; she was downright rude to Leah and has a general air of insincerity about her. Hopefully the Heartstrings of Redemption will be given a good airing before long, so we can move past the childish backchat/thievery stage.

Kat didn't really cover herself in glory today, but at least she had the guts to apologise afterwards, and to tip the remainder of her alcohol stash down the sink. I don't think Nate's deliberately manipulating her, but equally he hasn't treated her at all well, and I don't blame Kat for feeling used or upset about it.

Glad that the John/Maz tension is finally resolved, even if it means we're losing Maz for a while as a result.

[Pierced Musie]

I think I quite like this Kat. She tells it like it is (especially the wife comment), even if Nate doesn't see the pattern in his behaviour. I just hated the fact that they have painted her the bad one in this situation, just to make Ricky/Nate seem like the best.couple.EVAH!!!!! When are they going to put Kat & Ash together? Every scene between them recently just sizzles with chemistry .

Oh look, another teen off the rails who we will be made to feel sorry for. Just once I want to see a teen who goes off the rails, hasn't got a woobie backstory & doesn't get redeemed.

Fake!VJ is a numpty.

And yes, John & Marilyn broke my heart with that goodbye.

[Red Ranger 1]

21 hours ago, atrus said:

OK. Thinking about it that makes sense, because a university lecturer (for example) wouldn't be in legal bother for sleeping with a 19-year-old. I'm sure there is some kind of legal difference for teachers, though? I think I'm right in saying that if he was still legally a child (16 or 17), it would be illegal, even though the age of consent is 16?

Yes, that's right.

21 hours ago, atrus said:

I have every expectation they'll try to pull the old Heartstrings of Redemption with Hunter at some point, and move him into the regular cast.

Sadly I fear the same.

Alf's episode count this week: Five! (Although he only appeared briefly without dialogue on Thursday.) Josh was in two but was comatose throughout.

Well, the John and Marilyn stuff was a lot better than I feared it would be, ending things on as positive a note as it could in the circumstances.I love Chris showing his serious side and giving John a helpful man-to-man chat.And even though he was saying a lot of the things that have annoyed me lately, I accepted them because it's Chris and, in a weird sort of way, I respect him.So Marilyn gets to go with John's blessing, with them still together and her coming back.I'll take that.The fact that Marilyn then went through the vow renewal ceremony does make her angsting seem even more ridiculous, but I'm glad she did anyway, and Alf was the perfect stand-in celebrant.I've missed something though, wasn't the point for them to have it at Angelo's and Phoebe to sing there?(Yet again, I'm left thinking that if Phoebe's supposed to be such a red hot singer, they should have cast someone with a decent singing voice, rather than adequate at best.)

Again, it seems like no-one remembers that the farm's meant to be in the middle of nowhere. How the heck did Kat lug that box all the way to the Palmers' back yard? She seemed too drunk to drive, I doubt they'd let her on the bus, did she walk there?! I actually loved her rant at Nate, a well-judged character assessment which actually cut to the point of the fact that he's not the kind caring doctor he thinks he is, judging by his expression. So I was actually annoyed at Ash for dragging her out of there, even if it wasn't the time.And I love that, even though she apologised, she told him to butt out rather than letting him carry on acting like her saviour.Hopefully that's the end of her binge drinking.

I am struggling to understand what the heck possessed them to bring in Fake Olivia. I'm sorry but the "moved to the UK" thing completely flies in the face of her 2005 exit, where the whole point was the city was her home, it was where she wanted to be, it was where she felt closest to Chloe and I can't see any reason for James to drag her away from it except for his own convenience.(Given that Chloe lived there for six years while keeping Diane at arms length, I don't see why James couldn't do the same.)But worse, there's absolutely no attempt to make use of her history.When she bumps into Alf, I was waiting for a gasp of "Mr.Stewart!" but nope, the scene's written as though they're complete strangers.Leah would be aware of her, even though I don't actually remember them meeting in 2005, but she has no reaction to Irene announcing who she is.She might as well be some random girl that Irene met up while on holiday in the UK who's followed her home, and frankly I'm now convinced I'd like her better if she was.Because even though she's a brat, she's got a spark and there does seem to be a genuine friendship building between her and VJ.But the fact that an existing character has been erased and replaced with an imposter is grating big time.

As for her inconsistent age, if she is 17 (and it's slightly ambiguous given that the timescale's all over the place), meaning she's presumably had a birthday since Irene said she was 16 earlier in the year (which isn't consistent with her being born on screen in April but all over the place), then that would presumably make her the same year as VJ, who would seem to be due to turn 17 at the end of the season.

[CaptainHulk]

The farm is reachable by bus so it's not totally a "Lost civilization".

The PTB didn't do their homework with Olivia. She'd realistically be 17 but they've effed with her age so much, making her 10 in 2005 for some reason...

I just hope this happened BEFORE Bennett (is his name even on the eps we're seeing now?)

[Dan F]

15 minutes ago, CaptainHulk said:

I just hope this happened BEFORE Bennett (is his name even on the eps we're seeing now?)

Yes this is part of Dan Bennett's work - he was also the one that brought back Olivia with Chloe in 2005.

23 hours ago, c120701 said:

Olivia seems to have a lot of Chloe's mannerisms, although her personality reminds me a bit of Justine.

Interestingly there's another actress that you'll be seeing soon on the show who I thought would have been perfect for Olivia - both in terms of mannerisms and a little bit of resemblance to Kristy (though being a brunette generally helps with that anyway).

Spoiler

Marlo Kelly who plays Skye

 

[CaptainHulk]

14 hours ago, Dan F said:

Yes this is part of Dan Bennett's work 

He has forsaken us (at least by cocking things up a bit) 

[Slade]

Not sure about Olivia.  Part of me thinks she could be interesting but the other part feels she is trouble.  Again deciding to "borrow" something although VJ shouldn't have gone along with it.  But he didn't dare to go against her because he fancies her.  She's another blonde character in the bay where I think don't be fooled by the angelic features and the cute face.  And I dunno, kind of feels like she was manipulating VJ but I'll probably end up liking her unlike the other blonde one.  I did like the part where she referred to Leah as highly strung.

Absolutely loved Kat's rant to Nate and Ricky.  I couldn't stop laughing through that whole scene.  I also really liked the awkward expressions from some of the other characters.  As much as I love drama, objectively I don't think it was the time or place although she was drunk so wouldn't have been thinking of that.  The best part was Nate's "You what" when Kat accused him of being responsible for what happened to Sophie.  That clearly hit a nerve.  It was big of Kat to apologise to Nate and Ricky afterwards.  I was undecided initially whether she should have done but I think she was probably out of line, not so much for what she said but humiliating them like that (although I'm not complaining).  She should definitely apologise to John and Marilyn though.

I agreed with Kat that Nate did hurt people but I don't think he was responsible for Sophie going "crazy".  There was clearly an underlying problem and you could argue he was just a catalyst.  I also disagreed with her when she said Nate was manipulating her.  I think the issue is that Nate is (like a lot of males) weak  He decided to give things another go with Kat because he thought nothing was going to happen with Ricky so he was trying to move on even though he wasn't really into her.   I think he tried but he couldn't force himself to love someone else..  He was going to do the right thing and finish with her because he decided that he wanted to be with Ricky but her brother died.  How could he tell her then?  it would have completely destroyed her so I could see him going to the funeral with and supporting her on that day and obviously just as he was about to tell her the truth she figured it out which goes back to my point about her knowing that Nate always wanted Ricky.  And if for arguments sake Nate was manipulating her then she allowed herself to be manipulated, she knew that Nate and Ricky slept together.  This should have set of the alarm bells but she still decided to put that aside and even accepted that they were best mates, constantly texting each other.

 

22 hours ago, JUDE said:

It really annoys me how Home and Away continue to show that Women cannot do without a man.  This whole storyline with Kat going off the rails with Nate cheating on her, is complete rubbish.

So Nate leaves you and of course you off on a bender, but not just one, this one seems to lasting quite a long time.  Kat you were not married or engaged to him, you went out with him for a couple of months. You are not a teenager, but a young woman in their late 20s early 30s.  Not saying that she should just get over it, but why oh why to the scriptwriters continue to write the females on the show as idiots when they are dumped etc by their partners.

Would it have been too much to ask to show Kat being strong, for goodness sake she is suppose to a be a policewoman who would have dealt with a lot of things.

 

I think you make some valid points and I agree with some of what you've said but personally, I've enjoyed this storyline.  I think the older you are the less susceptible you are to being depressed and love-struck after short flings/romances have gone bad for you but I believe this sort of thing can happen to anyone.  I don't think it matters what line of work Kat is in.  Her being professional in work doesn't necessarily translate to her personal life.  Once you're actually in the situation it's sometimes hard to think objectively, clearly and rationally.  And you follow emotion rather than logic and reasoning.  The only example I can immediately think of with regards to H & A was there was a counselor quite a few years now who was in a physically abusive relationship.  If I can recall I think she took her boyfriend back even after he hit her (can't remember how many times).  If that had been one of her clients I'm sure she would have advised him/her to get out of the situation but she didn't because she wasn't thinking like a counselor.

Didn't like the way Marilyn decided to renew her vows with John.  Felt like she only did it because John bought her the plane ticket so she had to be seen as being grateful and reward him.