Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[atrus]

So Charlotte drugged Kat and spiked her with alcohol? Probably the cleverest thing she could have done given Kat's history, although would Charlotte be aware of Kat's drinking issues? Still, I don't know why she's being so cocky about it - she more or less admitted in her body language to both Kyle and Kat that she was responsible, and I don't see how getting people's backs up and confirming their opinions of her advances her position at all. Once again the only conclusion I can come to is that she's really enjoying being the villain of the piece. I'm afraid to say, though, that Kat has herself to blame for this; she kept goading Charlotte full knowing (or strongly suspecting) what she was capable of, when what she should have done was kept a beady eye on her from afar. It's Kat's fault and hers alone that the investigation into Trystan's demise is now dead in the water.

Annoying and tactless as Asia is, she's clearly not a bad person and I did feel sorry for her, for the way that both Matt and Oscar have been treating her as a pawn in their mind games with Maddy. Matt just running away when she went in to kiss him rather than letting her down gently was horrible, and so was Oscar using her as a rebound, having already buttered her up in an earlier episode to make Maddy jealous. Maddy didn't behave much better, meanwhile; she keeps saying she loves Oscar but isn't acting remotely like that's the case. Having declared her feelings to Matt but kept them from Oscar, she then chooses to hang around with Matt all night, even after Oscar saw them on top of each other on the dancefloor (Matt was mostly to blame there) and stormed off. If Maddy really loved him, should she not have followed Oscar instead? Whatever the case, it feels like the writing's now firmly on the wall for Moscar, and going by the events of today's episode I'm not really sympathising with any of the parties involved except Asia.

I'm still not buying the 'Josh blames Evie' stuff; it just feels like a convenient excuse for a new source of conflict. Josh was prepared to put himself in danger when rescuing Evie from the bush, knowing how volatile Tank was, because (we're led to believe) he still loved her. So the sudden turnaround just because Tank came back later and smacked him one isn't ringing true at all. He might as well blame Snelgrove for siring Tank in the first place, if we're playing the causality game.

[Angelica]

I think Asia is super cute. She certainly didn't deserve to be treated the way she did by both Matt and Oscar. All the characters in the triangle came across really badly in this episode. Maddy claims she loves Oscar but spent the whole time chasing Matt. She sounds so unconvincing whenever she talks about loving Oscar. Her comment about them having been through so much, makes it seems like she is with Oscar out of obligation. Matt was horrible to Asia - he should have refused to be her date or he established that it was only a friends thing. And he certainly could have been more tactful rather than just walking off when she tried to kiss him. And this was the first time, he was less careful about maintaining boundaries with Maddy. As for Oscar, I think it has been clear for a while that his insecurities were not unfounded. However, cheating is never justified. Dare I say it though, Oscar and Asia were not without chemistry. 

[Slade]

Loving Charlotte's handiwork and I'm glad Kat's been suspended.  That's was she gets for messing with her.  So Kyle (the guy who committed GBH for at least the second time less than two weeks ago and is involved in covering up a murder) is now concerned that the law enforcement officer is going to lose her job.  Nope, that was just another excuse to have a go at Charlotte.  So I was glad Charlotte was gloating about setting Kat up to him especially after he forcefully stuck his foot out to try and stop her from closing the door on him.  Similarly I enjoyed it even more when Charlotte was goading Kat when Kat stormed round to confront her.  It's no more than she deserves.  That'll teach her!

Sadly Josh is starting to get on my nerves.  Had to agree with Kyle.  He should be directing any anger at Tank, not Evie.  In saying that it's a good thing as it means more scenes for Evie and Andy.  I would like to see more of these two hopefully they will show them having Pizza together.

I felt really sorry for Asia when she leant forward to kiss Matt and he just left her humiliated like that in front of everyone.  I don't agree with him walking off and leaving her like and the way he acted towards her after agreeing to be her date but I'm not sure how he could have rejected her kiss without hurting her feelings.  Still he should have spoke to her afterwards.  I actually really, really enjoyed the scenes with Oscar and Asia.  I actually think these two would be really good together.  To me Oscar seemed very natural with her and I liked the way he made her feel better about herself.  And I loved the way he spontaneously went for the kiss.  I would say more of that please.

I've made my feelings about Maddy pretty clear many times but strangely I'm not as annoyed with her as I have been.  I don't believe she has ever been in love with Oscar and that's one thing that has annoyed me about her but in terms of current events if she likes Matt, she likes Matt.  I suppose she cannot help the way she feels and she should be talking to Oscar about it.  I feel Matt is also in the wrong here.  Well he certainly was today.  He should be steering well clear of Maddy but I'm not sure how I felt about Maddy admitting she had feelings for him.  I suppose she was just being honest.  I can only assume - that coupled with Oscar kissing Asia is the beginning of the end.  So if the writers are going to break them up, I hope they do it quickly.

[Red Ranger 1]

I'm assuming that something more complicated than that happened, but why didn't it occur to Kat or anyone else than someone might have simply spiked her drink?I liked Kyle playing the hero.Meanwhile, Charlotte is moving beyond crazy into something approaching pure evil.It seems she's completely turned off her conscience and doesn't understand why anyone else has one, unable to contemplate that Kyle might not actually be capable of throwing an innocent bystander like Kat under the bus to save his own skin or grateful to her for doing so.That guy that was useless back when Charlie was screwing up is not only still useless but has been made a superintendant?No wonder law and order in that area's gone to pot.Oh yes, I keep forgetting to mention: Confirmation that losing Kyle as an ally has lost Charlotte her job too.

I kind of agree about Josh.I can kind of understand his attitude towards Evie and I certainly don't think it's as simple as Tank being a lone gunman, Evie does have to bear some of the responsibility too, but he's becoming obsessive and focusing on that anger to the detriment of all else.Meanwhile, Andy and Evelyn effectively go on a date...

I agree with a lot of the opinions about "the triangle" as well.Maddy and Matt are making all the right noises, saying they'll ignore their feelings and just be friends, but I'm not buying it. This storyline is really making me dislike Matt, and being around him seems to have brought up a lot of selfishness in Maddy that I thought she'd outgrown.I really don't like the person she is around him, and given how inevitable the ending seems to be I'm finding for the first time ever I'm not enjoying her scenes.The problem is I believe she did love Oscar, so the way she's just suddenly switched her feelings from one boy to another like pressing a switch (Matt accompanies her on one trip to the hospital and holds her hand and suddenly she can't imagine her life without him?) makes her seem shallow and fickle, and is undoing all the hard work that her slow burn realisation of her feelings for Oscar did to mature her.However, I did actually really like and sympathise with Oscar.I liked that he went to Asia and made her feel better after Matt was a jerk towards her, I don't think he had an ulterior motive and they did seem to have good repartee.(Especially since Maddy ignored him all night.)And then we have Maddy falling on top of Matt again, except this time it's deliberate and do we seriously think that wasn't Matt copping a feel?So I loved that Asia gave them both a well-deserved ear bashing.The kiss...hmm.At the moment, I don't actually mind it.I think a lot depends on what Oscar does next.He seems to have accepted he and Maddy were over, and Asia was showing him the respect and affection that Maddy hasn't shown him for quite a while, so if he really does like Asia and really does think things are over with Maddy, I don't have a problem with it.But he's got no chance with Maddy after this, so if he still wants to be with her then he's just given her the opening she needs to dump him and hook up with her new crush with a clear conscience.

[Pierced Musie]

I feel quite manipulated when it comes to Matt/Maddy/Oscar. I probably would have fallen for it years ago but now I see that it as classic manipulation. It is like the thought process was 'How can we make Maddy/Matt more sympathetic & demonise Oscar at the same time?' '... Have Oscar be the one to cheat with random extra Asia...' 'DING DING DING We have a winner!'.

I really liked the scene with Evie, Andy & Kyle. I always wanted to see an Evie/Kyle friendship after he helped get her away from the cult. It would have been interesting to see the similarities of their brainwashing (Kyle with his Pa poisoning him against the others & Evie's Pa against the world etc...). The more I see of Evie/Andy... the more I kinda like it.

[H&Alover]

Kat certainly did play it all wrong with Charlotte, she knows what she is like so ought to have been a lot more subtle, backed off and let Charlotte dig herself in deeper. I wondered what Charlotte was doing with that report of the shooting, but luckily the inspector reminded me later. It definitely was either a roofie or GHB, but as someone has already asked where did she get that from, explaining why it didn't show up in Kat's tox screen. The booze had to be introduced alter after she had passed out. She wasn't drunk when she went into Angelo's as Phoebe can testify if the police ever bother to interview her.  It only happens in soaps and TV dramas that the victim leaves their drink unattended so the villain  can spike it. Charlotte thinks she is becoming untouchable, got both Kyle and Kat where she wants them, sadly her crowing about what she had done to  them was wasn't witnessed by anyone else, unless they get together and compare notes. Now she's trying it on with Ash and of course she has the Brax is alive card  up her sleeve to make sure he does her bidding. From being a desperate mum trying to keep her son out of trouble she's turned into a double killer and blackmailer and is thoroughly enjoying herself. I was wondering the same Atrus about Kat telling all and sundry about what she suspects Charlotte of, but then she is getting a tad obsessive over her.

Tactful and subtle are two words that aren't in Matt's vocabulary so that is why he behaved the way he did with Asia, Maddy ad Evie weren't much help they just ignored his silent pleas for help when she was coming onto him stronger than a tidal wave. We know why Maddy was acting the way she was and Evie was just there as back up. Maddy's declaration she had feelings for Matt, but it's not going to any further as she is with Oscar may have been well intentioned , but we all remember how that ended with Phoebe and Ash. Btw Angelica Maddy said more or less the same thing about Josh when she began to go off him, they been through so much etc. Oscar  and Asia were the casualties in that fall out  May have been a sympathy snog Oscar gave Asia but it's only added fuel to a slow burning  fire. Asia is like a female Oscar, the geek/swot and  not much experience with the opposite sex, so easily hurt.

Josh may be brain damaged but he's not stupid so not surprising he caught Andy out in his lie pretty quick.  As for him blaming Evie, instead of Tank, well she's there and Tank isn't so more convenient to put it on the one nearest.  A nice friendship, if that is all it is, developing between Andy and Evie.

Could it be that people are liking Syke more than Olivia is because the remembering of the 'old' Olivia whereas Syke is a new character and has no previous H&A history, just a thought? See Leah has 'stuck her neb in' again, but did give good advice and has persuaded Skye to see her mum along with John.  Loving the scenes between John and Jett, proper dad and son stuff. Perhaps there's something in the food at the military college that's mad him shoot up.

Was a nice but not too sweet ending for Gavin and Nate, but at least they parted on good terms. glad he didn't blow a gasket over Ricky visiting Gavin behind his back. The fact Gavin still had his mum's ring proves he couldn't have been all bad as he hadn't hocked/sold it. Btw didn't Matt's dad leave saying he was going into rehab?

[atrus]

So, confirmation if we hadn't already guessed that Irene is in the same boat as Olivia, and that she's apparently been sitting on this secret for all of her adult life. I'm still waiting for the full explanation before I judge whether it's believable to attach this story to Irene after so many years without prior mention, but based on what we know of Irene's pre-show background, and Lynne's performance so far, it certainly feels believable. Just further evidence, if needed, that Irene is grossly underused on this show.

Still, people deal with these things differently, and I think the best thing Irene can do for Olivia is to take a small step back for a while, being available if she needs her, and to suggest counselling again a couple of months down the line when things have calmed down a bit. What might truly be the best thing for Olivia at the moment is to keep busy and spend time with her friends, which is what she was clearly wanting to do today - although some kind of talking therapy is likely to help her in the long run, when she's ready for it. Likewise with Irene.

Good to see Maddy getting some decent advice from Alf, although she should have been able to work out the gist of it by herself - namely, that she needs to stop umming and ahhing between Oscar and Matt and put everyone, us included, out of their misery. That, at least, she seemed to be about to achieve when she visited Matt at his caravan - only for the show to fall foul of the usual conceit of him totally failing to grasp what she was trying to say (presumably that she'd chosen him), and talk over her instead. The result being that he's backing off, despite it being what neither of them appear to want. At least Matt's behaviour seems to have improved from last episode, and I get the sentiment of him wanting not to hurt Oscar further. But actually, Maddy's doing Oscar no favours in sticking with him if she's no longer invested in that relationship. And she certainly doesn't look invested in that relationship at the moment judging by the expression on her face every time he's anywhere near her, despite all her protestations to the contrary.

Meanwhile, I feel what we're sorely missing in all the triangle antics is a decent scene between Matt and Oscar - the other relationship casualty in all this. Zac told Matt he should sort things out with Oscar, but the only action he took was to withdraw from Maddy, rather than actually approaching the man himself. I think this is a shame, as studying the impact the situation is having on their friendship would add a much-needed extra dimension to this storyline and lift it above the usual macho posturing, which we can get any day of the week from Kyle, Brax, Andy and acolytes. Despite being a good deal younger than the crime contingent, Matt and Oscar have usually shown themselves to be above that sort of thing.

Hannah and Chris vying for bridesmaid slot was pretty amusing - until that is, we had yet another gross overreaction to somebody dropping the 'L' word. I was all ready to cheer the fact that for once it had been uttered without the person it was directed at pulling a mardy face in response - but alas, it was the person who said it whose turn it was to be mardy.

[Red Ranger 1]

You've no idea how much it pains me to say this but I think they've actually done it: They've made me hate Maddy. There's a long dishonourable Home and Away tradition of having otherwise mature, caring and intelligent young women suddenly, for no apparent reason, treat a nice guy like dirt and hook up with a bad boy who they're probably going to spend their time bickering and being childish with. And this seems to be Take Whatever.It's reached the point where I don't think anyone except Oscar himself actually cares that he cheated (and what happened exactly - that text made it sound like more than a snog but maybe they're both being melodramatic?a bad move to not have Asia in the episode and have Oscar resolve it like that, even if she didn't seem to mind).I've no doubt Maddy will act the injured party, in the same way she picked a fight with him when he was being perfectly pleasant and reasonable here, but she clearly doesn't want him.It definitely felt like she went to Matt behind Oscar's back to tell him she wanted to be with him, which is just as much crossing the line even if she didn't get a chance to do anything.And now she's going to go back to Oscar because he's her only option?Kind of casts light on the fact that she seems to be willing to throw away everything they've got the minute Matt declares his interest, even though she's given no indication of having romantic feelings for him beforehand.Given that she's been on the other side of this in the past (it was Josh who made similar comments about her), I'd have hoped she'd show more consideration.Any chance of me liking or supporting Matt and Maddy together has gone clean out the window, I'm left making annoyed grunts every time she goes running to him.

Irene and Olivia...not feeling it.And I'm not sure why, because when we saw that last scene in the promo it felt like an emotional moment, but instead it was the last of three or four identical scenes with an extra couple of lines on the end.Maybe the unnecessary presence of Hunter got my back up (wasn't impressed with him and VJ getting out of tidying up), maybe it's that we seem to have swapped Olivia being an unlikable brat for Irene being an unlikable bully, maybe my feelings of annoyance from the rest of the episode seeped through, maybe I felt "Too much" when they expected us to believe Irene's been keeping that photo in that cupboard since 1994 waiting for an opportunity to bring it out and look at it shakily...but I just didn't feel it.Irene harassing Olivia and messing with her head because she's obsessed with her own issues isn't the most sympathetic stance to take.The promo looks promising but so did the one for this.

Well, Chris is good value and his sudden campaign to be Leah's "brides-person" was very in character.I'm guessing Evelyn, Irene and Roo are Leah's other three attendants?Zac spacing out during wedding talk was mildly amusing but a bit forced.Leah may regret leaving Hannah to make the choice and Hannah may regret using the L word...

[H&Alover]

I was going to 'say' Irene's insistence Olivia see a counsellor because what happened to her will fester and come back to bite her when she hadn't was a case of pot, kettle black. But then I realised that back when it happened to her (Irene) there wasn't any counselling in place for young girls to turn to.  All they had then were family and if the perv was a friend of the family (or even worse a family member) they more than likely wouldn't have been believed so all they could do was keep quiet. Was that photo as recent as 1994, I thought it looked older (and why has Irene kept it)?   Sorry I think you meant it had been in the drawer at the Beach house since 1994. It may seem Irene has it all together now, but she did marry Murdoch and that wasn't the happiest of marriages, but maybe she thought that's was all she deserved.

Is Maddy deliberately picking fights with Oscar so she can break up him with a clearer conscience? Great advice from Alf (as usual) that she needs to sort out who she wants to be with, as you said atrus she probably had come to that conclusion, but just needed someone else to actually voice it to give her a kick start.  Unfair on all of them, shame she didn't get the chance to tell Matt it's him she wants, but then she didn't know he'd been talking to Evie in the meantime and she'd given him her own advice. Must be something about bad (or semi bad) boys that attracts Maddy, Oscar is maybe a bit too straight for her. Not sure I was that happy about Oscar texting Asia asking her to keep quiet, doesn't really say he thought much of her, a call or face to face would have been imo a lot better and more Oscar-ish.  The make up kiss between Maddy and Oscar wasn't that convincing and the looks we saw on their faces spoke volumes as if they both know it's over but neither of them want to be the one to end it.   It showed how much Evie had been out of the loop if Matt had to fill her in on so much of what had been happening.

Chris' idea of being a bridesman/person may seem out there, but grooms do have a best woman so not that crazy. All Hannah has to do is to break the news to Leah, good luck with that. Yes the L word, she probably does mean it on  one level, but not sure she meant it  as 'in L'. Not much said about her and Chris' visit to his parents.  Nice to see in his little chat to Leah he seemed as concerned about Irene as she is.

[Red Ranger 1]

Alf's episode count this week:Three.

Well...they did it. They made it work. It helps that they had Lynne McGranger giving a tour de force performance, with Ada and Raechelle knowing just how to respond in their supporting roles.(Involving Leah was a great idea, and after its shaky start the relationship between Irene and Olivia seems to be hitting its stride.)And yep, I can believe it, that Irene's kept this buried, despite there being obvious examples where it would have come to mind (she's had at least two people raped while living with her for a start).Having Leah voice that helped the plausibility, as did some great continuity.(Just as I was wondering where Irene's sister was in all this, Wendy gets a mention for the first time in goodness knows how long.Not since the days of the Sutherlands, I think.)There's also something potentially interesting building between Leah and Olivia.And then we get that moment of weirdness with Irene and the blanket, which leaves us wondering if she's told us the whole story...

Chris was OTT but that's him all over.Hannah seems to be regretting having that word spill out though, even though she's now stuck with it.Nate wanting to propose to Ricky seems a bit rushed.And the Brax situation comes up again.(Did anyone else briefly read his message as Ric and Cassie and think they'd gone back ten years?)Sadly, this is marred by Phoebe being supremely annoying in checking Ash's phone for no real reason.At least they had the sense to involve Ricky.