Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[pembie]

On 28/07/2016 at 2:22 PM, CaptainHulk said:

Twit w/ an 'A' in the middle! 

 

 

Yes most definitely with a big A in the middle

[c120701]

Brody reminds me of Romeo & Morgan reminds me of Geoff, looks wise that is.

Justin oddly reminds me of Shane.

[Red Ranger 1]

9 hours ago, KIMIF1 said:

Red Ranger - Brax did not arrange for Johnny Barrett to be buried in a shallow grave,  he didn't even know what happened to him he just surmised he was dead when he went to Adam for help.  That's the whole reason.Adam was contacted later as Josh wanted to know where his father was buried and Brax had no idea- so that was an inaccuracy. 

That's not an inaccuracy. Brax went to Adam and he buried Johnny in a shallow grave.Brax knew he was dead, he knew Johnny had buried him (partly at Brax's instigation), he just didn't know where the body was.

20 hours ago, CaptainHulk said:

But with Brax gone, what's the worth of Gunno if he's still alive? Unless he's come to take out Ash or something.

Well, I guess it depends if you like the image of a sniper sitting on a ridge as Brax heads off to his fresh start...

4 hours ago, Slade said:

If it had been someone else I probably would have felt uncomfortable given that Olivia was being rude and unpleasant to Billie for no reason but given that Billie is on the path to ruining VJs life she deserves it.

We have very different views of Billie so not expecting you to agree or saying you're wrong to feel like that, just giving my perspective: To me, knowing things that Olivia doesn't made her vitriol seem more harsh. Olivia thought she was bullying and belittling Billie for getting pregnant by a younger guy: In fact, she was effectively (and unknowingly) bullying her about being raped.

Alf's episode count this week: Three.

Okay...is that the first time we've had confirmation of Leah having contact with Alex since 2007? Possibly not but it's nice to know that they're not still estranged over what happened then either way.Glad that VJ and Hunter made Olivia apologise.I don't like Hunter but he is very good at making Olivia realise when she's being a cow.And Billie doing her best to get on with VJ's friends.She was obviously affected by John's comments about Skye: It seems she's torn between knowing the situation's unfair to VJ and not wanting to lose his support.I continue to find them adorable and am doing my best to ignore the niggling suspicion that at some point he'll find out the truth and that'll be them over.Still, they seem to be enjoying the baby-making thing still...Mention of Hunter's arson hearing! I thought that had been quietly dropped but seems not.Not expecting him to get 10 years like he should though.Community service?Good behaviour bond?And are Olivia and Chris actually about to do something other than say "Hmm, we haven't heard anything from Irene in a while...ooh, shiny!"

It's good to see Alf and Matt getting through to Roo.The scene where Matt moves back in without either of them actually saying that he's moving back in was very nicely done, just subtle and matter-of-fact.I'm glad we got Matt's perspective on things and equally glad he doesn't want to repeat his behaviour after Sasha left.I'm hoping that's a line drawn under him and Maddy.

So, Skye's encore appearance.Still no explanation for Tank's parole but I'm glad Skye got to leave on good terms with John, calmly and determined, and even though Summer Bay didn't work out for her I think it has helped make her a stronger person.(Curiously Greg was credited but didn't appear.They didn't do something stupid like cut the explanation, did they?I mean, I'm not sure there was anything in this episode I'd want to lose, unusually, but still.Possible theory: It seems Skye and Tank are living within easy commute, so possibly in the city, so if Greg's taken the job there he could be pretending they're living together.Or maybe they made up and they actually are living together?)Not sure what Skye leaving the photo behind meant, I like to think she wanted to leave John something to remember her by.So that's Skye.I'm sorry she left so soon but at least she didn't die or go to jail.An article on the main site dubbed her Home and Away's shortest ever regular.Having checked her against a couple of other candidates, in terms of episodes her leaving only 115 episodes after her debut does seem to take the wooden spoon.

And another promo that gives away way way too much.

[Angelica]

Really loved the Roo/Alf/Matt interactions over the last 2 episodes. Nice shout out re: Matt's experience of addiction. And loved the way Matt moved back in, being very Matt-like, but at the same time, sensitive to Roo. Not patronising her making some loud proclamation about moving back to support her. And finally, some mention of Maddy from Matt! My only criticism, is that like a lot of the issues introduced in H&A recently, the whole addiction storyline was wrapped up too quickly and easily. I would have preferred Roo to have a meatier storyline dealing with addiction.

The Skye storyline has finished in unsatisfying way for me. I felt like the writers could have done more with both Skye's and Tank's character. And I still don't buy their romance enough to believe that them sacrificing so much to leave Summer Bay. 

[CaptainHulk]

Time heals most if not all, Red.

Alex probably reset from what he was in 2007 to what he was 2001-02.

People can change. I think out of all the brothers Leah was closest to him (not just because he helped her with VJ in the early going which was conveniently glossed over and there was that 3yr age gap). 

How did I know that it was HIM before his name was even mentioned? (Soccer but, Neither Christos or Dimitrii were ever labelled as players so that ruled them out)

[Slade]

I actually quite enjoyed the scenes with Matt and Roo.  Perhaps not quite a Maddy replacement from Roo's perspective but I think having him around could be good for her.  I did like the way he went to Alf on Thursday and told him about her addiction to the pills which actually helped her in the end.  At least for now.

Well I wasn't happy about Olivia apologising to Billie because although she's unaware that Billie's taking VJ for a ride she's essentially right about her.  Billie should not be given an easy ride just because she is up the duff.  Actions have consequences and she is consciously choosing to do the wrong thing and deceive someone who is still a child.  She is the adult.  And funnily enough Olivia having a go at her has at the very least in part made her think about what she's potentially going to put him and his family through.  Although despite feeling guilty after that and eavesdropping John and Chris's chat about Skye she couldn't even tell him whilst having the perfect opportunity.  I'm not sure why VJ would tell Billie that he asked Olivia to apologise because the whole point should be that Olivia realised she did the wrong thing and decided to do this on her own because she is genuinely sorry.  Not because she was pressurised to.  I'd like to think that Olivia only apologised because she wants to maintain the clique with VJ and Hunter although Billie and the unborn rugrat are now part of the package.  I did find it interesting that when VJ had a go at her Hunter didn't even try to defend her.  Clearly not agreeing with her behaviour.

Felt really, really sorry for John.  At least Skye came back but the cynic in me felt it was only to pick up the rest of her stuff.  With Marilyn half way across the world he's obviously desperately lonely.  I don't think this would have been as much as an issue for him if his wife was here.  Whilst I found Skye annoying at times, I am disappointed because I do think she had potential.  Wonder why the character's gone so soon.  Another opportunity wasted I guess.

[Psychic Wombat]

Yes, it looks like Skye is powered by her hormones, I think it could be something she inherited from her crazy mother. I too felt sorry for John - someone remind me where Marilyn is? Last I heard she was injured in South America. I think John is very unlucky with females generally and should have a bloke as lodger to share beers and footy games with.

Finally Phoebe got the message and got out her relationship with Mr family man, no good was ever going to come out of it.

[CaptainHulk]

5 hours ago, Psychic Wombat said:

Yes, it looks like Skye is powered by her hormones, I think it could be something she inherited from her crazy mother. I too felt sorry for John - someone remind me where Marilyn is? Last I heard she was injured in South America. I think John is very unlucky with females generally and should have a bloke as lodger to share beers and footy games with.

 

^ Or a Steph Scully-esque Tomboy.

 

[atrus]

On 26/07/2016 at 10:05 PM, Red Ranger 1 said:

I think the show wrote itself into a corner there. So far as I can tell that special was made for a different company in a different media, the modern equivalent of those direct-to-video/DVD specials that soaps have done in the past. So they can't reference it in the show, because that would mean the audience who don't have access to it wouldn't be able to understand the show and that would break all sorts of regulations. But at the same time they don't seem to want to contradict it, so the show still doesn't make sense.

Mind you, didn't Gunno appear to survive the special anyway? So I guess Brax and co are dead either way.

On 27/07/2016 at 7:48 AM, KIMIF1 said:

As regards Gunno,  the special was a one off and had nothing to do with the show,  the fact  it looked like Gunno might have survived is irrelevant and  I imagine  Brax, Ricky and little Casey  having a happy and loving  life together as family meant a great deal to him whatever else is said about him.

Well, it did have plenty to do with the show. It even shared common scenes, which I think is odd if was intended to be outside continuity altogether. Like all these things it's debatable whether it should be considered canon, but again, there's nothing I'm aware of in the main show that directly contradicts the events of the special. And personally, I don't see why the show would licence a special if they didn't want people watching it to assume that it's a canon part of the H&A universe. The fact that it was made by another production company doesn't weaken its canonicity for me - and my feeling is that the only reason events weren't cross-referenced directly is because they couldn't be sure everyone would be able to see it.

Yes, I'd forgotten that Gunno was still twitching at the end. Still, if he is alive, the Braxtons are unlikely to know about it until he returns to wreak his revenge. Assuming Heath has told Brax as much as that Gunno fell off the cliff, that would seem the likeliest explanation for Brax's lack of concern about Gunno here - and indeed would seem to tacitly reinforce the view that the events of the special happened, or else Brax would surely still be worried about being hunted down by Gunno's goons as he masterminds the operation from jail, and Ricky would surely have pointed it out.

So, onto the second half of this week. Kat's stance is completely untenable - she thinks Josh should do the right thing by confessing, but isn't prepared to go to her superiors herself with what she knows, at least to cast doubt on Andy's confession even if she can't prove it. Presumably this is in order to save her own skin - yet she continues to self-righteously tell Josh that saving his own skin is exactly what he shouldn't be doing. At least if she came clean about what she knew it would force him to either confess or deny. She could also have tried the old voice recording trick when she went to visit him in Wednesday's episode.

Onto the Morgans, and it does seem that they are trying to differentiate them from the Braxtons, which is welcome. Justin, still, I can take or leave at the moment; I've had my absolute fill of alpha males in H&A over the last few years, and it doesn't help that he's already leapt into bed with Phoebe (what was the point of the Dom storyline, by the way? A stopgap clearly, but doesn't it just prove that the writers are totally incapable of sustaining a non-romance plot for her for more than a day or so?). But Brodie and Mason are certainly more interesting, Brodie in particular. Interested to see where they'll take them.

Wondering if there's some kind of a behind-the-scenes reason for Skye's exit - it seems like a real waste having built the character up as a regular, just to dispatch her so quickly. Although I liked her a lot at first, I'm left feeling that her character was given somewhat of a disservice in the way she just disappeared off with Tank exactly like Evie did last year. Granted, Tank has changed since then, and probably isn't chasing Skye through the bush as I type - but something felt wrong about it all the same. I had Skye down as quite an outside-the-box character and I had hoped that when romance came for her, it would be tentative and quirky. As it happened it was all just a bit samey really, and it left me wondering exactly what the point of her was.

I continue to find Billie very sympathetic, despite my reservations about her behaviour towards VJ. Olivia was being horrid; I was wondering for a moment if they were going to make out that she was wary of Billie because she was drawing parallels in her mind with Billie dating VJ, who's still legally a child, and her uncle's friend who abused her - I'm glad they didn't go down that route, as it's obviously a very different situation, although it would have been in character, as we know Olivia has overreacted in the past to people she unfairly marks out as predators in response to what happened to her. Instead, however, we had the vaguer explanation that Olivia was just being protective of VJ, which wasn't a particularly satisfying one in my view. Then again, Olivia has never really needed particularly persuasive reasons to be unpleasant to people.

Although I'm glad that Olivia et al are starting to become a bit concerned for Irene, I find it a little unbelievable that they wouldn't have been more worried before now. Irene's not the sort of person to leave a kid she's looking after without contact for weeks, especially knowing what Olivia has been through recently with the abortion etc.

[H&Alover]

Spoiler

 

Skye's sudden popping in to pick up the rest of her things seemed just to have been thrown in there,  but at least she did hang around long enough to say goodbye to John and thank him for helping her rather than just doing it behind his back.  If Tank makes her feel good about herself I say good luck to them, would have been good to get a brief explanation about Tank and his parole conditions though.  Will we hear in a couple of days Greg has relocated to the city or as usually happens we suddenly get ourselves a new principle. Methinks she didn't 'forget' the photo of her and John, she left it as a reminder of her for him.  It's a pity her story had to end so abruptly.

Olivia was unforgivably rude to Billie who was the one feeling out of place with three teenagers chatting about teenager things. Actually I think Hunter was very wise keeping his mouth shut, he knew better than to get in between two angry women.  So as Hunter finally wheedled out of her it was because she didn't like their little group breaking up,  is she aware Skye (who has been mentioned she  didn't like originally) has come and gone? I know some on here don't like him but he is the only one who can talk to her and make her act like the near adult she is supposed to be  instead of a spoilt brat.  However it came about she did apologise to Billie in the end and although they are never going to be best buddies they can at least be friends. 

On the other side she has been the only one to think about Irene. So after a good few weeks of the  occasional 'wonder why we haven't heard from Irene' it's finally ratching up a notch.  I realise they were probably were giving her time to get to know her 'kid' but it's getting silly now.

Billie did try and do the right thing by breaking up with VJ proving she does care for him but he has Leah's stubborn streak so wasn't going to be put off that easily. Agree there Red that trailer gave much too much away in more ways than one"!!!

Brax thought he had killed Johnny and did leave Adam to deal with it, Brax was little more than a kid and Adam was a 'mate' of Danny so said he'd deal with it.  It was only after Brax left it was discovered Johnny was alive, but not for long, Adam made sure of that.  It set in motion really the whole way of life Brax was to live from then on.  Adam was constantly reminding Brax of the debt he 'owed' him.

Good to know Maddy hasn't vanished from the face of the earth, the only contact from now on is going to be over the phone then (?).  Felt  for Matt when it was pretty apparent Maddy didn't want to talk to him.  He was very on the ball picking up on  Roo still taking her meds and obviously taking more than she should if she's run out already.  His dad's addiction may not have been the same but as he told Alf he knew the signs and he was absolutely right to go and tell Alf his concerns and Roo's explanation was so transparent it wouldn't have fooled anyone.  It did seem to have been sorted out too soon though, I'm sure I heard the words counselling mentioned and while it's good Matt and Alf said they are there for her they are too close.  It is a kind of PTSD. Like how Matt moved in with as he put it his ex-girlfriends foster mother,  and their agreement about him paying rent when he can afford it.

I did have to laugh at Phoebe's attempt to sneak out of the Morgan house and bump straight into Brody who wasn't at all phased because as he said he'd seen it all before. I can see him and Phoebe getting together rather than her and Justin.  Not sure who was more embarrassed Phoebe or Justin when he came out and saw her having breakfast with his brother.

Josh is never going to be able to keep quiet about the fact he killed Charlotte, it'll destroy him and Evie in the end, it may not always seem so but he does have a conscious. 

Looks like something I just happened to say in jest more than anything may actually come about regarding one of the Morgans.  Intriguing the remark Brody made to Justin about not getting too fond of Phoebe as it's likely  they'll be moving on anyway.  He hasn't been mentioned but they have a pet Barry the dog!!!  It's got to rule out the family being in WPP because if they were doing their job properly they wouldn't have to keep moving.

 Good news, kind of, Australia are having a two week break during the Olympics which gives us a chance to narrow the gap between Aus and English time line to six weeks, not much I know but better than nothing.