Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[H&Alover]

On ‎29‎/‎07‎/‎2016 at 9:51 AM, Psychic Wombat said:

. I wonder who is in charge of the Restaurant now Brax, Kyle and Erica has gone? Marty has his hands full with the garage, so I'm guessing it will close.

I asked that very question, Brax handed it over to Kyle and Ricky, I guess Kyle handed over his share to Ricky when he went inside but now Ricky has gone it's kind of up in the air, no-one is actually running the place. Ash will probably put his business head on and let Justin work at the garage, he's going to need another qualified mechanic until Matt passes his exams, assuming he suddenly doesn't become one overnight.

[Brian]

Phoebe seems to be still working there, so isn't she in charge, regardless of who now owns it?

[atrus]

Forgot to say in my last post about how much I enjoyed the Matt/Roo scenes from last week. It was still mostly about Roo, but at least we got a little bit of reaction-via-non-reaction from Matt to Maddy's departure. They're an interesting pairing for housemates and I hope they sustain that particular dynamic.

Onto today, and I'm warming a little bit to Justin now he's starting to make connections in the Bay, including to Alf. They had some nice relationship-building scenes but as so often with H&A it all ended in catastrophe - I don't doubt that Alf will be okay, but you always worry that episodes like this will mean an extended leave of absence or something of the sort.

I wish they'd rest Nate for a while rather than rushing straight into the next potential love interest in the form of Tori. I know both of them are denying it at the moment, but unless I'm very much mistaken it's obviously the direction of travel.

I'm worried that the revelations about Andy are going to flip Hunter's sociopathic switch again. We're already seeing some of the signs.

[CaptainHulk]

Good episode today.

Slowly warming to Justin (still think he's Tool-lite).

Nice dramatics with Alf.

Well, Hunter you're on the list of people who don't care about Irene (Half the Bay bar Harrington and Olivia)

Very little in that episode that made me mad.

[Red Ranger 1]

On ‎31‎/‎07‎/‎2016 at 10:22 AM, atrus said:

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.

"Licensed" doesn't mean "canon", you get licensed novels and annuals in the early days that aren't really canon.And "in continuity" doesn't mean "canon", just because they don't say something didn't happen doesn't mean it did.I think we have a slanted view in the UK because the special was shown on Channel 5 like the show, whereas I believe in Australia it was only available on the internet.So it pretty much legally can't be canon, because if Brax starts talking about the time Gunno fell of a cliff then people are going to start asking when that episode was and then demanding to know why they're making a television program that you can't understand without watching something else that some of the audience might not have access to.In story, given that Kyle fell off a cliff and didn't suffer anything more than a few bruises and that Heath has a pretty poor track record with regards telling the difference between dead and alive (*cough*Adam*), you'd expect more than that to convince Brax that all's fine.More likely, we're dealing with the initial shock and fear slowly giving away to complacency.Someone tries to kill you and you worry they're going to try again and go into hiding...then a year later nothing's happened and you decide that it's all blown over and you're safe.Call it the phoney war syndrome.

Anyway, today! Wow, even when she's worrying about Irene, Olivia's still completely self-absorbed.Maybe I'm being hard on her but the way she kept rabbiting on to Hunter whilst being completely oblivious to the newspaper article that was right there again left me with the feeling that she thinks the world revolves around what affects her.Not that her worrying about Irene did much good, as she and Chris are again won over by a throwaway e-mail.Not only is this made ridiculous by the length of time with no contact but by the amount that's happened in Irene's absence.If they ever bother to find her, there'll be a hell of a catch-up.Maybe they should send an e-mail saying "If you're wondering what's happened in the Bay...Hannah and Oscar got killed in an explosion the night you left.It was Andy's fault and he's also confessed to killing Jake and Charlotte, so he's up on two murders and two manslaughters.Maddy lost an arm, she's gone into rehab.Ricky had a hysterectomy and left Nate, we seem to still think Brax is dead but you know he isn't so Nate will fill you in on that.Skye ran off with Tank.And Billie's pregnant by VJ." If that doesn't sober her up, nothing will.

Meanwhile, after spending most of the year messing around with his new family and making babies with Olivia while largely forgetting that he once had a mother who got shot, Hunter is suddenly acting as though he cared.Still, it's more convincing than Olivia pretending that she cared about Charlotte.Not sure why Hunter would think Andy covering up his crimes to the extent of being prepared to let someone else go down for it marks him out as trustworthy, but I guess he's another one with tunnel vision.Given the speed with which he got processed for manslaughter...why is Andy still at the police station, rather than being bailed or remanded?(Wasn't Zac in court the next morning and prison that afternoon when he was accused?)Are the magistrates all on a break?Is Kat doing something stupid like delaying charging him in the hope Josh will come forward?Are they keeping him there for his own safety?(You'd expect people to be more bothered about him killing Hannah and Oscar than Charlotte and Jake...)

Loved seeing Alf's firey side aimed at a deserving target.There's no way that the old Alf would have taken any nonsense from Justin, so it was good to see.Also nice that we're still getting updates on Maddy and she hasn't just been forgotten about.After an unpromising start, I'm starting to warm to Justin: It's possibly not a good sign that he's a combination of traits from Braxtons and Barretts, but his computer game playing was reminiscent of Heath's best moments.And he did get some good repartee with Alf. Alf now remembers he has four sisters, which is accurate as regards on screen information.(Let's not mention Debra. No-one else does, for the most part.)

Nate and Tori's storyline was a bit bizarre.That nurse was pretty obnoxious but you'd expect Tori to have a thicker skin and a bit more authority than that, rather than running around telling everyone she isn't seeing Nate like they're in the playground: Either ignore it or tell them to stop gossiping and get on with their jobs. Nate's speech defending Tori would most likely leave everyone convinced they are having an affair.

ETA: With regards the shrinking broadcast gap, we will actually be down to 5 weeks in a couple of months or so. Australia goes on a fortnight's break at the end of this week, coming back on 22nd August, and we'll get that episode 5 weeks later.

[CaptainHulk]

I want them to open and shut the book on Debra once and for all (Is she dead? is she estranged?) Was only ever mentioned in 1988 and only ever seen as a child in a flashback along with Gordon (played by none other than Ray).

Something in me says Ailsa would have liked Justin (though not straight away), can't quite put my finger on it.

 

 

[H&Alover]

As regards Heath not knowing the difference between dead and alive as in Adam, neither did Brax as in Johnny.  Even checking for a pulse and not finding one doesn't always confirm someone is dead. Just because we all saw Gunno twitch that could have been his last movement.

Just because Phoebe is working at Angelo's doesn't mean she is in charge, I don't think she has any authority to make big decisions like paying suppliers, authorising orders for food drinks and the such like.

To be fair to Olivia Hunter didn't say anything to her about Andy being charged with his mum's murder (two days ago as Zac told him) when she came back from the cop shop and he turned over the page  of the  paper so she didn't see it, she only saw it when she went to the Diner. She did then go back and ask him why he didn't say anything and offered her support.  As the police had closed the case he more than likely thought he'd be better putting it behind him.  If Hunter was shocked that Andy 'did' it wait until he finds out the truth which he and everyone surely will, after all Josh is a friend. As for Zac being in court the next morning more down to Carter's over zealousness than anything else I think. 

That email from Irene was a touch bizarre why would she be back on the grog when she is supposedly with her long lost son so should be happy?  Well as the trailer showed all is not well with her big time.

Once again, as happens in soaps, the right person was in the right place when Alf mentioned he was going to be working  on the Blaxland and Tori dropped in the little fact her brother is a mechanic!  He, Justin, nearly didn't get off to a good start with Alf whose bad temper can now be  put down to him suffering chest pains. Of course Alf being Alf and a bloke decides to ignore them. Justin proved to be a good help and nice exchange between him and Alf about being bossed around by their sister(s).  At least Justin only has Tori. I did wonder when I read Justin swims to shore to get help for Alf 'what about the radio' but that was explained by the fact wouldn't you know it, it wasn't working.   He's one fit bloke in more ways than one doing that swim.  That'll put him on Alf's 'good bloke' list. So just when Roo was coming to terms over the accident she's now got Alf to worry about, hopefully it won't undo all the good work and put her back on the pills.

I guess the women at work are remembering Tori taking Nate home on the night he got drunk at their do and Ricky had left.  It's obvious Tori does fancy Nate (her looking back at him proved that) but sensibly she's not going there anytime soon, plus she is Nate's boss.   I thought she handled the situation well by having that quiet talk with the main stirrer and not making too big a fuss which would have got them all thinking 'oh yeah, me lady doth protest too much methinks'. Nate didn't really help by calling them altogether and admonishing them, of course they don't know the real story but then it's none of their business.

[Red Ranger 1]

11 hours ago, CaptainHulk said:

I want them to open and shut the book on Debra once and for all (Is she dead? is she estranged?) Was only ever mentioned in 1988 and only ever seen as a child in a flashback along with Gordon (played by none other than Ray).

Yep, and on neither occasion was she actually said to be Alf's sister, that was just in behind the scenes material.

Okay, it might seem strange to devote a paragraph to a throwaway line but it seems one of my theories from last week was confirmed: It seems Skye and Tank are back living with Greg! Or at the very least, living close by, given that Roo comments that Greg is keeping an eye on Skye.So it definitely looks like a very important chunk of plot got cut at the end of last week, I'm guessing that prior to John's final meeting with Skye there was meant to be a scene of Greg explaining the situation to John.That's bad editing and not particularly good writing, giving us the over-dramatic running away plot point rather than having Greg agree to support them in the first place.

And talking of missing chunks of plot, after Justin's heroic swim to shore...we suddenly cut to Alf in hospital, with no explanation for how he got off the Blaxland, especially since John, who seemed to be on lifesaving duty, knew nothing about it.(Yes, where were the yellow shirts when Justin arrived and had to ask Phoebe for help?)I guess we're meant to assume air ambulance, in which case has the Blaxland just been left adrift?It's really beginning to feel like there isn't really enough material for Nate and Tori to share the role of "the doctor" as they take it in turns to update the family.Given that Maddy seemed to think Matt should stay with Leah, it's ironic that he seems closer to the Stewarts now.(I nearly mentioned this last week, forgot, then someone mentioned it in Oz Discussion: Matt does seem a bit flirty with Roo and he has done the older woman thing before...)Not looking too good for Alf at the climax.But Roo might have more luck summoning help if she actually went to the door and shouted out into the corridor.I know it would mean moving out of shot but still...

So, we get our answer for who's running Angelo's: Phoebe, presumably on the basis that she is (or was) the only main character working there.And what do you know, the chef quits just as Brody needs a job! I'm possibly misjudging Mason's age but Lara looked a bit older than Maddy or Evie.Just as I was about to say Justin seems quite likable, he goes and threatens/intimidates Lara.I've got a feeling he was bluffing and wouldn't actually do anything to her, but lying to Mason and then going behind his back...well, maybe it's necessary but that's a back story we haven't heard yet.To indulge in speculation, as H&Alover commented a couple of days ago, this is feeling more like an ad hoc arrangement than witness protection, which was a popular theory.If they are getting away from someone, it's understandable they wouldn't want to leave a paper trail from or to their last port of call, which would explain the caginess about where they've come from.Could there be some truth in Mason's claim they made a pact to stay together when their parents died?

[c120701]

There wouldn't have been any lifeguards for Justin to ask for help as he was on the Pittwater/Diner side of the Bay, so there was no surf to require a Surf Lifesaver.

Roo pressed the emergency alarm as well as shouting.

[Angelica]

It does seem slightly ridiculous - that given that Angelo was fairly profitable for the Braxtons that they would then leave it so casually to Phoebe to manage. And how convenient that Phoebe's chef walked out just as Brody was looking for a job. Why Phoebe, whom Ash mocked recently for her lack of cooking skills, thought that it would be acceptable for her to cook for paying customers (especially when she was offering burnt pizza) beats me.

I do noticed the reference to Skye living with Greg. It did make the whole running away storyline seem ever more pointless. 

My main problem with the whole Morgan's secret - is that if it so important for them to cut all ties, presumably so they can't be tracked, it makes no sense for Tori to have gone so quickly for the director post rather than stay in the shadows.