Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[Red Ranger 1]

Well, Leah belatedly remembered the anniversary and did her best to make it up to Zac.It was a mistake on his part to not mention that he'd spent the evening with Bianca, although I can understand why he didn't spill the following night, the moment had passed.Bianca's attitude towards it ("You were giving me signals!") reminded me why I don't really like her.I'm not sure Heath really needed to go through the motions of telling Zac he's dead if he goes near her again either...although it may actually have been simply going through the motions, since he then leaves them together.But really, the resolution to that storyline fell a bit flat...and then we get that twist in the tale as the police turn up, of which more tomorrow.Hunter's eighteen? Guess that was another birthday that happened when we weren't looking.

Matt and Evelyn's inability to talk to each other at the start was pretty pitiful, and John shone in his brief appearance interjecting on Marilyn's matchmaking attempts.Still, it was nice that after getting the cliché of them being interrupted by Hunter moaning just as they're about to kiss, they went ahead and kissed anyway.

[H&Alover]

I liked that, not the most romantic of circumstances, but hey ho!  True, if rather drunken, observation by Hunter that he knew he and Olivia were over but that Evie and Matt were made for each other.  Matt was willing to walk away if Evie told him they weren't meant to be, she was faffing about.  You would have thought either Zac or Leah would have made some sort of effort to celebrate Hunter's 18th, even if it was low key.  Did Bianca tell Heath, but refrained from telling him who she nearly kissed, deliberate on her part to see what sort of reaction she'd get from him?  He did seem more annoyed it was Zac than if it had been a random. He certainly showed a lot of restraint when he came across Zac on the beach, by not knocking his block off. It did look a sudden turn around by Bianca as they were all lovey dovey on the beach, reminiscing about their marriages, both of them, talking about Rocco, dancing to the kids music, they did leave out the bit where Bianca went off the rails after losing Rocco and she hooked up with Adam Sharpe. As is usual in soaps it was inevitable something bad was going to happen, which it did. I'll guess we'll find out tonight how the police made the connection between Gunno's remains and Heath. 

Looks like another cat is going to be let out of the bag, going by the conversation between Ash and Phoebe with Billie walking up at the end of it.

[Red Ranger 1]

Alf's episode count this week:Four. Roo only managed one before leaving town.Raffy, in her first week as a regular, managed two but didn't seem to have any dialogue on Tuesday.

This Heath storyline is making me very very uncomfortable.I like Heath and this hasn't changed that (his "feet on the table" really did feel less insolent criminal and more naughty schoolboy).A big part of me doesn't want him to go to jail.But another big part of me is finding it increasingly hard to say that he shouldn't.Despite being saved by chance here, it's clear that the guilt's eating away at him, that he knows he's done wrong and needs to be punished.I've already seen the show toss Kyle on the scrap heap while letting genuine scumbag Brax walk off smiling smugly: He started all this by escaping from prison (which, as usual, he's got away with) and because he seems to be the producers' favourite, Heath is left to carry the can while he plays happy families.I really wish the show hadn't done this to Heath, it feels like a complete betrayal of three and a half years' worth of character development.

Elsewhere, normal service is resumed as Phoebe goes back to being annoying and self-absorbed, and Matt gets a reminder of how high maintenance Evelyn is.I loved how Matt was torn between being loyal to Evelyn and thinking that Phoebe's ideas were kind of cool.I'm really not sure what to make of Ash's behaviour here.I can understand him feeling guilty about keeping the baby's true paternity secret from Leah but it feels like more than that, that he's expecting the Pattersons to walk out on them just because they're not blood relatives to the baby, that he thinks they don't count as family anymore.Which is wrong, and that utterly adorable scene between VJ and Billie on the headland, talking to what they both see as their baby, just proved it.And really this show needs to stop including the cliffhanger in the promos.We saw the Morgan house get shot up what felt like half a dozen times, and now we've already seen Phoebe let slip a bit too much to Ash three times already, so when the big end of the week cliffhanger comes round everyone just goes "Is that it?"

[Slade]

Forgot to mention that I couldn't understand why Decker chose such an easy password for such a huge amount of sensitive data but assumed that it was in case anything happened to him that one of the Morgans would be able to guess it.

I've been quite critical of Justin but I admire his courage for going back to their house to retrieve the USB stick.  I do think he realised that without it they had little hope for a future.  Will he and his family be allowed to have a normal life? We'll just have to wait and see.  I wouldn't be convinced with the police guard Justin will have at court given how Andy was able to escape with Josh previously.

I still can't believe that it's the same actress who played Darcy.

Was disappointed Zac blamed Leah for wanting to kiss Bianca and I was also disappointed that Bianca tried to kiss Zac in the first place.  I did find it funny when Heath was hoping that it would be anyone but Zac and it did in fact turn out to be him.

Billie annoyed me when she told Ash to get it together.  So he and VJ have to put on an act 24x7 to keep up her lie.  It doesn't matter that Ash's feels guilty about lying to a woman who whilst wasn't keen on her at first has shown Billie nothing but kindness as of late.  Leah seems prepared to wait on her hand and foot and even Leah's parents want her to have $10000.  I don't think Billie's entitled to a penny of that money.  So Ash now knows that Phoebe knew about her getting raped.  I always thought it was slightly odd with Phoebe.  From what I recall she suspected the baby wasn't VJs but after quizzing Billie she didn't pursue the matter which seems slightly out of character given how she was with Justin.  But I suppose she was empathising with the fact Billie got raped and didn't want her traumatised anymore that she already was.  I'm quite liking the fact that Ash is getting annoyed again that the person has gotten away with it.  It means that he will struggle to keep quiet about it which means the truth is more likely to come out.

Phoebe's a lot of things but boring IMO isn't one of them.  However as someone that likes to call her out about being self-centered it's good to see that characters on the actual show that can see this.  Matt at first then Evelyn.  Although there's an argument Evelyn is similarly being self-centered given that she lives with her and it's only a problem now that Phoebe's trying to upstage her event planning.  It was really quite funny Evelyn getting Matt to tell her to back off but Matt ended up making the situation worse because Phoebe roped Alf and Marilyn into helping out.

I've said this before but I'll say it again I don't care that Heath killed Gunno.  Even if it was premeditated.  After what happened with Pirovic and Casey it's understandable he would want Gunno out of the way.  The funny thing is I can't even remember why Gunno had such an problem with Brax when his original beef was with Ash.  Heath was very lucky.  If he had gone back the the police station a bit earlier he might have confessed before finding out the remains the cops found weren't Gunno's.  I'm glad Bianca's standing by him though.

[H&Alover]

It wasn't that an easy password, no-one but the Morgan's would have worked it out and it took them a while, it was only when Justin saw Raffy twiddling with the necklace it clicked. Brave or foolish for Justin to go0 back to the house?  Maybe he was thinking Turner wouldn't think anyone would go back, unfortunately she was cleverer than he thought.  Still it did mean she got nicked!

Phoebe has kept the Morgan's secret so has to be given credit for that.  In part Evelyn was to blame for getting her fired up about the Charity gig and as soon as music was mentioned it would get Phoebe thinking about a concert, you can understand why she is so enthusiastic, she needs something to get her teeth into and to take her mind off Justin.   Don't forget Matt has a interest in music too so he would lean towards Phoebe's idea, at least he did turn Evie round.  Phoebe did know that Billie was raped and I also thought she knew the baby wasn't VJ's but the way she has been with her it seems, to me at least, she does think it is. I can see why Ash would have a go at her but she really did try and get Billie to go to the police, but couldn't push her too hard or she would have shut her out.  The look on Phoebe's face at the end gave away the fact Billie (and her) knew who the rapist was although it was only when Mick got caught after kidnapping Irene and the police revealed he was a serial rapist. She snuck into his hospital room and saw the tattoo. It's what Ash is going to do with that information that is the big question. I can see Ash's dilemma regarding VJ's grandparents wanting to give Billie and VJ $10,000, Billie wouldn't want to take it, not only because of her guilt but even if it was VJ's that is a hell of a lot of money. VJ himself, for all we know, would be reluctant.

Depends what you call pre-meditated regarding Heath killing Gunno, he had the chance to save him but let him go which was more a spur of the moment thing than anything thought out before hand. Decent of Ash to admit his part in it, but then that is Ash all over. Gunno had a problem with Brax because he was friends with Ash and for Gunno that was enough reason to go after the Braxton's.  Good timing saved Heath there, but Geddes is no fool so won't give up that easily. It looks like Bianca and Heath are staying in the bay going by her remark to Heath on the beach.

Was that an act of bravado by Turner when she told Justin he was a dead man or are there any more Syndicate members out there who weren't rounded up?  Whatever it was their secret is out there now, headline news so the police must believe they are safe, hope it's not misguided, takes the pressure off Phoebe to keep quiet.  Hope Tori gets Nate to understand why she has been secretive and why she couldn't tell him, it was to keep him safe, though of course Spike had already tried to kill him and that was before they were an item. Wonder what the rest of the bay residents will make of it.

[atrus]

A really watchable, action-packed week which has crystallised something for me slightly: I don't necessarily have a problem with the now ubiquitous crime/police aspect of the show, provided that we feel we can side with the protagonists. That largely wasn't the case during the Braxtons' tenure as 'crime family' - but the Morgans/Syndicate storyline has proven that you can have all that drama and suspense without asking the viewers to embrace characters who are constantly doing reprehensible things. Totally agree with what others said about the emphasis on the Morgans' human reactions to the situation. Turner was pretty clearly the villain of the piece from her first appearance on the scene, but given the pace at which things evolved I don't think we were ever supposed to be in any doubt about that. Kat really did do a lot to redeem herself after last week - she realised what a stuff-up she'd made and did everything she humanly could to make it right, so credit to her for that.

Despite what I've just said about the Braxtons, my view on Heath, on balance, is that he doesn't really deserve to go to jail. This has nothing to do with what Gunno did previously to his loved ones - I would never condone revenge or vigilantism - but everything to do with the fact that, had Heath helped Gunno up, he had absolutely no reason to think Gunno wouldn't just have tried to shove him off the cliff in the next breath, and gone straight after his family next. Certainly the last thing I can imagine is the two men stumbling arm in arm to the nearest road and hitching a ride back to town. So while the decision was clearly calculated in the moment (as evidenced by the dialogue between them), there was a very large measure of self-defence at play. The fact that Heath was prepared to turn himself over despite that was admirable, I thought, but not particularly necessary in any sense other than to ease his own conscience - and I honestly think that a decent lawyer would have found grounds to keep him out of jail. The twist that the body wasn't Gunno's after all leaves a return for him open, somewhat disappointingly - although it does tally with his hand moving at the end of the special, IIRC.

As for his marriage to Bianca, I was glad things resolved, albeit concerned it all happened a little bit too quickly. Bianca was the active pursuer in the situation with Zac when it came to the kiss, but she was also right, I think, about him giving her signals. To add to the sense that Leah and Zac's marriage isn't completely watertight, he also doesn't seem to have learned anything from his recent secret-keeping from Leah. I can understand him not wanting to tell her what happened straight away, but equally she's obviously going to find out from somebody else next week, so he may as well just have gotten it over with.

I'm continuing to enjoy the low-key but compelling Evie/Matt romance, and their storyline even had me liking and sympathising with Hunter this week. Pity it takes that much alcohol for him to let his macho guard down, but I suppose he's far from the only Bay citizen we've been able to say that of.

[Red Ranger 1]

I was surprised that, in the middle of an episode where Billie seemed determined to stop anyone finding out the whole truth, she ended up disclosing everything to Phoebe, which makes up slightly for her earlier harshness.I'm in several different minds about Billie's actions: I guess she's still motivated by a desire to spare her daughter knowing she's the product of rape, which is understandable, but I think she's doing Irene, Leah and VJ a disservice in acting as though they'd make things difficult if they knew the whole story.Ash though probably is just looking for someone to hit, and is doing everyone else even more of a disservice.I appreciated VJ trying to stand up for Billie with him, shame it didn't work, partly because Billie told another pointless, easily discoverable lie.Re The money...From what I remember of Helen, she probably would withdraw the money if she knew VJ wasn't the biological father.But the money is for VJ just as much as Billie, both of them regard the baby as theirs.

It is interesting seeing the contrast between Heath and Ash, who in the past have taken it in turns to be Brax's sidekick: Heath is definitely coming across as the more moral at the moment, with Ash not understanding his guilt over Gunno.(To recap, Gunno first went after Brax because of Ash, but the feud really kicked in when Brax reported Gunno's drug dealing in exchange for a transfer as part of his escape plan.)Bianca again reminded me why I don't really like her: Not only nagging Heath but going straight back to flirting with Zac, which after last week seems like a pretty sleazy thing to do.Of course, she may have a point about Mossy.The reveal that he's working for...someone and Heath placing such emphasis on the fact Gunno's body isn't where it should be could well be going somewhere.I don't particularly want Gunno back, but if Heath didn't kill him after all then to me that can only be a good thing.Lovely little scene between Heath and Marilyn, two characters who couldn't be more different, especially Marilyn feeling the need to point out she was joking about Heath working at the Diner.

I wasn't expecting to actually see Turner's trial and after all the build-up you would expect bringing down the syndicate to be more elaborate than pointing out a photo of a crooked cop, even if there were a bunch of non-speaking defendants in the dock with her.Still, it's a relief that they're wrapping things up, Turner's threats aside.And nice to see the Morgans all together...it's only just dawning on me that they're yet another family with a late-arrival half-sibling (who turned up fairly early on, although thinking about it Oscar and Evelyn had only been around a few months when Denny was added).Phoebe's phone message to Kat was wonderfully pathetic.

[Slade]

On 26/02/2017 at 3:46 PM, H&Alover said:

It wasn't that an easy password, no-one but the Morgan's would have worked it out and it took them a while, it was only when Justin saw Raffy twiddling with the necklace it clicked.

It was a VERY easy password. I think the fact that they guessed it after a few attempts it proves how easy it was.  With a 7 character password with just letters of the alphabet the number of possible permutations is 8031810176.  And that doesn't include using capitals!

 

8 hours ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

Re The money...From what I remember of Helen, she probably would withdraw the money if she knew VJ wasn't the biological father.But the money is for VJ just as much as Billie, both of them regard the baby as theirs.

Regardless of whether the money is for both of them this whole thing is based on a lie and I wonder if she would be so keen for Billie even to have a share of it if the truth came out.  I still stand by what I said.

I started off at the beginning of the episode thinking that it was an absolute treat.  The way Billie had a go at Ash and confronted Phoebe after their conversation on Friday was an indication that her lies were falling apart.  And I took great pleasure in seeing her panic.  I'd completely forgotten that Phoebe knew that Mick was the one who raped her.  Regardless I started to get really annoyed towards the end.  Once again this episode reinforces that Billie is a compulsive liar.  She lied to VJ (again) about not knowing who raped her and the ONLY reason why she told Phoebe was so she could help her continue covering everything up.  I'm disappointed and extremely annoyed with Phoebe for going along with this.  After the s**t she gave Justin when he initially didn't tell her the truth (and for daring to try and keep him and his family alive) and the self righteous nature with which she spoke to him she allows Billie to guilt-trip and manipulate her into keeping quiet.  She is a hypocrite!

I am wondering whether Gunno is alive due the the fact they haven't found his body and also the phone call Heath's mate received.  I'm not happy that he and Bianca are sticking around.  It kind of reminds me of Kirsty and Kane.  I was happy with the way they left and bringing them back ruined it for me - Not that I personally see Heath and Bianca as Kirsty and Kane of course.

I thought Turner was extremely intimidating at court with the intense way she was staring at Justin.  Even though they got the right result at court I'm not entirely sure if they are still 100% safe.  You would think that Turner would have some sort of contact that could get to them.  Oh and Kat looked good in a skirt.  I liked the interaction with her and Justin.  For me it seems to work far better than with Phoebe.

[H&Alover]

It took more than a few attempts to crack the password, Mason started off that evening and was still at it the next day, as I said before it was only Justin seeing Raffy twiddling with the necklace that made the penny drop.   For all we know it could have included digits, caps, symbols.  Decker was a clever cop so no way would he have made it simple.

At least one thing that has had us wondering has been solved.  Although Phoebe knew it was Mick who raped Billie and initially thought he was the dad, Billie seemed to have convinced her VJ was the dad.  No-one can know what she has been going through and yes a part of her does want to have  a stable family life for herself, something she, through no fault of Ash, didn't really have.  Phoebe may not be happy to keep this piece of news quiet, but she will as she has so far.  can quite understand why she doesn't wasn't Ash finding out who it is, Mick may well be in prison but Ash would be determined to get to him and end up in prison himself which Billie doesn't want, though understandably he'd want some revenge on his sister's rapist. The big part of the lies is for her daughter to have a good upbringing without carrying the stigma of being the result of rape for the rest of her life, especially in a small town like the bay, we all know how quick they can turn on people. They turned on Zac quick enough when they 'thought' he'd killed Charlotte. There hasn't been any mention of Helen and  Theo's money gift this week yet. Billie, as far as we are aware, doesn't know about it yet and VJ knowing the truth would be just as reluctant to accept it.  Imagine the guilt Irene would feel if/when she finds out the truth, she already blames herself, unnecessarily, for him turning out the way he did another reason to keep her out of it, despite Phoebe pointing out the fact she is the baby's biological grandmother.

Rather too handy, do we think Mossy turning up like he did, just after the police discover it wasn't Gunno's remains? The suspicious phone call always makes us the viewers, know something is up!  It would be a real stretch of the imagination to even consider the fact Gunno somehow survived that fall, true we saw his hand twitch, but that could be put down to final death throes (or not as the case may or not be). Be interesting to see how it works out with Bianca working back in the school close to Zac, reading up on her history she and Zac nearly had a thing way back and what with her flirting with him a few days back, it's a risk that she'll be working so close to him.

They certainly meant it when they said the trial would be quick, and a magistrates court at that, bit of a surprise that, a big decision for one man (or woman) to make alone.  Unless they didn't want to risk a crown court trial where a jury could be nobbled. Where have I seen the barrister for the prosecution before, he looked very familiar? Was that really how many were in The Syndicate, just four others, who didn't actually look as threatening as Turner did,  I imagined a greater number of people than that.  Naughty of Justin keeping stchum the way he did, then beaming away and telling them all the good news and I was pleased to see them include Raffy in the family hug, it was down to Decker (her dad) that they have finally been banged up. from what we have seen Tori isn't going to have to chose her moment to tell Nate, it's all over the front page, hopefully after he's cooled down he'll realise why she couldn't tell him.  And Justin goes to see his daughter and we see Nina, Ava's mum. That is going to have to be one gentle reintroduction, hard enough for adults to get their heads around someone just disappearing but for a child as young as Ava very bewildering.

 

[Red Ranger 1]

14 hours ago, Slade said:

Regardless of whether the money is for both of them this whole thing is based on a lie and I wonder if she would be so keen for Billie even to have a share of it if the truth came out.  I still stand by what I said.

Oh yes, as I said, while I don't think she should, Helen may well change her mind if she knew the full story.

10 hours ago, H&Alover said:

Where have I seen the barrister for the prosecution before, he looked very familiar?

Had a quick look at his IMDb page and apart from an episode of Puberty Blues I don't think I've seen anything else he was in ever.He was in the direct-to-video spin-off Home and Away:Hearts Divided in 2003, don't suppose you've got a copy?

So...Day one of the rest of the Morgans' lives and it's perhaps not the brave new world they were expecting.The issue of them keeping their new names was covered pretty quickly.As Justin said to Tori a few weeks back, this is who they are now, and Brody and Mason in particular have been Morgans the whole of their adult lives.(First mention that Mason's birth name was Michael, I believe?)Mason's probably the one taking the adjustment easiest:He's basically been able to do everything he wants anyway with regards going to college and studying medicine.For Raffy, who's only just getting used to one change of circumstances, it's another piece of instability.While the Morgans have had years to come to terms with their parents' deaths, she's only just discovered that her birth parents weren't who she thought they were and that her birth mother was murdered, then had the same happen to her newly-discovered father before she's even got used to the idea.(Incidentally, has there been any indication what's happened to her adopted parents?The implication seems to be that they're not around anymore, in which case she could rival Sally, Ruby and Evelyn in the dead parent stakes.)It does seem slightly abrupt for Raffy to be saying that she feels like she's got a "proper family" again when it's not that long she was running to Kat because she didn't trust them though.

Meanwhile, Justin realises he can't just pick things up with Ava, who might not even remember him judging from her non-reaction to their meeting.Nina's stance was rather harsh though so hopefully she'll modify it in time.In comparison, the emphasis on his fairly trivial relationship with Phoebe was frustrating.I was hoping for a decent scene between him and Brody but instead it consisted of Brody nudging him going "Go on, tell her you like her" like they're at a high school disco.And another banal cliffhanger: Not only has it been seen at least twice in promos but we even see Nate reading the article in the previous scene, so basically the cliffhanger is Tori learning something we already know.

Some nice girls' talk scenes between Phoebe and Kat.Bit odd to see Phoebe on the phone to I assume Evelyn when Phoebe's at home, it's night and Evelyn lives there.(Is Evelyn having sleep overs with Matt already?I get neither of them are exactly inexperienced but feels like something that should happen on screen.I also wonder about the logistics given that Matt normally shares a room with Ellie.Is Roo's room being made use of while she's away?)