Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[c120701]

5 hours ago, H&Alover said:

Seeing as ND hospital isn't that big not totally surprising Mick spotted Billie with Luc (short for Lucinda)

It depends which establishing shot you're looking at.

[Red Ranger 1]

Bit of an involved episode.Again, I wasn't too bothered about Justin and Phoebe but I'm glad that they've sorted it out, I guess. Nate's proposal for Marilyn was a bit bewildering: Leeches seem a bit 19th century, do they really still use them?Still, whatever works, and it does seem that's one sorted, which I'm kind of glad about although I still think having her lose a hand would have been interesting.Some nice stuff between her and John, if you forget what else we know.Oh, and Riley, who had a hard job seeming like a worse option than Nate but has managed it, coming across as rather sleazy.Raffy suddenly seems to be written as a lot more grown-up.

I'm going to assume good intentions from Mason (albeit with regards Olivia rather than Hunter), even though he really wasn't the right person to tackle Hunter about going back to school and I think Alf's speech had more to do with it than anyone else.It's also frustrating that once more the show sends out the message that doing honest work is somehow something to be ashamed of.Even though I was kind of expecting it, I'm not really convinced that going back to school will do Hunter any good: Witness the way Matt repeated Year 12 just for the sake of it, only to quit uni after a few weeks and become an apprentice mechanic instead, which he might as well have done a year earlier.Working in a bait shop is better than what Hunter used to do...

And then...VJ's going back to school as well? That has to be the stupidest thing the show has done this week, probably this season, possibly since they resolved the Barretts' storyline off screen.It just makes no sense whatsoever.It just smacks of the show realising that Raffy's the only school age regular they've got left and woe betide we don't have a bunch of people wandering around in SBH uniform, so VJ and Hunter have to be stuck back in school against all logic.Olivia going back to school would make more sense than either of those: She's the one who actually wants to go to uni, she had enough trouble during exams for it to be believable that she didn't get high enough marks.VJ dropping out of school just a few months short of his exams was daft enough but at least that made a kind of sense.To have him drop out of school because he wants to concentrate on the baby and everyone agree that that's a reasonable thing to do, then go back to school once the baby's here, probably without any clue as to what he's going to do afterwards..? That makes no sense, which is probably why the show doesn't bother to write a scene of VJ deciding to go back to school, because it would demonstrate the complete illogic of it, and instead sneaks it in as a throwaway comment in the hope no-one will notice or think about it.Absolutely ridiculous.The idea of him going back to being another tie-wearing teen after everything that's happened to him in the last nine months makes no character sense at all.

[Slade]

18 hours ago, H&Alover said:

You do have a funny idea of 'entertainment' Slade.

I'm entitled to find whatever I want entertaining thank you very much.  If it bothers you or you don't like it - tough!

I'm not happy how this storyline with Billie is turned out.  I suspected that she would gain sympathy because she was raped but when you add the kidnapping of her daughter now everything appears to be forgiven or so it seems.  So she gets the happy ending and there's absolutely no comeback for the fact that she manipulated a young boy into falling in love with her and lied to him and his family for months and took advantage of their kindness.  I don't really care that she told them the truth.  Too little too late.  She had plenty of opportunities to come clean before and she didn't take them.  She only told them in the end because she was forced to.  I wasn't convinced when she said she was planning to tell them just before that.  And Leah's is forced to accept the current situation because if she dares to say anything about what Billie's done no doubt she will be made out to be the bad guy.  She's the one that's not supporting the rape victim who had her baby abducted.  I am disappointed that once VJ found out he didn't tell I Leah.  She was understandably hurt but didn't want to make a big deal but he's effectively chosen Billie someone he's been dating for around a year over his own mum someone who had loved him and cared for him his own life.  Irene's attitude is perfectly understandable as she was understandably always going to empathise with Billie being a fellow rape victim.  I wouldn't have minded seeing Ash at least square up to Mick purely for entertainment purposes.  The scene with Irene and Mick was good because they both seemed genuine.  Mick seemed genuinely sorry (at least for what he did to Irene) but Irene seemed to understand some of Mick's pain whilst not necessarily excusing what he did.  It's a shame because I'm not going to get to see him torment her anymore.

The stuff with Olivia, Mason and Hunter is cracking me up. Olivia focusing on Hunter again.  I was looking forward to seeing Hunter and Mason round two but Alf stopped them earlier this time.  The only reason Mason went round was basically to try and stop Olivia obsessing over him.  I'm surprised Hunter went round to apologise later on and thought it was pretty big of him considering.  I do think he should go back to school.

 

13 hours ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

It's also frustrating that once more the show sends out the message that doing honest work is somehow something to be ashamed of.

I do think this is a fair point.  My philosophy is that you shouldn't pass judgment on those with jobs that some people deem as lesser or low skilled.  If someone is earning an honest living and they are paying their taxes then good for them.  We can't have everybody doing high paid jobs or the whole country would fall apart.  I'm not sure what it's like in Australia but in the UK the problem is a lot employers won't touch people that don't have some sort of formal qualification.  And in some cases this is even for some of the lower paid jobs.  So given the rise of the cost of living they need to have certain jobs to pay rent and put food on the table etc.  So for that reason I do think it's perfectly understandable why Zac, Leah, Olivia etc would want Hunter to go back to school (Perhaps this is the message the show is trying to send out).  If he does decide to go to leave the bay and live in the city he's going to need something.  I do wonder how Heath manages sometimes and how he's going to manage with 3 kids.  I guess Bianca will be the bread winner and Heath will be the house husband.

Riley annoyed me the way he was quizzing Nate about Tori as if he's entitled to have her back.  So much so that I hope Nate tries to get back with Tori just to wind him up.

Well I'm glad Marilyn is OK.  Given that they did this to Maddy perhaps it's a bit soon to do another amputation.

[H&Alover]

Leeches were indeed  used in the 19th century to bleed people to cure all sorts of ailments even mental problems, the practice fell out of favour when new fangled medicines came into being.  Some professionals now believe they do have medical properties if used under control, they, the leeches, can get carried away once they start sucking on your blood. They do indeed seem to have done the trick with the problem Marilyn had with her hand. She's not out of the woods yet of course still the rest of her burns to be treated.

I know Nate has had a chequered past but he is a much better bet than Riley, gives me the creeps, who from what has been implied by Tori was a real player which explains her reluctance to get involved with Nate when she thought he was a commitment phobe. Now he's planning to get her back , don't go there Tori!  Luckily she now knows Nate texted her having transferred her old messages from her old phone to her new one that he knew the truth about who grassed him to Care Flight and why she took the blame so he's back in with a chance. We did see Nate and Riley square up to each other. Justin also discovers Riley is on the scene and is not a happy bunny.

Liked those scenes with Phoebe and Justin they are in a new relationship and she's in the role of carer thankfully Brody made him have a rethink.  The exchanges between Phoebe and Evie were funny with Evie saying she wouldn't run around after Matt like Phoebe was with Justin.

I don't know why you hate Billie so much Slade but you are entitled to your opinion and I'm entitled to mine. I'll just repeat that once you have started a lie and part of her wanted to believe it was VJ's baby, the longer it goes on the harder it is to admit the truth. It wasn't for VJ to tell Leah the truth, it wasn't his secret.  Mick did say to Irene he'd done bad things to  lots of people, meaning, I'm guessing, the other women he'd raped.

Good old Alf being the wise older guy again persuading, not nagging or pushing Hunter to go back to school. I can see why Olivia had a go at trying it feeling, rightly or wrongly it was because of her he'd dropped out.  Mason should have kept out of it, he made a good point though it was Olivia Hunter went looking for not him.  I don't think they were implying working in a bait shop or an ordinary job, Alf doesn't have any formal qualifications, but it wasn't such an issue back when he was young. Matt did finish his HSC but found out Uni wasn't for him at least he gave it a try, he can get an apprenticeship to properly qualify as a mechanic so will be able to work anywhere. Hunter just hasn't discovered his niche yet. As Alf said he's, Hunter, is only young so has his whole life to decide what he wants to do and having some kind of qualification(s) behind him wouldn't hurt. Didn't Heath get qualified as a gym trainer/instructor once he got over his illiteracy problems and I thought he mentioned to Irene he had to get rid of his tat because it didn't suit the work he was doing?

Where did VJ going back to school from!  I thought everyone had come to terms with him working to support himself, Billie and the baby, even if it is only part time.  Don't forget we also have Ellie who is the other school age regular.

 

[Red Ranger 1]

Alf’s episode count this week: Four. For the second week running, Raffy was only in one. They did make her a regular, right? (They haven’t made Ellie a regular, she’s still a recurring guest and, indeed, hasn’t been seen for 35 episodes and counting.)

I was going to say how nice it was to see Mason and Olivia being happy and just doing normal coupley things (even if those normal coupley things were having sex in a garage) without any angst or Hunter… and then we got those ridiculous lectures from Irene (who once again holds whatever opinion the plot requires and seemed to turn into Colleen to boot) and Justin (and I’m not even sure what he was saying, that Mason falls in love too easily?). Frankly, Brody’s reaction of “High five!” seemed to be the only sensible one on offer. Not sure if that was meant to be their first time or not: They were a bit blasé about it pre but then they seemed determined to carry out an assessment of how good it was afterwards. Not convinced by Irene’s claim that this isn’t like Olivia either, but then she didn’t see her dragging Hunter upstairs after a couple of kisses.

So, Justin finally knows Riley is back and is predictably not happy. Neither is Nate, who still seems like the better option, albeit only marginally. Kat grabs the wrong end of the stick but I hope she keeps hold of it as long as possible. So Damian lives in Auckland now? Did we know that?

[atrus]

Another fortnight binged - and I'll start with the specials.

Compared to last year, I have to say I wasn't impressed. For the most part, the first one was a very by-the-numbers damsel-in-distress story, with Bianca spending the first half of the episode having sex with Heath (incidentally, that's pretty much all that happened in the first half of the episode) and the second half tied up in a shed, waiting for perennial action men Ash and Nate to arrive and save the day. I did like how she was the one who floored Gunno in the end, but it was too little, too late, in my view. Could Heath not have been the one who was kidnapped? He's the one Gunno really has a grudge against, after all. Instead he's stuck in police custody all episode with a cookie-cutter cop-barking-up-the-wrong-tree, when the real showdown should have been between the two of them. Despite press reports that this was violent, adult, no-holds-barred H&A in the mould of late night Hollyoaks or what-have-you, it didn't feel remotely like that at all. In fact there was no real sense of threat or danger, other than Gunno sporadically threatening Bianca with ill-defined 'fun and games' and then singularly failing to act on said threats, right up until her friends finally burst in to rescue her.

Gunno, indeed, was hamming it up proper in both installments, especially in the second special as he gleefully took control of the prison PA system. It didn't work for me, as he hasn't earned anything close to the level of notoriety (i.e. above and beyond any other common/garden crim from H&A whose name ends in -o) to justify a camped-up smart-alec routine. It was a bit samey the way Nate and Ash were drafted in yet again - I suppose Ash makes sense given his history with prison and Gunno, but couldn't they have used someone else than Nate for the second 'adventure'? That said, the second episode was a better production overall, with a welcome return for Kyle (albeit not contributing a huge amount in my view), and the prison riots creating a genuine sense of menace in a way that the first special didn't. But cumulatively it all just felt very implausible. And once again, no actual stand-off between Heath and Gunno, which by rights should have been the centrepiece of the two-day event - with Ash instead left to take his place in the showdown. Worse still, the ending was way too similar in a lot of respects to last year's, except with the guilt of killing Gunno now displaced from Heath and onto Ash. And to top it off, we got more spurious attempts to justify Kyle having fallen on his sword to spare virtual stranger Isla from jail - a storyline we were all relieved to have forgotten about months ago - as she appeared to confirm in their ambulance reunion that she'd be waiting for him at the prison gates for ever and ever and... Ugh.

Oh well. At least Brax wasn't back for these ones. Every cloud...

In terms of continuity and the main show, Heath and Bianca were well-covered, with their honeymoon 'adventures' briefly acknowledged by Irene on their return but not dwelt upon (and probably wisely, since the addition of the events from the special make the cluster-cliffhanger in the main show look even more implausible than it already did). Ash got away with the absence at a push, though it jars that the writers aren't allowed to mention the fact he's just killed someone. Nate far less so - I wasn't sure of the exact timeline of the specials but it did seem very odd that he played a major role in both, but still made the last bus home to preside over multiple crises at the hospital in the season premiere.

Back to the main show, and the brief return of Heath and Bianca felt like someone had just realised they'd been rostered on for longer than intended - with the baby story set up at the end of the specials dragging out their marital woes for a week or so longer before seeing them hastily resolved again, and the family dispatched tout suite for The City. I had to laugh at Bianca 'leaving her job' when they suddenly decided to go - between the numerous Heath dramas and being kidnapped by Gunno, she hasn't actually put in a single day's work at the school since she's been back, so no great loss there for Summer Bay High. I tend to feel that an extended visit should have been their justification for sticking around a bit, rather than making out they were moving back for good and then U-turning. A lot of the pregnancy story was nicely realised though, with poignant references to their past and in particular Rocco - and overall it was good to have them back for a spell. Also pleased for Heath that he finally got to smack Zac, who has become increasingly insufferable over recent weeks.

So onto the main event, which I suppose was the Mick storyline. So he did kidnap baby Luc, but it was more than three episodes into the season, so nul points for me on that score. Apart from the fact that I really wish the show would give poor Billie a break from all the harrowing storylines, I think it was all played about right; Mick was clearly still very troubled, albeit apparently genuine in wanting to make amends to Irene. Stealing the baby obviously points to a high degree of sociopathy but at least there was never any apparent intention to harm her. Irene was naturally terrified of Mick, but just about managed to hold it together during the attempt to get Luc back. It remains to be seen whether she'll want to have any contact with Mick in future, but I suspect she might. Not surprised she isn't ready to start calling herself Grandma to Luc yet, though, and to be honest I think that's a discussion that should have been saved for much later, rather than being thrust at her after what just happened. With any luck, Billie and VJ will just be left alone for a while now to raise their child in relative calm and happiness.

Home & Away doing 'scarred for life' storylines is one of my biggest bugbears. Said character is never scarred for life, and they always act as if their usually relatively superficial injuries are the most atrocious thing anyone's ever seen or experienced, because they would never dare to properly disfigure one of their super-photogenic cast. I feel like the writers should visit a real burns unit because in comparison to many, Marilyn's are pretty mild. Not that I don't think Marilyn has good reason to be traumatised, but the result was that I felt she was getting a bit whiny by the end of it all in honesty. If I was about to lose my hand I'd be begging the doctors for the leeches, so I don't know why she was being so sniffy about it. On the plus side, though, every day's a school day; I had no idea at all that leeches were actually still used in modern medicine. More intriguing was John's behaviour; he was acting every bit the desperately concerned husband, and yet we know he's responsible for the blaze in the first place. What we don't know, I guess, is whether he's actually aware of that. Is he possibly having blackouts during which he's randomly setting fire to things? Or does he know, but his brain is somehow dissociating the cause from the effect? Or is he perfectly aware of everything and just randomly turned evil? Anyhow, looks like Hunter's going to be first in line for police scrutiny - and given his history, reasonably enough.

I was glad that Ranae Turner was finally given some motivation for being so unashamedly evil, and it was a good twist that (at least by her account) the Morgans' dad was at least as bad an egg as her father, if not worse. I do wonder whether we've seen the last of her or if she will crop up again if Tori decides to look into her claims - which given how much they affected her, seems likely. I'm not interested in Smarmy New Surgeon in the slightest (we seem to get one periodically, and they're seldom enthralling), and I'm not sure why Tori is either. It seems the writers have zero ideas about what to do with Nate other than place him at the centre of an increasingly tedious series of love triangles. Elsewhere in Morganville, while I continue to find Justin and Phoebe unusually tolerable as a couple as far as Phoebe's relationships go, my interest in Olivia and Mason has rapidly waned since Mason proved himself just as capable of descending into macho posturing as almost every other young man who's ever graced the Bay.

And finally, the hands-down best moment of the fortnight was Evie declaring 'we almost died today', as if this was somehow a highly unusual turn of events for her.

[Slade]

Well Tori is proving to be quite a fickle one isn't she.  Firstly she's into Nate and then decides Nate's not committed enough so wants to be with Duncan and then decides that she wants to be with Nate after all and now she considering going back with Riley.  I am quite liking Justin's attitude towards Riley simply because I don't like him (Don't really like Justin much either he annoyed me when he raised his voice again when he found out about Riley and seems like a bit of a slob but I prefer him out of the two).  Riley comes across as quite arrogant with regards to Tori and feels entitled to reunite with her.  I do think the whole he cheated on her argument is difficult to use as justification for not going out with her for two reasons.  Firstly eight years is a long time and a lot can happen then and a person can definitely change.  Secondly they are ignoring Nate's track record which is more recent.  So they are not comparing like with like.  It is a bit surprising that Justin would also carry this attitude after eight years as well but I'm not arguing.

After the preview I knew Olivia and Mason would get caught so I was quite excited at the prospect of seeing that happen when they were deciding what to do in the back of the garage although Irene's reaction immediately was a bit of an anti-climax.  I think Mason should listen to Justin's advice as he does tend to fall for girls pretty quickly even though it's understandable.  Nothing he could do about Lara even though I wanted to throttle him when he told her where they were.  He got hurt from Evelyn and the same thing could happen with Olivia.  Another girl on the rebound.  He shouldn't be taking this relationship seriously or expecting much at this stage especially given that Olivia was obsessing over Hunter this week and was going over the top to show Mason that she's his girlfriend last week.

Now that she's over Mick back to business as usual.  Have to say I was shaking my head at some of the stuff Irene was saying in that episode.  Firstly when with regards to Mason she said that he was a doctor and should have more sense.  Because doctor's don't have sex.  Then when she found out about Riley and she said Tori had a skeleton in every closet because Irene hasn't had a previous relationship..oh wait.  Also when she said Riley was a piece of work what just because he wants to get back with an old flame and is quite ambitious about it.  It's even more ridiculous when (as I mentioned above with Tori) Irene has completely ignored Nate's history with regards to his previous relationships.

My jaw almost dropped when Evelyn told Kat she couldn't blame Hunter.  Who else was Kat supposed to think given started the fire given that Evie had eliminated all the other people who worked at the festival and Hunter doesn't have an alibi.  It's perfectly reasonable and logical to assume it's him.  Can't help thinking this will ultimately lead back to John given that he fessed up to starting the fire a few weeks ago although I'd imagine from Kat's perspective he's a pretty improbable prospect at the moment and not even on the radar.

[H&Alover]

Atrus, it was Ash had the original beef with, as Ash shut down his drug dealing, transferred that to Brax when he found out he was a mate of Ash so ipso facto Heath would be next in line, ditto Kyle, Bianca just happened to an added bonus to him.

I'm with Irene as to Riley being a piece a work, in fact she took the words out of my mouth. There is just something about him I just don't like, I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him, which is as I'm only little is not very far!  I know he and Tori haven't been an item for seven/eight years - it's varying again - so who he has been dating in the meantime doesn't have any bearing on what he is like and him wanting to get back with her but I think he wants to get back with her just because she's got an interest in Nate and that is a blow to his overinflated pride.  How dare she not fall at his feet!  Tori admitted he only cheated on her the once, as far as she knew, he must have really, really hurt her for it to still rankle all these years later. Justin was doing what all big brothers would do look out for his sister, couldn't make out if Mason was aware of how much Riley hurt Tori, he was only 13 at the time, he dropped his name into the discussion pretty lightly. If he'd been fit enough I think Justin would have loved to punch Riley.

Justin was right about Mason falling for girls pretty heavily soon after they hook up, though in Lara's case she was part of the syndicate so planted to get Mason to fall for her, but Olivia is till getting over Hunter. They, Mason and Olivia, are both adults so them doing coupley things as you so beautifully put it Red, is fine, especially the for real coupling in the garage, you would have thought they could have picked a more romantic spot for their first time which I think it was,but I guess passion got in the way of things. Maybe part of Irene's telling off of Olivia was embarrassment on Olivia's behalf, not only Matt saw them, Alf, her old friend did!  No I don't think we did know Damien  lived in Aukland considering how often Irene mentions him!

It must be a police default that because someone has a record for doing something in the past they are the first one whose name gets put in the frame, strange actually Hunter hasn't been thought of before.  Yes he was arrested and charged with burning down Leah's house but that was two years ago and he hasn't been involved in any fire related incidents since then.  The one he did almost get blamed for was down to John who owned up the moment he remembered it was him that started it.   The only 'proof' against him is he was upset when he saw Olivia and Mason kissing and they/we know what happened last time he was upset, but see my previous statement. The same logic about no alibi could apply to John, but Evie didn't see him slip away from the festival and of course he doesn't have 'history' as Kat called it.  We, Kat, Evie and Matt know Hunter was at the Schoolie thing when that other fire started, but the police are going to have to find evidence Hunter was anywhere near the garage and Brody's van. I'm wondering if starting that first fire has sparked (sorry) something in John, he did look shifty when Alf revealed the bush fire wasn't just a bush fire but arson, maybe he does blank most of it out after the event.  We did see him the other week while waiting for news of Marilyn with a lighter which considering he and none of the other residents in the bay smoke seemed an odd thing to have in his possession.

As I said in  a previous post Leah seemed OK with the news she wasn't Luc's biological grandmother, but as we saw  her true feelings come out when we see her 'talking' about it with Zac and Billie overhears.  She can't turn her back on Billie completely though because she'd risk losing VJ who accepted it all a while back and would stand by her and the baby.

[630si]

Slade I hadn't thought about the whole thing with Billie/Luc/VJ until I read your post. But it rings true and I think you're absolutely right. Why is Billie getting away with any of it?! She HAS manipulated VJ and she has even said out aloud a number of times that she just wants a normal family for her child. And at all costs it would seem. It appears she's used them and as you and other people on here have been saying Leah simply takes it. For now at least anyway. As much as Leah's nagging has grinded a lot of us lately, the is one occasion where you hair want to question why Billie has literally ruined VJs life, failing school etc and taken money off family and so on..... I felt sympathetic towards Billie for the attack and how this all came about but I think after reading in seeing this in a different light now. I'm really worried that Luc will cause an issue between Leah and Irene though, however I think it's a friendship that can stand to be tested.

Similarly Mariyln's burns just seems all the more tragic in the fact that it's poor Marilyn it's happening too. And there was a glimmer of a younger Maz shining through when she heard she was getting leeches put on her. I couldn't help but smile!!

Also it stands to reason that Kat should investigate Hunter for the fires for obvious reasons. Why didn't she come to that conclusion earlier?!

 

Tori Tori Tori what will we do. I really like her so I just pray she won't spend 4 years going from love triangle to love triangle like Nate. Not into Riley personally he seems a bit too cocksure of himself like he knows he can et her back and seems to have an effect on her almost instantly which in struggling to believe. I didn't just spend 6 months watching her and Nate dodge each other because of Duncan for it to only happen again with someone else  

 

[Red Ranger 1]

I don't think it's anywhere near as simple as Billie ruining VJ's life and getting away with it, I think they make each other happy and while she lied to him for a long time, I don't think any of it was calculated.But that's an old discussion and not one I should really be dwelling on at the moment.Today!

I really enjoyed seeing Saint Hunter get grilled by the police but, despite McCarthy saying that no-one will believe he's innocent, everyone believes that he's innocent because he's Saint Hunter.Yet he continues to show no real remorse or take any real responsibility for the harm he's done (some of which people still don't know about), instead continuing to make excuses."I did mean to burn down Leah's house!"he whines, as if he somehow didn't really nearly kill a bunch of people and put Billie in hospital for months.I was willing for McCarthy to charge the self-entitled little creep but no, impotent warnings about still being a suspect aside, it all gets wrapped up in one episode in which no-one important believes he did it.Kind of frustrating that McCarthy seems to have been reduced to a straw antagonist there to accuse the wrong people and have super cop-cum-social worker Kat get them off the hook.At least we were spared Olivia rushing to the station to fawn over Saint Hunter and make a big speech about how wonderful he is. Instead, we had Evelyn doing it.

Can't say I was too enthralled by the relationship drama either.Annoyed that Justin's interference is wrecking things between Mason and Olivia.Somewhere in there, he might have a point about Mason falling for a girl who's probably on the rebound, but I don't think that means he should just give up.Meanwhile, I don't want Tori with Riley but not for the first time I think she deserves better than Nate as well, as he continues to act like he's better than her and punish her for his bitterness towards his ex-wives.And, while we had some good moments of Brody pointing out to her that she's being ridiculous, in the end Phoebe acts in a childish manner, expecting Justin to do what she wants instead of what she said and needing everything to be on her own terms, and gets her own way.Well, sort of.Hard not to think at the end that he's had a lucky escape.