Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[Red Ranger 1]

I think Ash is overreacting to the point of being unreasonable, but I can see why he’s not too impressed with what he’s seeing. It’s a shame that Irene wasn’t as objectionable here as she has been, but she’s still a bit too smug about the fact that she thinks she’s the only person who can look after Luc. I really wish Leah and VJ had stepped up to the plate instead of being stuck up their own backsides. I’m disappointed in VJ. I guess I can understand him being loyal to Leah but he just acted like a common thug yesterday. With his recent attitudes towards John and now Zac, he’s in danger of turning back into the annoying aggressive character he was when he first appeared.

That said…I was absolutely disgusted with today’s episode. The show cr***ed over Billie as much as possible when she was alive and continues to do it now she’s dead. They’re determined to push ahead with this massively distasteful custody battle storyline, but were clearly hampered by the fact that there’s no way Ash, a convicted criminal who lives in a caravan, would have a chance of getting custody from the legal father who has his family to support him. So instead we get a farce of mistakes which makes a mockery of everything VJ and Billie went through. That beautiful wedding ceremony where they committed themselves to each other for whatever little time they had left and resolved to make sure Luc grew up in a loving family? Forget it, it means nothing, it’s been sacrificed to the cause of sensationalist storytelling. The hospital never registered the birth, the registrar performed an illegal marriage, all to make Ash tearing Luc away from the family Billie wanted for her seem possible. This is probably the worst thing the show’s done since killing Billie in the first place.

Meanwhile, once again I’m left wondering why the show’s pretending that that’s Olivia. Irene’s comment about family courts not always making the right call felt like Lynne McGranger was trying to subtext something that wasn’t in the script, that Olivia was the centre of a custody battle in similar circumstances. But instead of learning from that, Olivia’s so convinced the sun shines out of Irene’s backside that she’s encouraging her to take Luc away from Leah and VJ herself. In short, she’s encouraging her to become Diana, the biological grandmother who ignored the wishes of Olivia’s mother and ripped her away from her non-biological family. To be honest, I’d rather Luc with Ash than Irene. At least he has his girlfriend and potentially his brother for support (although Patrick seemed very uninterested in Luc yesterday). What’s Irene got, a full-time business, a moody lodger and two braindead teenagers? It’s not really the same as taking in a bunch of surrogate children who can at least feed themselves.

One thing this development does mean is that it gives VJ a justifiable grudge against John, since if Billie had lived a bit longer then they could have got the paperwork sorted and could tell Ash to go jump. And naturally that comes right when they need VJ to be the better person…

I’m pretty sure Anna works in the ED? [Checks when we last saw her.] Ah yes, she looked after Tank last year when he was stabbed.

[samdanfan]

I watched the current episodes last night and my Star of the show is the location.

I love when they go to the beach and to look out toward the beautiful ocean. That's what I love about the bay.

[H&Alover]

Maybe, just maybe, if VJ had know the full story behind Zac's 'cheating' I don't think one night's drunken bonk can even be called that, he wouldn't have hit Zac, but of course Leah wanted to protect him by not telling him the whole story because it's complicated. Ash took the fall for Dean which is how he ended up inside so hardly a hardened criminal but he still going to have a fight on his hands even with Kat, reluctantly, on board. I don't think he has thought it through just going on gut instinct.  He did kind of railroad Kat into it. Leah who brought up VJ almost single handed was struggling. Brief mention he is living at the caravan park and wants Kat to move in with him, er, excuse me but how is that going to work, VJ and Billie had to admit defeat that it wasn't practical due to lack of room and that was before Luc was born. From what he is seeing from both interested parties neither are ideal parent material.  Irene because she missed Luc's fever, but even Leah could have missed that and her being a recovering alcoholic.  Leah because of all that is happening at her place, Zac, who would have been a good part of the support group,  being banished, VJ suddenly showing violent tendencies which he hasn't seen before.

I kept posting on here ages ago about did Billie and VJ register Luc's birth and was VJ's name on the certificate, even before she got sick, understandable it could have got overlooked with everything that was going on but what with that and now the fact she didn't sign the marriage certificate, HTF did that happen, I know she was very weak, but the celebrant was totally negligent in her duty for not ensuring it had been done.

It does give Irene the opportunity to put  her claim in, despite her saying to Olivia it's between Ash and Leah and VJ.  She did say to Olivia part of her wanting to look after Luc was to make up for what Mick had done and she gave her back without any trouble. At the moment nobody is the perfect person to look after Luc, while Irene can work round her shifts at the Diner with Maz, Olivia, Leah and Roo and she does have Dr. Nate on tap if Luc falls ill. Ash only has Justin now Matt has gone, harder for him and then there are Kat's shifts to factor in.  True Ash wouldn't need to work at night but Kat gets night shifts when he'd be looking after Luc on his own, unless he can rope in a reluctant Patrick. Is his aversion to getting close to her something else from his past? Could we put Olivia's suggestion down to selective memory seeing as she was pretty young when the whole custody battle over her went down?  I'd hardly put Irene in the same category as Diane, she'd let Ash, VJ and Leah see Luc and not try and mould her into a mini version of herself.

Said Morag would be a busy girl!!!  Dropped bombshell on John that Nate's evidence wouldn't be enough, but I'm sure he wasn't the only doctor who examined him and Nate isn't a neurologist.  Just bloody bad timing John turned up right after VJ had discovered the **** up with the certificates to ask him to put a good word in for him, crumbs even Ash tries to talk him into standing up for John. I am not a fan of saying what a dead person would/wouldn't like/do, but I have to admit Billie wouldn't want John to go to prison for something he couldn't help.

[Angelica]

It does amuse me that Ash who has the world's shortest fuse, is now preaching about VJ's temper. I do agree to a certain point, that Luc does need one lead guardian - she can't continue to be passed around the bay, she needs some stability. I just don't believe that Ash is it. He is an ex-criminal with anger management issues, living in a caravan park, who has a very limited support system - a brother with PTSD and an on-off girlfriend. They have to discredit the others to make him seem the most feasible option.Irene has been unbelievably smug - so it was kinda nice to see the smugness wiped off the face. VJ must really be struggling with grief - otherwise, this excessive anger doesn't fit with the way his character has developed - look how forgiving he has continuously been of Billie who was certainly no anger. So VJ's overreaction to Zac seems out of character. But then they need their household to be fragmented to make Ash's custody battle feasible. 

[Red Ranger 1]

I agree, Angelica: The fact that the show is having to do so many contrived things to make the custody battle storyline happen is a sure sign that it should never have been attempted.

Roo's episode count this week:Four.

So that's another fail for Morag.How does the woman find work?I'm being flippant but it's yet another example of the show's frustrating habit of treating sympathetic characters like dirt in a way that's almost perverse: They fill the show with people who belong in jail and then send down the most likable residents.Zac last year, John this year, and frankly when you stop and think about it, locking up a sick man like this is pretty much barbaric.Even though history suggests he'll be out within about two weeks, it leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.And as with the previous episode, we have to sit through a complete farce to get there.Did Morag do any cross-examining?Bernice gets to sit there making unfounded sweeping statements without anything to back it up, with her views supposedly unquestionable because she's an "expert" even though she's never even met John, while the views of the people that actually know him get ignored.And they actually followed through with that nonsense about Billie?The nonsense is underlined by the prosecutor twice claiming that Billie died a "painful death" when that's blatantly not true: We saw her passing, it was peaceful and painless.Okay, she had pain at some point, but so did a lot of people.And that kind of brings attention to the absurdity that they're making a big deal of Billie's death which wasn't really a result of the fire (at best it was a contributing factor) yet nothing about Marilyn being seriously injured which was a result of the fire.(The only person that mentions it is John!)And why have VJ make a last minute decision to come to John's defence if the jury are then going to carry on as if he didn't say anything?That's just bad storytelling.(It also seems a bit of a stretch for VJ to say he's known John "most of his life".He's known him eight years: That's less than half his life is you go by his current age, and only just over half if you go by the original DOB.)

If they are going to keep Hunter around, instead of whitewashing his past, why can't they make use of it?He knows more than anyone that Billie would have forgiven John, because Billie forgave Hunter in similar circumstances and encouraged VJ to do the same.But no, just write him as Saint Hunter, the voice of reason.Even when he spends most of the episode being a tool to Olivia.I was actually pretty impressed with her for refusing to listen to Irene and pulling her weight around the house, but they can't leave it like that so we have to have a "funny" coda of her and Hunter dashing off to have sex like idiots.

Can't really think of anything to say about Roo and James, except it's nice to get some background of how they met.

[c120701]

Surely the obvious solution to Leah & VJ's custody battle is to move in with Irene and apply for custody with her. It'd be a much better fit than living with Alf too.

[H&Alover]

On ‎27‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 0:24 PM, c120701 said:

Surely the obvious solution to Leah & VJ's custody battle is to move in with Irene and apply for custody with her. It'd be a much better fit than living with Alf too.

While a good idea it's going to make it pretty crowded at Irene's, much more space at Alf's. Unless Olivia and Hunter move there?

That was  a shock verdict!  Dr. Chung needed to take off her police profiler hat and put her doctor one on.  It wasn't just Nate's opinion that John's behaviour was down to his tumour there were other experts though we never heard from them on screen. Prosecution  made the point that as John was a friend he'd be biased but as he does know John  he'd be more in a position of knowing his character more than Dr. Chung does. Talking of cross examining I didn't see the prosecution cross examine VJ after he gave his statement. Are serious trials like that usually that quick in Australia?

Although James was only doing his job photographing John coming out of court and getting  hauled off to jail I can see why Marilyn is unhappy with him.  But in his defence he doesn't know them and may have  thought twice if he had at least met them, but we all know whose fault that was. So having finally bitten the bullet Roo and James have  a meal at Salt and no-one bats an eye!

[630si]

I've just done a marathon as I've not been able to watch in the week with all that's happened here in Manchester. But I'm upto speed to now. 

The verdict was indeed a shock and I never saw it coming. I thought for sure it would be typical Home and Away and everything swept under the carpet. (Of course there's still a chance an appeal could allow this) my heart was breaking for Marilyn though. You could argue she's had it just as bad as John throughout all this. Im sure she will be brave. I knew VJ would come good in the end, and him testifying was heartfelt. It's a shame it wasn't enough. 

I continue to be angered by Ash's character suddenly changing from a firey lunatic to 'let's speak in mediation next week' all to appease the plot line of the baby being taken away from VJ. It's just silly. And conveniently absolutely none of the paperwork has been done for Luc's birth. But he managed his essays these last few weeks. I mean.... seriously?! VJ and Leah don't have a leg to stand on and I think Irene may heed Olivia's advice and try and strike a deal with them and apply for custody herself. It may VJ's only shot at any kind of co parental set up. There's a lot of turmoil to come here. And I'm not sure how much Ash I can take. Oh and is clear Kats just not into the idea. At all. 

Roo seems like she is finally wanting her toy boy being an open thing around town. I'm keeping an open mind at the moment. I suspect that phone call wasn't work (when they were at lunch). I hope he's not married! Roo can't go through that again... can she?! 

[H&Alover]

14 hours ago, 630si said:

I've just done a marathon as I've not been able to watch in the week with all that's happened here in Manchester. But I'm upto speed to now. 

Roo seems like she is finally wanting her toy boy being an open thing around town. I'm keeping an open mind at the moment. I suspect that phone call wasn't work (when they were at lunch). I hope he's not married! Roo can't go through that again... can she?! 

The rest of the country were with you 630si

That phone call was for James to take photographs after John's trial. I guess the people he worked for knew he'd be closest to the scene being in the bay.

[630si]

1 hour ago, H&Alover said:

The rest of the country were with you 630si

That phone call was for James to take photographs after John's trial. I guess the people he worked for knew he'd be closest to the scene being in the bay.

Thanks yes we should see that in tonight's episode then