Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[H&Alover]

You assume right Slade, it's the often talked about before but not seen nan, though why she was blaming him for Charlotte's death is unclear.

H&A used the two blokes not getting on, then becoming buddies ploy.  I did like the look of surprise on Olivia and Alf's faces when they were expecting to see them still squaring up to each other, instead of which they were in slapping each others backs mode.

It can't have been easy for Scarlett seeing Justin with Ava when, for whatever reason, she can't be with her daughter.  I thought Scarlett was in on the 'don't tell Brody Ava is here' secret, but obviously not. I was waiting for him to suddenly show up at the beach, despite Justin steering him away and catching them all together, he was at home alone again! I can completely understand his reaction, what did they think he was going to do and if they were all there together they would be able to defuse any tricky moment. I'm guessing him 'seeing' Kate again is part of his withdrawal from the ice, hope he doesn't return to it to make the visions disappear and tells Justin or Tori.

Rather amusing Justin and Scarlett's awkward conversation about him not being ready for a relationship and her flipping out and the look on Ava's face. They sorted that out, but then he manages to upset her again this week, so definitely something going to happen there between them.

Leah actually is returning the Leah we knew and loved before the whole Zac/Sam thing blew up. No-one could claim Ash has 'brainwashed' her into handing over claim on Luc.

Raffy is 14 so I wonder what the lower age limit is for kids her age to be working?  Not the most dangerous job, but she was operating the coffee machine with all that steam and hot water about.

There should have been more time devoted to Marilyn and her handing John that photo of him and his dad and good to know he is seeing Bailey again, he certainly seemed in a more positive frame of mind.

Stephen Hawking has lived a lot longer than anyone could have predicted but he can afford the best treatment, he has that machine that speaks for him but it can't be easy to live like that. Back when John's dad had it there wasn't anything like that, he just would have lost all movement and died a painful death.

[Red Ranger 1]

I was worried when the episode opened with Ben and Justin clashing that they were going to have him get on the bad side of everybody in town, but fortunately by the end of the episode they've patched it up and are having a beer.I'm still not entirely won over by Ben, although playing his blustery side for laughs here helped.Maggie seems to be moving up as my favourite Astoni, she does seem to have a bit of warmth about her and down-to-earth attitude.Ziggy and Coco, on the other hand, are just brats.Coco's constant whining is just irritating while Ziggy just seems to be selfish and unlikable.Worse, she seems like a carbon copy of Hope from last year, but because she's a regular, you can guarantee there won't be any consequences to her actions and so we're stuck with yet another character who's introduced as a criminal who never gets their comeuppance.

Justin did a fairly good job of handling Brody but he continues to be slightly out of his depth.While I laughed at Mason acting as though Kate was somehow real and Brody's bemused reaction to it, it was a bit of a relief that it turned out not to be the real Mason.Of course, that puts Brody in even more of a spin: If he sees his dead mother, then he can be sure that's a hallucination, but seeing Mason who might be real means he really can't trust what he sees.It is slightly disappointing though that Kate has abruptly gone from the voice of Brody's conscience to the devil on his shoulder.Her being a symptom of guilt made more sense.

[CaptainHulk]

Good ep.

Ziggy.... Needs a kick up the bum!  Coco is a damn whiny brat. Almost as bad as Serena Bishop during Neighbours 3rd Golden age, or a young Hannah Martin during its Silver age.

Ben and Maggie are decent enough. Ben has a touch of the Tom/Rhys/Joel about him. It's about time we had a warm Mummy-like lady again, Beth was the last real "Mum" type. Her understanding of John's illness is medal worthy.

Rolling car reminded me of something that would go down in TEY. I think the town is secretly holding them hostage.

Kate's ghost appearance actually worked, reminded me of storytelling of old (i.e. Joey's visions of Saul in 1999)

I think Brody should REALLY start worry when Buddy starts talking back to him ("C'mon, Take us for a walk, mate!") 

 

[H&Alover]

The first confrontation between Ben and Justin did seem a bit odd, second guy to diss Bens' board.  Then of course later it's Justin that Ben spots 'stealing' his car and goes racing after it.  Ben took a bit of convincing Justin was on the level.  At least it was just Justin leaving the handbrake off that was responsible for the car rolling away and not dodgy repair work!  Still they are all buddy buddy now.  I think he sounds an OK guy, small revelation of his past, ex near pro surfer who met and married Maggie and then they had Ziggy and is a very handy guy.  Alf was pleased with his work which is high praise indeed, how good is he at fixing broken waste bins?  Ziggy is a regular already! She had to pick the Salt van, new one to replace the blown up one, I see, complete with Brody asleep in the back. That explains why it was unlocked and the keys were on the floor.  I'm not up on the mechanics of modern cars but how was she going to start it without a key, I didn't think you could jump start the newer ones.  This Jared guy she is so desperate to get in touch with, what are the odds he has a new girl so that's why he's not answering her calls. Hope, you could argue, was the way she was because of her upbringing and she was trying to look after Raffy, but even allowing for the fact Ziggy is a rebellious teen, her attitude stinks.  Although her and Coco argue most of the time as sisters do, they unite when they think their parents are in the wrong again as sisters do.

So the tour bus hasn't been consigned to the scrap heap and is still running and the farmhouse just happens to be on it's route, hardly call it a cottage Maggie.  Coco really is a city girl, though admittedly seeing a snake would freak a lot of people out if you have never seen one that close before.  I think John dealt with the girls' reaction to that old headline very well, but I could understand why Marilyn was concerned it would set him back. As he told Maz, he knows the truth, she does so do their friends  and I'm supposing the rest of the town does so he's fine with it.

When Brody told Mason he'd started seeing their mum again I thought thank God, Mason confirmed what I thought it was a symptom of his withdrawal.  It did seem to go a bit weird when Mason said he wished he could see her and asked Brods to tell her he loved her, then we see that not only was Kate a hallucination but Mason was, now that is worrying, 'seeing' a dead person was one thing, but 'seeing' a live person is an all together different matter. He didn't say anything to the real Mason, though it would have been a bit spooky to say I've just hallucinated you and mum! Bit of a twist her encouraging him to go back on the ice to get rid of her image.  Would that have been Zannis he was texting, I thought he was banged up and did he score which would explain him being zonked out in the back of the van?

[Red Ranger 1]

I wanted to throttle Brody when he missed his check-in in order to go chasing after Ziggy, who really isn't worth it.Personally I might have been inclined to leave her out there.So, seems he did text Zannis (who the police are really dragging their heels looking for) but he's presumably now said no to him for the umpteenth time.Good too that he told his family about seeing Kate.Of course, he's still hiding things from both Kat (who was very quick to let him off the hook over breaking his bail conditions...main characters and their get-out-of-jail-free cards in effect again, it seems) and Ziggy.Given how desperate she apparently was to see her boyfriend, she's being very flirty with him.Meanwhile, Coco was a bit annoying again when she stropped off at Raffy daring to disagree with her, but does seem her on her way to being a reformed Summer Bay teen as she realises it's so much better learning to interact with people in the real world.(Um, right, imaginary online friends?)

Loved how Raffy went from cooing over Luc to quickly getting the hell out of there when Ash and Kat started pawing the ground again.I'm relieved that Ash adopting Luc seems to have been put on the back burner for now, even though Irene's become the latest person to abruptly switch from betraying one of her oldest friends to stop Ash getting custody to cooing over what a lovely family they make.Time enough to put a stop to that one... I am though slightly disappointed to see Ash and Kat break up, again.They do actually work quite well together despite their differences.

[CaptainHulk]

Nice mention of Vinnie and his time in the big house even if it was a nameless mention.

[H&Alover]

I did have to laugh when Brody and Ziggy both scared the bejesus out of each other.  Yes he could have dumped her or let her get a lift from a total stranger but when not high he's a decent guy and he may have been thinking of Raffy  maybe doing the same thing. He did in the end persuade her to return and for whatever reason didn't drop her in it with her parents or Kat.  He obviously didn't score that night just hiding away from his visions of his mum. Once again the Morgan's round the clock watch on Brody failing. I nearly didn't recognise Ziggy when she was on the beach, in fact at first glance she I thought she was Scarlett, she was actually laughing and yes flirting with Brody, she did good though without knowing it as he texted Zannis he was out. Glad he did finally come clean about 'seeing' Kate but kept quiet about also 'seeing' Mason.  Not sure how Dan the man would take it, should it happen, that Ziggy is interested in an older man.  Coco's obviously been keeping things from  her parents about how she has been getting trolled and her reaction was to bully the girl concerned.  I think she's a bit of a loner and doesn't maybe make friends easily, mum being a teacher wouldn't help as we've seen often enough.  It would be good for her to have an actual friend as it would be too for Raffy.  Talking of whom I feel sorry for her she's not been really settled anywhere for long.  We don't know how many homes she had when she was with Hope, then she moved in with the Morgan's, which for a while wasn't stable, has to move out to Kat & Ash's while Brody is going through his withdrawal, now Kat has moved out she's been offered a place at Marilyn and John's good thinking there John.I can see why people are thinking it's not suitable for a teenage girl to live alone with a grown man, not that Ash would ever go there and she'd be a help with Luc, but supposing she got a crush on him, that could turn awkward.

Leah was ready to go off on one when she found out Ash and Kat had broken up so Ash would be looking after Luc on his own after all it had been agreed they would be looking after her. But as Alf reminded her she wasn't expecting to be bringing up VJ on his own and to give Ash a fair go as he seemed to be doing well.  It was a calm talk between her and Ash and her offering her and VJ's help, and I dare say Irene will lend a hand and at least he's not stubborn or proud enough not to take it when it's offered.  Sad about Kat and Ash breaking up but I'm glad she was honest with him, painful as it was,  about how she really felt about adopting Luc.  Strange drunken talk between her and Scarlett about kids considering what we know about Scarlett, some odd comments about how they take over your life.

Justin knows his little sister so well, picking up on her having a crush on Ash by her actions and her 'tells'.  Her vehemently denying it didn't fool him for one moment hence his brotherly advice.

Mind he ought to be given some too following his blatant flirting with Scarlett, not that she wasn't doing her fair share.  She did overact when her phone slid in the water, it wasn't anyone's fault.  His eagerness to get it back working was more proof he likes her.  He could hardly be accused of snooping through it as the picture of the boy (and it was a boy) was her screen saver - is that the right name for it - but how did he come to the conclusion he was her son and not a nephew and accuse her of leaving him behind? We know he had no choice to leave Ava but as far he knows she did - unless she reveals all? PS - Ava obviously gone back home seeing as Justin is back at the Morgan residence.

22 minutes ago, CaptainHulk said:

Nice mention of Vinnie and his time in the big house even if it was a nameless mention.

Just called VJ's dad and VJ was younger than Luc when he 'lost' his dad.

[Red Ranger 1]

Didn’t take long for Leah to regret talking VJ out of challenging Ash for custody. Unfortunately, she soon gets bullied back into line with Alf’s “Ashford is the best thing for her.” Because some of us still think her father is better for her than an uncle who’s well-meaning but underequipped and whose lifestyle isn’t the most conducive to bringing up a child. Honestly, there are times when it seems like Alf and Irene are just propaganda tools to make the writers’ preferred viewpoint seem acceptable. I like to think Leah’s olive branch to Ash was just her realising she’s not going to get any support so she’s better off keeping him onside so she can keep an eye on Luc on the quiet. Kat hits the bottle again… I got the feeling it really wasn’t her cap she was after when she called round.

Meanwhile, Marilyn takes up Irene’s old role of grabbing random teenagers off the streets and luring them home, even if the episode did try to make it John’s idea. Was Raffy working at the Diner just set-up for this? I felt sorry for the girl more than anything which probably wasn’t the intention: She didn’t look at all overjoyed to be moving in and was probably only going along with it because it was easier.

Justin was incredibly clumsy knocking Scarlett’s phone in the water like that and he was very out of line in what he said to her. (We all agree that was a boy in the photo? Okay?) What business is it of his if Scarlett’s got a child in Adelaide? And as H&Alover said, why did he automatically assume that rather than that it was her nephew as she claimed in the past? Ah well, she didn’t deny it. Again, Alf confronting Justin wasn’t as harsh as the promo made it out to be, just a quiet word. Nice touch too that VJ doesn’t know Scarlett’s name yet. By the way, I’m reliably informed by those who know these things that the rice thing only works temporarily and the corrosion from the water causes the phone to break down quickly, so if Scarlett doesn’t save her stuff onto something else she’ll lose it all anyway.

Being around Hunter once again brings out the worst in Olivia, who was pushy and annoying again. Not that Hunter was any more likable, being a jerk and a hypocrite. He disowned Charlotte long before she died and long before he knew she killed Denny, spending her last few months rejecting her every attempt to make peace and driving her further and further over the edge, then insisting that he didn’t care that she was dead or whether anyone was punished for it or not and burning everything he had of hers. And before that, he treated his grandmother like a nuisance who he resented having to spend time with when he wanted to hang around his cool new (fake) family in Summer Bay. So I don’t see why he has the right to give lectures on family loyalty. How did his grandmother know where he lived by the way, if she hasn’t spoken to him since before the funeral? The speed with which she got there…is that consistent with her living in Robertson or has she been quietly moved back to the city? Some people might recognise her as Cheryl Stark from Neighbours…although I can’t say I did, probably because it’s been over twenty years and she’s not a large redhead anymore.

And Roo’s back and, as expected, hasn’t found Martha, probably because she didn’t look in Ramsay Street. Shame we didn’t see her chat with John. It’s ironic that the closest thing Hugo has to family left in Summer Bay is John, given that they pretty much hated each other.

5 hours ago, H&Alover said:

Just called VJ's dad and VJ was younger than Luc when he 'lost' his dad.

Really? It felt like Vinnie lasted longer into the next season than Billie did, plus VJ was actually born in the finale rather than a couple of episodes into the new year.(But I haven't looked it up so I could be wrong.)

[pembie]

4 hours ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

And Roo’s back and, as expected, hasn’t found Martha, probably because she didn’t look in Ramsay Street.

 

Yes she really shouldn't have gotten so upset and just go visit Ramsay Street. Not surprising that nobody mentioned it to her though seeing as Ramsay Street is Summer Bays competition

[CaptainHulk]

^ Though Shannon confirmed Neighbours as fictional in 1996.

But still if Corrie and Enders can have a non-canon East Street Special for Children in Need; I'd like to see a Ramsay Bay/Summer Street crossover for Red Nose Day (OZ)!