Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[Red Ranger 1]

^Don't really want Geoff and Nicole to get back together because I think that would be too much of a backwards step, they've both moved on.Don't really like Nicole and Trey either though.Frankly I'd still rather she was with Aden but given he's started following Belle around again it's probably not gonna happen any time soon.Like Geoff and Claudia though.

So, it seems we can rule out Lou's death being faked.If we take this at face value, then as soon as Irene gets cleared of any wrong doing(and we know she will...), she'll be a millionaire.I actually really hope they do it, it'd give her something much more interesting to do than a five minute relationship with a guy whose life expectancy is slightly longer than a mayfly or a resurrection of an alcoholic back story from seventeen years back.Bet they won't do it:Either the will's a fake or Lou didn't have as much money as they thought.Or maybe Irene gives the money away?The cliffhanger was rapidly resolved but hey, it was a nicely tense sequence so I'll let them off this time.

Does Angelo have any clothes other than his uniform?I don't think I've seen him in anything else since he came back.Maybe it's psychological, he knows people will give him an even harder time out of uniform than in it.Does Alf really have his mobile number or did the station put him through?Nice bit between Tony and Rachel in the bar, we haven't seen much of that lately.Liked Rachel and Belle trying to help out Irene, who really is turning into her own worst enemy right now.

Bit disappointed that they've had Liam fall off the waggon.It feels as though they only put him and Belle together so Aden would look good in comparison.Had he already taken something when he was chatting to Belle in his room or is he normally that...animated?Still, loved the way he just completely dismissed Aden when he sat down with Belle in the Diner, that was cool.I did like Aden's little bit with Tony, if only because it's a relief to see him interact with characters without Belle being involved.I'm assuming there's going to be some follow up to Aden asking to play for Tony's never before mentioned team the other week and it wasn't just a random conversation.

[H&Alover]

It had to be Miles that fell off the boat didn't it? Thank goodness he remembered he had Ollie's torch on him and was able to signal the others. Liked his line the following day sort of apologising for acting like a girly girl.

Seeing how long that Lou's body had been in the water (bound to have been a bit chewed by various fish) how was Alf able to recognise it?

Apparently he has been shot, so hopefully the bullet is still in the body and the police will find the bullet doesn't match Lou's gun. Doesn't help Irene to get out as she is in for shooting the cop, but st least she will be innocent of Lou's death.

I noticed the fact that Angelo wears his uniform when he is off duty as well. Good be right there RR about feeling vulnerable in his own clothes. I'm wondering if Tony doing all this excerise is his way of coping with Angelo being in the Bay, remember how he was doing all that work on the boat (what has happened to that BTW) after Jack's death.

So we now know Donna is bribing the guard, still not sure she is behind Lou's death, because as I said before noone knew they were coming back early. I was hoping after the talk with Rachel and Belle Irene would resist having another drink but it didn't happen.

Kind of like the fact Nicole is back with Trey, glad she didn't mention she knew about his previous weight issues once he had confessed it to her. It would have been Roman's normal reaction to be furious finding Nicole with Trey, but he obviously wanted them out of the house so he could have a go at Gardy.

The way I see it panning out is Roman catches Gardy coming onto Nicole and decides enough is enough whatever he owes him and turns himself in and tells the police about Gardy.

[Red Ranger 1]

Good on Angelo for standing up to Belle when she went off on another of her self-righteous rants.He obviously didn't believe Donna's story but she prefers to blame him for everything without stopping to think about who did the most to ruin whose life.Maybe she should look at the guy standing next to her before making snide comments about who's capable of murder and who isn't.God, I almost wanted Aden to hit Jerry so he'd get charged.He finds out Belle and Liam are having problems and immediately shrugs off the fact he's been treating her like dirt and starts cracking onto her.Smooth, Aden.Real smooth.As Belle said, what was he doing at the motel at the end?Did he follow her down there or did he just happen to be passing?Wonder how much of him going after Liam was trying to impress Belle:I think he'd have done it anyway but it didn't hurt she was the one standing there distressed.I think Belle did a pretty job of handling Liam and would probably have resolved things on her own if Jerry hadn't turned up, he really is turning into a despicable human being.(Yet I still take his side against Aden.Don't know what that says about the three of us...)Aden might fall off a building.Be worse if it was someone else.He probably won't but I can't see him getting out of there without help. Can't see Belle pulling him to safety either and Jerry won't lift a finger to help, he'd probably still be taking shots all the way down, so either Liam's going to have a lucid moment or the police are going to arrive in the nick of time.Be ironic if it was Angelo...in fact, wasn't he on the way there anyway?

Just when I think Xavier might be about to show an ounce of intelligence, he goes and jumps to completely the wrong conclusion and starts thinking the worst of Hugo again.If you want to see a jerk, Xavier, look in the mirror.And Ruby's back to being semi-lobotamised when she's around him.Once again Rachel shows she can give good advice to anyone apart from Tony:She was spot on with her handling of Martha but if Tony is working out as a way of channelling his anger, then what the hell's the problem with that?Yes, it would be better if he wasn't feeling any anger at all and no, it's not good if he runs himself into the ground.But frankly it seems like a perfectly healthy way of working through it, certainly more so than snapping at people or hitting them.Glad he gave Angelo a lift:Is this whole thing with Angelo's tyres being slashed actually going somewhere or is it just the local troublemakers picking on the one cop no-one's going to bother defending?(Maybe Charlie really did paint a target on his back when she let Belle get away with it...)Alf treated Angelo like a human being for the second episode in the row.Hopefully he's over his "I wouldn't throw a cup of water over you if you were on fire" phase.

[H&Alover]

Ought we to be worried about Tony suddenly being nice to Angelo? Is it just me or was it strange that Tony happened to be passing when Angelo discovered his tyres had been slashed again? I have mentioned before but the person/persons unknown who are doing it obviously haven't realised the car isn't "his", it is a police car so they can be charged with criminal damage.

Tony may have denied the reason the for his workouts, but I think Rachel was spot on. She wasn't having a go at him, was just worried that the motive was wrong. I liked the talk between Rachel and Martha and the fact that Rachel asked her if the feelings Hugo had for her weren't returned. I see Martha now has her own hair rather than that wig.

Ruby may have been right when she told Xavier that the reason Hugo was being the way he was with Martha was so that she would be glad if he went.

Glad that Aden telling Belle about Liam and the drugs was corroborated so Belle didn't think he was trying to stir things up. When and why did Jerry get a personality bypass - he was insufferable. Aden had offered to go with Belle but she said no, I think it was a good job he did, he was sympathtic once she had found out the truth. Belle couldn't have coped and Jerry certainly wasn't going to bother. Your'e right RR she probably would have got him to hospital if Jerry hadn't turned up.

I hope we don't have to wait too long before we know what gun the bullet came from, at least it will let Irene off one hook at least. Belle must have been very tempted to smack Donna after the remarks she made. I suddenly remembered in her interview Irene said she had taken a sleeping pill the night Lou disappeared, I didn't know Irene took sleeping pills!

BTW I think the make up department on H&A deserves a mention for the great job they have done on Irene. So many times when you have women characters in prison, they don't look any different to how they look on the outside. They have made Irene look really rough (and that is a compliment).

[KirstyEkua]

Yup i think Rachel has every reason to be concerned. At the end of the day she's not going to be able to stop worrying about him and i guess she just thinks he's going to push himself too hard and do some serious damage. On top of all that she's 6/7 months pregnant and needs a little support i think. No one seems to care about her or how she's coping.

And i am really enjoying the Irene storyline. It's been fantastic so far and i hope they keep it up.

I don't like Angelo and really don't think he deserves any sympathy. It's completely unrealistic he'd be posted back to work in Summer Bay anyways, and hanging around in a bar owned by the father of the guy you killed, accident or not, is just disrespectful. And his manner is not helping him win any fans.

I'm over the whole Belle/Laim/Aden story. Belle is so full of herself sometimes.

[Red Ranger 1]

Alf's episode count:Four.Actually he was credited on all five but didn't appear today.For the first time in ages, everyone else got two or three.

So:What...the...hell?!At the end of the last episode, Aden is clinging onto a roof by his fingertips.There is nothing below him except a sheer drop, nothing for him to put his weight on.Yet at the beginning of this episode, he's suddenly got the upper half of his body back on the roof and is pulling himself up.The only way he could have got from one position to the other unaided is if Aden is actually Spider-Man and isn't telling anybody.Who the hell came up with that cliffhanger, Terry Nation?!?!It's fake, it's pointless and it's anti-climactic.Any writer with an ounce of talent could have made a decent cliffhanger out of Aden and a tripping Liam on a roof together without it but instead they settled for an easy "Aden might fall to his death!Oh no, he's okay."

After his "No, actually I jumped out of the lorry before it went over the cliff" moment, Aden actually did a pretty good job with Liam and handled the situation well.He brushed off Belle's thanks so he obviously wasn't doing it just for that.Still no explanation for why he suddenly turned up:Did anyone make out what he said to Belle before he left?When he went to see her at the end, he actually seemed more interested in making sure she was all right than cracking onto her.Not sure about Belle's farewell to Liam.Good that she was straight with him but a bit late:If she's in love with someone else(sigh...I wonder who?), why did she go out with him in the first place and mess with his head?Wonder if she's self-aware enough to realise that's how she should have handled things with Angelo or whether she'll keep on saying everything's his fault.By the way, when she came home upset and Annie went to check on her, I really wish we'd seen it.

I was quite impressed with Trey too...up to a point.He seemed genuinely supportive and concerned for Nicole and I liked when she seemed to be bottling out of telling Roman what was going on and he blurted it out.Not sure about that last bit between them though.Nicole throws herself at him when she's in an emotional state and he seems more than happy to take advantage.I know you're a hormonal teenage boy, Trey, but if she does it, she's only going to regret it.Anyone else remember the last time Roman promised to protect Nicole and hear alarm bells?

And, a week after it was mentioned, we finally get a follow-up to the "Claudia might be pregnant" plotline.Geoff handled it as well as he could and I loved how it took a few seconds for the pin to drop when she told him she was "late".Another plotline that I really hope they follow through on and don't resolve quickly to get back to the status quo.

A thought I had several days ago and keep forgetting to mention:Could Lou's boat have been Lojacked?If so, Donna could easily have the codes to locate it and that's how someone found them.

[Denny]

I think they could have made the whole "Aden hanging off a rooftop by his fingertips" cliffhanger...well, a bit more of an actual cliffhanger. Not that I wanted anything awful to happen to him, [Good Lord, no!] but it just seemed to fall a little flat when you saw him at the beginning of the new epi. sitting up on the roof talking to Liam.

And I love Belle to bits, but she annoyed me in tonight's episode. If she knew she was still in love with Aden then why get involved with Liam?? The only reason I can think is that maybe she was concerned that if she pushed him away he'd fall off the wagon? Uh, except he did...

[Slade]

I haven’t really been enjoying the episodes as of late. The only things I've really been finding that interesting are the stuff with Roman/Gardi and Martha/Hugo. I’m getting increasingly fed up with Angelo’s isolation by the rest of Summer Bay and the attitude of most of the residents. It makes it hard to enjoy any scene he’s in as apart from Charlie as no one can really seemed to have a civilised conversation with him. It doesn’t help him finding his tyres slashed on a regular basis.

Anyway Thursday:

Regarding my point above it was good to see Alf actually not have a go at Angelo for once (even though it was only because he was cooperating after discovering Lou Debono’s body). And Charlie has really warmed to him and even went to the trouble of buying him a sandwich.

Could Rachel be anymore condescending? So what if Tony wants to spend a lot of time in the Gym. I actually think that’s quite constructive and he’s channelling his frustration into something positive. And I didn’t like the way she went behind his back and spoke to Alf about it too. I’m glad he proved her wrong when he gave Angelo a lift. He went right up in my estimation after that episode.

I still think Martha’s almost bordering on obsessive regarding Hugo. Note the difference in attitude when she found out Roman was in love with her a while back (even though they were quite close at the time). Not only is Martha not annoyed about Hugo falling for her but she still obviously wants him to continue living there (whereas she didn’t want to be anywhere near Roman). Rachel did have a point though. At worst she’s confused and at best the feeling’s reciprocated. I’m still sticking by what I originally said – substitute for Jack.

Although I didn’t like the remark Donna made about Irene I’m glad it seemed to aggravate Belle. She really annoyed me when she had a go at Angelo. Sometimes she can come across as such a self-centred little drama queen. I’m glad he put her in her place about Liam though (even though I quite like the guy)

Friday:

I was actually really impressed with Aden and the way he handled the situation with Liam. He seemed to really empathise with him. I wonder if he equated the whole thing to his breakdown regarding Larry. He seemed to use a very calm approach with genuine reasoning the talk him into coming down.

I felt really sorry for Liam. He’s lost almost anything and now Belle’s admitted that she’s in love with Aden.

I’m probably going to get flamed for this but Gardi really made me laugh when VJ asked if Roman could play soccer with him and Gardi scarred him with the story about playing soccer in Afghanistan with people’s heads. And then his whole attitude when Roman questioned him about Nicole too. He really doesn’t care. I wonder if Gardi’s going to make him pull another robbery. Charlie’s remark earlier on in the week about the first robbery being too carefully planned makes me think he’s done this before.

So I guess Aden and Belle have come to some sort of reconciliation. I found her remark about being stupid and not trusting Liam interesting considering she was in his position several months when she begged Nicole not to tell anyone.

Not sure about Nicole wanting to sleep with Trey. It seemed to come across as though she wanted something to distract her mind from Gardi or perhaps she wanted to stay the night at Trey’s rather than go home as opposed to doing it because she wanted to take their relationship further.

[Brian]

Recognition for Home and Away at last! They've got into the Top 10 programmes for Five (w.e. May24) with 1.34m viewers.

Neighbours 1.70m, CSI top at 3.32m. Still a way to go!

[H&Alover]

It was a let down how Aden managed to get back on the roof seemingly all by himself, they could at least had Liam help him back up! Talking of whom he certainly seemed to come down from his high pretty quick as well. Perhaps it took seeing how near Aden looked to being killed/seriously injured that decided Belle who she really loved. BTW what took the cops so long to arrive? I wouldn't have called her stupid, Liam did seem to be doing well at first and it's not as if she was taken in by his pop star status.

It was funny when Geoff cottoned on to what Claudia was trying to tell him (though he has been there before). Good of him to question whether it may have been Lochie's. It does seem bad luck that she had been on the pill all that time with Lochie and the moment she sleeps with Geoff (once) it fails. Wonder how the news will go down with Annie!!!

I also liked the way Trey spoke up for Nicole and told Roman what she was having trouble saying. I really thought he would have kicked him out. I found Gardy's (please note it is spelt with a Y) remarks to VJ were disturbing to say the least, considering that VJ had found the hand in the beach. I certainly don't blame Nicole for reacting the way she did and would stay somewhere else until he had gone. I know I would feel that I wasn't believed the way Roman was behaving. As for another robbery Slade

it happens on Monday and we get to see Trey's as yet unseen mum who I didn't think was on the scene at all.

As for her wanting to sleep with him, it's probably her wanting reassurance.