Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[Red Ranger 1]

Alf's episode count this week:Five!Everyone else was on two or three(and both Miles and Nicole left town for half the week), so it does seem as though we're back to business as usual.

So does Roman own that house?I thought it was just leased.Instead, he's given it to Aden over his own daughter.I can only think of two explanations why he hasn't arranged for Nicole to live there as well: Either he doesn't trust her and Aden under the same roof or he thinks she's six years old.It should be Aden and Nicole in that house, not Aden and Belle:At a pinch I'd take all three of them although it does seem Aden and Belle are moving a bit fast.For all his talk of not wanting her to hear it from anyone else, it seemed pretty obvious Aden didn't want Nicole living there.Given that he apparently did well at his HSC despite a spell in a mental health clinic, a court appearance, an affair and a girlfriend who was in hospital every five minutes, it's incredibly presumptuous of Aden to make out she couldn't cope with her school work if she was living in a share house.She and Aden were living there on their own while Roman was in hospital without things falling apart, she was practically on her own there at the beginning of the year when Roman was basically living at Martha's and Aden was hiding out round Belle's, she was basically running the place single-handed after Aden was kicked out and Roman was spending all his time slumped on the sofa or getting drunk.Neither Aden nor Roman seemed bothered about her school work then.And it is somewhat selfish for Belle to move out at the moment.Of course Irene's going to tell her to put herself first, what else is she going to say?I was rolling my eyes when Aden was doing his "Well, can you at least ask her?" bit, he probably knew what she'd say as well.It's a nice reversal of Belle letting Irene go off with Lou;the difference, of course, is Belle knows Irene needs her support and left anyway.(Mind you, we're probably not going to see Irene's alcoholism be an issue again, just as Belle's own addiction vanished the moment she had sex with Aden...)They're so desperate to make out it's a Good Thing they resort to saying Geoff and Claudia can have Belle's room. Yes...or they could swap rooms.(Doesn't help I wanted Belle to give the room to Annie.)

Was it just me that thought Geoff and Claudia's arguing was really cute?So we get an explanation for where she's sleeping.Are she and Geoff just sharing a bed or have certain activities resumed?As Brian said, it's interesting that they're still sharing now there's a spare room.Nice little Gelle scene:One of the reasons I don't like Belle moving in with Aden is I'm worried we won't get so many of them.I liked how she was telling him she was proud of him and how he was able to confide in her.His expression at the end of the scene was interesting:Did he not think her and Aden living together was a good idea, was he thinking he was going to miss her or was he worried how Nicole would react(given that we saw him talking to her straight afterwards)?Got to say, Geoff and Aden seemed as much like a married couple as everyone with their mutual "Are you coming?"Interesting that Geoff's able to joke about the way Aden used to treat him, interesting too that Aden didn't really seem comfortable discussing it.And I will admit that I am actually finding Aden and Belle tolerable at the moment, in the same way I find Nicole and Trey tolerable.I did actually laugh at her comment about closet space.

Still don't think Trey was deliberately filming him and Nicole, I think he just didn't want to interrupt her in "full flow" so to speak.I guess he was trying to erase the footage from Jai's camera and accidentally erased everything else instead.Jai's attitude towards him seems to have molified slightly, he was more weary about them making out in front of him(in the same way he is with Ruby and Xavier)rather than actually objecting to Trey as a person.Gentlemanly of him to shut the laptop when he came across their tape.For anyone who doesn't remember, Leah made her debut several months before Kirsty so she was around for the whole of her first stint.

Nice to see Irene and Angelo putting their differences aside and Irene finally putting two and two together about Donna and Greer.Don't imagine either of them's going to let that rest.

[H&Alover]

I believe Aden said something to Nic about paying the rent so yes Roman is renting his house. They could have all shared the place I suppose (supposing Belle has got over Aden and Nic sleeping together). Loved the way Belle leapt into Aden's arms.

Trey tries to do the right thing, but then keeps getting wound up by his ex friends, I'm guessing he did (or thought he did) wipe the tape but somehow Jai was able to retrieve it. I do hope he doesn't keep it and submit the film, if he does he will go right down in my estimation of him. I can understand him wanting to humiliate Trey but Nic?

I have a theory as to why Kirsty is against getting pregnant as her last one one can't have been a barrel of laughs seeing as she was on the run. Hope this doesn't cause a riftt between her and Miles. You're right Brian Miles' night away does seem rather long. Also if the trip had been arranged before all this with Roman happened it was probably something he couldn't get out of, he did say to Kirsty perhaps he shouldn't go but she said it would be O.K.

When Claudia first moved in didn't she have Irene's room - must admit I was surprised when I saw her coming out of Geoff's room! So why can't she move into Belle's room and Geoff stay where he is, she'd have even more room then? It does look like we are seeing another side of her though, Geoff looked pleased to get out of the house.

Your'e right Red Leah was around when Kirsty and co arrived, it's just you forget who was there and who wasn't when certain things happen (except Alf and Colleen of course who have been there forever).

Noticed Irene was back to calling Angel love, she didn't really expect Greer to admit knowing Donna though did she? Wonder if Irene will keep Lou's business , it's a big operation and she has no experience of running something that big.

Just read the episode for Friday, Roman isn't renting he wants Aden to move in to keep up the mortgage repayments, but as Aden can't earn that much money it's going to be a struggle even with Belle's wage to help him.

[Red Ranger 1]

Some real laugh out loud moments in that episode.Belle discovering that domestic bliss isn't all that blissful, even with free sex on tap.(Nitpick alert:Did Aden leave Roman or Nicole to pick up all his things or did he just think Belle wouldn't nag him as much?Or is it just that Belle's used to Irene's stricter household?)Jai's awkwardness around Nicole and especially his reaction to her asking what he thought of her performance.And Aden and Nicole, pure comedy gold together and proving again what a shame it is they're not living together anymore.("Do you remember the last time you and I bought Belle jewellery?You broke up!")

So, after a few hours of living together, Aden thinks he and Belle should get married.Isn't that slightly...insane?Seriously, where has it come from?Has there been any indication that Aden's been thinking of proposing?Why not, as Nicole suggested, actually see what living together is like for a while first?And frankly he did look pretty freaked out when she suggested it.If he really didn't realise she was joking, he really doesn't know her that well.(Interesting that, as with her addiction, Nicole seems to be able to read Belle's moods better than Aden who's supposedly closer to her.)I found Aden's comment about "doing a Geoff and Claudia" interesting because, to my mind, Geoff and Claudia were doing something that until now Aden and Belle have never managed:Arguing without falling out.

Nicole seemed to change her mind about moving out pretty quickly, a couple of words from Roman and she just shrugged it off.(Given that she's over sixteen, what exactly is stopping her just packing her bags and moving in with Aden and Belle anyway?)She does seem to be building a nice sibling relationship with Jai though.I wish someone on the writing staff would decide whether or not Xavier likes Trey, rather than it changing from episode to episode and even scene to scene:Half the time he's defending him, the other half he has as low an opinion of him as Jai.Kind of predictable that he'd find the idea of watching Nicole and Trey at it funny, rather than being freaked out like Jai was.Bit odd of them to just hand the card over to Trey:I think he was being straight with them but surely it would make more sense to either show it to Nicole or delete it themselves?

Nice to see Irene being proactive at last and trying to hunt down Lou's killer.Nice too to see Angelo doing proper police work like interviewing a suspect without turning into a jerk.I think there's pretty much only one suspect for the boat sinking and if it really does just turn out to be a case of "Donna followed Lou and then shot him", that's going to be a bit of an anti-climax.

[Slade]

I really liked the stuff with Geoff and Aden at the end of last week. I wasn’t sure at first but I can really see these two being mates now. And Geoff seemed a lot more likeable. It will be interesting watching more scenes with them.

I think Claudia needs some serious character development. We don’t know nearly enough about her yet and she’s not really doing much at the moment apart from occasionally arguing with Geoff.

I’m extremely disappointed that Roman wanted Aden to keep an eye on his house. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to ask someone like Charlie? That way Nicole could have continued living there with her and Ruby. Apart from the occasional fling she has for the most part she’s pretty responsible outside work. Miles could still go and check up on her occasionally but no, his house has effectively become a love nest now. And I find myself doing what I did before whenever Belle and Aden are on screen, not even really paying attention to them.

I’m glad Irene and Angelo are getting on ok now. Most of the time she is always prepared to give someone a second chance…eventually.

Really enjoyed the scenes with Nicole and Jai. It was funny watching Jai’s awkwardness then seeing Nicole giving him the suspicious look when Alf turned up, watching his embarrassment, struggling to ask her about wiping his footage and then watching her back regarding his suspicions that Trey deliberately recorded himself with her. At first I wasn’t really sure if she could fit in but now I can see a sibling type relationship forming between those two.

Good stuff with Nicole and Aden. Thank goodness it seems to have reverted back to a more platonic relationship, so much so that Aden only has eyes for Belle. In fact he wants to marry her. *sighs*

[H&Alover]

Some real laugh out loud moments in that episode.Belle discovering that domestic bliss isn't all that blissful, even with free sex on tap.(Nitpick alert:Did Aden leave Roman or Nicole to pick up all his things or did he just think Belle wouldn't nag him as much?Or is it just that Belle's used to Irene's stricter household?)Jai's awkwardness around Nicole and especially his reaction to her asking what he thought of her performance.And Aden and Nicole, pure comedy gold together and proving again what a shame it is they're not living together anymore.("Do you remember the last time you and I bought Belle jewellery?You broke up!")

That was hilarious when Nicole innocently asked Jai 'did you like my performance?' and poor Jai nearly choked on his drink! I can understand his feeling awkward after seeing what he had seen. I thought that was odd as well Red though I believed Trey when he said the filming was an accident (and he did try to delete it) why did Jai hand it over to Trey to destroy instead of doing it himself or at least made sure Trey destroyed it in front of him? Is it somehow going to appear somewhere?

I don't recall Aden being that messy when he was living at Roman's before Nicole certainly wouldn't have cleaned up after him and with Roman having been in the Army he would have kept the place tidy. It was nice to see Aden and Nicole back to being as they were before their fling. Obviously Nicole had a serious rethink about moving back home, it could have been a bit tricky between her and Belle. That was a good line of hers about the jewellery. Good point there Slade about why couldn't Charlie and Ruby move in, Charlie must make better money than Aden, and it is about time they had their 'own' place. On that point how is Roman going to pay Aden back? It's just typical isn't it, Aden makes a commitment by putting a desposit on a ring and was going to ask Gibbsy for an advance then the boat gets sunk so now he is out of work! As for the sudden decision to marry Belle, I don't think he had thought of it befoe until Belle jokingly mentioned 'married and children', it threw him at first, but I suppose the longer he thought about it the more he liked the idea. They certainly have been through a lot more than most married couples and still survived it.

When I first read that Lou's boat had been sunk I thought they meant the yacht, but I suppose it makes more sense for it to be the fishing boat to wreck Irene's new business. I sure he had more than just the one though.

Angelo had a point about the private detective, they are hired to do exactly what he had been doing, though murdering someone isn't part of their remit. As the detective himself said they don't know the exact date of Lou's murder so the photos that were taken on the yacht doesn't really help. I can't see Donna doing the deed herself she wouldn't dirty her own hands.

Later this week a gun (possibly the murder weapon) is found at her house, she may have a licence for it and although she is vain, self centered and a ***** she isn't stupid enough to have it still at home.

[Red Ranger 1]

Not sure what to make of Ruby's actions here.She effectively precipitated events by throwing a spanner in Nicole and Trey's relationship when Jai and Xavier had apparently sorted things.On the other hand, Trey lied about destroying the footage so maybe she was right not to trust him..?Seems Trey was doomed from the moment Nicole found out about the tape, she dumped him even though he was honest with her(sort of...).Guess he should have just told her they were being recorded at the start.The guy obviously doesn't take rejection very well:His reaction to Nicole saying Geoff was better than him was about as restrained as when Kirsty chose Miles over him and almost as damaging.Love that Jai once again choken himself on seeing the tape and yet was the only one who actually bothered to pull the plug.Liked Geoff, Miles and Kirsty accepting Nicole's desire not to give them all the details. (Not that she can hide it now...)Not sure what to make of Geoff here either.He seemed to be channelling his inner macho idiot while facing up to Trey although I think he was joking when he offered to punch him out.He was supportive of Melody after they broke up but I don't think he was quite as physical with her as he was with Nicole here and definitely wasn't as comfortable doing it.At least Nicole remembered he's still dating Claudia.Annie must be the most unhealthy child in the Bay: Every time they want to explain why she's not in an episode they say she's ill.If she's not in the rest of the week they missed a trick;her reaction to the tape would have been even funnier than Jai's.

So, the apparent end of the "Who killed Lou?" plot...or is it?Donna didn't confess which would put things beyond doubt.(Although wouldn't you just love if we saw her in that jail she stuck Irene in, especially if that guard was in there with her?We probably won't though...)On the other hand, the guy that handed Angelo the gun(was that Avery?)said "Couple of matches", presumably meaning they found Donna's fingerprints on it.Was the blood on the boat Donna's?And if not, whose was it?Major paranoia alert: They didn't find the gun until after Alf told Hugo Donna was prime suspect.Is that significant or are we just meant to think it was?

Did anyone else think there was some dialogue missing in that scene on the wharf?Gibbsy says something like "If you need something to tide you over, I could set you up with a guy" and instead of asking what he's talking about, Aden just says he'll get back to him.Did he really get "loan shark" from that?(Since he obviously knew who the guy was when he turned up.)When he first said it, I thought he was offering to get him some dodgy work.Everyone seems to have missed the obvious here:Why doesn't he just go back to the Diner, like he and Belle usually do when they lose their jobs?Leah was crying out for help not so long ago and with Roman in jail I can't see that it's improved.(Even though he swapped places with Irene.)When I saw him in the kitchen with Irene, I was sure he was going to ask her.Nice he's actually worried about the rent:Even if Roman's giving them mate's rates, two youngsters with minimum wage jobs running a four bedroom house is faintly ridiculous.If they wanted to have Aden and Belle live together, they should have given them a flat.(But then they couldn't have used a standing set...)I agree Miles should have kept an eye on Nicole while she continued living there although she seems to have settled in now.Not so sure about Charlie and Ruby living with her:The house might still be crowded even without Joey/Ross/Theo/Nicole/whoever but then we'd be back to Leah and VJ living alone and as with most of last year we'd never see the place.It would have been better if Nicole had lived with Leah and VJ and Charlie and Ruby had lived on their own.(In whichever house you care to nominate...)

[oscartg]

I’m extremely disappointed that Roman wanted Aden to keep an eye on his house. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to ask someone like Charlie? That way Nicole could have continued living there with her and Ruby. Apart from the occasional fling she has for the most part she’s pretty responsible outside work. Miles could still go and check up on her occasionally but no, his house has effectively become a love nest now. And I find myself doing what I did before whenever Belle and Aden are on screen, not even really paying attention to them.

Nicole, Charlie and Ruby would have been great but he couldn't really ask Charlie to take on Nicole, I don't think they were close enough for that. But I could see him giving the house to Charlie and her Ruby moving in there, and Nicole ending up there most of the time because she didn't get on well at Miles up to the point where Charlie and Miles just decide to let her stay there full time. Although it is a good point if Charlie/Ruby moved out of Leah's we would never see the house. Still Nicole staying with Leah/VJ alone wouldn't work, Leah is too busy with her job & kid to give her any attention. She would have been better staying with Ruby and whatever decent adult was around.

As for Ruby's involvement with the Trey tape, well maybe he didn't intend to show it in the first place but I think she had good reason not to trust him and Nicole had the right to know what Trey had done. In the end he was the one that broadcast the footage because he could not take the him to his precious male pride. Instead of waiting and talking to Nicole, he would rather shame her. In essence her proved Ruby, Roman and Nicole all right in the type of person her was. I have no sympathy for him.

[Slade]

I don’t understand why Donna didn’t get rid of the gun sooner. Anyway I guess that wraps things up.

Aden being out of work proves exactly why Roman should have gotten someone like Charlie to look after the house. She has a much more, stable and secure source of income than Aden has.

I wasn’t sure about Ruby telling Nicole about the recording to start with but it looks as though she did the right thing. Good scene with them as a said before much preferable to scenes with Ruby and Annie. Considering that she said she didn’t want anyone else knowing about the footage I’m surprised Nicole so publicly went up to him and had it out with him like that. I see Geoff had to play the knight in shining armour. Perhaps he should concentrate more on his relationship with Claudia as I got the impression from what he said (and the way he was acting with Nicole), that being at the film festival was almost some sort of escape. I actually thought Trey was quite genuine when he told Nicole that he didn’t make the film on purpose but there’s still the issue of him lying about getting rid of the film. I think the reason why he decided to switch the footage and humiliate Nicole like that was because he himself was humiliated when Geoff told him to stay away from her and his so called mates started laughing at him. I loved the way the played the music in the background, Jai spat out his drink and the over the top look of shock reactions from various characters after seeing it. I didn’t buy into that whole thing of how they zoomed the camera onto Trey’s face at the end and with the light shining off making him look evil.

[oscartg]

I hope that Roman's house gets repossed, that'll teach him to hand his house over to a couple of teens on minimum wage. Mind you maybe cops don't make much money in Australia which is why Charlie shares with Ruby. Who knows. It just a daft ploy to get Aden/Belle living together. Boring and ridiclous since all the other house are stuffed to bursting point and we have a couple of teens/20 years old living in a 4 bedroom house.

[Red Ranger 1]

Never thought a few weeks back that I'd find myself defending Trey but he does seem to have caught Outsider Syndrome off Angelo:Something that would have been shrugged off if one of the regulars had done it is being treated like the crime of the century.I'm still not entirely convinced Ruby did the right thing telling Nicole, it may have shown her another side of Trey but like Jai pointed out all it achieved was to upset her.Frankly, Kirsty and especially Ruby just came across as self-righteous.I liked Kirsty's little scene with Nicole in the bedroom, she handled it well(and it was interesting that Nicole realised it only happened because she played up and sneaked Trey into her room, it showed maturity).But elsewhere...Did she really think dragging Nicole through the courts was the best way to help her?I'm quite shocked no-one pointed out what rubbish she was talking.In fact, she was acting exactly the same as she did last week, only then Trey was Nicole's caring boyfriend so it was unreasonable, now he's a pervert apparently so it's all right.I also think Miles and Kirsty should have at least told Nicole that Trey was there and wanted to apologise, it was her choice whether to see him, not theirs.But that's nothing compared to Ruby's hypocrisy in going to Charlie and trying to get Trey charged.Excuse me, isn't this the same girl that last year secretly filmed Matthew naked and posted it on the internet, to a potentially far wider audience than Trey had?What Trey did was wrong and cruel and possibly indicative of a personality disorder but hardly worth all this hysteria.Jai's threatening to thump the guy but then he usually does.John asking Martin to sort things out instead of involving the police isn't that different from Miles asking him to do the same for Melody, although of course she was expelled instead of being given a public forum.

I had hoped we'd seen the last of Lachie.At least he was given something to do other than stand around in the background or hit Geoff but he still came across as a one note jerk.His "I was with her for four years so it must be mine" argument seemed lacking in logic, it's not as if he got her pregnant four years ago, maybe Geoff's just more fertile than him.(Plus he fails to realise he's in a soap:You're always more likely to get pregnant from a one night stand than a long-term relationship.)I think Claudia's sincere about her relationship with Geoff and even if she's not entirely certain he's the father she wants him to be.However, I also think Lachie's still got a hold over her emotionally.Seemed to be a bit of confusion over whether Geoff and the others were close enough to hear when they were arguing. What was Annie wearing?!She looked like a forty-year-old maiden aunt!(Maybe Irene told her to wrap up warm.)Nice to see a bit of interaction between her and Claudia and that she didn't seem bothered that Jai had seen Nicole in all her glory.Glad she went with them to see Nicole, it means there's more of a chance of the lot of them interacting instead of certain characters being left out.

I'm getting really confused about what rank Angelo's meant to be.I'll swear the last couple of weeks he's had the same insignia as Charlie but here he was back to just having an ordinary constable's stripe.His relationship with May seems to have progressed a lot since we last saw them, given her talk of breakfast in bed.So he got fined for impeding an investigation, that's more than most of them get. (Jack, Peter...)I don't think Charlie deliberately threw a spanner in their relationship by telling May about Jack but she did look disappointed to see they'd made up.