Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[KirstyEkua]

Well done to HAA for showing a realistic portrayal of parents looking after a newborn baby i.e. its not all smiles and cuteness, however much they wanted the baby in the first place. I think Rachel needs a break, its a shame her mum is not around anymore, isn't her mum dead?

Yes. She died a few years ago after the explosion at Jack and Martha's wedding.

I don't think anyone can prepare themselves for the reality of motherhood. We all have idealistic views but admitting you're struggling is difficult especially when there's a lot of stigma attatched to that. Rachel is just completely overwhelmed and is so desperate to prove to everyone she's a good mum. She's always been terrified of failure. Since Harry's birth it's just been drama after drama, it's little wonder she's not coping that well. I think she is suffering from Post Natal Depression. It's been building up slowly from the start and all the symptoms are there. Tony has been pretty incredible through it all and im sure with his support she'll get through this. Kudos to Home and Awau though for doing something so realistically.

[Miranda]

I think she is suffering from Post Natal Depression.

I agree It makes me angry that this isn't recognised in real life as such a widespread problem, but thats another of my soap box issues so I'd better keep quiet

[Mrs Bishop]

I totally agrre with you Miranda thats the trouble with scrips writers they dont think,

Why is it Angelo is so unreal he is pathetic with his excuses and the way hes treating Charlie I,m suprised shes not chucked him befor now .

[Slade]

Annie is getting more and more annoying by the minute. I’m still not entirely sure about Romeo helping Jai. Again Annie told Romeo to tell Jai not to say anything about her (regardless of whether it was good or not) so I’m not quite sure why he’s getting Jai to write her love letters. He knows this is only going to annoy her even more.

I’m really quite surprised with Charlie. Just because Angelo won’t divulge the police business he was conducting in the city this automatically means he’s cheating on her. Aside from Grant on the whole she’s quite pleasant with people but the way she was with Angelo reminded me more of the old Charlie, the one who disapproved with Morag and automatically assumed Roman dumped her for Nat.

If it wasn’t for the fact that Robertson is genuinely quite funny I would probably really dislike him. At times he comes across as arrogant, obnoxious and egotistical. Angelo must have had the urge to smack him considering the way he was in the police station. Glad he followed him though as at least that might make him feel better. Obviously the mobile phone found is of some significance.

Still really enjoying the stuff with Robertson and Leah. Interesting reason for wanting to date her as I though he wanted to go out with her when he first met her in the Diner and he didn’t know if Leah was a liar or not. When he was actually delivering the speech about lying I do wonder if he was referring to himself. I mean how many different stories has he given for the origin of his name.

[Red Ranger 1]

I think she is suffering from Post Natal Depression.

I agree It makes me angry that this isn't recognised in real life as such a widespread problem, but thats another of my soap box issues so I'd better keep quiet

I've heard this mentioned a few times.I could well be wrong, I don't think this storyline would have been running for as long as it has if they weren't going somewhere with it, but I really haven't seen any evidence of post-natal depression.This could be my ignorance but I'd have thought if Rachel had post-natal depression she'd be looking for excuses to avoid spending time with Harry whereas most of the time it seems to be the exact opposite problem.I think she's just disappointed with herself, she expected she'd be a good mother and she doesn't think she is.

[charmed60]

Rejecting the baby is the most common portrayal of post natal depression but its by no means the only 'symptoms' of it. Women suffering from it are usually very tearful, exhausted, depressed, have difficulty sleeping, erratic changes in moods and feel like they're not a good parent etc. They usually say if these feelings last longer than 10 days post birth then it's likely to be PND instead of the usual "baby blues" most women experience. A lot of this does tie in with how Rachel's been acting. I hope that helps Only time will tell I guess.

[H&Alover]

More Tony and Rachel struggling with Harry.Basically light-hearted, liked Martha and Rachel's banter about screaming in the paddock and Martha's talking sending him to sleep, but Rachel's expressions when no-one was looking suggest she's really not happy.I'm wondering if there's actually going to be a "reason" why Harry's crying, that there's something wrong with him, or if he's just doing what babies do.

I've never been a mum so probably don't know what I'm talking about, but could Harry be picking up up on Rachel's tension and that is why he is always crying? She also is likely to think that as a doctor she should be able to handle a baby, but this is her child and she is a first time mum. It does get a bit dramatic next week

Rachel falls asleep on top of Harry and he stops breathing and has to be rushed to hospital.

.

So yes, there is a deal between Stevens and Angelo, what kind I wonder? Does Stevens know something about the shooting of Jack that will definitely absolve Angelo of any blame? There must be a very good reason why he (Angelo) was chosen for the task. I had a thought that the reason Angelo was talking to those girls at the strip club was because they are illegals and he was trying to get them to tell him who helped them get into the country. I'm glad Angelo took Morag's advice and tried (unsuccessfully) to explain to Charlie about the photos. He told her as much as he could without revealing the true reason.

Could Grant have been killed by Derrick because he came across him getting illegals into the country That soil sample Robert took, could it have been tranferred onto Grant's body or had Grant been killed at the place Robert took the sample from and then taken to the beach?

I can see a problem with these anonymous poems Jai is going to be sending to Annie, I have a feeling she is going to think they came from Romeo who she definitel fancies.

[*CJ*]

Finally (four entire episodes in between seemed like forever) we reached episodes 3 and 4 with Detective Robert in this week, and he's every bit as wonderful as my first impression. Or better. Not sure how much I'd *like* him in reality, I agree he can come across as too sure of himself, almost arrogant, but he's fabulous to watch.

Socratis - I'd rather hear the origins of that, than of R.R. - seems to have had a lot of dialogue to deal with, thrown straight in at the deep end, but while it's work, it must sometimes be fun too, to play a role when the lines are so good.

I noted (in his 2nd ep) Morag commented to Charlie that he was a sharp operator, it's got to be a compliment to be rated by her. And far and away the best scene was when she tried to warn him off in the Diner. First there was her look as he gazed after Leah. Then he's heard her nickname, and it turns out to be "Battleship" (heh), strangely enough, my beloved Pet Shop Boys wrote a soundtrack to the old film "Battleship Potemkin" a few years ago. It adds an unexpectedly welcome dimension for me there. As he said, her stern words/attitude would work on pretty much everyone else in the world - not him! He doesn't want to make an enemy of her, though. It's great they're getting scenes together. Also enjoyed the scene where Angelo stormed into his office. I'm sure the whole audience held their breath watching the door as he left the room, he did well not to slam it!

I felt they were really stingy with the mystery storyline though. Or is it Grant's case? Since Robert's been tailing Angelo, perhaps he'll be drawn into both. While it's interesting to see things progressing: a map, Angelo talking to strippers, and his boss (more secure to simply phone him?), a soil sample, a broken phone, it told us very little. Though maybe we're supposed to guess whose phone it is. Seems we know less than some of the characters at the moment, which is rare, but not acceptable! I don't know why, I've never believed that Angelo killed Jack, it was all so open-ended - but we'll see how it progresses.

How sincere is he being with Leah? - as while he seems very sweet, it's not easy to trust anything he says. It's a fascinating contrast, he values her honesty, yet he's already blatantly lied to half the town. Maybe Irene will mention that she's heard two versions of his name tale: "messy divorce" + "bet for a gym membership" to Leah, who heard a third, the "superhero" one to VJ. Then she'll wonder aloud, "so where did you say your name came from again...?" Looking forward to seeing that, or what she thinks if/when she discovers his relationship with the truth. I like that she made him consider his motive for being her friend, and that he was momentarily speechless.

I only fear that either he'll solve Grant's murder swiftly and return to the black hole that is "The City" (thus I hope the murderer has left no trace!), or, worse, he'll become the (dead) victim of some season ending shootout/cliffhanger. Summer Bay's often not a safe place, add that to his profession with guns involved, and I'm definitely worried. But then I see his interest in Leah, if things go well they surely wouldn't do that to her after Vinnie and Dan. So there's a reason, if not exactly the right one, for hoping for good things for this couple.

With luck, I hope they see they're on to a winner and keep him. *draws frame around him, makes finger gesture. *Perfect.* *

[Miranda]

I've never been a mum so probably don't know what I'm talking about, but could Harry be picking up up on Rachel's tension and that is why he is always crying? She also is likely to think that as a doctor she should be able to handle a baby, but this is her child and she is a first time mum.

You are so right there

[Red Ranger 1]

I seem to recall saying a while back that I thought either Hugo or Martha would end up running against John for council.Should be interesting...Got to say, I do think Martha was very out of line by first cancelling Hugo's sale and then not telling him about it.I suspect there's a reason he's not telling her for him selling it but it still wasn't her decision to make.What exactly were Martha and Hugo doing in the apparently several hours between leaving the police station and arriving at the surf club?I assumed at first Martha had gone to register herself as a candidate but Hugo didn't seem to know anything about it.I don't think John's either directly or indirectly responsible for the threats they've getting(the leaflet on the brick was blatant misdirection)but Martha made a good point that he's been stirring up the town against them and should probably stand up and say that having an opinion is one thing but death threats and vandalism are out of order.Even though John's obnoxious, I rather liked the way he blatently didn't care what people thought of him:The bit where Kirsty threw his leaflet in the bin and he chided her for not recycling it made me smile.

Perhaps for the first time, not sure about Romeo here.If he likes Annie himself but is sticking to his promise to help Jai with her, fine.But he didn't even seem to be trying to hide the fact he was attracted to her and it's hard to interpret his asking her if she still likes Jai as anything other than seeing if the coast is clear, unless he was just seeing if there was a chance of his "plan" working.I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he does have a good reason for not wanting Jai to tell Annie the poem was from him.Annie definitely seemed to like it, not sure if she'll still like it when she finds out it's from Jai though.Loved how oblivious she was to Irene's sarcasm.

Miles and Kirsty seem to be getting on better than they have done lately...which is possibly an indictment of how bad things are sometimes.Miles' proposal was a bit out of the blue:Not so long ago he agreed they weren't ready to get married and if he thinks having a baby means getting married, why didn't he say so when he first wanted to try?Kirsty's observation that her marriage failed while his came to a natural end is fairly valid, he arguably has better memories of being married than she does. (Are she and Kane supposed to be divorced, as Alf implied?I thought they had to wait a year?)Not too keen on the way Miles went moaning to Alf;Kirsty actually wasn't shutting down and refusing to talk about it, she made her feelings quite clear.Glad Alf didn't automatically take his side, shame he wheeled out the same old excuse about "She's not used to a normal life."Not sure if Kirsty saying she wouldn't change her mind was just a definite no or a not going to get married ever.