Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[Zetti]

^^ I did get it wrong and I apologise for the confusion. Now we can move on from it.

So on to todays episode; I am loving Mink more and more, I heard she is going to be the new Princess of summer bay but she doesnt give off that vibe off her. She seems to be down to earth which is something that is needed in Summerbay. If everything is so serious all the time then it gets boring and humour is just what we need. Xavier and Mink seem to bounce off each other. I think that could be leading into something... methinks that might be a good partnership and Xavier deserves better than Ruby who can stay with Geoff.

So Rabbit isn't real then... well how else can you explain the fact she only appears when no one else is around or like the time Mink and Romeo were there with Miles near the laundry room and they didn't even acknowledge her. I think after this episode that Rabbit's 'premonitions' is Miles' mind trying to make him seem more helpful than normal and make him in his mind make up for his 'failures' or something? I dont know... sounded better in my head.

[Red Ranger 1]

I still think Rachel was harsh on Liam, I'm afraid.I could understand her not being particularly sympathetic towards someone whose problem was self-inflicted but frankly, at that point, Liam wasn't actually causing any problems and Rachel's reaction was unprofessional.It seems oddly hypocritical that not so long ago Liam was being slated for not getting Romeo help when he'd taken a pill but when he gets help for himself he's a time-waster who should have stayed at home and dealt with the pain. (And yes, Miranda, I found Liam assuring Martha he would never call her beautiful again slightly amusing as well.)

Anyway...I thought the riot was handled a lot better in that episode than in the previous one.It was buried deeply in the dialogue but we did actually get an explanation for how it started:Ruby was meant to be holding her rally at the Diner hence the presence of a few, ahem, "counter demonstrators".So, yes, it's all Ruby's fault.I'm starting to get a handle on her character:She's a naive idealist with an unhealthy amount of arrogance, who sees an injustice and automatically thinks she can sort everything out single-handedly.You'd hope that this would be a wake-up call for her but then you'd have thought the same about everything that happened with Grant and Ross.Bit sexist that all the women hid in the kitchen while the men sorted everything out.Alf yelling abuse through the window at the mob was probably the stupidest thing he's ever done and arguably led to Geoff's injury.I actually thought John had run off and saved his own skin at one point so I was glad he was still there when the riot dispersed. Miles uses his brains instead of the bluster and manages to get rid of the thugs by scaring them off.Hopefully half of Summer Bay's going to end up in jail now.Leah seemed totally shut down at the hospital which isn't a good sign.

I find myself hating Mink more and more every time she opens her mouth.At first I thought she had a nice line in wisecracks even though she was obviously very bitter but now I just think she's rude, selfish and doesn't care about anyone but herself.In fact, I'm not even sure she cares about herself which I suppose should make me sympathise with her but I just can't be bothered.Romeo must be mad to have told her about the money, I'm not sure I trust Romeo knowing but Mink instantly proved how trustworthy she is by stealing some of it.So much for using it to do good.

Is Rabbit real or not?Well...she actually passed the usual barometer test for whether someone's a hallucination in that episode, by giving Miles information he didn't know(that something was going on at the Diner).So either she's real or she's a real ghost or Miles himself is suddenly precognitive or the writers didn't really think about it carefully enough.Either way, I'm loving the relationship between her and Miles, the funny stuff was great(Miles reacts to finding out she's psychic by asking her to come down the race track!)and the bit at the end where he told her her gift saved people was rather sweet.

[KirstyEkua]

True, at first Liam wasn't casuing trouble, but he was still taking up a bed and requiring an operation, as well as doctors time. To Rachel's credit she did apologise and commend him for trying to get help. The situation with Romeo was completely different (in my opinion) in that Romeo wasn't aware he had taken anything and the only reason Liam didn't want to get him help was becasue he was scared he'd end up in jail. Sorry but i think Liam is a time waster and it's people like him who cause health services to waste millions every year. I've never liked him though so i'm biased Maybe a wake up call was what he needed.

I feel so sorry for Leah I really liked her and Hazem and what's happened is so awful. I think Ruby's intentions were good but she handled everything terribly and she's probably to blame for the whole incident.

[Slade]

Sorry if I misunderstood you, I thought when you said "almost" you meant that Trey almost blew up a bus full of school kids, not that John was almost responsible for his actions.

No worries Red!

Gosh you people do have a lot of time on your hands don't you

I have a weird sleeping pattern. I can never sleep continuously for 6-8 hours or however long like some people do. I tend to fall asleep for maybe three to four hours at a time, am up for a couple of hours then go back to sleep again for maybe another three hours or however many hours depending on how long I slept for at the beginning. Believe it or not I actually have a full time job which often requires a bit of travelling (you’ll be surprised the amount of times I’ve posted on BTTB from within a hotel room).

Oh and don’t worry H&ALover I knew you were “joshing”.

Anyway it really annoyed me when Romeo opened his big mouth and told Mink about the money. I knew she couldn’t be trusted. I personally didn’t find her as annoying as I did in the previous episode but I still don’t like her. In addition to what’s mentioned above you’d be hard pressed to find any redeeming qualities even Ruby who you could argue is just as annoying if not more so at least does things because she genuinely believes what she is doing is right regardless of whether she actually is. Kind of like Tony Blair taking to country to war with Iraq. Was Mink just messing or does she actually find Xavier attractive? Probably unlikely considering that I’m guessing she’s a bit older than he is and would maybe want someone a older. I’ll subscribe to the theory that there is a reason for everything and we’ll probably find out soon enough why she doesn’t care and I’m guessing this would probably make some people slightly more sympathetic towards her.

I still saw red during the riot. I really hope the people that did this don’t get away with it. Can any of them (by that I mean Leah, Ruby, Geoff, Alf and John even) actually name specific witnesses that attacked Hazeem? Leah gave the impression that although as brutal as it was there were so many of them it was hard to tell. Also it could be their word against the racist thugs causing the riot and as there were so many of them. Once again I didn’t make the connection that this whole mess was because of Ruby’s peaceful protest. When they called the police I was actually expecting Charlie to turn up. Felt sorry for Leah when she started to see herself as poison.

I’m starting to feel I’m getting slower by the minute. Did I actually miss something in that episode (or the one before)? Unless somebody knows something, apart from the fact that Mink hasn’t interacted with anybody else. Just thinking about it if she isn’t real could that simply be Miles projecting something (guilt, grief, wanting his old life back etc) i.e. a little girl appeared because he lost a daughter and he was having a conversation with Nicole last week about feeling guilty for laughing at a TV program and being happy again even if it was only momentarily. Again ties in with the fact that Rabbit (the little girl) at times makes him happy. Hmm…

[Red Ranger 1]

To Rachel's credit she did apologise and commend him for trying to get help. The situation with Romeo was completely different (in my opinion) in that Romeo wasn't aware he had taken anything and the only reason Liam didn't want to get him help was becasue he was scared he'd end up in jail.

Isn't that going back to making judgement calls about whether someone's a good person or not rather than whether they need medical treatment?If Liam had had a bad reaction like Romeo did, there'd have been no-one to call an ambulance for him.It might have been better to call a friend to come and keep an eye on him, so they could get him to hospital if he deteriorated, but frankly he doesn't have many of those at the moment.Not taking the drugs in the first place would have been the best thing but getting himself to hospital seemed like a sensible precaution.I agree it's to Rachel's credit that she realised she'd overstepped the mark and apologised but even after that she still seemed a bit uppity.

[adellejefferiesxox]

QUOTE (KirstyEkua @ Feb 10 2010, 12:53 AM)

To Rachel's credit she did apologise and commend him for trying to get help. The situation with Romeo was completely different (in my opinion) in that Romeo wasn't aware he had taken anything and the only reason Liam didn't want to get him help was becasue he was scared he'd end up in jail.

Isn't that going back to making judgement calls about whether someone's a good person or not rather than whether they need medical treatment?If Liam had had a bad reaction like Romeo did, there'd have been no-one to call an ambulance for him.It might have been better to call a friend to come and keep an eye on him, so they could get him to hospital if he deteriorated, but frankly he doesn't have many of those at the moment.Not taking the drugs in the first place would have been the best thing but getting himself to hospital seemed like a sensible precaution.I agree it's to Rachel's credit that she realised she'd overstepped the mark and apologised but even after that she still seemed a bit uppity.

Yep I agree. Liam did take the drugs but then immediately called for help and also most importantly it's common for people who have been addicted to drugs and who have decided to quit, it's common to relapse. Liam is trying his best to beat his addiction.

[H&Alover]

I'm in the not liking Mink camp, as she is Romeo's older sister she should know better. She is much too in your face, so she has had it tough, but so have a lot of people. She did let slip their dad was dead and mum had done a runner though, much to Romeo's horror.

As for the riot I think the only one Alf, John or Miles could posivitely identify would be the guy wearing the Australian flag that Alf told to take off. Some of the others I would imagine must have been in the Diner and or Surf Club at sometime or other, so maybe that is why Leah, Alf, Irene and Colleen were so upset as they were not strangers but may have been customers at some point. It was good to see John trying to stop them turning over the ambulance, I think that does show he is not the racist everyone seems to think he is. Wouldn't you know there had to be a more serious incident happening at exactly the same time which tied up all of the emergency services. This might seem callous but I wouldn't worry too much about Geoff's burns, going by previous injuries he's had he'll soon be up and about. I can't see how the riot can be blamed on Ruby, would we do the same if anybody else had organised it?

Poor Leah really has taken it hard, but she is blaming herself unncessarily.

This does lead her to shut herself away next week.

Ah yes Rabbit, she may or not be a figment of Miles' imagination. I did think it was strange that when she fainted Miles didn't take her to her mum's caravan where she said they are staying. Also he didn't seem to think it was strange she was out so late. Although he seems to be a lot calmer and more together

maybe this is the start of his breakdown hinted at in the Australian preview.

[Alison C]

I'm in the camp of thinking that Rabbit is a figment of Mile's imagination. It'll be interesting to see how this pans out. I'm sure this will be a great storyline but I quite like Rabbit so it will be a pity if she doesn'y stay.

[Red Ranger 1]

An interestingly structured episode.Nice that they dodged the cliche and made the journalist a decent person telling a proper, balanced story rather than the usual scumbag.Not sure how much time's meant to have passed since the previous episode:The journalist's opening spiel suggested it had been a few days but other references indicated it was still the following morning.No mention of what's happened to Geoff, which is a bit disappointing, although it sounds like Hazem's going to be all right. Typical that Martha blamed everything on John Palmer, even though he was trying to put a stop to things while she was asleep in bed.Good too that people rightly blamed the media for stirring up the tension, I didn't think anyone would make that connection.I suspect if someone other than Ruby had been arranging things, it would have been properly organised, with the police and council notified and precautions taken in case things got out of hand, rather than an ad hoc "Everyone come to the Diner!"

I liked the way the episode placed Alf at the heart of the community, it shows why he's such an important element of the show even if they don't use him that much.Martha's grief seemed to be handled a lot better than Monday as well, even if I did have to stifle a laugh when Alf said she was grieving, although she still ended up flirting with Liam a bit and actually pointed out to him what he was apologising for.

Finally, Aden and Nicole as a couple, it's been a long time coming.I may be speaking too soon here and he'll go back to annoying me next week but I've always thought she had the potential to bring out the best in him and that's definitely what we saw her:Refusing to be drawn on what happened with Hugo and then seeking out Liam and genuinely apologising for some of his attitude towards him because he's Nicole's friend.I'm glad those two seem to have sorted things out, being friends was what they should have done from the start.The bit where Aden's nuzzling up to Nicole on the couch and we suddenly see that Miles is sitting right there was the episode's biggest laugh.

[H&Alover]

Amazing episode and well done to whoever thought of telling the aftermath of the riot and fire that way. At last a decent journalist in the form of Patrick. Everyones views were put across sympathetically and without any melodrama. Understandable that Alf would be wary of him considering what Gerry is like and other journo's that they have had to deal with in the past. He (Alf) certainly seemed satisfied by it when he was watching it on the TV. Summer Bay has had more than it's fair share of trouble over the years but nothing on that scale. Not really sure how Alf or anyone else for that matter could have seen that coming. Does anybody else think it strange that John Palmer didn't feature at all, he is the councillor for Summer Bay after all and that would have been a good time to put the record straight. There wasn't any need however to drag Liam into and his troubles into it.

It did seem a bit odd regards Martha, one moment she was all weepy when Patrick asked her about Hugo, the next moment she is laughing with Liam when he came into to apologise (again).

Colleen was right when she said although they could rebuild The Diner it wouldn't be the same.

Nice that Aden approached Liam and made peace with him, also good to see that Liam took responsibility for his own actiions and told Nic it wasn't her fault and good to see they have agreed to be friends.