Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[charmed60]

Aha Charmed60, your secret teen drama habit is exposed!

I'm so ashamed In my defense I'm not too many years off of being a teenager!

No Kirsty you're not on your own. I find them really awkward to watch. I thought once they started focusing on relationship stuff rather than work I might start liking them but it hasn't so far, I've actually found myself feeling sorry for Angelo and I don't even like the guy! Charlie needs to really figure out what she wants and stop messing the poor guy around - her expression when he asked her to move in says it all. He's far more into this relationship than she is and she seems to be doing everything she can to make it look like she doesn't want to be in it.

I loved the farm scenes with Martha/Rachel/Tony. I still can't believe Martha is as okay as she says she is about Hugo dying, you can't just ignore your feelings and get on with it when your boyfriend dies. I wonder if she'll later have a breakdown? I loved watching Rachel really not enjoying the farming It's really good to see a side of her where she's not good at something and I loved that it was a subtle thing ie her checking her hair for bugs and holding everything at arms length rather than saying it in dialogue.

The Tony/Aden chat was nice. I'm surprised it's taken this long for them to talk to be honest seeing as Tony knows what it feels like to lose a wife and fall in love again so I'm glad Aden spoke to him about it. And that final scene of Tony & Alf fishing was just beautiful.

Nicole/Aden I still really like and I thought it was lovely what he said to her at the end of the episode. I've seen a really different side to Nicole with Aden, she's a lot more carefree and giggly and happy. And Aden seems really happy, they just look right together.

[Red Ranger 1]

You know what really puzzles me about the makeover at Leah's place?Where did the fire place come from?!Seriously, I'm sure there's always been a blank wall there and suddenly there's this huge grating!I think they're trying to make us guess about whether only Miles can see Rabbit or not:Did Alf really ignore her that much more than he ignored Miles and Nicole earlier?

Anyway...I seriously loved today's episode.More Aden and Nicole showing us just how cute and funny they are together.Nicole's babbling at the start had me in hysterics ("I already said weird")and I loved Alf and Liam's reactions to finding out about the "I love you."There actually seems to be a nice grandfather/granddaughter vibe between Alf and Nicole:How unexpected that she'd be the one to help him see there's hope in the world, glad he seems to be coming out the other side.Aden and Tony's chat was nice too, any excuse for him to show his now-rarely-seen paternal side.But the best part was the last scene between them:I thought, after Nicole effectively took her comment back on the boat, that they'd be awkward around each other for a bit but instead they sat down, talked it over and realised how much they care about each other, which just shows how much they've grown up and how they bring out the best in each other.

I'm really not sure what to make of Martha.Like Rachel, I noticed the blatant way she failed to mention Hugo when talking about everything that had changed lately.I'm worried that she might actually be as much in denial as Gina might be, insisting that she's dealing with things and that she's moved past the anger and hurt when maybe it's still to come.Tony inviting Alf fishing was a good idea and I liked Rachel's realisation that suggesting a counsellor possibly wouldn't work.Tony and Martha playing the arcade machine was completely random but a nice bit of fun.Bit of an odd end to that scene where Rachel suddenly jumps and yelps for no apparent reason and says "You're having fun"(or whatever the line was).For a moment I thought Scruffy had reappeared from wherever he went to.It almost looked like an outtake that got left in.

Surprised by Liam's comments about Nicole, maybe he cared about her more than I thought:I don't think he loved her but she was pretty much his only friend and I think he liked that he was someone's "special friend", a role Aden's taken over.I think moving out would be a good idea even if he wasn't Nicole's ex and had a history of tension with Aden;as he said last episode, sitting there watching television while they make out isn't going to be good.

The show does seem to be very character-based at the moment and is all the better for it.Given the promise it's going to be more of a family show this year, I think maybe the riot was something they had to get out of their system before moving on from crime/disaster episodes.

[charmed60]

Bit of an odd end to that scene where Rachel suddenly jumps and yelps for no apparent reason and says "You're having fun"(or whatever the line was).For a moment I thought Scruffy had reappeared from wherever he went to.It almost looked like an outtake that got left in.

I think she said to Martha "you think this is fun huh?" She was screaming because a bug got onto her and couldn't understand why Martha enjoyed farming That's my understanding of it anyway.

I agree with you about it being nice to see Tony's paternal side, I always loved it when they started developing his relationship with Geoff and Annie when he sort of became a surrogate father for them. I don't think it's rarely seen though, he's had tons of scenes with Harry where weve seen a lot of his paternal side. But in terms of the older characters I agree, it would be nice to see that a bit more. It's quite sweet how Tony is the wise one who the guys go to for advice and Rachel is the one who the women go to for. They're like a couple of counsellors

[Abi]

I'm pretty sure you're right charmed60 when Rachel said to Martha " You think this is fun huh?"

I also am clueless as to why Martha can be acting so cheerful when her boyfriend has just died... perhaps she does have a major breakdown but I really hope that doesn't happen because it's nice seeing Martha happy. However it would be more realistic for her to grieve now and eventually come to terms with it in the coming weeks.

I really like seeing Nicole and Aden as a couple, they're not as good as Belle and Aden in my view but even still I think they're great. At first I wasn't too sure about the two of them but I have warmed to idea of them as a couple and I think that they are really good together.

[Miranda]

A fireplace? Has Leah uncovered it after years of it being bricked up?

I think Aden seems really happy these days, he seems to have more fun with Nicole, whereas with Belle it was all Romeo and Juliet-ish.

Can't believe Alf has suddenly gone back to seeing the good everywhere and got over his unhappiness.

<The show does seem to be very character-based at the moment and is all the better for it.>

A very true remark that I agree with from Mr Ranger there Character driven is so much better than plot driven. I think that is the correct terminology. In any case, I would much rather see people reacting, communicating and discussing things than them running around shooting each other or smuggling etc.

[H&Alover]

When Nic first told Aden she loved him, he looked bemused rather than horrified, he then probably thought perhaps I should have said it back? Certainly made for a lot of confusion all round. All the talking to others about their respective feelings was nicely handled. By getting others points of view they were able to decide what to do, especially Aden. Tony probably felt pleased that Aden consulted him as he more than likely went through the same thing with Jack and he hasn't got Lucas around to do the same thing. It was funny when he was talking to Liam about the 'silly' things girls say to you. Liked Liam's remark as he was going up the stairs and it didn't work out, he was of course referring to him saying it to Nic. Aden and Nic's last scene was lovely once it had all got sorted. Wonder what he whispered to her?

Strange how places seem to have a makeover overnight and expect us viewers just to accept it. Irene mentioned that Leah was still in a bad way when she called on her and hadn't gone out, if so as I mentioned on a previous post where is she then, hiding in her bedroom?

Good to see Alf more or less back to his old self, that scene at the end with him and Tony was lovely and what a beautiful sunrise.

Maybe Martha does have bad times which we don't see, but has decided this time she won't let it rule her life like it did when Jack died.

Thanks for mentioning Scruffy Red, everyone else seems to have forgotten about him (again), wasn't he supposed to be at the farm?

[Miranda]

Yes, the other thing about Leah's house is that Charlie and Angelo seem to be treating it as their own, wandering around half naked etc You'd think they wouldn't do that if Leah was there, but maybe she is staying with her parents or something? As VJ was with them the last I heard.

Most strange.

[Dan F]

Whilst there's been obvious changes in Leah's House - the fireplace has actually been there for 15 years

[Red Ranger 1]

^Oh yeah.Guess we don't see that wall very often.I think I was confused by the appearance of that wardrobe/cupboard thing against the back wall.I'm not sure if it's been there all along and I've just never noticed it or if it's a new addition or if the new wallpaper makes it stand out but it just looks wrong.

Anyway...From the sublime to the ridiculous for me, I'm afraid.I found it very hard to find anyone in that episode that I liked or sympathised with.Actually, that's not true, there were plenty:Alf, Miles, Irene, Angelo, maybe even Geoff although I didn't like the way he failed to tell the police about the rioter for what felt like spurious and selfish reasons, at the very least the guy's a witness. Unfortunately, most of them were either hardly in it or sharing scenes with people I found irritating.

So let's start, as we often do, with Ruby.Her self-centered behaviour annoyed me, people have been badly injured, property destroyed, and she's still only thinking about herself, constantly looking to Geoff to reassure her that it wasn't her fault.I was almost punching the air when he finally snapped and turned round and told her that yes, she was a self-righteous, self-important brat who stirred up trouble and started it all off.

Leah:I realise I'm going to sound harsh, I realise I should be more sympathetic towards her but...she annoyed me just as much as Ruby.Other people went through what she went through and just picked themselves up and got on with their lives yet she's shut away at home, wallowing in self-pity, being rude to her friends and refusing to visit Hazem who's in a much worse state than she is.I really wanted someone to tell her to pull herself together, I thought Irene was going to do it when she went round but she never really took her foot off the soft pedal.Maybe I'm not an expert on etiquette but I couldn't help wondering why no-one stuck around and waited when she supposedly went off to get changed(twice).

Charlie:Not a lot to say beyond what's been said before.She lies to Angelo about Leah wanting him to move in then comes up with excuses not to get a place together.And looks positively terrified when he suggests buying a place.Like he said, if she thinks it's too soon for them to move in together that's fine but lying to him really isn't on.

And finally Mink.Oh boy.I agree that she's possibly worse than Freya, mainly because everyone seems to make allowances for her, presumably because she's Romeo's sister.I was a bit annoyed when Xavier made that comment about her hitting John, but given that he doesn't really seem to like Mink I think it was probably more to get Gina to back off than anything else.The idea that someone as stuck-up as Gina was as bad as Mink once and apparently still is is a bit of a head scratcher.(Random thought, anyone look at the photos on the mantelpiece when Mink walked past them?I've been trying to work out if there's one of Melody up there for the last year and that might be her on the left, looked like Miles and Kirsty in the middle and Sally on the right and Ollie and Alf on the table.)The ending felt like my jaw was supposed to drop in astonishment but instead I just thought "So what?"I don't care about Mink, don't really care about Romeo and the fact that Mink's a nut job is hardly a newsflash.I am kinda looking forward to finding out the details though:I guess if their stepfather was dead, their mother had been sectioned and Mink was in jail(and their father presumably died beforehand, unless Mink was talking about their stepfather when she told Gina he was dead), that's when Romeo ended up in foster care.Sounds like she's only been out months if that so probably served at least two years.I'm also wondering why, according to the credits, Romeo and Mink have different surnames:Possibly either one of them's using their stepfather's name or Romeo took his foster family's name, I doubt Mink's ever been married...

[Posy]

^Oh yeah.Guess we don't see that wall very often.

Do you remember when VJ found something (money/drugs/gun) hidden up the fireplace? I can't actually remember now what it was (probably a gun - didn't he then have it in the garden), or who hid it there!