Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[Red Ranger 1]

Alf's episode count this week:Four.Roo was in all five for the second week running.Irene, Bianca and Evelyn were in one each(although Bianca was credited on Tuesday).

I hate to have to say this but I'm really not liking Alf at the moment.I guess it'll please the old school fans who complain that he's got too soft and doesn't shout at people anymore but I prefer him as a kind-hearted elder statesman, not a bully who spends all his time snarling a teenagers while inexplicably treating Roo like a child who needs protecting rather than a grown woman who doesn't need him undermining her at every turn.Especially when she's been neglecting Spencer pretty heavily lately.Even when he stops being a tyrant and actually has a conversation with Spencer, he just gives him some extremely dubious advice.Spencer's storyline is getting more and more ridiculous:After months(and, in fictional terms, years)of handling his bipolar so well that no-one notices anything amiss, he abruptly decides to stop taking his medication.So much for Sasha being a good influence on him if a few weeks with her convince him to put his mental health at risk to hold onto her.That said, I'm finding Sasha a lot less irritating than I thought I would.She's found herself flung into the deep end of a situation she wasn't prepared for(and, although I doubt anyone on the show thinks of it that way, perhaps realising she doesn't know this boy she hooked up with as well as she thought)and is struggling to cope and be supportive.

Dexter can be an idiot at times:Did he really think telling Nate about April's problems with Peta would help?Shame that Nate trying to ape her attitude didn't last very long.His impromptu party at the restaurant did actually kind of work and Nate and John and Marilyn's reaction to each other was rather amusing.And then Indi gets that phone call...We can guess what it was about(and the promo confirms it), which is a relief in a way since I was expecting that plot thread to just be left dangling.

Leah is becoming ever more obviously jealous of Zac and Hannah, I really don't like her when she gets like this.(Although it's possibly at least partly because she doesn't want to be left alone in the house.)Jett's asking John awkward questions about Kyle was annoying but their later conversation about what drives people to seek any company possible was quite nice.John and Marilyn sparked off each other well but they've been having the same conversation for weeks now, some progression would be nice.

At least we now know Maddy hasn't burnt to death, assuming that wasn't someone else using her phone.Thinking back to that scene, Maddy did seem to say "Where's the school?" as if Josh knew better than her.(Maybe it was meant to be rhetorical and she didn't quite pull it off.)

[alreetlike]

Alf's episode count this week:Four.Roo was in all five for the second week running.Irene, Bianca and Evelyn were in one each(although Bianca was credited on Tuesday).

I hate to have to say this but I'm really not liking Alf at the moment.I guess it'll please the old school fans who complain that he's got too soft and doesn't shout at people anymore but I prefer him as a kind-hearted elder statesman, not a bully who spends all his time snarling a teenagers while inexplicably treating Roo like a child who needs protecting rather than a grown woman who doesn't need him undermining her at every turn.Especially when she's been neglecting Spencer pretty heavily lately.Even when he stops being a tyrant and actually has a conversation with Spencer, he just gives him some extremely dubious advice.Spencer's storyline is getting more and more ridiculous:After months(and, in fictional terms, years)of handling his bipolar so well that no-one notices anything amiss, he abruptly decides to stop taking his medication.So much for Sasha being a good influence on him if a few weeks with her convince him to put his mental health at risk to hold onto her.That said, I'm finding Sasha a lot less irritating than I thought I would.She's found herself flung into the deep end of a situation she wasn't prepared for(and, although I doubt anyone on the show thinks of it that way, perhaps realising she doesn't know this boy she hooked up with as well as she thought)and is struggling to cope and be supportive.

I'm a bit too lazy to comment much these days but I agree completely with all of the above, so thanks!

[630si]

So Indi has received the call! Romeo is dead. Looks as though this may know her back with chris which is such a shame because they are getting along so well despite crazy mad woman Robyn.

We also saw our first glimpse of Marilyn and John letting each other know how they feel. Properly. I thought it was a great moment and I know some of you have had your reservations at how long this has taken but I'm glad it's slowly leading upto it, it will make the moment even better when they finally give in to it all and go for it. I did find it a little strange how everyone, once asked if they would done with a strange new doctor, didn't question anything and just went along with it. It was nice though that the community spirit of the bay was highlighted and brought forefront.

I do wish that the trailers weren't as explicit as the are but it looks like next week mother Barratt finds a few things out!

[H&Alover]

Nate is really desperate to get back to the city isn't he? Using April's complaints against Peta as a reason to suggest to April she does the same thing to him so he can leave. Nice idea of Dex's to throw the Welcome To The Bay party, not sure how much it will alter Nate's mind though.

Alf did kind of redeem himself with that talk to Spencer and a big step by Spencer to actually tell Alf he had bi-polar rather than Alf being told second hand. Good decision to move back in, well at least until Maddy comes back! Never a good idea to stop any meds dead without medical supervision. Sasha is in a difficult position wanting to help but not wanting to nag him about taking his meds. On Maddy I thought she mentioned to Josh she knew a place to hide as she had done it before.

I thought that about Leah being jealous over Hannah and Zac, does she really think he would make a move on her, she has to be a lot younger than him. Wonder why she has been out of nursing for so long, was there a clue when she said to Murray that she was getting her life back on track?

The music when Indi got that call indicated it wasn't going to be good news. So Liam made the call, has he been with Romeo all this time? Good that we (and Indi) do get a conclusion to this story and it's not left up in the air and some months down the line she casually mentions he's died.

Seems a pretty tense week this week and yes it is annoying they gave a huge clue as to what is going to happen.

[Eleri]

So that's it, Casey's recovery is just rubbed off the writers' whiteboard to make way for the next Braxton melodrama.

[Red Ranger 1]

I actually didn't think of there being much of an age gap between Zac and Hannah.I'm assuming Zac's in his late 20s/early 30s(Charlie Clausen is 35 but if he's meant to be a contemporary of Natalie Zac's probably a bit younger).Couldn't find an age for Cassie Howarth but even if Hannah's meant to be a lot younger than her sister(who must have been in her early 30s at least to have been the mother to 16-year-olds)I wouldn't imagine there was more than ten years between them.I always get the impression that Hannah's meant to be older than she looks.If she's a qualified nurse and worked for a while before giving it up when her sister died, then she surely can't be younger than about 23/24.

But anyway, today's episode.Good to finally get confirmation that Romeo's died.I was always worried that at some point they were going to reveal he'd miraculously got better and send Indi off to reunite with him off screen.I liked the little bit between Indi and Dexter but otherwise Indi mostly left me cold.(She is looking a bit more healthy though, has she done something to her hair?)She realises she's treating Chris the same way Romeo treated her, shutting him out rather than facing things together, but then she just carries on doing it.Chris might not have phrased it well but he was just trying to support her and she agreed to a proper relationship with him.Robyn seems to have latched onto Kyle a bit although most of her comments seemed to be for Chris' benefit.I'm really not sure what Irene was making a fuss about.Chris tried letting Robyn down gently and she didn't take the hint, his comments might seem harsh but she needs to hear it.She doesn't need Chris giving her mixed messages because Irene's put a guilt trip on him.

I didn't mind Alf here but he still said all the wrong things with Spencer.(His assessment of Romeo was also a bit rose-tinted, Romeo was the master of self-pity, although he probably did accept his fate in the end.)Spencer not knowing what to do to comfort Sasha shows that this problem isn't going to go away because he wants it to and Sasha was right to react the way she did, even if he can't help it(aside from taking his medication and Dexter might have been a bit less sympathetic if he'd known about that).The end result is Spencer heading in a very worrying direction.Actually, probably my favourite Sasha moment this episode was the scene with Chris:Perhaps worryingly, she seems to have more of a repartee with him than she does with Spencer.

However serious the situation, Heath always makes me smile, as here with his "Everything's fine" phone call to Bianca while standing in what appears to be a bomb site.His faltering attempts to step up while Casey just wants to wait around for Brax to sort things perhaps shows that he's maturing.As for Casey and Tamara...well, it was kind of inevitable ever since she and Kyle faltered.There seem to be decided parallels between the two relationships.While I'm not a fan by any means, I really can't muster the energy to be angry.It's just frustrating that if a couple I like breaks up they stay broken up and if a couple I don't like breaks up they get back together.

[H&Alover]

My thoughts exactly SecretVice, last week Casey was hobbling around on his crutches and this week miracle of miracles he's discarded them!!!!!

While it's natural Indi would react the way she did, guilty perhaps that while she was enjoying herself with Chris Romeo was dying, her cutting him off like that was unkind and left him wondering what he had done - nothing. Glad that she did in the end and he wasn't deserting her, she asked for time alone. Nice moment between her and Dex, I'm guessing she will let Sid know at some point. Spencer did handle it wrong with Sasha, why can't he just get his meds adjusted so he in his own words doesn't feel as if he is a fog all the time. He is definitely going down the wrong road by joining The Sanctuary, he just had to click on Ethan's message on their website, didn't he? Don't suppose there is any chance of Sasha mentioning it to Leah or Zac before he joins?

Robyn did make it a point of saying she had moved on, purely for Chris' benefit, how much does Irene know about her and Chris' relationship? His offering to be friends could give her the completely wrong idea and make her think she's still in with a chance. Seems like she really riles Indi, going by the trailer and gets a slap for her trouble!

The Braxtons do seem a tad lost, but bravo to Heath wanting to step into Brax's shoes. I thought he was right not to tell Bianca, there wasn't anything she could do, better to wait until she comes home.

So has Tam finally decided who she wants to be with? Looks like her plan to go away for a few days has been scuppered.

[Brian]

Really good this week, but only 3 episodes to go!!!!!!!!!! What are we going to do for the next 4 weeks folks? It's not fair, as Neighbours is only off for 2 weeks. Is there going to be a grand finale on Friday, to keep us all wondering "what next" over Christmas?

[Red Ranger 1]

Once again, Heath manages to add a light touch to the most serious of situations.Loved the repartee between him and Kyle at the start with Kyle's "She might know where your tie is" and Heath randomly calling him a wombat.Ricky is starting to embody Brax's less pleasant traits with her attempt to come up with supposedly noble reasons to not do the right thing.It seems Brax has moved on from using "My family need me" as a justification.Sadly, all subtlety was ruined by dragging Cheryl in to do nothing other than stand around being nasty to everyone as usual.I know some people like her and some claim she gives an insight into the Braxtons' background but I don't share the former and don't agree with the latter, any insight is negated by the fact she gets written differently according to what the plot requires.Frankly, I think the show made a mistake giving the Braxtons a mother and now they're stuck with her:She hasn't done anything plot relevant since tipping Charlie off about who took a shot at her well over two years ago and the Braxtons' character arc would be no different if the brothers had been on their own since Danny got put away.The only remotely interesting thing about her being there was Heath being surprisingly effective at pulling her back into line.Throw in more Casey and Tamara nonsense and a rather dull cliffhanger with Andy, a character who's been dipping in and out of the show for weeks without his storyline having any real logic about it, and it's hard to find the good stuff, like Kyle's underplayed reaction to Tamara's bedhopping and Heath welcoming Ricky into the family.Oh-and ex-Haydn making a reappearance.The prosecutor was chancing his luck:Given that they appear to have no evidence on Brax aside from his confession, not even a body, he'd be better off not trying to call it into question.Debbie seemed to be treated like the villain even though she's the one who's been hurt.And the promo shows just what lengths the show's going to to try and force her into that role.

For the second episode running, I wasn't convinced by Irene's attitude towards Chris, even though her advice ultimately worked out.Dexter going to extreme lengths to support Indi was quite nice, wish we'd seen more of him at boot camp.April wasn't too bad apart from one shrill moment.Until everyone acted shocked, it didn't occur to me that, despite a lot of verbal nastiness, I don't think Indi's ever slapped anyone before.Her guilt's understandable but Romeo abandoned her, it wasn't cheating in any meaningful sense, and I'm glad she let Chris comfort her in the end.

[H&Alover]

So Brax's age has been revealed, he was 17 when it happened and it was 13 years ago making him 30, funny I always thought he was older! I suppose from the courts ( and the laws) point of view they only have his word it was an accident, no body, no witnesses and the fact he'd covered it up for so long didn't help. If Cheryl and Debbie's positions had been reversed, Cheryl would have behaved exactly the way Debbie did, however much of a rubbish husband and father he had been. It's obvious now that Debbie knew where Andy was so was able to contact him and he in turn contacted Josh. Interesting to see how each brother behaved over Andy's decision he was going to kill Brax (and get away with it how)? and their both realising at the same time just who had taken the gun.

No explanation just where Josh and Maddy had been, just that she is now home, has apologised to Alf who is now off to see Sally and Pippa following the news about Romeo. Guess his OK'ing Josh staying at the house will be academic seeing what happened last night.

Liked Heath and Ricky's scene on the pier, his telling her they need her to keep them in line and she is part of the family.

I know Romeo did the 'abandoning' but she was married to him and still loved him, glad that Chris did in the end take Irene's advice (don't forget he's new to this lark) and Indi didn't turn him away. Robyn so deserved that slap, though she did put her own spin on it when she told Chris about it, of course she's going to say 'I didn't know' when told why Indi was so upset, sorry dear no excuse!

Trust Marilyn's feeling something happening to John and her stopping him going to his meeting was actually inadvertently the cause of it! Jett might only be a child, as John pointed out, but he's seeing things a lot more clearly than either John or Marilyn is, can they please tell each other tonight or tomorrow

and save us Brits having to wait for a whole month!!!