Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[Pierced Musie]

You know what struck me when the Mango* River lot showed up? It wasn't them lot that annoyed me because they had every right to be hostile on their first day. What annoyed me was the snobbish and downright horrible reactions of the SBH kids. The looks that both Maddy & Sasha were throwing them made me want to slap them both with a wet kipper. No wonder Matt decided to annoy them.

And the chirpy-ness of Tamara was puke worthy as well. I miss the tomboy who would have probably punched Matt in the face or kneed him in the privates.

Yet again Heath brings the funny with his giggle at 'The Sniper' nickname. It was Bianca almost growl at his reaction that had me cracking up though.

[H&Alover]

The introduction to the MR lot trumpeted the fact they are 'a bad lot' complete with blaring rap music!!!!

That crossed my mind Red and Brian about the Sniper being behind the vandalism (doesn't Bianca ever lock her door)? She did overhear Matt calling Bianca a slag and yes far too obvious for it to be him. Did Montgomery start off being such a hard liner or did they wear her down over the years? Pupils are quick to pick up on whether a teacher/principal has any interest in them. I chuckled at Bianca calling her the Sniper, but Heath and Casey showing up was a bad move, looks like Casey did go to MR (as well as Yabby Creek) as Montgomery remembered him. Matt would know the Braxtons as being the (in)famous River Boys (or ex as it appears to be), Heath did well not to knock Matt's head off and just warn him. He, Matt, does seem to be the token bad boy, but SBH have had their own fair share of them in the past. The way the Sniper jumped on him for accidentially bumping into Maddy was OTT. I was wondering about a pairing up of Sasha and Matt, going by their initial instant antagonism. Oscar looked so odd in his uniform and what is it with him having his uncle as a teacher, but get over it, it's not the first time a pupil has had a relative working there, it's only you making a big deal of it! They do seem limited in teachers we only see the ones who are involved with other people outside the school.

Maddy seemed to get over her worry about Josh pretty quickly, is she going to be rushing round to the Braxtons' after school? True you can't take a patient back to hospital if they don't want to and are conscious, could Nate, who does suddenly seem to care about the townsfolk, wait until Josh passes out then take him back, never mind Ricky's objections. She's not a relative and as she or Nate pointed out he is over 16.

The SBH lot were only acting like that from what they have heard about MR, they can't all be that bad surely? Has SBH got enough room in their classrooms for so many new pupils?

Perhaps the school board hasn't yet decided whether to rebuild MR or not, if not I guess the new pupils either haven't had time to get new uniforms or they are wearing them in protest. Would be costly too I imagine for their parents to fork out for new ones.

[Red Ranger 1]

I think it's been established in the past that Summer Bay High provides second hand uniforms for students who can't afford new ones and in the circumstances you'd think Bianca would make every effort to get them in uniform, rather than encouraging a ghettoised them and us mentality by having them dressed differently.

Okay, having watched that episode I now think it probably was Matt who did the vandalism but perhaps in the end it didn't matter:He's had people assuming the worst of him and has lived down to their expectations, so maybe having someone give him the benefit of the doubt might make him realise it doesn't have to be like that anymore.And it's nice that, after another case of undermining Bianca by getting unnecessarily heavy, Heath is the one that realises that.Nice too that he's beginning to stand up to Montgomery, even if there's very little chance of him penetrating that hard shell of hers.At last someone points out that they can't have every Tom, Dick or Braxton wandering into the school when they feel like it, although they'll probably forget again pretty quickly.

Sadly, I am finding Oscar very annoying, which is a shame since I liked him a lot when he first appeared.His brattish refusal to go back to school, and getting into trouble straightaway when he does go, was hard to sympathise with.Leah's right, Zac and Hannah are all he's got for the foreseeable and they need to act like proper parental figures, not just let him do his own thing.I'm not sure Zac moving out is the right move.Is Oscar just going to be allowed to stay off school now?

I'll forgive it since Josh did eventually go back to hospital but Ricky and Nate really didn't handle the situation well(did Ricky actually joke about Nate's failure to take him back, despite being the one who stopped him?).Thank goodness for Maddy who really was a shining light this episode, being the only one to make any progress with Oscar and proving a far better influence on Josh than Ricky was.(Frustratingly though, once more Oscar doesn't give her a straight answer about Evelyn.)Kyle was out of line warning Nate off but I think Ricky was quite out of line having a go at him for telling Nate about her personal life.Ricky had already told Nate about Brax being in jail herself so the only thing Kyle told him that he didn't know was that Brax was his brother and...so what, frankly.Mind you, Kyle suddenly quitting the restaurant was equally disproportionate and hopefully they'll sort it out soon.

[Brian]

Who was running the restaurant when both Ricky and Kyle were at the beach?

[Red Ranger 1]

^Presumably those invisible/mute kitchen hands and bar staff.

I'm glad that Kyle's meltdown didn't last long and he went back to the restaurant when he'd calmed down but the whole thing felt a bit contrived.After watching Casey mooning after Tamara all that time, I'm not sure having Kyle do the same is all that appealing, but then I'm not too sure that's what happened.When did Casey become such an insensitive jerk?I'd have thought he'd be the first one to be upset about Brax, not being all "I've moved on, Kyle's a big boy, he needs to suck it up."That said, Ricky telling him to tone things down around Kyle was asking a bit much.

Wow, that two second appearance by Romeo achieved nothing except reminding me how much I don't miss him.Sadly switching the focus back to him is dragging Indi back down again, as she just wanders around over-identifying with people and apologising for Chris having a go at Sasha when he didn't really.I'm glad Roo pointed out the obvious:Romeo chose to walk away from Indi while Harvey is missing.Roo's friends really should have known better than to crowd her, even with her in a huge state of denial it was never going to go well.

Chris' visit wasn't entirely unsuccessful since he at least managed to get his phone to Evelyn but he was obviously on a hiding to nothing trying to get through to Spencer and questioning Murray wasn't going to do him much good.I'd like to say that Spencer punching Chris was down to his brainwashing but actually he was acting like that before Murray got his hands on him.

[630si]

Just catching up on the last few days. Ill echo most thoughts above at how infuriating ricky has been! And yes it must have been a quiet week at NDH as Bate had time to sit around reading magazines with Braxton et al. Extremely worried for Harvey and i think it's very typical of Roo to react by keeping busy. That woman juggles so many balls in the air and is trying to stay strong. I just hope she lets her loved ones help. Although what you can do in a helpless situation as this I don't know!

MR certainly doesn't rule! As the graffiti will have us believe. And is it any wonder what with a principal like that one! I'm glad Bianca have the boy the benefit of the doubt. Typical case of judging a book by it's cover but why the hell are they keeping them in seperate uniforms! There's going to be segregation if they're easily dressed as separate. Agree with Snuggles about the snobbish reaction of the SBH students. Everyone appears to write all this lot off and tarnish them with the same brush very quickly. And people like Sasha and maddie are or have been in situations before where they have felt judged etc. Hopefully some good can happen here.

Oh and Sci-if wedding?! I'm game!

[H&Alover]

Let me get one question out of the way first. What has happened to the rest of the teaching staff from MRH? Are they all out of a job, been moved to other schools temporarily/permanently? I would have thought some of them would have come to help with the extra work load.

I'm still not convinced Matt did the graffiti in Bianca's office, anyone could have walked in there. Heath came to the same conclusion after Montgomery had another go at him, well thought out by him as well. He got nicked for something he didn't do, going purely by the fact he had been in trouble before so it had to be him. Matt was well surprised by Bianca saying she'd give him the benefit of the doubt. You're quite right Red, people tell you your rubbish long enough you start to believe it. Heath is proof of that. Wonder what came first Montgomery rubbished her pupils before they started living up/down to her expectations or they were like that at the start and she didn't even try to change them?

Oscar is behaving like a spoilt brat, giving up after one bad day. Big hand to Maddy in getting to change his mind, though Zac didn't help matters by sending only Matt to Bianca's instead of both of them, might seem childish to say, but Oscar did hit Matt first! I suppose Zac offered to leave to save Oscar being disrupted again, but it's pandering to him again.

Ricky was over sensitive by Kyle asking Nate to back off, hitting a nerve maybe? She certainly acted maturely (not) by charging into Angelo's shouting her mouth off in front of the customers, no wonder Kyle told her to shove it. At least once they had calmed down they came to some sort of understanding, though her telling Casey to cool his behaviour with Tamara in front of Kyle to spare his feelings was out of line. As has been mentioned before Maddy was the only one who could persuade Josh to go back to hospital, it being the condition she gets back with him.

I think Romeo appearing to Indi is the start of something and the ending of something else.

Although the Romeo and Harvey thing are different, she could sympathise with Roo as Indi didn't know what was happening to Romeo after he left and as she told Roo it's the not knowing that is hard. Roo wanting to work is understandable, it's her way of dealing with things until she knows for sure how things are with Harvey.

It's taken a while but Chris finally went to see Spencer. Clever ploy to pretend he was interested in what was going on, though Murray certainly doesn't like to have his authority questioned does he, his followers are supposed to take what he says as gospel. Astute of Chris to realise Evelyn was wavering and slip her his phone. Where did those two heavies suddenly come from, hardly the peaceful idyll Murray likes to portray is it? Spencer thumping Chris proves his time there isn't working in helping with his bi-polar. Evelyn had tried earlier to dissuade him without betraying herself to no avail. It seems by what she said she still hasn't seen her dad.

[Brian]

Good to read all your posts, but what seems ridiculous is the situation at SBH school. Did they have enough spare classrooms, desks and chairs to accommodate another complete school? Did all the teachers come with them? Are the new pupils going to get the same uniform? The boys' blue shirts do rather make them stand out. Nothing about the new girls - are they all angels? Why focus just on Matt? The new arrangements can't be that easy to set up - there must be some chaos about, which we don't see.

A lot about Jett being miserable. Something must be about to happen there. Like the way he tried selling his transfer to that school to John.

[Red Ranger 1]

The way episodes are plotted depending on what characters are available is bordering on frustrating:We get Chris telling April and Dexter what happened with Spencer instead of telling Sasha, Maddy hasn't been seen with Roo since last week and is Oscar back at school or not?

It feels like Indi is sliding backwards which is a huge disappointment given that she'd become a better character since she got over Romeo.Now suddenly she's obsessing over him again and making every situation about him, associating Chris with him because she thinks him trying to help Spencer is the same as Romeo making decisions about their marriage.At least she's finally accepted she's treating him badly.I kept being grateful that April and Dexter weren't in it much but then they popped up again, although thankfully they didn't dominate too much.April really has no personality whatsoever, does she?So suddenly she's a generic teenage girl who doesn't understand all this sci-fi stuff.Two and a half years with Dex on and off and she doesn't know the difference between Star Trek and Star Wars?Unless she was winding him up...

I should probably sympathise with Roo but her behaviour over dinner was kind of no-win:She says she doesn't want to be treated differently but she acts differently, with her freezing when Jett talks about losing Nina.Liked Jett's little smile when he overheard John and Marilyn.

Casey knocking Heath down for trying to copy his essay worked better than his sneering at Kyle last episode, given that Heath had actually done something to warrant it.And the way he stepped in with some reverse psychology to get Heath working afterwards was great too.So if Heath's told Bianca, presumably it isn't a secret any longer, given that Ricky, Kyle, Dexter, Casey and Tamara all know now.Is Casey really going to go back to school?Again?Someone joked about Sasha finishing school before him and if they hadn't put her back a year as well, she'd be finishing in a few months.Hasn't he heard of Tafe?

[H&Alover]

You've said three things I was thinking of saying Red. Loved Jett's little smile when he saw and overheard John and Marilyn having their chat and hug, that's cheered him up a bit. Casey's reverse psychology with Heath was brilliant and I liked the clump round Heath's head and he said he was just practising! I was wondering when he would bring up the matter of his HSC again, any quesses that it not going to be that easy. Every time he tries something gets in the way, plain giving up, prison, being in hospital, prison, hospital again. Great that Heath passed the first module and he's owned up to Bianca, hope she doesn't try and help him too much, it's something he needs to do by himself.

I suppose Jett 'losing' Nina just because she's going to a different school isn't in the same league as Harvey being missing at sea (and maybe dead). But he's only 13/14 and at that age a thing like that is a major event. Forget to mention yesterday the hiccup in continuity - Roo was wearing her scarf in the Diner - when she was sitting on the pier with Indi it had gone - back at the house she's wearing it again!!!

Good point about the girls from MRH and the rest of the boys for that matter, it is all currently about Matt. As for uniforms there can't be an unlimited number of them to supply the MRH pupils whose parents can't afford new ones.

So Indi is planning to leave the bay, where does that leave Heath, Casey and the rest of the staff at the gym, is she going to close it or put someone else in charge? I felt for Chris, the only woman he's really fell for and she's dumped him.