H&A Spring Break - From the Bay to LA

[atrus]

I enjoyed Angel's goodbye, her scenes with Don being a highlight - even if the very odd flashbacks made it feel as if Angel was trapped in some kind of spacetime anomaly for much of the episode. Not so sure about Simon, who constantly wore an expression that made me think he was up to no good - although I don't think that was the intention.

The scene with Don and Irene arguing about Steven and Selina was excellent. I know he began proceedings but if anything, I felt Don wasn't quite reactive enough (though perhaps that's because Steven wasn't in this episode). I'm absolutely with Irene - she's got every right to be incandescent with rage, and an awful lot of parents/guardians would have called the police, I think, so she's actually shown considerable restraint. Although I did laugh when Don told her to shut up, I love the fact that she's a motormouth and can't bring myself to disapprove when she goes off on one - just as recently when she marched into school and tore strips off Zac for letting VJ fight.

I find it very hard to watch Chloe now without wincing in case something horrible happens to her, having memories of those terrifying scenes with Brad Cooper. Probably the only time H&A has ever succeeded in giving me nightmares.

[CaptainHulk]

The Chloe/Brad final showdown was another award-winning ep.

H&A was murdering it at the AFIs between 1993-1998.

[c120701]

I forgot today's episode was an Isabel Lucas one until the end, I thought it was Chris Egan. His scene with Seb where Nick pretty much admitted he thought he was losing control of himself was great.

I know Flynn Mk2 cops a lot of flack, but his scene with Josh at the Diner was one of those understated scenes where a calm and controlled character gives someone a warning/threat without losing their normal composure. There are few others I could add to that list, but Pippa is one of them.

What was Sally & Flynn's land deal?

[atrus]

Yes, I'd concluded that it was a Chris Egan episode too, since he appeared to be the primary focus throughout. I didn't even realise Isabel Lucas had made the leap to Hollywood, and today certainly didn't showcase her talents, so it seems like a pretty odd choice of an episode to me. For a while I was wondering if the policewoman had found fame, but then finally remembered when we got the 'mermaid moment'. Just goes to show how your memory plays tricks; I'd long ago convinced myself that it had been Robbie who had found her on the beach.

Anyway, I enjoyed it nonetheless for non-Tasha reasons. Chris Egan was always one of the stronger performers during his tenure, as bratty as Nick could be. Was all this post-Angie? I like the relationship between him and Seb, and also between him and Jade - this particular teen group (with Kirsty as well) always seemed to work quite well as a unit as I recall, although I guess it must be coming towards the end of its days here.

[Slade]

Nick was highly annoying for virtually all of that episode, refusing the accept ownership for stealing the car and not fessing up after Jesse got caught returning it although I didn't like the way Jesse was showing honour amongst thieves (even though I could understand he wanted Nick to take ownership of his actions). The only positive thing I could say about Nick was that he wasn't as bad as Josh.

I forgotten quite a bit of the stuff during 2003 so when I saw Josh and Flynn near the beginning I couldn't remember what went wrong especially after Flynn supported him during his breakup with Dani the year before. But after watching him throughout most of that episode he came across as utterly repugnant. Trying to push Jesse around and firing him from the gym even though he hadn't actually been charged with anything. Then he tried to command Haley so I was glad she told him to stick his job. It's funny because Flynn seemed to have a certain intensity when he was speaking with Josh which was never apparent with the previous casting. I did really liked the way he looked out for Jesse though.

Kirsty was looking fine and she mentioned the clairvoyant! The same one who predicted Kane's return and Kirsty having the make a choice which led to their reunion. All of which were pretty imminent considering that Tasha showed up and she saw Kane and Scott pull a robbery shortly before that. Rhys wasn't in that episode but I can't remember whether this was before or after he left to go to the city to support Dillon after Dillon accidentally killed Angie.

And then there's Pia. Another character that I'd completely forgotten about. I thought she was very fair and reasonable with Jesse and was glad she listened to Leah and disregarded Josh's insinuations which further tried to instigate Jesse re the theft of the car. It's funny thinking of the list of other female coppers that followed her - Charlie, Georgina and Kat (where funnily enough the actress has the same first name).

[Dan F]

Yeah this was all post-Angie, though of course we then learnt of Tasha being Angie's daughter in the season finale (great scene that was), and Angie made a final appearance as a 'ghost' to Tasha in 2004.

I too always enjoyed Nick & Seb's friendship and that teen group as a whole. Also good to see an episode featuring Pia who has been discussed elsewhere on the forum a couple of times in recent months, found her a very strong character and she was one of the very few competent cops we saw throughout the 2000's - her, Lara and Georgie would make a good spinoff

[Red Ranger 1]

Sal was only a brat in 1989 due to getting a taste of Ross and Louise's fancy lifestyle which was way beyond the means of the Fletchers but went back to normal within weeks. Sal was pretty much a goody-goody throughout with the exceptions of 1993 and 1997. But hey, every soap has to have at least one or two.

I dunno, she seemed to hit self-destruct regularly if briefly: 1995, 1996, 1998, 2000...I guess it comes down to her being a bit insecure so it didn't take much to tip her over the edge.

S yep, another really odd first episode where the character doesn't appear until the last five minutes.And here she doesn't even speak, because famously Isabel Lucas had never acted before and was cast because she looked the part then given no dialogue for weeks while they broke her in.Even more than Peta and Edward, I find myself shocked to compare the dates and realise she was on the show about half a year before Robbie turned up.(But then they did have two and a half years together, rather than the nine months or so Pete and Ed had.)Not sure how much Isabel's career has taken off Stateside but she was in one of the Transformers films...

Not a good episode for Nick, although this was just after Jade dumped him for something he didn't do without even listening to his side of the story, something I never quite forgave her for.I think Jesse wanted Nick to redeem himself by owning up (and I think he did in the end), whereas just reporting him would have just made him more bitter.I would have liked to have seen the clairvoyant and known exactly what he said about Kirsty's love life, I remember back in 2008/9 wondering if we'd been getting it wrong all those years and it actually referred to Kane and Miles...Thinking about it, given that Kirsty was expecting Dylan to come back instead, this must be while Rhys is in the city with him (we're about three months on from Angie's death).Dani would have still been living there at this point so guessing she was nominally in charge despite not being in the episode..?Weirdly, I was convinced it was Nick, rather than Max, who gave that "My sister has blonde hair!" speech.

I have to say 2003 is a bit of a blind spot for me, nearly every time I see an episode from that era I think "That happened?" Seems to be the year of the dodgy hair dye, with Sally and Leah both having gone red and Noah looking like someone spilled brown paint over him.(At least Sally's got over her black phase, although it suited her better than Sophie.)As Dan says, nice to get a Pia Correlli episode after her name's cropped up on the forum this year.I'm mostly guessing but I suspect the land deal Sally mentioned was to do with building the extension for the surgery..?(Nice to see a bit of Sal, obviously.)

Don't celebrate your victory too much, boys, Josh closes down the Drop-In Centre in about six months anyway, something else that always left a bad taste. Not quite Evil Josh yet, more sort of Nasty Josh.(I seemed to remember Charlotte's death messed him up and it was downhill all the way.)I think this is when we had a slightly odd set-up of Noah and Hayley living together but not actually being a couple.(2003 is the year that established repeatedly that they were just friends now.And then 2004 came along and they got married anyway...)

Slightly off topic but I notice Channel 5 have started trailing the return of the 2015 season.Shame the trailers are focusing on three things I'm not interested in (Brax in prison, Matt self-destructing and Kyle and Phoebe) but I guess there are fans of Brax, Matt and even Phoebe who might be excited by it.

But first we're going right back to the tail end of 1993: Before Shannon, before Curtis, before Selina, before Jack, before Irene owning the beach house and before the early 1994 episodes that are on 7Two at the moment, and approximately 20 episodes before the episode they used to represent Simon Baker last time round.

[Dan F]

Just realised when going through my folders that 3565, which is the episode after the one shown today, was repeated during Five Life's Arrivals & Departures weekend back in 2007 - and it was that one they used to showcase Tasha's arrival (probably a slightly better option).

Still, nice to get another ep which hasn't previously been repeated.

[c120701]

No, the land deal wasn't the surgery as that's already up and running as Sally mentioned Colleen being in bed, so it must be during her cancer storyline and the surgery sign was visible outside of the window.

[H&Alover]

We were well cheated with Tash's episode, there were much better episodes they could have shown! I'd forgotten whose night it was until I saw Max walking along the beach and came across his 'mermaid'. Couldn't we have had one with her and Robbie. It occurred to me her and Robbie were the forerunners of Dex and April, the boys being a bit nerdy and both of the girls being free spirits and a bit rebellious.

I'd forgotten why Nick was the way he was until Jade bought up Angie in their Hamlet speech, (another school play) she, Angie, really messed with Nick's head. She let him think she really 'liked' him when he finally rejected her, she made out he sexually assaulted her, though he was eventually cleared thanks to Kirsty, Jade & Seb making a video of Angie admitting to it. Jesse wouldn't have squealed on another adult let alone a kid and it would have been his word against Nick's, who did finally 'fess up. It was good to see Pia again, she did remind me of Georgie, they would have made a good team, better than some of the male cops we've had. She came across as a pretty bright cop, she was certainly being very fair to Jesse and wasn't influenced by Josh trying to paint him as a proper villain. Great that so many people, even Alf, even knowing Jesse's past were right behind him, Leah wearing braces again, I noted.

I was wondering what had happened to Noah's hair, I definitely remember and preferred him blond.

Was that episode before or after Alf's 'dream' during his brain tumour op?

Was Sally's land deal something to do with Josh? He hasn't quite turned into evil Josh yet, Flynn's quiet words did seem to make him think, but as we know he did turn to the dark side in the end. I much preferred Flynn #2.

I much preferred Angel's episode as at least she was in most of it, once again I'd forgotten how close she and Don were. Lovely scene between her and Don when she was remembering Shane. Understandable her having doubts about going with Simon, it wouldn't be just another town in Australia, it would be the other side of the world. So sweet Dylan explaining to Simon why Angel was getting all misty eyed over the tree. She was definitely getting all steamy when Simon was doing up her necklace, leaning back into him, then pulling away at the last moment. It seemed her and Dylan were waving goodbye not just the beach but us as well at the end.

Wow Irene was really going off on one with Don, though you couldn't blame her, poor guy kept trying to get a word in, but it was like trying to stop an express train!!! Loved him telling her to shut up so he could tell her he would he be doing something about it.

Nice to see Chloe again, but sad that it seemed be a hard time for her. Things did seem a bit strained between her and her dad.

It did appear there were cuts, they did seem to jump from one scene to another without making any sense. The Joey/Kelly one being a case in point.