Hello! I'm new here and would like some help with some unanswered questions :)

[Summer's Bay]

8 hours ago, CaptainHulk said:

Carly, while getting an abrupt departure, wound up reasonably happy, even if she did end up an army wife.

Grant left in September 1991 after a guest visit during the Lois Crawford arc, but Flynn was driving in his old VW!

Recycling cars and clothes!

I just realized that Ailsa drove the minivan the fletchers initially drove to Summer Bay, and Bobby drove Alan’s yellow car. 

 

[Summer's Bay]

2 hours ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

I find it very hard to believe that the shows' makers wrote Frank and Roo out together intending to have them break up off screen and then just forgot to do it.I think Roo always loved Frank deep down but he was with Bobby so she took a step back and tried dating other people, until it became clear that he and Bobby had very different views on life and he was more suited to Roo, especially when she'd made an effort to overcome her faults while Bobby seemed to enjoy embracing hers.Their break-up was nothing more than a plot device for Frank to make a rather pointless return visit.

I guess Carly loved Ben and he loved her, but her ending didn't really convince me she was going to be happy with him.But they were still together over 15 years later, and still are as far as we know, so I guess we have to accept that they worked out.

Oh I don’t doubt that Roo loved Frank, but it’s also easier to love someone who sees your imperfections and loves you still when nobody else wants to. I also feel that Roo wanted a chance to prove to herself and to Frank that she had really changed. 

Your highlighted comment has been something I’ve commented about all along and is somewhat in line with the conversation frank had with Ailsa before he left, and also what he said to Bobby.  Bobby was who she was and that was good enough for Frank to love until it wasn’t, and like Carly said she was bringing him down when he needed to be with someone who fitted the lifestyle he thought he wanted. In my opinion, Roo tried to be that someone she wasn’t, and that coincidenced with what Frank thought he needed. Roo was presentable, pretty, someone who worked with him, she knew the corporate life, she understood the stress of it. 

Outside of Summer Bay she probably wasn’t like that which wasn’t a bad thing for her, because frank still found a way to love her with her flaws...until he didn’t and it further highlights what Alex said that their relationship wasn’t as genuine. Maybe if Roo agreed to return to Austrailia, they might’ve worked out but she wouldn’t sacrifice for him the way Bobby did. Another point we forget is that Bobby’s life changed in terms of finding out who her real family were. She was trying to navigate that while starting a life with Frank which probably added to the situation but upon Franks return, he still commented that things were good when they were married. Alex said Frank and Bobby wanted the same things in life but they just went about getting them in a different way while Frank clearly said he and Roo wanted different things in life.

I think Franks return was pointless in the sense that he never got Bobby back, and not because she didn’t love him, but at least it highlighted the fact that he admitted that what he thought he wanted wasn’t actually the thing to make him happy.

It really is a shame that Frank never got his happily ever after and it’s a shame that he Steve and Carly didn’t turn up for Bobby’s funeral

Would be nice to know the exact details that caused Frank and Roo to break up, but I’m sure it’s written on a notepad in a folder somewhere to be revisited if Alex decides to make an appearance. 

 

 

 

 

[Red Ranger 1]

To be honest, Frank's change of heart on his return never felt believable to me. He ended up back with Roo because he and Roo wanted the same things and Bobby didn't, then suddenly he decides that Roo wants that life and he doesn't, so he goes back to using Bobby as his fallback only to be shocked to find out that she hasn't spent two and a half years waiting for him to switch over again and has a new life that he's not a part of, which at least he had the decency to realise and leave her to it. So, yeah, it felt pointless to me, because it threw away Frank's happy ending for nothing and he never got another one.Neither did Roo really, although I guess she's back on the show now even if it feels like no-one ever really replaced Frank in her life.

[j.laur5]

38 minutes ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

To be honest, Frank's change of heart on his return never felt believable to me. He ended up back with Roo because he and Roo wanted the same things and Bobby didn't, then suddenly he decides that Roo wants that life and he doesn't, so he goes back to using Bobby as his fallback only to be shocked to find out that she hasn't spent two and a half years waiting for him to switch over again and has a new life that he's not a part of, which at least he had the decency to realise and leave her to it. So, yeah, it felt pointless to me, because it threw away Frank's happy ending for nothing and he never got another one.Neither did Roo really, although I guess she's back on the show now even if it feels like no-one ever really replaced Frank in her life.

Two Ruth’s are really different characters!. 

[Summer's Bay]

35 minutes ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

To be honest, Frank's change of heart on his return never felt believable to me. He ended up back with Roo because he and Roo wanted the same things and Bobby didn't, then suddenly he decides that Roo wants that life and he doesn't, so he goes back to using Bobby as his fallback only to be shocked to find out that she hasn't spent two and a half years waiting for him to switch over again and has a new life that he's not a part of, which at least he had the decency to realise and leave her to it. So, yeah, it felt pointless to me, because it threw away Frank's happy ending for nothing and he never got another one.Neither did Roo really, although I guess she's back on the show now even if it feels like no-one ever really replaced Frank in her life.

I like your take on it, and I do agree that there was a selfish element to his return, however I honestly do believe he loved Bobby(he told Pippa he could burying how he felt about her when he was thousands of miles away) and she didn't stop loving him (in my opinion Nicole has made that very clear when she talks about then).. At least the writers have stayed true to Franks words about never seeing himself happy with anyone else but her ,  hence no conversation about him remarrying or having a family, or returning to Summer Bay to try and patch things up with Roo.

I think Frank not having a happy ending is a result of him destroying his chance of that when he walked away from Bobby and in terms of the writing, that makes sense.  I think that is one of the key points about thinking the grass is greener on the other side. Realizing what you want when its too late.

Frank did say he had Roo were not happy because they were not being honest so I am wondering if  Frank and Roo stayed together longer than they wanted to because neither wanted the folks at home to be like "I told you so"? I just wish there was more detail about what happened in New York between them. 

although I guess she's back on the show now even if it feels like no-one ever really replaced Frank in her life.

 

As in no other man is loving her with all her faults?

 

 

[Red Ranger 1]

1 hour ago, Summer's Bay said:

As in no other man is loving her with all her faults?

Well, I guess other men have loved her, faults and all, but even though she doesn't really mention him that much, I suspect she knows Frank was her best chance of being a family with someone.

[Summer's Bay]

26 minutes ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

Well, I guess other men have loved her, faults and all, but even though she doesn't really mention him that much, I suspect she knows Frank was her best chance of being a family with someone.

The fallback safety net who was always there when no one else want to be there. Sounds like there is a lot of regret on her part.

[Red Ranger 1]

5 hours ago, Summer's Bay said:

The fallback safety net who was always there when no one else want to be there. Sounds like there is a lot of regret on her part.

I don't know, Frank had quite a few periods when he wanted nothing to do with Roo, but it felt like she earned his love again, at least until 1991! Maybe she also realises that the life she wanted wasn't what made her happy, although at least she picked up a few surrogate children along the way.

[Summer's Bay]

5 hours ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

I don't know, Frank had quite a few periods when he wanted nothing to do with Roo, but it felt like she earned his love again, at least until 1991! Maybe she also realises that the life she wanted wasn't what made her happy, although at least she picked up a few surrogate children along the way.

That’s the point I attempted to highlight which coincides with Alex saying the relationship wasn’t as genuine. She earned his love because it was convenient at a time when she aligned with what he wanted his future to be.

 

The Roo character has pretty much ended up how I assumed.  

 

Who returned for Ailsa funeral? 

 

13 hours ago, j.laur5 said:

Two Ruth’s are really different characters!. 

Yep. Justine played the rainbow of Roo’s character too good. I’m sorry but Georgie would’ve better suited to another role. 

[Red Ranger 1]

9 hours ago, Summer's Bay said:

That’s the point I attempted to highlight which coincides with Alex saying the relationship wasn’t as genuine. She earned his love because it was convenient at a time when she aligned with what he wanted his future to be.

Well, that's true of Bobby as well. He wasn't really interested in her while things were good with Roo, but when he wanted a change, she was it.

 

9 hours ago, Summer's Bay said:

Who returned for Ailsa funeral? 

No-one.It was just the then-current cast there.