2018 Season - UK Episode Discussion

[Eduardo Bearo]

Totally irrelevant I know, but I do wish they would get Irene a new pair of PJ's - she has been wearing the same ones for the last 15 years!!!!!

[Razabaza]

No offence meant to anybody who has dealt with a miscarriage, but the way Ash keeps talking about his son annoys me.  Kat was only a few months pregnant, it's not like it was an actual 10-year-old child he spent time with. I may sound like a jerk but it's just the way I feel.

[Red Ranger 1]

It was indicated that Justin had left Nina a message.So, he's off to visit Ava in the city, leaving Ziggy handling the garage alone.Ben seemed to get on well with his new work mates, while Maggie learns the downside of planning a surprise.Meanwhile, Olivia's being a brat towards Jasmine, determined to take everything she says the wrong way.It's frustrating that Olivia did seem to have found a similarly-aged female that she gets on well with from the start and wasn't Ziggy, but now she's back to being unnecessarily territorial and jealous of the attention.Oh, and Leah's feeling insecure.

Which brings us on to Colby and Dean, and Colby's non-reason for not coming back for Dean after failing to find his family which really did feel like excuses.I found his sudden claim that the River Boys meant something to him less than sincere: I think Dean meant something to him but I think his cynicism about the group as a whole was genuine.And his describing keeping information from the police as "doing the right thing", coupled with his increasingly ambivalent behaviour towards Jasmine, reminds me why I can't bring myself to completely like him: He just doesn't seem to be as nice and squeaky clean as he thinks he is and I suspect as we're meant to think he is.Still, looks like Ebony might be about to blow his dual life wide open. And what was going on at the end?Was there a time warp?Did they teleport? Brody and Ziggy are at the bar in Salt, with Ben and his work mates making a noise at the table, and literally a second later, without any sort of transition, Colby and Dean are at the same bar and the noise from Ben's table has abruptly stopped.My first thought was that they were at a different bar (which would make more sense of Colby's "I thought I'd find you here", if it was a place from their youth rather than somewhere Dean's only just started going) until I saw it said Salt on the wall. And still no-one can remember who was there when Boyd was shot, as Dean claims McCarthy was there when he clearly wasn't, hence the more junior Colby being in charge.

[atrus]

Olivia was winding me up, again. Jasmine might not be the most fascinating character at the moment but one thing you can say is that she's nice as pie, and Olivia's just being a spoilt baby. If she can't bear having another housemate, why invite her to live there in the first place? And not wishing to use this an excuse to have a dig at Irene, but I imagine she's considerably more abrasive as a housemate than Jasmine is, with all her house rules and constant hectoring. I guess Ziggy was spot-on about Olivia being jealous.

Speaking of house rules - did Jasmine just offer Olivia a beer, and did Olivia not correct her?

So, another sharp intake of breath by the Colby-Dean Shipping Community, as Dean spares Colby's job and buys him a beer. No real surprise that Dean made the choice he did and that the investigation cleared Colby - he's only just arrived, and to lose the new police character so soon would seem careless at best. I'll be interested (in the loosest sense) to find out whether Ebony is a full on psycho-killer kind of villain - my guess is yes.

Ben should've called home I suppose, but that kind of thing can easily happen so I'll let him off. And I guess when Coco and Raffy aren't in it, Ryder's only purpose is to... moan about Coco and Raffy not being in it?

40 minutes ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

And what was going on at the end?Was there a time warp?Did they teleport? Brody and Ziggy are at the bar in Salt, with Ben and his work mates making a noise at the table, and literally a second later, without any sort of transition, Colby and Dean are at the same bar and the noise from Ben's table has abruptly stopped.My first thought was that they were at a different bar (which would make more sense of Colby's "I thought I'd find you here", if it was a place from their youth rather than somewhere Dean's only just started going) until I saw it said Salt on the wall.

I think Colby and Dean were out on the terrace, weren't they? I thought exactly the same initially, but then you can see the sky behind them; I think they're just sitting at a table that looks like a bar.

[630si]

I share Atrus’ frustrations towards Olivia. There’s just no need to be so hung up about everything. Ziggy was spot on telling her she’s jealous.

 

i wouldn’t be surprised if the river boys had something to do with Bella’s disappearance and we learn a lot more as we go on. Just a hunch at the moment.

 

Ebony is a character isn’t she. A little unrelatable if I do say what with her brother having just died but her going round town assessing and plotting her next moves makes for a compellling villain storyline. I’m quite excited to see who she takes under her wing.

[H&Alover]

They made things to made to last back then Eduardo Bearo!!!  

Strangely Jasmine is starting to worry me, she just seems to be a little too eager to please and needy.  She was a bit snidey about Olivia 'working' from home and she was actually working, not as if she has an office. I know he turned out to be a control freak but I wonder if that is happened with David, she got too eager then he showed his true colours?  Same with Colby he's tried apologising and she's gone all cold on him. No argument Olivia is jealous of Jasmine and Irene being close even though it was her, albeit drunken, idea for Jasmine to move in in the first place. May be wrong but I think Irene allows alcohol in the house as long as she knows about it and it's not snuck in.

Let's hope they are not too busy at the garage as Ziggy is running it single handed.

Colby & Dean - Not quite protocol I would have thought Colby tackling Dean before Dean's interview, seemed very impassioned about his reasons for not coming back, getting in contact with Dean, step dad was/is a real hard case and Colby and Bella's mum was in thrall of him and Colby didn't want Dean put in danger. He may have had ulterior motives for joining the police but must have  proved himself to get where he has. Saying that though, I don't know how long he's been a cop but he doesn't seem to have made much progress in finding Bella. It keeps being brought up (myself included) about his Blood & Sand tat, but maybe he went to a city far enough away from Mango River where he could have lied about what it stood for. Something Colby said must have got through to Dean as he didn't say anything negative and Colby was re-instated. Maybe not McCarthy at the scene but a senior officer would have to have been I would have thought.  They would have needed an independent witness statement  apart from the various cops who were there and not all of them would have seen what happened. Funny how Colby was talking about keeping Dean safe from his step dad, as he's unintentionally put him in danger again due to his involvement in Boyd's death, Ebony was busy taking photos of them and asking questions, she's already got Willow and Justin on her hit list, is she going to include Tori who from I saw tried her best to keep him alive.

Wouldn't the fact Dean & Colby were in the River Boys make it a bit strange if Colby's step dad was also a River Boy 630si? Not saying you're wrong, stranger things have happened in soaps.

I had to laugh at Ben scruffing up his work boots so they didn't look too new. They seem like a good bunch and I imagine Ricky could be a right wind up merchant and from the way he was chatting to Ziggy, until he found out she was Ben's daughter and Brody's girlfriend, a bit of a flirt. Barry's rule about no mobiles being switched on while on site does make sense you could get distracted and cause an accident.  Ben of course could have said he needed it as his wife isn't well and may need to contact him, but then it would have had the others feel sorry for him which he didn't want.  Must have been really refreshing for him to act 'normal' for once so I'll let him off too this once for having a beer or three.  Shame about Maggie's lasagne though, he did look suitably guilty.

I feel the same thing sometimes Red about the fact the bay is in a time warp when one moment it's daylight then in a blink of an eye it's night time.

 

[D.B]

Yesterday's episode: 

I really enjoyed the Astonis scenes. Loved seeing Ben hanging out with his new co-workers and I think they should develop on them. While I sympathise with Maggie for worrying about him, although she may have been a bit clingy, I can excuse Ben for having a beer or two, for the first time in a while, he gets a chance to relax. 

Found Olivia more annoying than usual. Where did this resentment against Jasmine come from? I mean, Olivia was the one who invited her to live there. Why did this come suddenly overnight? Felt sorry for Jasmine, who is putting in the effort. Felt sorry for Leah as well, loved Roo's support for her.

Brody telling that guy that Ziggy was his girl- wonderful. I just love Brody, he's a great guy and I'm so happy on how far him and Ziggy have gone. Also pleased that the writers haven't ruined him, the way they ruined many others (e.g. Brax, Kat, Josh). Thank you writers, for once. 

22 hours ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

Which brings us on to Colby and Dean, and Colby's non-reason for not coming back for Dean after failing to find his family which really did feel like excuses.I found his sudden claim that the River Boys meant something to him less than sincere: I think Dean meant something to him but I think his cynicism about the group as a whole was genuine.And his describing keeping information from the police as "doing the right thing", coupled with his increasingly ambivalent behaviour towards Jasmine, reminds me why I can't bring myself to completely like him: He just doesn't seem to be as nice and squeaky clean as he thinks he is and I suspect as we're meant to think he is.

I feel like this is a bit harsh. I don't think Colby sees himself as perfect, so far he never really said or done anything that seemed as self-righteous to me. When he had to be dismissed when the investigation came, he took it reluctantly, but with acceptance. I know he acted sometimes in ways he shouldn't, but he's doing it for the people he loves. And his dedication to his job and to protecting people makes me still like him. Really like Dean and Colby's chat. I would love to seeing them becoming friends again. Loved Colby's care for Jasmine, though I don't see why she seemed a bit distant, though I suppose she was trying to give him space to think.  Didn't however like Dean's attempt to blackmail him, Dean knows about Colby's family, he knows how important it's for Colby to find them. Just when I'm liking Dean, he goes ahead and does this, though he did cover for him at the station, so I'll give him that. Colby finally was honest, he did care for Dean and for the River boys. I think he was genuine when he said how much they meant to him. It's just that family was first.

Ebony apparently has wasted no time in planning revenge for her scumbag of a brother. She wasn't in this episode very long, but I'm intrigued to see what she does next. But I'm actually confused at exactly how did she knew that Colby was the shooter, at the hospital she wasn't too close to hear Tori, Colby, or McCarthy so how did she find out? Also why does she has pictures of Tori? In fairness to her, she did everything she could to save Boyd.

Not very sure about Hunter and Ryder having a brother-like relationship, I don't remember them having a  

Forgot to mention: absolutely love Ash's phone call with Irene, these two were very close and I'm glad they were able to connect. 

Really liked Willow's talk with Dean, she is right, he needs to just suck it up and find answers if he needs solace.

[atrus]

On 31/05/2018 at 18:36, Eduardo Bearo said:

Totally irrelevant I know, but I do wish they would get Irene a new pair of PJ's - she has been wearing the same ones for the last 15 years!!!!!

Perhaps we should place bets on what cheapskate Irene will fork out for first - new PJs, or a lock for her bathroom door?

So, it looks like Ebony is going to be pure pantomime, as she stalks around town in black widow mode, 'having fun' as she ruins lives. Hazel's clearly of the quick-fix school of villainy, preferring simply to 'get rid' of Colby rather than luring him into some byzantine web of evil. But given Ebony's clearly a subscriber to the latter approach, it feels like she missed a bit of a trick not taking up Mason on his offer of a drink, as she could have used him to get closer to Justin.

Ugh at Olivia continuing to make everything about her. It isn't that she had a pang of jealousy that bothered me - it's that, rather than just sucking it up like most people would, she had to go on a deluxe whinge-athon about town until Jasmine inevitably overheard. Although at least Olivia did the right thing in the end and made amends, I suppose. Glad to see the house rule wasn't forgotten after all, although it was left a bit ambiguous as to whether Olivia meant to get Jasmine into trouble by not telling her about it. I'm going to assume yes.

Meanwhile, I fully understood Maggie's frustrations, and liked her more for not making a fuss about Ben staying out late. I feel like Ziggy and Brody are both good people to have around in a crisis.

Hmm, so The Department has spontaneously decided John and Marilyn are suddenly suitable foster carers for a needy young man. Not particularly buying that; love her as I do, Maz still has child-napping on her CV, and I don't really think that a fostering emergency of any scale would prompt them to call her. Interesting timing with this happening just as Raffy's agreed to move in permanently.

Spoiler

JOHN: What if this boy's got real problems? Problems that we can't fix?

Hmm - well, that's an interesting line to kick things off. Let's just say I'll be following this storyline with interest... I'm going to be hugely annoyed if I can't talk about this properly as it goes along because the show doesn't remotely allude to what's going on until the week of his departure, but that's exactly my expectation right now. Is it the done thing to talk in tags in here?

 

[Red Ranger 1]

22 hours ago, atrus said:

I think Colby and Dean were out on the terrace, weren't they? I thought exactly the same initially, but then you can see the sky behind them; I think they're just sitting at a table that looks like a bar.

I was kind of the other way round.I started off thinking they were on the terrace but the more I looked at it, the more it looked like inside, with walls and the entrance in the background.Colby was on the terrace at the start of today though, so maybe that's what it was meant to be.

4 hours ago, H&Alover said:

Maybe not McCarthy at the scene but a senior officer would have to have been I would have thought.

Well, so far as I can tell, Colby is McCarthy's second-in-command: He's the next rank down.

Alf's episode count:Suspended. Neither he nor Coco appear, although at least we know where they are.

So...lots of little threads running through.The Astoni drama was nicely underplayed, with Maggie not making a big deal even though she's obviously unhappy and Ziggy again showing her kind side, along with her exasperation about being the responsible one compared to Ben. I'm inclined to be a bit easy on Olivia: Her treatment of Jasmine was unfair but it did seem to come from insecurity at suddenly being the odd one out rather than anything particularly malicious, and she did try and make it up to her.So, after the concerns yesterday, Irene clues Jasmine in on the house rules and there seemed to be an acknowledgement of past inconsistencies when Irene admitted it had lapsed a bit recently: Remember when Olivia had been living there three months and didn't even know Irene was an alcoholic?

I continue to clench everything at the cloying references to John and Marilyn's house being Raffy's "home", because to my mind it never will be.Marilyn in particular comes across as making it all about her and treating Raffy like a new pet or toy that she needs to get all the accessories for.And what do you know, suddenly they might have another child living there.I can see the wisdom in having a family unit with two foster children meeting for the first time, but they should have brought in someone new, not shoehorned Raffy in there.atrus:

If you're going to allude to future revelations, then spoiler tags is probably the way to go.I guess we'll just have to see how things unfold on screen rather than relying on inside information.

My big problem with the Ebony storyline is Hazel.I really hoped she'd get arrested quickly and leave us to concentrate on Ebony but no, here we are again with someone wanted by the police openly driving around town having secret meetings, just so Ebony has someone to talk to and isn't reduced to giving sinister looks at the camera.I must admit to quite enjoying her, possibly because she's easy on the eye, although she's coming across as a version of the Summer Bay Stalker that actually makes sense, targeting the people involved in what she's getting revenge for rather than turning up a year later when they've all gone and getting revenge on people who had nothing to do with it.She obviously overheard things at the hospital, she even related it to Hazel afterwards.My other main gripe so far is her collection of photos:We saw her take the one of Colby and Dean, the photo of Justin and Ava was obviously a screen grab from last week but could have been taken by her, then we get a publicity photo of Willow (it's posed and everything!) and a selfie of Tori (which was probably the actress' own)?Guess she could have downloaded them from their Instagram accounts?Yeah, let's go with that... Must have been waiting by that car a long time if Colby had gone back to the flat and got changed into uniform in the meantime!

[atrus]

Spoiler

 

26 minutes ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

If you're going to allude to future revelations, then spoiler tags is probably the way to go.I guess we'll just have to see how things unfold on screen rather than relying on inside information.

Thanks. I definitely wasn't planning on alluding to it outside of tags, but wasn't sure of the etiquette of banging on about it in tags either, possibly to myself! I just suspect I'm likely to need a ranting space and that the Aus/spoiler-pace threads probably aren't the place for it, given that they'll have watched it weeks ago by the time I get to it!

I mean, I don't have any inside information other than having read the brief spoiler summaries elsewhere on the site, and I want to be open-minded; more than that, I actually desperately want to like this storyline. The summaries don't fill me with confidence, it's true - but I also just have a strong instinctive sense, knowing how things have gone before, that we're not even really going to get any hints as we go, until it's all revealed and he's probably written out in the space of an episode/a blaze of awkwardness. Anyhow, I really hope I'm wrong; and I'll see how we go. I might just throw in some tags every now and then to vent if the show is deliberately tiptoeing around it...