2018 Season - UK Episode Discussion

[630si]

I feel the contrary to you red when it comes to Jasmine and Colby I quite like their ‘friends with benefits’ setup and it makes a difference to being completely in love and then breaking up over the littlest thing. Because we get enough of that. However, it’s clear to see Jasmine is falling harder than Colby and her nose is straight out of joint regarding Ebony. And I don’t blame her. Colby has this big personal secret yet feels he can open straight up to Ebony, until now, this was something Jasmine and he only shared. And that sort of in a way resembled their relationship. Just on Colby, why are alarm bells not ringing with Ebony saying her brother died etc etc I would find that quite odd and you would think a police officer would be more inclined to probe.

My Heaets breaking even more for the Astoni’s, red you’re right, a lot of the time we are watching a cancer story about recovery whereas so far with this story it’s about the illness more and the effect on the family. It’s both refreshing and heart wrenching at the same time. I hope Maggie pulls through the pneumonia and can get back to the big battle at hand. I agree with the sentiments that Coco’s treatment towards Ryder is nothing short of disgusting and she doesn’t deserve him, even if he does get things wrong from time to time.

[atrus]

Ebony is getting far too much airtime as far as I'm concerned, and her coming between Jasmine and Colby - a relationship we've been given precious little reason to care about - is wholly uninteresting. How drawn-out is this revenge going to be if it's going to operate on this petty, splitting-up-couples-who-aren't-even-really-couples basis? Not that I particularly object to them being split up, since Jasmine is being ultra-possessive to an extent that it's difficult to like her, despite the friends+ arrangement being her idea, and Colby's being a bit of a tool in not realising how overinvested she's becoming and calling it quits.

Ryder's dinner self-portrait made my day. Coco continues to be absolutely horrid to him and I can't help but think that for his own sake he should be giving it up as a lost cause - but, while it doesn't excuse her behaviour, I'm trying to remind myself how young Coco is and how traumatised she is by her mum's condition, which probably isn't helping her make measured, rational decisions right now. Sad to see things going so south so fast for Maggie. Wondering if they're going to surprise us and actually kill her off?

[Slade]

Again find it very difficult to have any sympathy for Jasmine.  She set the precedence for the 'relationship' when she jumped straight into bed with Colby.  So IMO he doesn't see her as anything other than booty call  at the moment.  I'm loving the fact that Ebony is messing with their 'relationship' and she's doing everything right, causing conflict with Jasmine and Colby and making both of them have doubts about each other.  More please.

I'm actually quite fed up with Coco and Ryder.  I actually wish Coco hadn't come back from the retreat because she's pretty close to insufferable and becoming more and more unlikeable.  Not that I have much sympathy for Ryder either.  It's a hard one because objectively given his age and the way he's acting (presumably lack of experience) he understandably doesn't want to give up on her.  But it's clear she doesn't want to be around him at the moment and is starting to see him as a nuisance.

It's funny given that I hated him when he first came to the bay out of all the Astoni's Ben is the one I feel the most sorry for.  I didn't mention this on Friday but whilst I feel his boss is a jerk and seemed quite unsympathetic he did make a valid point about Ben accepting the job knowing Maggie had cancer.  Although I don't blame Ben for walking out like that.

[D.B]

Alf is back- Thank God!

I do feel sorry for Jasmine, even though she did set up the whole friends with benefits in the first place, because it's so clear that she has storing feelings for Colby, and she can't reveal them, because it wouldn't be good for either of them. Of course she's going to be a bit jealous with Ebony, who seems very good at pressing people's buttons, though I can see that she's been a bit too full on. But I feel like the relationship between the two is beginning to crumble, which I don't like at all. 

The Astoni storyline is even more moving, one of the most emotionally-heartbreaking storylines since the caravan explosion in 2016. I absolutely love Brody's and Roo's support for Ziggy and Ben. While I am absolutely appalled with Coco's treatment with Ryder and Ziggy and I feel like that she keeps on using Maggie as an excuse, I do feel sorry for her in the end, because this is still a hard time for her, and it only just got worse, even if it doesn't excuse her actions. I have more sympathy for Ziggy, because now she's probably going to think like it's her fault, and Ben, his reaction is both realistic and moving. Of course, the biggest amount of my sympathy goes to Maggie, who's situation has gone from bad to worse. 

[H&Alover]

I think Jasmine's point, fwb aside, was it took Colby a couple of 'days' before he confided in her about Bella, I know he may have not said anything if Jasmine hadn't found those cuttings, but with Ebony who he has only just met gets the full story in five minutes!!!!  I'd be riled if I was just friends

I think Jasmine's point, fwb aside, was it took Colby a couple of 'days' before he confided in her about Bella, I know he may have not said anything if Jasmine hadn't found those cuttings, but  Ebony who he has only just met gets the full story in five minutes!!!!  I'd be riled even if I was just friends. Jasmine, like I would think, it was something between them and feel strange as it may sound, betrayed. If it had been Willow, she I like to think, not be so bothered as he's known her for years, Ebony is a stranger.  Ebony is good, very good, at what she does, you couldn't call Colby drunk so not unaware of what he was saying. Colby has no reason to check out Ebony's 'story' about her late brother having been a cop.  I liked Jasmine's invite for Ebony to join her and Colby for lunch/drink and adding Olivia is joining us so you won't be a spare wheel was a good one! Claws were showing. Ebony and Hazel are criminals so are bound to have connections to people who can provide false ID, passports etc. A point has been raised about the police checking Hazel's family and associates so wouldn't have Ebony's name come up? Also unless she has been off the scene for years and years how come Dean & Willow haven't made the connection?

My heart went out to all the Astoni's. They are each suffering in their own ways, Ben, Ziggy and Coco must feel so helpless, they can only stand by while Maggie is going through so much. Tori, who is much better now she is back in doctor mode must feel the same way, she just seems to be delivering bad news every time she speaks to them. When Tori told Ben they may have to put Maggie in an induced coma no words were needed, the look on his face said it all. How, though, could Coco dare to have a go at Ziggy for her 'allowing' Brody not to be there for her when he would be as soon as Ziggy calls him, she knows he has a business to run, when she keeps pushing Ryder away when he, foot in mouth moments aside, wants to be there for her.  He apologised at the Diner and she still  accused him of making it all about him which wasn't the case. It was good that he confided in Roo who was encouraging. The old saying is a little knowledge is dangerous but in this case too much knowledge can be too, Coco reeling off what people had said at the camp were just the worse case scenarios. It was a kind of long shot the stem cell transplant would work and Ziggy does blame herself as we saw, but the hospital had to give it a shot, the other alternative was to go on the waiting list which could have taken months. The whole storyline, imo, has been treated sensitively, every cancer case affects different people differently so brave of TPTB, to suggest it may not have a happy ending. Ben didn't tell Barry about Maggie because he wanted to be treated as 'normal' not as someone who had a sick wife. Maggie was on his side and thought him telling Barry to stick his job was hilarious.

Good to have Alf back and the look on his face when he saw Ryder's dinner sculpture was funny, what we needed.

[Red Ranger 1]

Well, adding Olivia into the mix just made me want to side with Ebony even more and I really enjoyed watching her pushing Olivia and Jasmine's buttons while looking completely innocent.This time Olivia's right to be suspicious but she's treating Ebony the same way she treats just about every young female at some point: In fact, not too long ago it was Jasmine's turn! Ironically, in the end Jasmine commits a bit of self-sabotage herself by casually telling Leah Colby was a River Boy: I'd completely forgotten that he told her that when he confided about Bella.I can't really sympathise with Colby over than one, since he's the one being dishonest (and indeed breaking the law), but he was right to break up with Jasmine, who was expecting too much from their arrangement.Very indiscreet of Leah and Jasmine to casually discuss Colby's gang past where anyone at the counter, not just Ebony, could hear.The fact Ebony needed to look the River Boys up points to her not being a native of Mangrove River; presumably Hazel and Boyd moved there without her, even if she did seem to be close at hand, which would tie in with Willow and Dean not knowing her.

I did wonder if Ziggy was hiding something when she kept insisting Maggie's condition was her fault, but pleasingly it turned out to just be an irrational but understandable belief.Even though I wasn't too keen on her pushing Brody away (which fortunately didn't last long), I think it was good that it was Ben and Coco that were the ones to comfort her.(I'm tempted to suggest Coco is a better sister than she is a girlfriend or even friend, although even here it feels like Ziggy's a better sister to her, which is ironic given that she was a terrible one last year.)So, Maggie's over the pneumonia but she still has cancer and is left looking for an unrelated donor as her best chance.Odds are slim but can be beaten.

And Ash is back.Guess that package holiday Ray Meagher and George Mason were on has ended.

[atrus]

I'm assuming the surname-flip from Easton to Harding simply reflects the fact that someone on staff realised Ebony couldn't get away with everything she's doing if she had the same surname as her brother and mother - especially with a forename like Ebony. Her incessant baiting of Colby and Jasmine is doing my head in now, and wasn't improved by either Jasmine's whinging, Colby's butthurt response to said whinging, or the addition of Huntivia to proceedings. It did strike me that if there's any way at all for the Ebony saga to end interestingly, it's that she actually starts getting to like everyone in Summer Bay and decides not to take revenge after all. Except maybe on Olivia: I know she had no hand in Boyd's death, but... hey, she could use some revenge.

Ebony googling 'River Boys' and getting informative results was possibly the funniest thing I've seen in my whole life. Leah going all PSA at Colby about the River Boys was dull too; if she deems it important enough to warrant storming over there and tearing strips off him with her sticky beak, why would she then opt to keep it to herself- especially after it became clear that her lecture hadn't convinced him to throw himself on his sword with McCarthy? Maybe she'll be forced to post a vlog about it on her horrendous new website.

Meanwhile, the Astonis' storyline continues to be the highlight, with Sophie Dillman in particular knocking it out of the park today, in scenes that were all the more affecting for being so uncharacteristic of what we usually see of Ziggy. I just hope there's some light at the end of the tunnel for the family soon.

It probably won't come tomorrow, though, because Ash is back in it - meaning more angsting with Tori and fisticuffs on the dunes with Robbo, no doubt.

[Blaxland 89]

I can't believe what they've done to Leah. At least they seem to be a least trying to find somewhere for her to go as a character I suppose. and her originally personality was very short lived I suppose. Never imagined her to be the new moral Parker character. I guess it could work. 

[630si]

2 hours ago, Blaxland 89 said:

I can't believe what they've done to Leah. At least they seem to be a least trying to find somewhere for her to go as a character I suppose. and her originally personality was very short lived I suppose. Never imagined her to be the new moral Parker character. I guess it could work. 

Remember young Leah bopping around full of beans and chirpiness!! 20 years changes people I guess

[atrus]

Any character without family in the show is bound to end up like this to a degree, unfortunately - they have to shoehorn them into other people's storylines, which makes them look like stickybeaks. But with Leah it's even worse; she lives with Alf and Roo who are even more respected pillars of the community than her, so it's not even like Irene who always has a bunch of young lodgers to hector. Leah has to go further afield to poke her nose in.