2018 Season - UK Episode Discussion

[D.B]

The last two episodes:

I agree with you Red, the whole Justin situation is a bit ridiculous. Nina was fine with allowing him to see Ava when Willow left him,  the fact that she suddenly changed her mind seems lazy and forced, and just because Hazel hasn't been found yet, doesn't make Nina's place any safer should Hazel or Ebony choose to strike, unless Nina has a secret arsenal or weapons?!  Even though it didn't work, at least Justin tried the practical, more reasonable way rather than burst into the party. I really felt for him, it must be really hard for him not being there for his kid, even when he has a chance to see her.

The stuff with Raffy, Ty, Ryder and Coco was very fun to watch. I laughed out loud when Raffy and Ty made fun of John and Marilyn and their new rules. Also the way Alf knew what the kids were up to and couldn't care less.. A really sweet scene where they kissed behind the boat. 

At least, WIllow made sure Ryder didn't get in trouble, but I fear she will continue to get into more trouble if this gambling continues. I continue to enjoy her friendship with Jasmine, who I really liked when she gave Willow the money, whether she'll get it back though..is anyone's guess.

The Astonis was also great to watch, as usual. Ben and Maggie have become one of my favourite  couples, their support for each other is wonderful beyond words. Leah and Roo coming over with the cake was lovely as well and the wigs scene was very enjoyable and sweet. Leah and Maggie's talk was so nice, their friendship is so good. The vlog was really inspirational, when Home and Away want to do it right, they do it right.

Like Red and H&alover, I was confused with Colby still having the badge. I wasn't very impressed with either Dean or Colby in their arguement, while Colby really shouldn't have dissed off the River Boys in front of Dean, especially since he knows how much the group means to Dean, Dean was way out of line when he said Belle was better off without him. But he gets points by helping Colby when the cops came around. My respect and like for Colby came up today after having a decline in the past few days, when he refused to hide away and dealt with McCarthy himself, though perferably doing it sober. Willow was a good friend looking after Colby. The scene with Justin and Colby was good, at least now they have, like you said H&alover, found a common ground and hopefully now work together.

 

[atrus]

Got stuck a few episodes behind so thought I'd better get up to speed before tonight's.

I didn't blame Ty for wanting to hang out with Ryder rather than Raffy - Ryder was being fun, while Raffy was just being pushy and annoying. Still, she appeared to get over it when he promised to make it up to her, and their scenes together on Thursday were nice again. I increasingly feel like John and Marilyn's position is crazy. If Raffy and Ty can't be alone together while John goes to the bog without it being remarked upon, then surely it follows that they can't actually leave the house at all without a chaperone, in case they secretly meet up during the day? It's not sustainable on any level; if it's going to be this draconian, why isn't Raffy just living with the Morgans where she belongs?

Spoiler

 

Nice to - finally! - get the first clues of what was really going on with Ty, which was pretty clear from the massive smile that lit up his face when Ryder asked for a copy of their selfie, and his: "I've never had a mate like him before." Really - after one afternoon making smoothies? That's either a damning indictment of Ty's previous friends, or he's been crushing on more than just the veggies. Even Raffy seemed suspicious, and already has it tagged as the bromance of the century.

 

As others have noted, there seemed to be some discontinuity on the Ava front on Wednesday - I thought Nina had already said she was happy for Ava to be seeing Justin when they spoke on the phone a while back? And I thought the implication was that she knew he'd split up with Willow? Given how eagerly Dean invited Colby to join him and Willow their date on Thursday, I reckon this love square just needs to be wrapped up sooner rather than later, so Justin and Willow can team back up to show Nina/Hazel who's boss, and Colby and Dean can get on and kiss already. The sexual tension hit peak humidity in that scene on the beach, and even the almost-brawl at the caravan park was pretty replete with it. Nice as it was to see Colby thinking of someone other than himself after a few episodes of Moody Boozy Colby, I don't think he's doing his career any favours by becoming Justin's private investigator on the side - can't imagine that going down well with McCarthy.

It feels like the writers have embarked on Project Ruin Willow already, first with her using Dean to get over Justin, and now having her stealing from the till and frittering it all away. Worse still, I feel like we're going to be treated to weeks of Jasmine hectoring her about it now. She seems to be one of those annoying friends who'll lend you money simply because it buys them the right to judge you. Not that I'm saying that what Willow's doing is in any way justifiable, but that doesn't mean it's any more fun listening to Jasmine whine on about it. And from the promo, it looks like Willow agrees.

It's impossible not to feel for Maggie. On top of everything she has to endure Leah and Roo turning up uninvited with a box of wigs (I mean, I do really appreciate the sentiment, but they know it's a sensitive topic - couldn't they have called first?) I thought she was going to finally snap and tell them where to go, but she put on a smile and went along with it - and good for her, as it turned out to be the right call. Leah's blogging is getting on my nerves; I still don't buy that her site is attracting the attention it is. The video was a bit brief/nonspecific, but nice enough, I suppose.

[Red Ranger 1]

Ah, where to start? Well, the John/Marilyn/Raffy/Ty set-up continues to make zero sense (why isn't she living with her family?) and John and Marilyn continue to be rubbish parents on every level.Having introduced this rather draconian approach instead of letting Raffy go home, they then decide it's working so...they abandon it? Even though it's clearly not working and will now work even less? (I initially thought Marilyn had seen Raffy fondling Ty but no, she goes into a nonsense talk about trust and tells her she can see Ty after all for some reason.) Ty continues to get on better with Ryder than Raffy and it continues to feel like he's only going out with her because people told him he should. Despite being generally bratty, Raffy deserves credit for backing off when Ryder told her to, something that really shouldn't have worked...

Ziggy gamely going along with all Maggie's suggestions to breaking point and beyond deserved every bit of bemusement.("She said yes to harps,"says Coco incredulously, as though that was more incredible than riding through a church on horseback.)Nice that Ben was the first to spot it and Maggie got her bluff called.And I am glad that she asked Coco to be bridesmaid, although for a few seconds I wondered if she was going to say Olivia instead.

Colby is really pushing his luck with the police, here tricking his way past the ever-gullible Murray to illegally access police files...which then turn out to be no use! So, we get an explanation for why Willow, Dean et al don't seem to know about Ebony - the Eastons don't live in Mangrove River, they just go there to hire help - although that doesn't explain why the police don't know about Hazel's family.Interesting look into the mentality of those on the edge of the law: The Mangrove River locals aren't fond of the police but they're even less fond of those who kidnap young children.Still, Justin and Colby's plan seems fatally flawed...

[Little bean]

4 minutes ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

("She said yes to harps,"says Coco incredulously, as though that was more incredible than riding through a church on horseback.)

Literally my job. Wedding Harpist. Not remotely weird!

 

[atrus]

Really not sure what Marilyn and John were trying to achieve today. The closest we got to clarity was an instruction from Maz to Raffy to 'behave like adults' - well, what does that mean? Because we know that how most adults act in Summer Bay is to sleep with each other for a bit and then maybe have a relationship, and then do the same thing with somebody else when that gets tiresome. I really think that if the Palmers were extending a branch of trust, they should've spelt out exactly what was expected, which would presumably include not doing those exact adult things. Instead, Raffy appeared to have concluded she'd been given carte blanche to do what she liked and rewarded for attempting to subvert John and Maz's authority thus far, and it's difficult to blame her.

Easier to blame her, though, for the rather militaristic way she's attempting to get Ty to spend time with her - particularly since the relationship suddenly felt totally one-sided today. Contrary to previous episodes, Ty appears to be looking uncomfortable every time she touches him, kisses him or publicly declares herself his girlfriend - and what's more, Ryder seems to be noticing, to the extent of feeling the need to tell Raffy in front of everyone to give Ty some space, which would simply make things worse in real life. The more diplomatic approach would've been to say something quietly to Coco, who could then have said something quietly to Raffy - but weirdly, Ryder's direct course of action seemed to pay dividends.

Spoiler

TY: The more I hang out with her, the harder it is to be myself. It's not like with you, where it's chilled.

TY: You are such a good mate!

Combined with Ty's otherwise-inexplicable willingness to be known henceforth as 'T-Bomb', it's difficult to see how Ryder isn't reading more into this, really. If anyone seems to be a little bit suspicious it's Raffy, I'd say, although she's certainly not enunciating it. I feel like things are building slowly but surely; I just wish we'd get a bit more sustained time with Ty and Ryder to help it develop.

Elsewhere - poor old Murray, always getting duped into facilitating the regular characters' intrigue. He's got a wife and kids to get home to, don't you know? The Mangrove River lot were typically cardboard-cutout, with the obligatory contingent of yobbish bikie hoons, and the barman agreeing to help only because they'd kidnapped a little girl. Well, yes, we all abhor the kidnapping of children, but what about the children's lives that are ruined through - for example - getting their parents hooked on drugs? Or for that matter, being recruited to sell drugs? And pushing Willow's dementia-suffering dad down the stairs was pretty much the lowest of the low, too. Guess all that stuff is par for the course down Mangrove way, though.

[H&Alover]

I found the wedding planning quite hilarious, it's good for Maggie to have something to focus on, but even she realised Ziggy was being far too compliant and saying yes to everything Maggie suggested, even brought it up as it all being so not Ziggy. Maggie's going over the top idea didn't work, pink doves already, but Ben's straight talking to her did.  I get he's a man so wouldn't normally be that phased his and Maggie's ideas were hijacked by Diana - first mention of her for a while btw - is she coming - but not getting what they planned did linger in the mind, hence their 2nd wedding on the beach.  Sweet that Ziggy was going with Maggie's ideas to make her happy but Ben pointed out that whatever she wanted would make Maggie happy, well within reason and expense I imagine. They now all work together, expect a few arguments along the way, wouldn't be a proper wedding else.  Actually the idea of Brody riding a horse down the aisle does have a certain appeal, what would Justin , Mason & Tori be dressed as?  Coco did look kind of panicked Ziggy was going to say someone else's name for bridesmaid.

So John & Maz have decided they can now trust Raffy & Ty enough to leave them alone, if only they knew.  Raffy is at John & Maz's because she wants to be and she does now have an added incentive.  Raffy is  sensible and wouldn't betray J&M's trust, well not anymore than her & Ty already have.  Given Ty is her first proper boyfriend I can understand her coming on too strong, Ryder was the same with Coco, she was as unsure as Ty is as to how to behave in that situation.  Coco chickened out on telling Raffy to back off and told Ryder to do it and although he's normally a foot in his mouth guy, he did get Raffy to see her mistake without upsetting her (and it wasn't in front of everyone he took her to one side). 

 

if it's going where I think it's going, quite brave for TPTB to have such young characters involved, of course seeing as Ty is underage, nothing can happen anymore than it could in a boy/girl relationship

 

I see the Yabby Creek cops haven't learnt anything from Kat tricking Murray and  his mate when she sent them off on a fools errand to be able to release Robbo.  People accessing things they shouldn't always manage to get the info printed out/transferred onto a memory stick just in time. Even if Hazel & her kin weren't local there still would have been history on them, so surprising no mention of Ebony, does she have a different surname, been away from her family so long she didn't show on the cops radar? 

Maybe just me but the barman reminded me of Ash.  The place seemed to be the haunt of both River Boys and the type that did work for Hazel. It did avoid the usual cliché of it going quiet when Colby & Justin walked in. He was hostile at first but once he learnt a kid had been kidnapped by Hazel's crew he was on Justin & Colby's side, the River Boys do have some scruples and rules, hurting women and involving children are two of them.  They aren't angels and yes they are involved in drugs but The River Boys didn't hurt Willow's dad that was Boyd to get back at her.  Must have been very strange for Colby being back at his old bar, then Justin finding they were sitting at Colby's old table which still had his, Dean, Jay and Willow's initials carved in it.  Although The River Boys got Hazel's address out of the Big Boy, why did they let him  ring her to warn her? 

 

[D.B]

Ryder and Ty continue to be great together, the banter is very enjoyable to watch. While Raffy did seem to be a bit full on with Ty, I do see why, this is her first relationship, she wouldn't want anything to go wrong, so I will let her go on this one. Yeah, John and Marilyn aren't really the most observant here, thinking that their plan worked when it clearly hasn't. 

The wedding stuff was cute and funny, but I wasn't really sure what to make of Ziggy saying yes with everything Maggie says. I felt it was all a bit awkward, though  it was nice to see her wanting Maggie to be happy and I did enjoy the idea of harps and horse riding. It was surprising that Ben was the one to solve it, but it was nice to see him telling Ziggy to do what she wants. I also liked how she picked Coco as a bridesmaid, though I felt like there wasn't really any other choice other than Olivia, and..well, we shouldn't be going down that road.!

I felt it was good that Colby is back doing some police work again, even though he's not wearing the uniform, though I'll agree with you Red, he's really pushing his luck. Poor Murray, a great guy, in my opinion, but very easily tricked. Especially since all the police files led to nothing. I felt it was good showing how people in places like Mangrove look at the law. They share Heath and Dean's hate for cops and yet they do have a sense of morals as we saw when the barman decided to help Colby and Justin he finds out what happened to Ava and the way the locals backed them up against Hazel's gang. Even people in places like this would know that kidnapping children is definitely crossing a line. They may have no respect for the law, but they do know what's right. Looks like the race against time to find Hazel is on for Colby and Justin. 

Side note: did anyone else for a second think it was Ash behind the bar when Colby and Justin stepped in or was it just me?

[Red Ranger 1]

So, Justin and Colby ending up chasing their tails, which is more than the police are chasing.They didn't really achieve anything except losing Hazel one bolt hole.(I'm guessing not at the same motel where Ebony's staying.)Hazel's taunting phone call didn't make much sense: In order to know exactly when Justin and Colby pick up the note, she must have been within sight of them, which suggested she was simply sitting in the motel car park.I expected her to go roaring out of there leaving them coughing in her wake, but instead Justin just goes "She's gone" (no, Justin, she hasn't gone, she's just put the phone down!) and neither he nor Colby nor McCarthy think to actually look for her afterwards when she's probably still close by.Meanwhile, it's great to see Robbo and Ebony playing chicken and seeing who'll blink first, as they pretend to be interested in each other while not-so-secretly being enemies.The scene on the beach with them both subtextedly daring the other to pull out of the meeting at Salt was especially good.But it seems Hazel's going to spoil Ebony's fun by going all "Just shoot them, man!" It's hard to tell whether her reaction to the poison was her thinking it's going too far or her just thinking it's a bit crude and dull.

Ryder standing up Ty was even more annoying than Jasmine blowing off Mason, although at least he realised (with a bit of prompting from Roo) that he was out of line and apologised, and even got Raffy involved when she was in danger of becoming the third wheel.John and Marilyn's stance makes less sense by the episode: They don't seem to want Raffy and Ty together but then they pull sympathetic faces that it's not going well?

[atrus]

I must admit I was nodding along with sympathy as Hazel delivered her Surrounded By Incompetents speech in the car today. A half-decent villain would have finished the job ages ago, yet Ebony seems content to hang around indefinitely playing mind games - which, while admittedly appealing to watch during her will-they-won't-they-stab-each-other scenes with Robbo, doesn't seem like it's advancing the Eastons' position in the slightest. Happily, Hazel has now handed Ebony a couple of vials which literally bear the words "WARNING: POISON", like something out of a Shakespearean stage direction - and if that isn't endgame, I don't know what is. Then again, Ebony's next move is to clunkily acknowledge that the POISON will kill Colby and Robbo, immediately before asking Hazel what effect it will have, only to be told again that it will kill them - so with that kind of attention span, perhaps it's best that Hazel doesn't buy in the celebratory champagne quite yet.

Ryder was thoughtless leaving Ty hanging at the school, although Ty's reaction seemed almost akin to Raffy's reaction every time Ty's opted out of spending time with her lately. Anyway, Ryder did the right thing and apologised (with some prompting) and Ty was quick to forgive, so all's well for now. But Marilyn annoyed me, with her continually cryptic statements to Raffy about what the relaxation of the rules around her and Ty being alone together actually means, if not that they can't actually be alone together. If she were at all consistent, her response really ought to have been "quite right too that Ty's giving you the brush-off" rather than platitudes and sympathetic hugs all round. 

[D.B]

18 hours ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

I expected her to go roaring out of there leaving them coughing in her wake, but instead Justin just goes "She's gone" (no, Justin, she hasn't gone, she's just put the phone down!) and neither he nor Colby nor McCarthy think to actually look for her afterwards when she's probably still close by.

Well, to be fair, none of them would have suspected that's she would be right there, the most reasonable suspicion would be that she would be miles away.  I'll give her this, she's very clever.

Well, sadly all of Justin and Colby's efforts were for nothing, though I rolled my eyes when McCarthy said he made the case worse, when it was going nowhere in the first place! All Colby and Justin were doing was what the police should have been doing in the first place! Colby again continues to regain my respect, when he told Justin that he had no illusions about what might have happened afterwards, he knew he could get into trouble, but he still wanted to do the right thing, and when McCarthy mentioned him getting the files, Colby defended Murray, looking after his friend even when he lost his job. Honestly, despite his past and all that, Colby has proven himself, to me, to be a good cop and it really angers me to see him fired for basically, again, doing what the police should be doing when others like Angelo and Kat have gotten off for doing worse. 

In fairness, I can see why Hazel is frustrated, any villain with the tiniest bit of sense would have done the job and got out quickly before any suspicion fell on them, which Ebony, for some strange reason, doesn't seem to get. Though like the others above, I did enjoy her scenes with Robbo with each of them trying to catch the other out. They both seem naturals at it, which I'll presume is Robbo's federal skiills coming back to him. Ebony is subtle, but I feel like she is too subtle, as in too subtle to do anything! But now, after a lot of waiting, it appeared that finally the vengeance storyline is getting serious with Hazel giving Ebony the poison. I was really interested in her reaction to it. She seemed shocked by it, but it's hard to tell if it means that she's having doubts or that because she's afraid she's losing her control she had at the start. 

I was very disappointed in Ryder last night, abandoning Ty at the school, I expected better from him, but at least he realised that he was in the wrong and apologised. Try's reaction was completely understandable, though I'm glad he forgave him, their friendship is one of the best things on the show right now. But Marilyn and John were extremely confusing today; I thought they didn't know about the relationship, but when they talked to Raffy and Ty, they were acting like they knew exactly what's was happening?? But at least Ryder and Coco were still able to act normally around each other and how Roo was able to set Ryder straight. But I do feel a bit sorry for Raffy. I don't find her annoying, I just find that she's just nervous and that she doesn't want anything to go wrong.