2018 Season - UK Episode Discussion

[H&Alover]

Thanks for the reminders Red. 

I was thinking the same thing about Coco, must always be tough for the son/daughter of the Principal, there is that unspoken expectation they are expected to do well in their studies because of who they are.  She is pushing herself way too hard and instead of taking Ben & Maggie's suggestion she take a break and come back to it refreshed she takes her books with her.  Raffy has got her mo-jo back though. Unless Maggie got the OK from the board wouldn't it be a tad unethical for her to tutor Coco?  Anyway, Ryder was being a tad clingy, but honestly Coco would it really have hurt you to ring/text Ryder to say what you were going to be doing that day and you'd contact him later, or answer one call, tell him you'd see him later and turn your phone off.  Granted she didn't know he planning something special, but once again a call to say she wouldn't be able to make out would have been the decent thing to do. One comment from her 'Oh it's only Ryder' Yes Ryder - your boyfriend, you dork!!!!  I did like Ryder's chat with Grumps asking him to vacate the house and stressing he did know the house rules.  I'm glad Raffy was there for him and Coco deserved both of those barrels Raffy gave her.

While it wouldn't have been appropriate for Tori to tell Raffy the family news in front of John she could have told her after they walked away.  Unless and I'm being generous maybe Tori didn't want to load any more drama on Raffy's shoulders.  The danger of the stranger you meet in the dark - sorry!   Tori may well be in a position to ask the potential dad to get blood tests etc done to ensure he's healthy, but what about any hidden issue he may not be aware of and what about  mental health issues?  The pool of single blokes in the bay isn't that big and you thought of the same three blokes I did Red, forgot about Hunter, but I think Leah might baulk at that,Tori may be a friend but that would be taking it too far!

Typically just as Robbo decides to lay down ground rules for him & Jasmine so they can still 'see' each other she decides she does fancy him!  Can he 'ban' her from the gym? I thought the same Red, we're certainly on the same wave length at the moment, I thought the fact Ryan Shaw was Robbo's real name was more or less general knowledge as well as his being an ex under cover cop, heck Irene mentioned it to Jasmine with regards hiding his feelings. That deal went through incredibly quickly, he was only thinking about it yesterday now it's all done and dusted with no solicitors or anything!  

 

[Slade]

So after all that Hunter leaves uni anyway.  So that's even more of a reason to be annoyed with him although I guess the fact that there wasn't a placement for him and as he mentioned who would want to mentor him after what happened, contributed to him dropping out.  Regardless he's ruined Christina's career.  Did he ever really care about her?  She's probably not going to be able to get another job in teaching and her career prospects are going to be fairly limited as she's always going to have to explain why she was fired and will probably struggle to get references.

 

Not really too fussed about Mason/Dempsey but I found it funny that (a) Brody said the relationship was moving at breakneck speed given he married a girl he was dating for a few months and (b) Jasmine of all people was giving relationship advice.  I was glad that he had a go at Brody/Tori/Justin when they were talking about him even thought Justine gave fairly good advice.

 

Still on the subject of Jasmine, she is seriously getting on my nerves.  She flirts with Robbo and whether intentional/unintentional she leads him on then when he puts himself out there she rejects him.  She doesn't appear to have the presence of mind to steer clear of him and even goes back to being touchy feeling, hugging him so is it any wonder that he kissed her.  Then she acts like he was out of order.  Even when Irene suggested spending less time with her she was against it because she's too selfish to care about his feelings but now she likes him just so happens as he quite correctly decides not to spend any time with her.

 

Torn between the whole Ryder/Coco thing.  I stated many times that I think Coco is a bad friend.  I don't think she's a particularly good girlfriend either and obviously cares less about Ryder than he does about her.  On the other hand Ryder was just so annoying.  The way he was harping on about her to Ben (Who I actually thought showed incredible patience considering).  The numerous text messages he sent to her - Again I know he's young but at some point he should be thinking if she's not responding then perhaps he should just leave it.  And the way he was acting when Raffy came round to his and he realised that Coco was a no show.  He was acting like his world was about to end and is far too dependent on her which I don't think is healthy.  I can sort of empathise with him because I imagine some of us have been there.  There was a bright side though.  Raffy getting out of shape.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it was absolutely wonderful when she laid into Coco.  I couldn't stop smiling through that whole scene.  I am left wondering though if this was really just about Ryder or residual resentment about Coco not being a good friend to her.

 

Feels like Tori wants to have a baby to compensate for not having a man.

[Razabaza]

Does John really expect there to be no sweat in a gym?

Dempsey's pretty. She looks like Elena Paparizou who won the Eurovision for Greece in 2005.

 

[Red Ranger 1]

Alf's episode count this week:Five, for the second week running.

Well, my sympathy for Coco completely dissipated here.As Slade said, she's a terrible friend and a terrible girlfriend, yet she seems convinced that she's done no wrong and that anyone that criticises her is horrible.And for the first time in a while, I found myself not liking Ryder that much.Being needy and clingy is one thing, but now he's so desperate to hang on to Coco that he'll let her treat him and Raffy badly rather than be honest with her.Ben and Maggie didn't do a much better job:They needed to tell Coco that concentrating on your schoolwork is no excuse for being rude to people rather than playing all softly softly.And my frustration at Marilyn increases:It's a shame, because I really liked her friendship with Raffy when it started, but since they turned her back into a child snatcher, it just feels like she's taking scenes that should belong to other people. You even had Brody in the same room, yet no-one seemed to remember they're related. At the risk of looking for problems, it might have helped if Marilyn had actually stuck around to see what happened between Raffy, Coco and Ryder rather than flouncing off acting like she'd solved everything.

After seeing the promo, I was all ready to criticise Ziggy for being immature again, but actually Brody seemed to have a pole stuck up his backside all episode.There was no need for him to lay into Dean in Salt the way he did, and I'm not even sure what he thinks Dean "put Justin through": Does he think Dean should have not dated Willow because Justin still liked her?(Justin treated Dean worse than vice versa, what with sacking him for personal reasons!)Then Brody twice cancelled plans on her before expecting her to be ready when he was.I kind of wished Colby stuck up for Dean a bit more rather than making obtuse comments about getting into trouble.It was Ziggy that started the drinking anyway.

[atrus]

Caught up again.

Loved the stuff with Ty coming out to Jodi and that helping to cement their relationship; but I was very disappointed to see him leave. While of course I was happy for Ty the character being reunited with his mum, I feel like the write-out was such a missed opportunity in so many respects that I couldn't bring myself to feel elated about it. The departure of another gay male character having had no reciprocal romantic interest feels very passé; personally I'd like to see both Ty and Jodi back ASAP, making a home together in the Bay. It feels like there's a lot of storytelling they could do with both of them. And while I loved Ty and Raffy's emotional goodbye, where on earth was the goodbye with Ryder? What happened between them definitely warranted something – anything – even if just a heartfelt hug rather than a full-blown D&M. But instead it had to be all about the heterosexual angst again, and all we got was Ty walking away from him and Coco on the beach, without even a word. Really very underwhelming, but I'll console myself with the sad look on Ryder's face and the later revelation that he's been pining away since Ty left. I don't care what the script says: they're meant for each other and, unlike Coco, when Ryder sends Ty seventeen texts in a row, he actually appreciates it!

What bearing does Ty's departure have on his arc? Well, let's be clear that it doesn't invalidate it - there was lots of excellent material and I'd always rather they did this stuff briefly than not at all. Still, there was so much potential for more  – and with the reversion to the travails of the regular teen trio it did feel somewhat like Ty had been too quickly forgotten, and that banality had resumed this week. For a start, we fell back on the least edifying of all stock teen storylines  – study addiction. Or at least, that feels like where it's going with Coco. It also feels like history's repeating itself as regards her and Ryder. Raffy came on very strong and probably overstepped considering it's not her relationship and that it was just one missed date (this time round), but she was essentially right; Coco has already fallen back into old, bad habits of just treating Ryder like dirt when it suits her, and it isn't fair. Seems that's now set to extend to treating Raffy like dirt too. Sure, Raffy could have put her point more diplomatically to Coco rather than just bawling at her; but equally, Raffy's now seeing it through the prism of how she felt about Ty (which was clearly orders of magnitude more than Coco feels for Ryder) and how she'd never have taken him for granted; and Coco really needs to learn to accept criticism rather than just falling into default denial mode. But more than that, after all they've been through together lately, it just feels wrong for that Coco/Raffy friendship to fall apart as easily as the promo is implying. It also feels like they're potentially setting us up for a love triangle thing, which for Raffy's part feels too soon after Ty. Likewise, another foster kid for the Palmers also feels too soon after Ty; John was right to knock that one on the head for the time being, I think, even if he could have been about a thousand times less belligerent and combative about it.

Another spin of the Summer Bay relationships carousel and, oh: Jasmine and Robbo. Give me strength: there's something about how every scene in this story has been written which gets right under my skin - largely because (a) they've become bantering besties ridiculously quickly, and (b) everyone involved is so painfully self-aware and articulate about their 'feelings' that you could be forgiven for thinking they're all jobbing marriage guidance counsellors between their (interminable) gym workouts. Even Lynne McGranger's valiant efforts to bring the material back down to earth with Irene's obligatory attempts to get New Girlie to see what's supposedly staring her in the face (but has totally passed me by) couldn't help me escape the feeling that the show was trying too hard with this one.

Hunter and Christina: I suppose I should have guessed that puritan Leah would be proven right about Christina, even though I didn't want her to be as she's been insufferably smug about the whole thing. I'd actually decided this was a more complex set-up, but no - Christina had been married all along, and moreover was quite willing to throw Hunter on the coals to save her own skin. I get that Hunter went along with things, and that he's an adult and must shoulder a fair proportion of the blame for things turning sour. But she also lied to him about her marriage, and then tried to manipulate him into resuming the relationship in order to stop him causing problems by trying to switch tutors, and falsely accused him of stalking and harassing her; and as such I think anyone in his shoes would have the right to take action. I wasn't necessarily of the view that she'd abused her position simply by sleeping with him; but after everything that happened subsequently, I was absolutely clear that she had. Although admittedly I did feel less sympathy the moment Hunter decided to flounce out of uni just because, having left a trail of chaos in his wake. And I don't think Christina was all bad either; I think she just made a series of shockingly poor life choices, and is now reaping the consequences.

Brody and Ziggy: Glad they moved into their own place, as living with the olds was never going to be a healthy bet long-term - although it seems the move hasn't stopped them arguing between themselves. We'd just settled back into Colby and Dean giving each other lingering, gooey eyes again after the latter's break-up with Willow, when suddenly Dean and Ziggy become the next pair of besties (and, I assume, soon to be more, because they had three scenes alone together in quick succession) as she rails against Brody being a supposedly overbearing husband. I'm not sure where I fall on the who's-right-and-who's-wrong of all that and I like both Brody and Ziggy, but suffice it to say they seem to be discovering they have rather diifferent outlooks on life. Well, if you must insist on a shotgun wedding... I want them to succeed as a couple, I really do - but I'm afraid everything about this set-up is screaming 'doomed' for me right now.

Astonis: wow, the days on that fridge chart sure clocked up quickly. I just think that if you're going to have a 100-day chart, don't insult viewers' intelligence by skipping multiple weeks overnight. I mean, if we must rush, then have a 50-day chart. But there's no reason I can see that we need to barrel through Maggie's recovery, particularly given the successful execution of the slow-burning cancer story so far. And no reason she can't have other, lighter storylines while all that is still ongoing.

Willow: and I guess Gala Bingo can finally breathe a sigh of relief as the gambling addiction storyline appears to be coming to an end. (I only just realised the potential conflict, possibly because of the sheer number of times I've heard 'koala in a tree, number three' over the last 48 hours' 15-episode epic catch-up.) I do feel like she's probably back in a good place with Justin, although she's wise not to be wanting to live with him straight away, I think - and it's also good that she and Dean are getting the chance to make amends with the townsfolk now their crimes are out in the open.

Mason: well, I was wondering at the time what the point of Dempsey was (is Dempsey really a girl's first name? It seems like a push even by H&A standards), given she disappeared as quickly as she arrived - and now we know why. I have to say I think it's the most interesting storyline Mason's had in a while. Hopefully they can make the pregnancy/co-parenting work, although I'm not so sure about Dempsey's sudden keenness to embark on a romantic relationship with Mason - you really can't force that kind of thing, and it's not like the days when getting someone pregnant meant you were expected to walk them up the aisle. Is there a reason they seem to be juxtaposing this and the Tori storyline a lot, other than for thematic resonance? I wondered if there might be a chance Dempsey decided she didn't want the baby, and Tori offered to raise it as her own or something?

[Red Ranger 1]

Okay, well, Coco continues to be a self-absorbed brat.And Ryder isn't coming across much better.Maybe she should actually try being a nice person instead of just pretending to stay in Maggie's good books.Raffy's always been a better friend to Coco than vice versa, but we're now at the point where I'm wondering why Raffy would even want to be friends with her.To give Coco a small amount of credit, it might be easier for her to wake up to herself if she didn't have Ryder feeding her ego:She almost accepted she was wrong to stand him up last episode but he insisted on exonerating her just because it was easier than admitting the truth.But while I think Ryder completely deserved that serve from Raffy, I hope the show isn't going to go down the route of making out this is all Ryder's fault and Coco's only being horrible to Raffy because he's portraying her in a bad light, because she really should give Raffy a fair hearing and trust her rather than calling her a liar because she can't handle the truth.

I think by this point the show must have realised how homerotic Colby and Dean are and just decided to run with it, because it's pretty much the only way their scenes make sense.(Then again, this is nothing new on a show which tends to feature good-looking guys with a tendency to wear hardly any clothes having close friendships.)Dean's hurt that Colby automatically thinks the worst of him was believable but good play to Ziggy for defending him and to Justin for accepting it and making peace.I continue to be more on Ziggy's side than Brody.I agree that Ziggy bottling things up and then blurting them out in a drunken rant wasn't the best way to handle things, but Brody's way of dealing is to pretend she didn't say anything and then stomp off in a sulk when she tries to discuss it.

ETA: Oh, and to answer atrus' query about whether Dempsey is an actual girls name, apparently so.

[c120701]

I wonder if the reason Maggie’s 100 day chart fills so quickly is due to Channel 7’s erratic scheduling? It might be a lot longer for Australian viewers than it’s been for us.

On 21/09/2018 at 00:18, Red Ranger 1 said:

Nice touch that John didn't know Robbo's real name...and it's suddenly dawned on me that Robbo mentioned his time in the Feds to John yesterday.Is that meant to be common knowledge now?

There was a scene (I think with Alf) outside the bait shop where Robbo said he owed them all an explanation or words along those lines, I think asking Alf to get everyone together (i.e. the legacy group), it was all down to Jasmine telling him that the town had been good to her and to let them in. We didn’t see the scene, which I thought was a shame, but we’re now seeing by the comments who was there.

[Red Ranger 1]

18 hours ago, c120701 said:

I wonder if the reason Maggie’s 100 day chart fills so quickly is due to Channel 7’s erratic scheduling? It might be a lot longer for Australian viewers than it’s been for us.

Hang on, let me check: It was eight days in Episode 6931, shown on 6th August in Australia, and had jumped to forty-three days by Episode 6941, shown on 22nd August.So only two days more for them than it was for us and definitely not enough to justify the missing three weeks or so! (Thanks for your other point, I must admit I can't remember that scene at all!)

So, today.I was reasonably impressed with both Brody and Ziggy, and hope the show continues to treat them with respect.The episode reinstated my opinion before they got married:They have rushed into it, and they're feeling the consequences of that now, but they love each other enough to keep at it.There were faults on both sides but they need to keep the lines of communication open and not just go along with what the other person wanted.Ben did a good job of advising them, now if only he could have similar words with his other daughter rather than just letting her insist everything is someone else's fault...

I guess Willow and Jasmine's row was kind of organic, since Jasmine would be overprotective of Robbo and Willow would be defensive about it, although of course the real reason is to cause tension now Irene's invited Willow to move in with them.It's interesting that, having messed around with Olivia's age and history in order to have a teenage girl living with Irene, the show's now willing to bite the bullet and have a couple of young adult characters living with her.Could be interesting to see how it works out.I keep forgetting that Jasmine was close to Leah before moving in with Irene, I hope we see more of them together.

And more guff about how unlucky Hunter is, after he's got away with nearly killing four people in an arson attack, leaving another person for dead during a robbery, indirectly causing one person to end up in a coma and another to end up in a shallow grave during another robbery, and stabbing someone.He wants to go to Vietnam?Good, I'll buy the ticket for him.

[Razabaza]

Does anybody think Mason looks like Keanu Reeves?

[D.B]

Well, to start off, I am absolutely appalled with Coco's behaviour. She's been rather tolerable lately and I get that at the start she felt guilty about letting Maggie down with her grades, but that gives her no right to just lay into Raffy just for telling her some harsh truths, and then became so two-faced towards Raffy just to get her parents off her back that any possible sympathy I would have before has slipped away. Raffy took a lot of guts to apologise afterwards and she got horrible treatment. And I am very disappointed in Ryder just sucking up to Coco and letting her act like an absolute brat. Raffy deserves so much better than the pair of them as friends, makes me miss Ty.

Meanwhile, while I haven't completely forgiven Dean yet, I must admit he is making a real effort to give back to the community and to redeem himself. I'm glad he's giving the apprenticeship with Justin a shot, and I enjoy his and Ziggy's friendship, as well as the scenes with Colby, whom Dean can feel like he can truly express how he feels to only him. Brody has been acting rather like a pain, I would appreciate him not expecting the worse of Dean every time (though I can see why he would), and him not going off in a huff instead of properly talking about the issues with Ziggy.  I didn't like that Brody and Ziggy had the arguement, but it is realistic: While they both really do love each other, they did kind of rush into it, and mainly for the wrong reasons. But I'm glad that they're making a real effort to fix it. Ben was right: Compromise is the key. Speaking of compromise, I'm glad Mason and Dempsey came up with the agreement to trying out the whole couple thing, but not to rush anything, because that would be the best thing for the baby. 

I personally think Robbo taking over the gym is a very good idea, it shows him taking the first step in starting a new good life, and leaving the horrors of the past behind him. I'll admit, I jumped up in excitement at the kiss. But I guess that right now, it's best that Robbo and Jasmine take some space to figure out what they want. And I really like that Jasmine is actually going to try and give him some space and that Robbo was honest with her instead of leading up to something neither were ready for. 

I'm glad that Justin and Willow got back together, because I have always enjoyed these two together, their scenes really feel organic. And I have a lot of respect for Willow in trying to stand on her own feet without any support, that's the main key to become a better person, though I guess it proved to be harder than she expected. While I'm still disappointed that her and Jasmine still can't be in a scene without the two arguing, but it did make sense, since Jasmine will want to look after Robbo and Willow is tired of everyone just assuming the worst of her (though again, just like Brody and Dean, the suspicion is understandable). Still, Willow really is making a good effort to be better, Jasmine should have known better than just assume Willow is going to screw up again. Irene offering a room for Willow is surprising, and I guess, given the situation with Jasmine, it could go either way. But hopefully they can sort it out. 

Now, after talking about the people who is actually making an effort to change but still gets suspicion and negative treatment, let's talk about the exact opposite, let's talk about Hunter. After Christina loses her job, he decides to just drop out, not caring about the chaos he left and all the effort and support that was made to get him there and keep him there. And yet Leah keeps on acting like he's the victim. Her going "Aw, poor Hunter, he's lost everything," and Hunter going like "I'm just not going to win," just made me grind my teeth: Hunter has done some really terrible stuff, and he gets off scot-free while leaving a number of victims as a result of his actions, short-term and long-term (Marilyn, Denny, Trystan Powell, Hannah, Oscar and many others, while Matt, Billie and Zac were nearly killed by him), so forgive me if I'm not entirely sympathetic about his plight. Now, on the subject of him going to Vietnam, while I am happy we're getting a mention of how Zac, Evie and Matt are doing over there, and the fact that he is leaving, I'm not so sure about him going to Vietnam. Now, the problem isn't that he's not their blood, because as H&A thought us many times before there's more to family than blood, the problem is that Hunter has done all that terrible stuff, and to me hasn't really shown a willingness to redeem himself or face consequences, and he goes off to live happily with the family his actions have hurt the most (whom, I have no doubt, probably hasn't learned about his involvement in Denny's death)? I'm sorry, but I can't just accept that.