2018 Season - UK Episode Discussion

[Red Ranger 1]

The only thing I can say in Justin's defence...well, actually, I can say a lot in his defence although I'm struggling to find anything applicable to the situation that doesn't sound like damning with faint praise.Okay, here's something: He doesn't mean Willow any harm.But he's done the wrong thing and he needs to realise that instead of just seeing what he wants to see.I fully understand him being annoyed at Willow constantly putting Dean first and if he'd just asked her to get her priorities sorted, fair enough.But issuing a blanket ban is wrong, and the fact that Willow felt she wasn't allowed to go to a mutual friend's wedding shows that this isn't something they've agreed together, it's a diktat that she feels obliged to stick to.I don't really buy the idea that Willow's somehow lost without Dean in her life or vice versa, since they seemingly hadn't seen each other for months at least before he turned up in the Bay.But constantly having to go out of her way to avoid him when it's not remotely practical is obviously making her stressed.Incidentally, hadn't Dean already agreed to be Colby's best man?

What was with Justin saying he was going to John and Marilyn's to see Raffy? I know John said they'd keep an eye on her while he was away, but surely that didn't involve her actually moving back in there, even though Tori and Mason, who were meant to be the ones looking after her anyway, were still around? (I guess you could rationalise it as them being the ones keeping an eye on her while everyone else was busy.In which case, why was John at the Diner bugging Alf and Ben?)

I can't say I was particularly interested in Robbo and Jasmine saying they love each other.Has it been mentioned how much older than her he looks?

[H&Alover]

I think Justin's main problem was Willow having slept with Dean not long after she split with him and it didn't help Dean kept rubbing it in Justin's face.  I felt it was  a case of Willow always trying to help Dean even if he didn't actively  search her out.  Her sorting his problems in the past were as she has finally admitted took her mind of her own problems which compared to Dean's weren't that bad.  True she'd lost her mum and her dad was in a home, but it seemed they had a good relationship. Did Justin intend it as a blanket ban or was that how Willow took it to mean? Willow does seem lost now as Dean seems to got his life sorted without her help.  I know they hadn't seen each other for a while until he came to the bay, but their friendship was an old one, just took up where they left off. Justin hasn't been in that position so wouldn't understand it.  Thankfully Brody realised her conflict was bad for her still being in the early days of recovery and luckily Justin found her in time though their talk and her asking about their future has thrown into questioning just what that is.  Good, although she still didn't agree with what she did, that Ziggy has offered to be there for Willow. 

Colby was unaware of where Dean's money came from and intriguing he told SG considering she didn't like him when they first met.  I still think Dean leaving all that money in his van is a bad idea with  their bad habit people have of leaving their doors  unlocked!  Obviously he can't bank it but wouldn't it be safer at Colby's place?  It is occupied by two cops and an ex Fed.  Yes Colby had already asked Dean to be his best man but all SG said to Willow was he'd be there. 

I'm feeling for Maggie, her simple idea of a coffee party at the farm has escalated and it's been taken out her hands and now out of her control with the world and its wife throwing their ideas in.  She really looked bamboozled at Salt.  Glad she finally put her foot down, Leah did it again by deciding it was a good idea to plaster her picture all over town without asking her first. She may be the latest person to have beaten cancer but there was also Irene and Marilyn before her so she was right to say it wasn't all about her.

Robbo has had a tough life, but he's in his 30's and she's in her 20's.  Loved the look on SG and Colby's faces when Robbo and Jasmine came crashing through the door and made straight for the bedroom.   Irene was once again swinging from encouraging Jasmine to not having anything to do with Robbo back to being chuffed when he told her he loved her.

I can't keep up with the Raffy and the Marilyn and John situation, even allowing for the fact Justin was away with Willow Mason and Tori would have been at the house.

[Red Ranger 1]

I meant that Colby asked Dean to be best man when they first got engaged.

Well, Justin’s officially withdrawn his ban on Willow spending time with Dean. He had no right to ban her in the first place of course but at least he’s realised that. Of course, it turns out that’s not the problem: It’s not so much Dean himself that Willow misses (although avoiding him all the time has been pretty stressful), it’s the fact that if she’s not sorting him out then she doesn’t have much else. Justin attempting to give the stock “You’ve got me” response backfired as Willow queried what exactly that means. Does being with him actually give her a purpose in life? Answers on a postcard… Ziggy was extremely bratty to the point of being a bully but at least she apologised after getting a well-deserved lecture from Brody.

Maggie was another one that waited until she hit breaking point before revealing how she really felt. I’m going to defend Leah a bit here; she (and Ziggy) did push the point a bit too much in the end, but she asked several times if Maggie was okay with what they were doing and Maggie said she was. Ben also seemed to notice the shocked look on her face a few times but let himself get fobbed off. Marilyn was very irritating, in full-on overgrown infant mode with the way she plastered the pier with posters and smugly pushed Leah into doing the vlog, so I’m disappointed that she missed out on the meltdown. Still Maggie seems to have reached a compromise with her realisation that she’s not the only cancer survivor around. It’s the advantage of living on a cancer cluster!

As for Raffy…I supported her fully the last couple of weeks but it went on long enough for her to just be a brat. Brody messed up big time and did the wrong thing, but he recognised that and apologised and tried his best to make up for it, and her response was to carry on kicking him when he was down because he was a convenient target for her anger. So I’m glad she realised that and apologised. Meanwhile, Ryder spent a good chunk of the episode being a douche, blaming the adults who’d been bending over backwards to help him for his screw-ups, using Raffy as an excuse for letting Raffy down (which makes as much sense as it sounds) and deciding that because he can’t get his own way he’s going to abandon Raffy completely instead of going back into Year 11 so he can at least go to school with her and support her a bit. But everything fell into place for him at the last minute so…yay? I’m being harsh: It was Justin and Ryder who managed to get through to Raffy here. I’m guessing she’s meant to be dividing her time between the Morgans and the Palmers, which it’s hard not to feel is for John and Marilyn’s benefit rather than because it actually helps Raffy, but I guess it’s a good excuse for leaving her out of an episode!

Part of me really wanted Mason to be the one to help Raffy (we did get a rare and precious scene between them but sadly it didn’t amount to much) but I can’t blame him for having a life and problems of his own and leaving other people to help her. I was disappointed not to see him at breakfast though, and apparently his family didn’t give him a thought either since they let him oversleep!

[H&Alover]

Oh, must have forget that, sounded like the first time he'd asked him.

Usual stock answer isn't it "You've got me".  Although Justin and by extension the rest of the Morgan clan have had their problems and Willow has been there for them, not quite the same as they have had each other whereas Dean only had her, now he doesn't need her as much.  Perhaps Willow is one of those people who have to have someone they can help.  From Dean's side it's good to see he can and did sort things for himself.

Justin still can't think what he should do long term about him and Willow, he hasn't been that lucky with the ladies so far.  His last and first finance was Phoebe and that didn't end well so perhaps he's wary.  His next serious lady was Scarlett and that didn't end well either.  Brody knew right away Ziggy was the one did he, as in from when he helped her hide from her dad, well an interesting start.

Ziggy was kind of sulky over Brody going to look for Willow until he explained carefully how it could end up and then pitched in looking for her. 

I was going to mention the cancer cluster and that Maggie is the latest one to have had and survived.  Ziggy should have known her mum better, though Ben was equally to blame for not spotting she wasn't totally OK with it all.

Yes Raffy, her family have given her a lot of leeway, after all not easy being a teenage girl suddenly developing epilepsy, but Justin did right in puling her up on the fact she can't snapping at them all. Brody's gift was very thoughtful and will help if she should have a seizure at school.  I'm guessing the teachers will , if they haven't already, been made aware of her condition. I'm glad she saw sense and apologised to Brody.  Nice to see the lesser spotted Buddy again.  Where has Tori disappeared to does that explain why Raffy  was at John & Marilyn's again and wasn't she supposed to be Mason's study buddy? Justin wasn't  very understanding when he kept nagging him to speak to Raffy when he saw he was trying to study for his exam which he was sitting the next day!

The school board were leaving it to the last minute to give Ryder the answer he needed to know, Maggie had done all she could and all that last minute studying paid off.   He shouldn't have promised Raffy he'd be there for her without knowing if he would be, he dug a hole for himself there.  She would have had Coco but it was Ryder she was depending on, but they won't be sharing all the same classes anyway will they?   Still it all did get sorted in the end, with a lot of grovelling and apologising from Ryder, lovely to see them all walking to school together, though seeing her walk through the door she still looked very uncertain.  From what we saw her first day doesn't go that well, looks like she ends up battering the school bully - what's her name?

 

[Helena]

The bullies name is abbi

[Shortiepam1987]

Colby never asked Dean upon proposal. Dean just talked about needing to wear a suit. He wasn't officially asked until this week.

[Red Ranger 1]

Alf's episode count this week: Five!

Well, I can't say I'm particularly sorry that Raffy knocked seven bells out of Abbi although I guess the school couldn't really turn a blind eye.I cringed at Roo asking Raffy fairly complicated questions in class, although it turns out she did read the book but can't remember.(It was a nice touch that Abbi could answer the question, stopping her from being completely two-dimensional.)It was also nice to see Tori and Mason get some screen time with Raffy (from the way Marilyn was keeping tabs on the situation I was half-expecting her to be the one heading to the school) and months after it first came up we finally get confirmation that Raffy's been clued in on Tori's IVF plans!

It's easy to forget about Alf's brain tumour back in the mists of time: John had one as well, of course, although I think technically that wasn't cancerous.Irene did a decent showing of the video but I'd have liked to have seen Marilyn's attempt.Anyway, it's a nice way of personalising the fundraiser without having all the focus on Maggie.

[H&Alover]

Must admit I was cheering Raffy along too.  The pre epilepsy Raffy would have taken her down with words but she's lost that skill, poor Ryder got a backhander for trying to get Raffy off Abby.  Totally out of order for Abby to accuse Tori of saying she didn't have  a broken nose because she was Raffy's sister.  Anyone else having read that book a few years wouldn't have a problem with admitting they'd forgotten what it was about, but Raffy felt she couldn't own up to it.  With the problems she's having it makes you wonder if Raffy has gone back too soon or maybe should have had some tuition beforehand. Like most bullies Abby had to have her little entourage trotting behind her.  Although some allowances are/have been made for Raffy, it seems Maggie has no choice but to give her the suspension. We do see Raffy explode in spectacular fashion later in the week.  She was feeling sorry for herself when sitting with Tori but was at once concerned when Tori  began experiencing stomach  pains.

I'd forgotten about Alf's brain tumour, but Irene did a great video, obviously still affected about it. It was what Maggie wanted,, not for it to be all about her.  btw I thought she had stepped down from being principal.

From what I've read there are some surprising developments in the hunt for Bella story.

[Red Ranger 1]

In hindsight, it is tempting to ponder whether it might have been a good idea to let Raffy miss the start of school instead of convincing her to go, so there'd be time for her to get her medication sorted and be a bit less on edge.At the same time though, the longer they left it, the more chance there was of Raffy dropping out of school for good, so getting her back on the horse as quickly as possible does have merit.While it was well-intentioned, everyone constantly stressing that the medication might have made Raffy do it was probably a bad idea, since it resulted in her seeing the medication as a bad thing.At least things were sorted out swiftly, and I guess I should acknowledge Marilyn's role in that.Unfortunately, any credit she earned was completely negated by Marilyn swooping in and snatching Raffy back off the Morgans, blatantly blocking Tori from playing the female confidante role.I suspect this was at least partly motivated by "Olivia Deeble isn't rostered on for the next episode so we need to get Raffy out of the way", but it continues to make Marilyn seem selfish and creepy when a simple "She's with Ryder and Coco" would have done just as well.Maggie didn't really deserve the criticism she got, especially Irene making judgement comments on the basis of second hand gossip as if she's been possessed by Colleen.

Robbo went into bad boyfriend territory again by emotionally blackmailing Jasmine into looking up Tori's results...and the fact this seems like a plot device to avoid hiring a guest actor to play a doctor who isn't Tori and deliver the news just makes it more irritating.Anyway, by the end Robbo seems on the verge of a psychotic break as he starts guarding Tori's house.It was nice to see Mason in full-on sweet mode, putting his study aside to look after Tori and Raffy.

[Slade]

I was hoping Colby would have taken Neil up on his offer to give info on his sister in exchange for getting out of Chelsea's life.

 

Have to admit I've been really enjoying the whole Tori/Robbo/Jasmine pregnancy thing.  Jasmine's facial expressions when she found out Robbo didn't/wouldn't tell her about the way he supported Tori at the hospital were hilarious.  The cynic in me was wondering whether Robbo told Jasmine he loved her just so he could tap it.  I still really enjoy any scenes with Robbo and Tori.  I do admit that I thought today Robbo was way out of line getting Jasmine to check Tori's medical records and I felt a tiny bit sorry for her.  It was interesting seeing Robbo have an episode like that after he called Lance to tell him the good news about Tori's pregnancy.  It will also be interesting to see if his over-protectiveness starts to freak Tori out.

 

The way Ziggy was hanging around Dean I was starting to wonder if she realised she was married to Brody.

 

Willow's self pitying has been vomit inducing.  I really enjoyed Ziggy telling Willow Dean would be better off without her and Willow's gobsmacked reaction was wonderful.  Although I suppose Ziggy can't stay mad forever and I did think Brody made valid points defending her and convincing Ziggy to support her.

 

With regards to Raffy attacking Abbi, my only regret is that she didn't put her in hospital, at least then she wouldn't be able to milk playing the victim after the way she was bullying Raffy.

 

I've found both John and Marilyn especially pretty unbearable regarding Raffy and today was annoying the way Marilyn swooped Raffy away to have her all to herself.  I can't fault Maggie for suspending her.  And didn't like the way everybody seemed to almost gang up on Maggie as she was in an impossible position and she even did the same thing to her daughter when she had a fight with Jen.

 

I also thought Maggie has gone above and beyond with Ryder.  I have to admit I did find it funny when Alf gave the woman from the education department a piece of his mind but I think she made a lot of valid points and don't think Ryder should have been allowed to resit his exams.  I still find it puzzling how they are apparently cool with Ryder going back to school purely to support Raffy and not because he's particularly interested in getting an education.  But I suppose maybe they are hoping somewhere along the line his attitude will change.