2021 Season - UK Episode Discussion

[Red Ranger 1]

I obviously haven't been paying attention to who knows what, because I thought Ziggy told Dean about Mackenzie hitting on Tane last week. I'm still finding Ziggy a bit hard to like. Tane seems to be putting up with her spending time with Dean because he doesn't want to rock the boat, which didn't turn out well for Amber. Maybe Ziggy's finally twigged that she can't have her cake and eat it, having Tane as a boyfriend and Dean as an amicable ex to have fun with, when they're both in love with her.

Justin continued to be flying off the deep end, and despite doing his usual thing of distracting Justin with work, Alf didn't seem much better and seems to have snapped back to sniping about John all the time: It's a shame Irene didn't give him the sort of serve she gave Gus!

[Slade]

Most people in that scenario would not have done what Lewis did.

There are two sides to Ari.  There's the side with Mia where they're basically a pair of pricks.  But there's the other side which I'm actually quite liking at the moment.  I like the friendship he has with Dean and I do like how he gets on with Tane and how he was looking out for him with Ziggy.  If I'm honest, I'm really not happy Dean told Ari about Mackenzie hitting on Tane though.  It's none of his business and Mackenzie is not his problem any more.  He made a decision to finish with her.  I know Ari can be like a dog with a bone but Dean never should have mentioned her to him the first place to cause Ari to demand to know what happened.

I am starting to sympathise with Tane quite a bit.  Ziggy being on good terms with Dean is driving him up the wall and he can't really object as he doesn't want to come across as unreasonable and jealous.

I'm not sure what to make of Dean telling Ziggy he still loves her.  He accepts (or rather says) she has moved on and is with Tane so you would think him telling her doesn't really serve any purpose.  On the other hand he is an honest person and the way Ziggy was i.e. prepared to call Amber to get her to come back with Jai, she wasn't going to let it drop (much like Ari) so you can see why he told her.  The cynic in me wonders though (as Ziggy alluded to) why Dean isn't more bothered about Amber/Jai going.  He was in a dark place prior to that.  So he presumably sees this as a possibility with Amber gone that there is a chance with Ziggy no matter how small.  Although perhaps it's not as small as what we think.  He's already planted the seed by saying he's never getting back with her and now Ziggy wants to get away with Tane for the night.  I know she doesn't want to be around Mackenzie at the moment but that's the second time she's effectively rewarded him out of guilt.  It will be interesting to see how long it takes her to tell him about Dean's declaration given Tane didn't wait too long before telling Ziggy about Mackenzie.

[H&Alover]

As we thought Ziggy was totally oblivious of Dean still being in love with her, the look on her face confirmed that.  Will she back off a bit now to make it easier for him?  it was Ziggy who told Dean about Mac coming onto Tane.

Is it that motel Mac is holed up in,  room looked familiar.

Tane is being very trusting giving Ziggy the OK to go and see Dean knowing what he knows, but what reason could he have given for saying he preferred she didn't.  He couldn't come out with a 'no you're not going', he knows that wouldn't get him anywhere and she'd go anyway.  Ari and Mia very wisely kept out of it. 

Justin should really know better than to give Leah an ultimatum - his 'come home now' - wasn't going to work.  As frustrating as it is, he should have let her track down this lead, which it seemed didn't go anywhere anyway, then come back.  Irene knows Alf so well and that he will always be carping at John for something, but when push comes to shove, he'd stick by him.

Ari seemed to be back pedalling on his thought about him and Mia trying for another baby. It is a big decision, the problems they had before would still be there, though medical science has improved, but Mia is also older so something else to add to the equation. We had to wait until the end to find out what was in the parcels Mia was waiting for - the contents of her old home I'm thinking - and amongst them a memory box of Cody which brought back some strong emotions for Ari. 

 

 

[CaptainHulk]

Won't lie. I will  miss Amber to a degree.

I liked her dynamic with Palmer when she was nursing him back to health with her tough love. The only thing missing was the leather outfit and the whip!

 

 

[Red Ranger 1]

Yes, I'm counting the character appearances in "blocks" (ie what's meant to be a week) at the moment. Using the weeks Channel 5 are using would throw up too many anomalies: Sometimes characters only appear in one episode in a week, because they appeared in two episodes at the beginning of one block and two at the end of the next, and sometimes they appear in three or four episodes in a row because one of them's the end of the previous block.

I'm with Irene asking Alf and Marilyn if they've ever met Leah, if they thought that not finding Susie first time out would mean she'd give up looking.She's like a dog with a bone at the moment, to a frustrating degree.Justin taking her outside for a quiet chat was never going to work: He'd have been better off letting the situation play out, even if it might have meant John being on the receiving end a bit more.By the way, didn't it used to be a gag that neither Tori nor Justin could cook and they left everything to Brody? Now Tori still can't cook but Justin seems increasingly domesticated.Maybe Leah's been giving him lessons.

Guess Dean found a purpose after all, as we're back to the sibling relationship between him and Mackenzie, which always strikes gold.I like that he briefly gave in and decided to just hang out with her, and that Mackenzie instantly realised that she'd gone too far when she made the comment about him losing his family. And also that Amber actually said goodbye to her! So, now she's in the flat.I hope we see more of Bella with her than we did Bella with Amber and Jai.

And Ari and Mia have decided to try for a baby.Just to twist that knife a little bit more.

[H&Alover]

I so much wanted to slap Leah last night, she just couldn't accept John's decision he didn't want to give looking for Susie another go because it brought up so many bad memories.  She just kept nagging and nagging, with no consideration or respect for his feelings.  Even Irene was upset with  her treatment of him.  If she wants to carry on - fine - do just that.  I'm glad Justin pulled her out, John didn't need any more earache.  Of course then he got it full blast.  Is it about her doing it 'for us' as she keeps on insisting or is there more to it?  She even spoilt the meal Justine had cooked for them by immediately leaping on her laptop to find news of more people finding their scammer, couldn't give it a rest for just one night or even until they'd finished eating. 

My memory must be failing me - I can't remember how Leah got involved with the last storyline that got her all fired up and kidnapped - the domestic abuse blog? 

Aah we should all have a Dean in our lives.  When called on, he's there for you, this time Mac is the lucky one.  It was our favourite motel, know that layout of the room anywhere.  She  certainly is a noisy drunk and she'd been chucked out of the previous motel.   I guess we should be thankful she wasn't shacked up with some random bloke. He's been where she has, several  times, so could understand, not that she was in any mood to agree with him.  Ouch that comment about Amber 'dumping' him was well below the belt  and wrong as he and we know.  As an aside, he shouldn't leave it too long to check Amber is getting something legal together regarding Jai.   His perseverance paid off and he managed to persuade her to come back with him.  Bella, once she gets back from the city, should be OK with Mac moving in, last time we saw them together they were friends, but living with her may be  a different matter, specially if Mac continues to hit the bottle.  

Ooh that was a touch awkward that the first people Mac saw were Ari and Mia getting very cosy after their decision to try for another baby.  But unless Mac walks around with a blindfold on she won't be ale to avoid seeing either one of them or both plus Mia works in the gym which is downstairs from Salt, is that still closed btw?  That was  a huge step for both Mia and Ari, Ari is a different man from the one he was then, but I think they need to get medical advice as to how easy - or not - it may be for them.   It would hurt Mac very much should Mia fall pregnant and she is able carry the baby full term, but that doesn't mean neither of them should not consider going ahead.

 

 

[Slade]

20 hours ago, CaptainHulk said:

Won't lie. I will  miss Amber to a degree.

Definitely in the not happy Amber is gone camp as despite her lack of integration, I still thought the character had a bit more to offer given time.

Mackenzie was out of line for the remark she made to Dean although at least she recognised that relatively quickly.  I'm surprised Amber texted her to say goodbye.  Apart from the one day where Amber went and spoke to her because there was nobody else, they never really got on.  In saying that, I did enjoy the scenes with Mac and Dean overall.  Surprised Mackenzie hasn't considered getting away for a bit, possibly going back to where she used to live.

Leah was a bit annoying the way she wouldn't let it go with John.  I was in agreement with her re Justin though and I had to laugh at his defence of John.  As if he gave two hoots about John's humiliation and John having his heart broken.  I actually felt Justin came across as disingenuous.  As a pain Leah is being to quite a few people, it's very understandable as they lost a lot of money.

Oh and Mia agrees to have a baby.  She didn't take much convincing.

[Red Ranger 1]

I was slightly confused at the way things went here.Up until now, the show seems to be mostly on Justin's side with regards Leah's obsession with tracking down Susie: After all, Alf and Irene both agreed with him. But here we suddenly have Alf agreeing with Leah that Justin's behaving oddly and the focus has shifted to him hiding pills, as if he'd be totally fine with Leah spending all her time focusing on scam victim forums if he wasn't misusing his medication.

That probably wasn't what Dean had in mind when he asked Jasmine to keep an eye on Mackenzie, but to be fair, she kept her out of trouble and managed to stop her disappearing into a dark pit, so not the worst job.And we got another good sibling moment.

Well, we saw Bella's reaction to Mackenzie moving in, if not her with Mackenzie.She got on with Emmett again, but everything else seemed to leave her uncomfortable.Not sure about Allegra, but she did seem to manage to put Nikau at ease.Sienna continues to be the character that she was always going to be.

[H&Alover]

It was Alf who brought up the fact Justin was acting oddly and Leah agreed - frankly I was surprised she had noticed seeing as she's been glued to her laptop for weeks.  Apart from the other week when she hauled him of to the doctor to talk about it, and revealing what Justin was reluctant to,  nothing else had been said so I thought it had been sorted. Has Leah agreed to lay off her obsessive search now she has realised what has been going on in her absence - mid wise - that is?  But it turns out Justin has been ordering up more tabs on the quiet and is now stashing them under a drawer.  Not good at all.

I did echo Justin at the end of their argument when Leah said "I'll make my own way home then" and he replied "Go on then".  YEH!  

I liked the scenes with Mac and Jas and of course she'd remember there used to be a blender in the flat, surprise it was where she remembered it being. When did Jasmine learn about reading Tarot cards?  Only problem is with Mac going away for a while, she'd have to come back and the problem(s) would still be there. Is Salt still closed, what about her staff, any food stuff just left lying about?

Bella was a bit put out by Dean's decision to move Mac in, not so much as she doesn't like her, saying he hadn't asked her if it was OK, fair enough she does live there too, but she hardly is and although her name is on the lease so far she hasn't contributed anything towards costs. 

WOW indeed with that stretch limo turning up for Bella and Nik.  Totally trivial comment coming up - but I did like Bella's denim coat. Exactly what you would expect from a fashion shoot, all impossibly beautiful people wafting about, air kisses, Nik getting primped for his photos with Allegra.  Bella did look uncomfortable seeing  Nik - in her eyes anyway - enjoying it  a little too much. Hope it doesn't bring back all her insecurities.  Then we saw the darker side with Sienna's comment about her 'owning' Nik which was why he had to go to the after shoot party. 

I did have a thought, that maybe we may see Olivia as she is now a fashion designer  - stranger things have happened in H&A. 

 

[CaptainHulk]

Christian... lol

Think he's finally gone round the bend