2021 Season - UK Episode Discussion

[Red Ranger 1]

Alf's episode count last block:Three.

I can kind of see both sides with regards the Kieran situation.Alf and Martha have every reason not to trust him, but it's hard to fault the likes of Irene, Roo and Jasmine for giving him the benefit of the doubt.It was nice to see Jasmine's epilepsy remembered, and even though Alf jumped to conclusions, ironically it seemed to work in Kieran's favour since it's caused Martha to give him a chance.

Hard to know what to make of Tori and Christian.I do kind of like them together, but Christian refusing to move back in with Tori so he can make a big flashy proposal seems like the sort of logic as giving someone a miserable birthday so you can throw a surprise party at the end, even if Tori was typically juvenile in her reaction.I did like Justin's role, and I'm glad he seems to be his old self, although Leah saying she wasn't ready to take things further and then sleeping with him next episode was rather awkward, seemingly prompted by the need to drag the storyline out across their weekly episode quota rather than anything organic.I can see where John's coming from but he might be setting himself up for a disappointment.Maybe he should donate the money to the surf club!

I've never really warmed to Nikau, or to him and Bella as a couple, and his current behaviour kind of demonstrates why.He's coming across as a creepy stalker ex, acting as though he think he's somehow entitled to have Bella and she doesn't have the right to reject him.They should just call the police and have done with it after that last performance.And I bet Chloe will still somehow spin it as being all Bella's fault, given her obnoxious behaviour on Monday, although I'll admit Bella's olive branch was pretty misjudged.

Not that Ziggy has any right to judge him at this point.She gives Tane hell for not turning his back on Nikau when he cheated on Bella, then promptly turns round and cheats on him, and didn't look particularly guilty about it either.Dean didn't seem to be bothered about making out with someone else's girlfriend either, then went into a sulk and bailed on Bella when it didn't go his way.I didn't particularly like them together the first time round, and with this performance, coming on the back of months of Ziggy not showing any interest in Dean, I've gone from indifference to active dislike towards the pairing.

[H&Alover]

Welcome back Red, I've missed your input.

Nik is becoming very stalkerish, he won't listen to anyone about giving Bella space. They did seem to cram a lot into Friday's episode, how is the Bay from the city, he made good time. He did assault Emmett so the police should be called by the organisers, I don't know if he could also get done with trespassing as it seemed the Exhibition was open to all. Lots of beautiful people floating about. 

I would have been an awkward ride for Ziggy with Dean and Tane, but Tane, inadvertently, makes it more awkward by dropping out by answering Bella's call for help, leaving Dean and Ziggy to travel to the city alone, not that Dean was aware of Ziggy's confused feelings at first. 

Trivial comment but Mac, Ziggy and Bella looked lovely.   Bella looked very at ease, considering how full of nerves she was before.  Irene was right to be proud of her and if I'm right in thinking they do get newspapers in prison and Colby gets to read about it, he will be too.

I could understand why Nik looked so astounded/shocked at seeing Ziggy and Dean snogging each others faces off after the flak she gave him for one drunken mistake, they were sober and knew full well what they were doing, it was Ziggy that moved in on Dean btw.  He got it in the neck for cheating on Bella now he sees his uncle's girlfriend cheating on him with her ex!  Will he tackle her about it or tell Tane?  He was more intent at the time on getting to Bella so has likely put that on the back burner for now. 

I had to smile at Dean channelling his inner Tom Hank's character from Big when he sampled the caviar, it is an acquired taste so if you've never had it before it would be hard to get your brain and taste buds around. I, though I've only had it the once did like it.

It was  a quick u-turn by Leah, but hey Justin wasn't complaining so why should we?  I'm no expert but seeing as Justin wasn't a long term drug user, his recovery, though still on-going, wouldn't take as long as it did Brody.  It was good seeing him surfing, he looked very happy and at peace with himself, he wasn't overdoing it which triggered his back problem resulting in the whole overdoing the pain killer situation. 

 

  

[Red Ranger 1]

Alf's episode count this block:Three.

Nikau really did take a long time to get the message and I'm still not sure it's sunk in.He deserved to get a serve from Ari and Tane, and while I understand the thinking behind Mia trying to talk it out calmly, Tane did that last episode and it just went in one ear and out the other.I'll take his word that he was trying to apologise to Bella, but if she doesn't want to talk to him, then what he's saying doesn't matter.I don't blame him for outing Ziggy to Tane, although it seemed to be done for point-scoring rather than out of concern.I'm surprised Mackenzie was so willing to give Ziggy a pass for her hypocrisy, but I guess she's too glad to have her friendship back to rock the boat, and it was nice to see the two of them playing big sister to Bella.Nice too that Bella took Emmett's news calmly and they parted on good terms, with her wishing him well: Hopefully she'll be able to build on this and make a career out of it.

I'm afraid I found the Chloe stuff rather anti-climactic. It seemed like it was building to some big blow-out between her and Marilyn, but instead they're suddenly best buddies. We didn't even see her reaction to the fact Nikau actually gatecrashed the exhibition!

Sadly, I can't really disagree with Alf that things are likely to end badly with Kieran, so I guess he's doing the right thing by steering clear of the situation if he feels like that.

[Blaxland 89]

Are the only new character introduced now just doctors or police officers. 

[H&Alover]

All the being shouted by Ari and Tane at was getting nowhere and Mia did seem to be getting somewhere with Nik until Ryder and Chloe burst in blabbering on about the Exhibition, of course not having a clue about what really went down.  It was a good suggestion by Mia that Nik go and see Gemma, getting completely away would be good for him and give Bella breathing space and not have to worry that Nik would be springing up out of the blue.  Glad he got back OK, him having an accident or getting pulled over by the cops wouldn't have helped at all, seeing as he was driving illegally. Men and their machines - Ari's first concern was Nik getting a scratch on his bike. 

Although he must have been sorely tempted he didn't out Ziggy to Tane, just suggested Tane 'talk' to his girlfriend.  Ziggy thought her and Dean's kiss(es) were a secret and no-one saw them - wrong!  I think  Nik did hint to Ziggy he knew and warned her he'd tell Tane, but as we saw in the trailer she does.  No excuse she was drunk either which Mac was when she kissed Tane.  I wonder if that was why Ziggy had a  u-turn about her forgiving Mac, she realised how easy it could happen and Mac would understand how she felt.  Between them they managed to keep the Emmett leaving problem from Bella.  As Ziggy said to Mac her kissing Dean hasn't resolved anything as she still can't forgive him for keeping quiet about his part in Ross' murder which is a biggy, not as if he had handled stolen goods.

The day may have not ended the way Bella wanted but Emmett brought good news regarding her photos, she did do well, I see a career there.  Then of course he couldn't avoid it any longer and told her he was going to New York the next day.  Naturally she was upset initially, but put her own feelings aside and gave him a good send off and wished him well and he said he'd be there for her if she needed to talk or needed help.  They do have such things nowadays as phones, the internet etc, it is a long way away, but it's not the moon.  Sweet farewell between Mac and Emmett, him offering her not the sofa but the bed should she want to visit.  His eyes must be  a lot better as he wasn't wearing  his dark glasses. 

I found Alf annoying, being so stubborn in his feelings about Kieran, he was wrong about what happened between Kieran and Jasmine which he didn't mention btw, so why can't he accept the possibility he be wrong about other things. 

Actually I liked the lighter touches with Ryder, Chloe and Marilyn.  Marilyn was treating Chloe like a five year old  - this is where we keep the cups and saucers, like Chloe couldn't have worked that for herself - and not someone who had done that kind of job before.   Chloe, not usually like her, kept her feelings to herself, it was Ryder putting his two-penneth in that stirred things up. Chuckled, yes I'm easily amused, at Ryder using Roo as a shield when she suggested they went back to the Diner to sort things. Chloe proved she did know what she was doing by 'teaching' Maz how to handle the awkward coffee machine tap, and how long has Maz worked there? Chloe wasn't all gloaty about it and she has Marilyn on her side now, different types entirely but I can see a good friendship developing.  Diner Ladies - good one Ryder.  True Chloe can be a right little madam at times, but she did get on well with the customers in Salt. 

[CaptainHulk]

H&A is now officially the "I want to punch Nikau Parata Half-Hour". 

Could use a break from him tbf. Pack him off to NZ for a bit.

In real-life, the cops would have been called.

[Red Ranger 1]

So, as I predicted, Nikau cheated on Bella, she understandably dumped him, and his response is to stalk her, harass her, ruin an important event for her and assault two of her friends...yet in Chloe's eyes, Bella's the one to blame for not being nice to him. Honestly, I wonder what the heck we're supposed to make of Chloe: She's okay with Ryder, sometimes, and her family, sometimes, but horrible with just about everyone else: Irene spent most of the episode looking like she wanted to wring her neck. And yet the episode gives her the last word as if we're somehow supposed to agree with a character to whom the description "emotional psychopath" applies a lot more than it does to Bella. To be fair, I actually agree that Bella was out of line. I get that she considers Dean her family, but Tane's been good to her and doesn't deserve to get thrown under the bus just so Dean gets what he wants. But it's hard to take Chloe moralising about it when she happily broke Mackenzie's heart to get Ari and Mia back together: What's the difference?

Not a lot else going on. That kiss that came out of nowhere seems to have disappeared back to the same place, with Ziggy and Dean largely indifferent towards each other again. And Ryder did some nice doodles.

[christine king]

27 minutes ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

To be fair, I actually agree that Bella was out of line. I get that she considers Dean her family, but Tane's been good to her and doesn't deserve to get thrown under the bus just so Dean gets what he wants. But it's hard to take Chloe moralising about it when she happily broke Mackenzie's heart to get Ari and Mia back together: What's the difference?

Yeah their is no different Chloe didn’t care that Mackenzie got her heart broken at all, all she cared about was getting her parents back together! Now because Bella wants Dean and Ziggy back together and because Ziggy was also considered part of her family when she was dating Dean it makes sense that Bella would want her family back together considering she’s lost so much of that already. And Tane doesn’t deserve any of this at all and it’s not his fault.

[Red Ranger 1]

On 07/09/2021 at 08:12, Blaxland 89 said:

Are the only new character introduced now just doctors or police officers. 

Well, before Cash, the last two introduced were Chloe and Mia, so I'd say no.

[Slade]

Unfortunately, as much as I want Kieran to succeed, I also have to agree with Alf's scepticism.

I suppose Dean going to see Jai anytime anything goes wrong is better than sleeping around like he used to.

Mia Teresa works her magic again, with Nikau.  Yes, the only reason why she didn't fully convince him was because Chloe and Ryder interrupted.  His reaction to the Ziggy threatening to get an AVO made me laugh.  He genuinely seemed bemused by it.

Bella took Emmett's departure a lot better than I thought and seemed happy for him.  I'm glad she and Mackenzie both departed with him on good terms.

So I'm guessing Tane has to move back into the Parata's for a bit.  I really enjoyed the interactions with Ziggy and the tension during the exchange with Dean on the beach.  He knew something was up, didn't think they would own up to anything but their awkwardness and nervousness was enough to strongly indicate something.  I did wonder if Tane thought they had actually slept together as he seemed a little surprised/relieved it was just a kiss.

I understand that Dean's Mackenzie's brother and she has to look out for him but I wish she had Tane's back just a little bit.

I'm of the belief that we can't really count how Chloe is towards her family/boyfriend necessarily as an indication of the type of person she is.  There too many instances where undesirable people love their family/partners but doesn't translate to how they act towards other people.  I do think in some cases it's valid but not with this particular character at the moment.  Chloe is bordering on insufferable and her almost blind defence of Nikau is vomit inducing.  Despite that I thought she was right about Bella screwing Tane over (Just like I thought she was right about Bella when she told her she was self-centred a while back).  It's disappointing because as someone that's just had her relationship ruined you wouldn't think Bella wouldn't want that to happen to someone else.