2022 Season - UK Episode Discussion

[atrus]

I'm not sure that the obligation to grovel was 100% Justin's; despite her explanation I still ended up not really sure why Ziggy wanted it both ways, and if she still wasn't going to declare her reasons for being off work and didn't want any special treatment, I'm not sure what she expected. Still, I was glad he did grovel as it resolved the situation pretty amicably, or seemed to. It was probably necessary for Dean to finally break the stalemate by mentioning the hospital scare, and Ziggy didn't actually seem that upset that he did - especially after the ice-cream appeared.

My first question about Xander's date was, "what girl at the Surf Club?" and turns out the answer was, "oh, the one from weeks and weeks ago in that storyline I was barely paying any attention to." It's a shame, because I do actually quite like Rose and Xander and their dynamic, but does it have to be the age-old trope of them trying organise one another's romantic lives all the time? I did enjoy them having a bit of joke about his tattoo habit, at least; that's been a long time coming.

Not really much progress on the Bree front. Guessing it's going to be far from three months till we next see Jacob.

[Red Ranger 1]

So, as I feared, it ended up with Justin being told why Ziggy missed opening up and being made to feel bad.While the hospital appointment was why she didn't go to work, she had all day to let Justin know she couldn't open up and just forgot, even after she knew everything was all right. Dean, again, is less of a jerk and more of a voice of reason when Ziggy's actually in the episode and it's not just him going alpha male on Justin on her behalf.Anyway, at least they seem to have sorted things out, and Justin turning up with ice cream was a cute moment.

Eden is now the go-between for Bree and Remi.Well, kind of.Although she made the point to Remi that Bree doesn't need them judging how she's handling things, she also made sure to stick up for Remi with Bree and point out she asked for his help and then got annoyed when he tried to give it.She's concerned Remi's too involved and she may be right.

3 hours ago, atrus said:

My first question about Xander's date was, "what girl at the Surf Club?" and turns out the answer was, "oh, the one from weeks and weeks ago in that storyline I was barely paying any attention to."

Er, no, the one from two episodes previous!

Not the most enthralling but I did enjoy Xander and Rose's relationship.In fact, with Eden/Remi and even Justin/Ziggy, it felt like this episode showed the show has very good non-romantic male/female relationship these days. I'm not quite sure how Leah managed to miss the memo that Rose wasn't to be told about Xander's date: That "What are you playing at, girlie?" look from Irene was definitely well-deserved!

[pembie]

4 hours ago, atrus said:

I'm not sure that the obligation to grovel was 100% Justin's; despite her explanation I still ended up not really sure why Ziggy wanted it both ways, and if she still wasn't going to declare her reasons for being off work and didn't want any special treatment, I'm not sure what she expected. Still, I was glad he did grovel as it resolved the situation pretty amicably, or seemed to. It was probably necessary for Dean to finally break the stalemate by mentioning the hospital scare, and Ziggy didn't actually seem that upset that he did - especially after the ice-cream appeared.

My first question about Xander's date was, "what girl at the Surf Club?" and turns out the answer was, "oh, the one from weeks and weeks ago in that storyline I was barely paying any attention to." It's a shame, because I do actually quite like Rose and Xander and their dynamic, but does it have to be the age-old trope of them trying organise one another's romantic lives all the time? I did enjoy them having a bit of joke about his tattoo habit, at least; that's been a long time coming.

Not really much progress on the Bree front. Guessing it's going to be far from three months till we next see Jacob.

Ziggy didn’t really make any sense to me either 

Brees story I’m going to say this is rubbish to write Jacob out so quickly so he isn’t even there isn’t helping too convince me either 

[atrus]

17 hours ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

Er, no, the one from two episodes previous!

Oh! Sorry, fair enough - shows how much attention I was paying on Friday... Could have sworn he was chatting someone up in the Surf Club before Christmas, but that might've been someone else.

And today. Not surprised Roo wasn't exactly singing from the rooftops about the prospect of another tutoring gig; I'm not sure I'd be relishing the thought of the next evil relative turning up either. It was a bit ridiculous that she'd quit after one gig though, and business at the caravan park must be booming because she obviously doesn't need the money that badly. Good to see Marilyn in a much more buoyant mood after a hellish few weeks, and I think encouraging Roo not to throw in the towel is the right thing to do under the circumstances - Roo is very much a natural teacher and if Heather is the only reason she's having doubts, I can see why Maz would be feeling responsible for helping her overcome them. Also, turns out Maz hasn't forgotten about Sydney's homeless the moment she arrived back in Summer Bay after all, and is planning on going back to do more, which was heartening to see. Though, if we see it happen on-screen, let's hope she gets different clientele this time.

Random appearance by Flick and Tane at the n-teenth minute. Do we think they were pasted in from the next episode at the eleventh hour, given they seem to have evaded the credits?

I thought at first that the rando who collapsed at the bar was Remi after a particularly bad day of hair continuity, so surprised it took the direction it did. An interesting thread coming out of that with Mack being so affected; do I sense a storyline on the way for her? (It would be about time, if so.) I quite enjoyed Xander's date with Surf Club Girl, hopefully they can do it again. Did anyone mention that Surf Club Girl was in Neighbours about ten years ago as Cat Rogers? (Sorry if you did, attention deficit again.) I only recognised her by the actor's name, she looks a lot different now.

[Red Ranger 1]

6 hours ago, atrus said:

Could have sworn he was chatting someone up in the Surf Club before Christmas, but that might've been someone else.

Rose was trying to set him up with Bree before they found out she was married, that could be what you were thinking of?

Well, Rose got out of the way reasonably quickly, only for a medical emergency to get in the way. I'd kind of assumed Xander already knew Stacey from work, so it was a bit confusing that he was unaware she'd been a nurse. (Just a temp job, it seems?) I must admit, I had to look up who Cat Rogers was, then went "Ohhh, that weird storyline, made even weirder by them having to fit it in around Eve Morey's maternity leave, where Sonya tried to reunite a mentally unbalanced drug addict with her daughter, it not surprisingly went pear-shaped straightaway, and the daughter ended up staying with her foster parents, which was treated as a happy ending, rendering the whole thing pointless. Man, Sonya was annoying in those days." Anyway, it feels like the last couple of episodes have been setting up a friendship between Xander and Dean, which I'd be fine with, and Xander also had some good interaction with Mackenzie here. Mackenzie's decision to do something positive about the experience is an interesting take-off. Yes, I think there's a very good chance Tane and Felicity's uncredited scenes got moved from the next episode: I'm always suspicious when characters only appear right near the start or right near the end of an episode.

The fact we got another "It's good to be back to normal" scene with Marilyn reinforced the fact that there was no need to have one last week and it could have waited until now. I guess I should commend Marilyn for deciding to carry on helping the homeless. I was rather uncomfortable with Alf trying to put her off, reinforcing the feeling that he wants to just sweep the whole thing under the carpet, pretend it never happened and have Marilyn go back to playing the role he wants her to. Roo was more supportive, which leaves me wondering why she was so determined to drag Marilyn away from there in the first place. Marilyn also gets credit for trying to stop Roo giving up tutoring, although the fact she's willing to paint Heather as the villain when it suits her narrative makes her teary "I still love her" schtick seem even more token.

Justin trying to invite Alf and Irene to Lyrik's gig was quite amusing, and I guess the episode needed to involve him somehow. Actually, he had quite a few good cameos despite not really doing much in plot terms.

[atrus]

14 minutes ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

Rose was trying to set him up with Bree before they found out she was married, that could be what you were thinking of?

Could well be, I was finding everyone a bit interchangeable at that point.

16 minutes ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

Roo was more supportive, which leaves me wondering why she was so determined to drag Marilyn away from there in the first place.

I guess she was just concerned Marilyn wouldn't come back at all and was going to forge a new life on her own because she was too ashamed to show her face back home - but if she's happy to go back and forth from the City there's no particular reason Maz can't live in Summer Bay and still do the chairty work, I suppose.

18 minutes ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

although the fact she's willing to paint Heather as the villain when it suits her narrative makes her teary "I still love her" schtick seem even more token.

I must admit that when we saw Marilyn today I was expecting the Heather thread to be picked up again in an, "Oh, maybe I shouldn't have been so quick to cut her out" kind of way - but no, it did seem from the scenes with Roo that Maz very much feels 'over' Heather, at least for the time being. Which is annoying as it could've blossomed into something far more meaningful than it has.

[CaptainHulk]

This week's kind of been pants, hasn't it?

Still Friday left to turn it round though...

[H&Alover]

She's been very good lateIy but I got very annoyed about Rose sticking her oar in and pushing Xander into ringing Stacey - I think it was mentioned once, briefly, she was at one of the gigs Lyrik played at SALT, that is where Xander and Rose recognised her from when they saw her in the Surf Club.   Then she decided to join Xander while he was waiting for her, she would have flipped out if he had done that to her.   It was rather sweet, him admitting he hadn't dated for a while ands was going well until the incident. Then Rose kept pushing him to contact her after the sudden end to the date.   He was uncertain because of the abrupt end and her seeming indifference.  True she said she'd been a nurse but it didn't have to have been at the ND hospital.  Handy they bumped into each other and she asked him to call her.   As you said Red, what was Leah playing at, she was there when Xander asked her and Irene to keep quiet about his date. 

Mack wasn't to blame for not knowing what to do, there was no reason why she would have had a clue the guy was having a stroke, he may not have any idea.  She had had a bigger incident - Tane being stabbed for instance.  I would  have thought First Aid training would be obligatory in a bar/restaurant, what with knifes and other sharp implements about, burns, glasses getting smashed and customers/staff getting cut.   Flick's got one, but don't they have to be updated their training each year and should they have a defib there?  

Finally Justin and Ziggy got something down on paper about what her future workload will be because of her being pregnant, oh and btw Theo is still being mentored apparently.  I know Dean was meant to be keeping his nose out of it, but a good job he did as now Justin knew what the problem was that day and it wasn't Ziggy  being tardy, OK she forget about opening that day until Justin reminded her,  she had a bad scare so possible everything  else went out of her mind, it does happen.  Ziggy is and has always been an independent/strong woman so doesn't want to appear 'weak'.  Every pregnancy is different, she has been pretty lucky, apart from the morning sickness and mood swings, she's a healthy, fit woman.  I'm guessing Zig didn't offer any ice cream to Justin plus   Dean escaped being exiled to the garden.    

Interesting dynamic with Bree, Remi and Eden who is being the voice of reason.  Bree is trying to get her head round her decision to tell people about Jacob, she's asked for help but not willing to accept the advice they are giving her. Eden is right, Remi is getting too close, he needs to back off a bit and just be there as  a friend. 

Now Marilyn has had a brief respite I think it's good idea she wants to resume  doing the Food Kitchen Volunteering again though Alf was a touch disparaging, but Roo and Irene were more encouraging.  Btw does he still make his visits to Martha? 

Good twist to see Maz  being a Roo by telling Roo she'd let her give up her tutoring over her dead body, you know bossy!   Roo wasn't to blame for Heather being in the bay, no-one was, so the whole "I brought her here" line doesn't wash.  Heather saw her classes on line via the uni and knew where she was maybe having tracked Maz there somehow so knew they were in the same place.  Unlike Roo to be so cautious, but taking random clients on is always a risk in any business, Heather wasn't dangerous until the end, played it 'straight' each time they saw each other.   Guessing Ro did never get paid for lessons.

Guess who shows up!   That won't be good news for Kirby and Theo. I still think he's not bothered about Kirby and Theo being a couple but the fact Lyrik are doing so well, he's just using that as an way in. 

[CaptainHulk]

2 hours ago, H&Alover said:

 

Guess who shows up!   

It rhymes with "Knob"?

[Red Ranger 1]

9 hours ago, H&Alover said:

True she said she'd been a nurse but it didn't have to have been at the ND hospital.

It was: We saw her working there when Remi got hit over the head, although that's quite a while back so I don't blame people for not remembering!

Today! Nikau was being a bit obsessive in trying to organise Tane and Felicity's wedding for them, but I did appreciate his explanation that he saw himself as a stand-in for Ari and Mikaere and wanted to live up to it. (I suspected at first that he was overcompensating for misjudging Heather, so was glad it was nothing to do with that.) And I like that he took the time to go and chat to Mackenzie: It's easy to forget that they were almost family once! Whilst I'm not glad that David's dead, I'm glad we heard either way rather than it just being left dangling.

I appreciated Marilyn turning Roo's second chance soundbite back at her, although we still have Alf growling about "that flaming woman", which grates.

I was wondering if we'd actually see Bob but here he is! I know he was always a jerk, but was he that smarmy before? Felicity seems to have decided that she doesn't have to pretend to like him now. The promo has kind of coloured my perception of his behaviour towards Kirby, but we'll see how it plays out. I suspect H&Alover might be right about his motivation. Ironic that, after all the fuss they made about being out of the loop, Remi and Eden are now sequestered away in their own storyline and leaving all the Lyrik stuff to Theo and Kirby!