2024 Season - UK Episode Discussion

[H&Alover]

It turned out both Tane and Harper were as bad as each other not being able to talk about anything else but the baby.  They did make the effort at their lunch, her revealing Dana's childhood  nickname for her.   I know she doesn't talk much about her and Dana's traumatic upbringing but Tane could talk about his family life and how it was for him, Ari and Mikaere and living in NZ.   Anyways it seems something more distressing could be happening for them.  Never a  good sign when the sonographer says "I'll get a doctor to look at this". 

I get it was disappointing for Dana Xander cancelling their weekend but John was right, back in his day all they had were letters and maybe the odd phone call and couples were apart for months. 

Roo did do an about turn,  first dismissing Bree's offer of money to help Alf, besides  it's NOT Bree's money, it's Remi's.  Alf would certainly want to know who this anonymous donor is.  Does Roo know about Remi coming into a fortune?  See I told you Alf doesn't want  a flashy shop, it's a bait shop not a high market department store.  Just how  will John and Justin build this new place  without Alf knowing, it'd be right in his backyard.  How good are John and Justin putting up a building anyway,  I know it won't be a home but it would still need to be safe and not running the risk of it falling down on customers or Alf. 

I got two things right it wasn't John who complained about the noise Lyrik was making, he would have gone to them himself, it was a couple who just had   a new baby.  I'm guessing Cash had other things on his mind as he didn't appear to have noticed it as we haven't heard if he found it disturbing and he lived over the road from them. 

[Red Ranger 1]

Alf's episode count this week:Five!

Well, that turned out to not be the fun sisterly day out that Harper envisaged. We did get to see Dana's reaction when Harper finally let her in on the fact they're having a boy before that. I'm surprised Tane was so willing to step aside given how excited he'd been moments before, and I wonder how much John's comment about the way to find love stung for Harper... Levi's having to give up his fun day as well! Any Doctor Who fans watching are probably going to be amused to see the other doctor is named Dr Liz Shaw according to the credits, the name of a regular from Doctor Who's 1970 season!

Elsewhere, the stalwarts (minus Roo, who seems to be on a strict two episode a week ration these days so gets packed off to see the council) are building Alf a shed in his rather large back garden. I wouldn't have said Justin was the first choice to put something like that together, John even less so (so it's probably a good thing his main contributions were to stand and watch and to look forward to the sandwich run). Of course, despite all her efforts, Leah turning up again on the basis of "I brought you a sandwich" got Alf's spider-sense twitching and he's more alert than they think...

[H&Alover]

It was foruitous as it turned out that it was Dana that accompanied  Harper as she was able to play down the sonographers comment about getting a doctor to look at the scan.  She would as a nurse, guess it wasn't good, but wanted to reassure Harper  that it needn't be bad news. If Tane had been there he may have  been panicking.  It did take Dana's  mind off the fact Xander had cancelled their weekend, they do still have phones don't they, why couldn't she have rung and actually spoke to him?  Anyways she went straight into sister mode, being there for her, talking to Tane and just telling  to get to the hospital.  The conversation she overheard didn't sound good, a cyst on his lung and the fact Dr. Liz Shaw needed a specialist to give their thought on it.  Of course it would be Levi who was  called in, he is the nearest  even if it isn't his area of expertise.  Seemingly he has heard and seen what it was but not in someone so young, the baby is only 26 weeks old.  Apparently, according to Dr. Shaw mum aka Harper has no history of this condition but what about dad aka Tane? 

Mac  has found out the downside of being with a top doc, he could get called away at anytime.  Knew it was the kiss of death  as soon as she said she'd got rid of everyone so they could spend the whole day together.  On that she's rostered people about to  cover her  absence so although they are now one down, the rest of her staff are running it by themselves again. 

Maybe TPTB are breaking Georgie back in gently seeing as she's just come back from her op. Have you noticed and nought to do with ought really, that Roo has started to wear trousers which she never did before unless I'm misremembering.    She wore those floaty dresses to disguise her back problem.   Suppose the Council says NO and yes I know it's Alf's land but there would be by laws what he could construct and what he couldn't wouldn't there?  It would have to fit in with the look of the place. 

I did  when Leah brought the tea and nosh, so very typical, you  have to keep your workmen fed and watered so you get the best work out of them, it's the law.    John playing overseer/gaffer was so him. Despite Leah and Maz's  best efforts Alf has clocked what they are up to - busted guys.  I did like his  little smile.  I wonder how he is going to play this out.  

[Red Ranger 1]

After I found Harper tolerable last week, she's back to being annoying and actually making me feel sorry for Tane with the way she dogmatically insisted what they were doing and gave him no say in it. It feels like she's burying her head in the sand and failing to grasp the fact that there's risks either way.Levi blatantly breaks patient confidentiality by ringing up Mackenzie to tell her what's going on, he's lucky no-one seemed to object. If the nephew who died that Tane mentioned was Ari and Mia's baby, didn't we already know he was born premature?

I should probably have more sympathy for Kirby than I do.I get it's not much fun to have your self-esteem take a hit and I guess you can't help how you feel and even she wishes things were different, but she's bitten some poor girl's head off (I hope she got her lesson in the end!) and left Mali in the lurch. Even him cutting ties with the ad agency hasn't helped her much, she's probably wishing she'd never suggested all this publicity.

Roo completes the set of annoying characters by railroading Mali and dropping John in it in the hope that he'd cover for her with Alf. Alf, meanwhile, has apparently decided to have some fun at her expense.

[H&Alover]

I'd give Harper some leeway, it is a very risky op that Levi is proposing if the baby's cyst grows and affects his heart and it's not just for him, her life could be in danger.  It did come straight out of the blue, last scan was fine and now the babies life could be at risk and I think her refusal is  a knee jerk reaction and she needs some time to get it straight in her brain, she has two weeks to think about it, she need gentle persuasion not nagging.  Levi didn't give that much away to Mac, he just said for her to go to the hospital to support Harper and Tane, it was her that asked if it was the baby which would be a natural assumption.  All he said was just to be there for them.   Levi, I thought, explained it so well to Tane and Harper, he can't give any guarantees if the cyst will grow or not, it's just one of life's bizarre twists.  It hit Levi hard, because as he was saying to Mac when you are working in a big city hospital you don't get that close to your patients, but he knows Tane and Harper. Good question by Tane if it could be linked to Ari's baby's death, but it had been ruled out.  The last baby Mia lost was a miscarriage after the crash she was in, but she had a premature baby.

That may have been an OTT reaction of Kirby's when that girl/woman was taking photos of her demonstration how to lie on a board without asking if she was OK with it,  and it isn't the Kirby we know, even Mali was surprised by it.    Guess even the most assured of us can be knocked back by  a seemingly they  know it all publicity company and them thinking 'this is what people want'.   It was ironic, though, as it was her who started it by pushing Mali to get into it all. It was sad, her going though her photos and deleting them.    I wonder if that will affect her wanting to be in Lyrik, OK with rehearsing but what if Remi wants them to appear in person, such as doing a gig in Salt. 

We did need some light relief which Alf obligingly  supplied.   He was really enjoying himself winding them all up.Roo for all her interfering, trying and failing to get Alf to go and see Martha or for him to go fishing, got herself in a knot,  falling for  it when Alf said he needs to paint the shed which he is planning to set up as the new bait shop and volunteering to do it herself.  It may have just been me but I think Maz has clocked Alf knows, she saw that little smile he had on his face when Roo left the Diner and she knows him so well. 

[Medea Fleecestealer]

Darn, won't be able to watch Friday's episode as I'm travelling that day.  Might have to record it to watch when I get back. 

[Red Ranger 1]

I had to roll my eyes at Eden here, insisting that Abigail's only listening to one side of the story when she's even more guilty of that, given that she decided Nerida's lying on the basis of nothing but a few seconds of conversation and "Tim says". She's almost certainly right, but she's hardly being objective, and even she admitted that half of the complaints about Tim are right, so he's hardly as white as snow.In fact, Abigail's the one coming over best here: She may have done this for the wrong reasons, having listened to Cash and Nerida more than she should, but she hasn't done anything wrong.The penny finally seemed to drop for Cash that he's been so fixated on Tim being a wrong 'un that he's ignored any evidence that didn't fit and leaped on the one thing that did.

Tane definitely put Levi on the spot there and Levi had to give him something.Mackenzie's attempt at a pep-talk didn't seem to work so it's up to him now.

Roo was another one having everything click into place as she finally realised just why Alf was asking her all these questions.Some fun moments between the three of them there.

[H&Alover]

There were only two complaints against Tim, Nerida's and Abby's.  One he explained away which we now know is true so he was innocent of that allegation,  but now his bosses have received this one from Abby I guess it prompted them to look back at Nerida's.  I suppose Eden would tend to take Tim's side and both she and Cash believed Nerida against Tim.   She was willing to take Cash's word that Nerida was telling the truth because he had never lied to her  but he was so ready to take her word against Tim's.   We got Tim's version of the account that Nerida misunderstood his attentiveness for affection which is what I was thinking had happened.   That is a  peril of being a counsellor/therapist the patient/client can become so dependant on them they misread their care and 'fall in love' with them and think they feel the same.  It Is mostly women, but it can happen to men who have women counsellors/therapists.  Ditto with medical doctors male and female. 

You could say that is what happened with Mac and Levi he did save her life twice so she could have believed he really cared for her.  But this time feelings were genuine on both sides. 

Abby  readily believed Nerida at first, as she was echoing what Abby went through, without the affair of course,  but something got her antenna twitching prompting her to ask Nerida some  pointed questions which she conveniently dodged.  Seeing as it was so special how come Nerida couldn't remember when her and Tim's first kiss was.  Then there was that "Oh we're still in love" comment from Nerida.   That  would have  made the   meeting between her and Eden interesting then.     That "Who are you" question from Nerida to Eden  when they were introduced  was amusing under the circumstances - Eden has 'her' man. Abby made exactly the right choice by going to tell  Cash that they had both got it wrong. 

You would think that as a cop he shouldn't take what anyone says as gospel especially when they are a stranger, but emotions got in the way clouding his judgement. He and Abby will have to play it clever so as not to raise Nerida's suspicions that they don't believe her anymore. 

I felt for Levi there, that's another downside of being a  top doc/surgeon, patients and their relatives putting you on the spot by asking the questions Tane was asking.  He could only speak for himself it is still down to Tane or more importantly Harper to make the choice of having the op or not.  It is as he said a huge operation to go through and no guarantees about the outcome, either both will be saved or one or the other or both could die.  He also said, he'd heard of it but never seen it done and doesn't know anyone who has done it, he'd certainly never done it.   Though every new risky operation has to happen for the first time at some time, it all depends on how confident the surgeon is on doing it.   

YEH Maz, you got it spot on Alf had twigged what Roo, John and Justin were up to, pity in a way she revealed it to Roo,  would liked to have seen how much more fun Alf was going to have with them.  He took it OK that was an anonymous donor giving back what he had put in for the community all these years and it wasn't charity.  Will he allow them to put up this new building, if it's OK'd by the Council?

[Medea Fleecestealer]

Having been told to cut out the noise Lyrik are still rehearsing in the back yard?    Would have thought it was obvious to just get a place to rehearse in given Remi's swimming in dough now.  

[Red Ranger 1]

Frankly, I think my biggest takeaway from that was that Eden needs to get her head out of her backside. Any sympathy for the way Cash is treating her (which is pretty awful) is offset by the way she seems to be paying it forward to Abigail. Her rant at her was completely narcissistic: Abigail's realised she made the wrong call and is trying to apologise and make up for it, and Eden just keeps on trying to make out she's the superior one and Abigail should have listened to her, ignoring the fact that as soon as Eden said Nerida was lying, Abigail looked into it and realised she was right. To be honest, I'm in two minds about Abigail withdrawing her complaint: I can understand her wanting no part in Cash and Nerida's vendetta, but everything she said was valid and Tim has behaved very unprofessionally, which he's probably now going to get away with. To be blunt, both Cash and Tim deserve to be hauled over the coals now and I think Rose was a bit too kind to Cash with Tim's complaint. It feels like the main point, that Cash was identifying himself as a police officer to try and get people to give him dirt on Tim, kind of got glossed over. Even now, when Cash realises he's wrong about Nerida, he still can't let go of his agenda and is just doing the same thing for a different reason, just using it as another excuse to try and scare Eden into staying away from Tim. It's no wonder everyone's out of patience with him.

Not much else going on except for Lyrik regretting buying those bigger amps still, and Alf and Marilyn popping up to make up their episode counts.

I guess we're at the point where these episodes were shown mashed up together in Australia, which may explains why the cast list was a mess, with no credit for Abigail and instead credits for Kirby and Harper, who didn't appear. (Also, somewhere along the way the spelling of Nerida's surname has changed from Mullens to Mullins?)