Summer Bay comes together today to say goodbye to Ryan “Robbo” Shaw, following his death from a horror car accident last week.

Having been taken hostage by his Federal Police colleague Scott Larkin (Trent Baines)—whose family had been threatened by Victor’s Ouroboros gang—in the closing moments of the 2019 season, the season return saw Robbo convince Scott that he could help protect them. Driving away from their clifftop showdown however, Scott came to the realisation that he would never be free of Victor, and so purposely crashed the car, killing himself instantly.

Although Robbo survived and was rushed into surgery, he appeared to know that he was dying. After seeing his daughter Grace one last time, he sent Jasmine (Sam Frost) away to get him some belongings from home. Shortly afterwards, he asked Colby (Tim Franklin) to look after Jasmine and protect her from the truth about Scott’s betrayal, before going into arrest. Despite Dr Alex’s best efforts, Robbo was pronounced dead.

“Losing Robbo is simply the most devastating thing for Jasmine” Sam Frost told New Idea. “He was her soulmate, the love of her life. All that she had in the bay was Robbo, and for him to be taken away from her — and so suddenly — is excruciatingly painful”

As Jasmine joins the community at Robbo’s police funeral, alongside Robbo’s parents Ian and Wendy (Frankie J. Holden and Amanda Muggleton), she still can’t understand what went wrong, and feels that she isn’t being told the whole truth about his death.

With the support of Wendy, Ian delivers a moving eulogy to his son, explaining how proud he was of Robbo’s desire to protect others, with flatmate Colby also able to say a few words.

But Jasmine’s grief finally overspills when she breaks down, screaming at Robbo’s coffin that he’s a liar—he promised he’d never leave her!

Later at the wake, Jasmine relays her concerns to Colby, wondering why Robbo sent her away and where Scott has disappeared to. She can see that Colby is holding back, will he be forced to come clean?

Talking to New Idea about this week’s episodes, Sam Frost said “It is just heartbreaking, and I felt that pain for Jasmine. It was really difficult and sad even to film these scenes. It was very emotional and challenging, as I do feel very connected to Jas. I had to dig deep and bring out grief of my own that I’ve been through personally. It was really, really painful.”

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Did Robbo really die?

Although we saw Robbo’s demise on-screen, speculation has still been rife over the past week as to whether Robbo could have faked his death, and could return further down the line.

It wouldn’t be the first time that a death on the show has been faked. Detective Peter Baker apparently died on-screen following the explosion at Jack & Martha’s wedding in 2006. It would later turn out that his superiors saw an opportunity to protect Peter from some gangsters who were after him, and injected him with a drug to induce a deep coma which tricked the hospital machinery into thinking he was braindead. We later saw Dr Green at the hospital talking to some men in suits, who it later transpired were ordering him to play along and let Dan believe that Peter’s liver was being given to an injured Jack.

Hugo Austin was apparently shot dead outside the police station in the opening episodes of the 2010 season—only for viewers to later see him watching his own funeral before being whisked into protection by Angelo Rosetta. The likes of Darryl Braxton will also still be fresh in viewers minds, who chose to let everyone believe he had been swept away and died when his car was run off the road by Gunno’s men.

However in the case of Robbo, faking his death would have had to be an extremely elaborate exercise. Between Jasmine leaving and Colby arriving, we could see that Robbo had deteriorated and become fevery. When Robbo then flatlined right before Colby’s eyes, Alex and the nurses battled for over 40 minutes to try and revive Robbo. The only realistic way this could have worked was for Alex and her team to be in on the plan, to avoid doing some serious damage to Robbo!

Although anything can be possible in Home and Away, personally we think Robbo being alive would be taking the show’s credibility a bit too far, and wouldn’t go down well with viewers after such emotional scenes. It’s therefore probably safe to say that Robbo is gone for good (save for the odd flashback or ghostly appearance).

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Why did Jake Ryan leave Home and Away?

Actor Jake Ryan last week took to Instagram to share some photos from his 2½ years on the show and thank his colleagues and the viewers.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B71Ee4OA36B/

Talking about his final scenes, Jake told TV Week “The last scene I shot was extra emotional because Robbo was saying goodbye to Grace and Tori [Penny McNamee], and once they called cut, I was saying goodbye to the cast. Everyone bands together on those big, emotional days. It was a nice mood around the set. We all respect those storylines.”

Explaining the decision behind his departure, Jake continued “It’s sad to leave but my time was done there They did such a great storyline with Robbo and there wasn’t much else to do with him. You want to go out on a high while you can.”

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Where was Robbo’s funeral filmed?

Robbo’s funeral was filmed back in August at a church in Northern Sydney. We’ve today added this filming location to the site, which was previously used for the wedding of John Palmer & Gina Austin, as well as the funeral of Sergeant Charlie Buckton. Click here to find out more.

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Visit Summer Bay!

Jake Ryan has recently been one of the various stars joining fans for Meet and Greets on the Official Home and Away Tour. Those on the tour this past weekend were lucky enough to have lunch with Jake and talk to him directly about Robbo’s exit. The tour provider also posted pictures and videos of fans and cast members last week mourning for Robbo the day after his death aired.

The Official Home and Away Tour departs from central Sydney five days a week (Mon-Wed, Fri-Sat), and costs just $135 per person.

For more information on the various tour options, which includes the opportunity for a guaranteed Meet & Greet with a Home and Away star, click here or on the button below.