Date revealed for Home and Away’s dramatic Australian season finale

The 2020 season of Home and Away will draw to a close in Australia on Monday 30th November, with a three part episode from 7pm.

While the date hasn’t been officially confirmed by Seven, listings for that week show a 3-part episode on Monday with no episodes scheduled for the rest of the week, making us pretty certain that it’s the date for the 2020 season finale.

It would leave the 2020 season significantly shorter than previous years, with a total of 205 episodes airing.

A typical season sees 230 episodes of Home and Away. Even if we factor in the Olympics, which were meant to take place in late July and normally see the show go off screen for two weeks, we would have usually expected 220 episodes in total.

The shorter season is explained by the impact of Coronavirus, which forced the show to halt production for a number of weeks and caused it to disappear from Australian screens for three weeks back in March.

We don’t yet know when the show will return in 2021, and the date won’t likely be confirmed until early next year. Last year’s first episode back was Monday 27th January, after an 8 1/2 week break, meaning we could be in for a long wait.

UPDATE 19 NOVEMBER – A new trailer for the season finale week aired after Thursday’s triple bill, teasing major drama for the Stewart family on top of everything we discuss below. View the trailer below.

What’s coming up in the Home and Away Season Finale?

As with last year, the details surrounding this year’s season finale have been kept almost completely under wraps.

However, we’ve been teasing one major event for a number of months, and it seems likely to feature heavily in the season finale. Ari Parata (Rob Kipa-Williams) made his first appearance in last year’s finale as an innocent bystander caught in the siege at Northern Districts Hospital, with the rest of the family joining him early this year.

Now, Summer Bay’s newest family look set to play a big part in this year’s finale.

The last few weeks have seen Tane (Ethan Browne) caught up in a drug deal gone wrong, which has brought nothing but pain to the Paratas and those around them. Ari and Tane recently united to carry out one final deal for Leon and his gang, which was meant to write off their debt and draw a line under their problems.

However, when they discovered a note thanking them for their services and promising that yet another job would pay off their debt, they began to realise that they’re far from free.

Could the return of an old Summer Bay favourite release them from their troubles?

Back in August, Home and Away filmed a scene in a car park in a Sydney suburb, in which Heath Braxton (Dan Ewing) made a surprise appearance. The scenes showed a fight between two groups of guys, with Heath seemingly on the same side as Ari, Tane and Dean.

You can watch a video of the fight being filmed below.

We initially speculated that Heath could be back in the Bay to help break Colby Thorne out of prison. While we haven’t completely discounted that theory, it now seems far more likely that Heath is drafted in to help the Paratas out of trouble.

With Ziggy caught up in the drama, perhaps she turns to Dean for help, who uses his old River Boy contacts to put Heath in touch with the Parata brothers? The River Boys are already involved, having recently disposed of Tane’s van of stolen goods, with Ziggy unaware that the outside of the van was lined with $25,000 of drugs.

It’s not yet known how long Heath will be back in the bay, but we’re not expecting him to stick around for long.

As far as we know, Dan Ewing hasn’t been spotted filming on Palm Beach, the real life home of Summer Bay in northern Sydney.

While he could feature heavily in indoor scenes, which are filmed far away from the prying eyes of fans and the paparazzi, it seems unlikely he wouldn’t have been spotted filming outside if he was around for more than a couple of weeks.

Also featuring heavily in the last 2 weeks will be Jasmine and Tori, who look set to clash once again over baby Grace. With the one year anniversary of Robbo’s death approaching, his memory is still weighing heavily on Jasmine’s mind.

She’s struggling to cope with Christian spending more time with Grace, and the sight of Tori and Christian playing happy families has made her yearn for a child of her own.

Jasmine suffered a breakdown earlier this year, leading to Tori taking out a restraining order against her. While they’ve since patched up their friendship and Jasmine has seemingly recovered, the latest spoilers suggest that Tori and Christian will clash over Jasmine in the show’s final fortnight, with Jasmine seeking out a friend in Taylor for support. Could there be another dramatic twist in this story before the year is up?

Finally, what does the future hold for Colby? This week’s episodes saw him sentenced to 25 years in prison for the murder of Ross Nixon. It won’t be the last we see of him, with a number of characters potentially set to visit him in prison in the show’s final week. Yet could it be their final visits?

As has been pointed out, cops don’t do well in prison, and rumour has it Colby doesn’t have an easy time locked up. We lost Mason in last year’s finale; could it be Colby’s turn this year?

The episode synopses for the finale haven’t yet been released, and should be released early next week. We will update this article and our Upcoming Australian Episodes page as soon as we have them. However, here are the synopses for next week’s episodes:

Monday 23rd November (7467)

Ziggy won’t back down. John prepares for a date. Ari receives a troubling text.

Tuesday 24th November (7468)

Tori and Christian clash over Jasmine. John’s date is a disappointment. Ari and Tane consider their options.

Wednesday 25th November (7469)

Tori refuses to accept fault. Jasmine is the friend Taylor needs. Roo’s frustrated with Irene’s impenetrable vault of secrecy.

Thursday 26th November (7470-7472)

Bella can’t find Dean. Martha returns home to tell Alf the truth. Taylor visits Colby.

Distressed, Bella is comforted by Mackenzie and Ari. Dean spirals into self-destruction. Alf deals with a new arrival. Taylor and Angelo continue their reconciliation.

Is Dean too broken to return to his old life? Will Jasmine visit Colby in prison? Will Angelo and Taylor hit the road? Ari gets an unwanted text.

Monday 30th November (7473-7475)

Season Finale. TBA

If past years are anything to go by, it’s also likely that a season finale promo will drop over the next few days, and we’ll bring you that as soon as we can.

For all we know about Home and Away next year, read our ‘Home and Away’s first hints of what’s in store in 2021‘ article.