New Home and Away promo promises year “Bigger and Better Than Ever”

There are just two weeks remaining until Home and Away returns to Australian screens. It’s back on 1 February at 7pm, bringing with it the promise of a year that’s “bigger and better than ever”.

To promote the return to Summer Bay, Seven have released an extended trailer teasing some of the action coming up next year. You can watch the trailer above in full, and keep reading for a full breakdown of everything in store.

While the trailer doesn’t reveal much that we didn’t already know, it gives us our most extensive preview to date of some of the main storylines coming up in 2021.

Colby is hospitalised after prison brawl

We ended the 2020 season of Home and Away with Colby in trouble. He knew that he had to keep his head down in prison – he’d struggle to survive if his fellow inmates discovered he was a cop.

In the final few moments of the season, his secret was revealed. As he was approached from all sides by numerous prisoners, one announced “You really thought that you’d get away with it… Constable Thorne!”

When the season returns, Colby will be forced to face the music. What will his inmates do now they know the truth about him?

We had initially speculated that the 2020 season finale could spell the end for Colby Thorne, but he’s set to continue on the show for the early part of 2021. The new promo shows that he ends up hospitalised after the prison attack, and that the prison guards are forced to perform CPR to resuscitate him.

He clearly ends up in a bad way, as Bella visits an unconscious Colby on his hospital bed, and Dean says “You do whatever it takes to survive.”

Tim Franklin hasn’t been seen filming at Palm Beach, the real life home of Summer Bay, since mid 2020. As such, it’s expected that Colby won’t make it and will succumb to his injuries.

If that’s the case, how will that leave Dean and Bella, who are already struggling to come to terms with Colby’s prison sentence? Things should get especially tense when Willow returns early in the year.

Tori and Christian’s romance blossoms

2021 marks a fresh start for Tori and Christian. Tori has hopefully finally patched things up with Jasmine, so can put their feud behind her and focus on her relationship with Christian.

As we already know, the couple are set to get engaged later on in the year, so we suspect their relationship to progress at lightning speed over the coming months.

Christian’s dark secret that not even he knows

Yet an arrival from Christian’s past could throw a spanner in the works. It turns out Christian has a dark secret… but one that not even he knows.

New character Lewis Hayes appeared in the final episodes of last year, played by Luke Arnold. He is set to seek revenge on Christian, as it transpires that a medical mistake by Christian cost his ex wife her life.

When Lewis discovers that Christian is working at Northern Districts Hospital, he makes it his aim to get revenge on the doc. Of course, Christian has no idea that Lewis felt that way, let alone that he would come to Summer Bay and track him down.

“He’s a danger to his patients”, Lewis tells Jasmine. “I’m going to be watching him like a hawk.”

With Jasmine and Tori finally on good terms, could Lewis’s vengeance against Christian cause it all to come crashing down?

The end for Dean and Ziggy?

“I love her. I never wanted to split up.” – That’s how Dean describes the situation with ex girlfriend Ziggy. Months after their breakup, he’s still pining for her.

He knows that if it wasn’t for his part in Ross’s murder, the two would still be together. Now that the truth is out and Colby is in prison, he wants nothing more than for them to put it all behind them and carry on with their lives together.

Yet Ziggy just can’t forgive him. After all, he kept the murderous secret for almost two years, and has been lying to her for the entirety of their relationship.

She still loves him, but knows she needs to let him go. Thankfully, she has some help getting over him, in the form of Tane Parata. The pair slept together for the first time in the final moments of 2020, and they’re set to grow ever closer in the new year.

“There are a million reasons why we shouldn’t be together,” Ziggy tells Tane. She’s right – his criminal past has already almost got her into serious trouble, and it looks like his sticky situation with Paul and Leon is only set to get worse.

But is she set to ignore the warning signs?

Kieran battles his demons

The revelation that Martha has an adult son shook Alf to his core in the final weeks of last year. He and Martha have been married for almost a year, yet she failed to tell him that she’d had a son in their 30 years apart.

It transpires that the pair have a deeply troubled relationship, and Martha had to call the police on him the last time they saw each other. Now, with Kieran’s alcohol issues supposedly under control, he wants to play a part in her life.

In touching scenes, Alf began warming to Kieran. He understood his issues with alcohol, having seen his friends battle with addiction in the past, and could see that he clearly wants to turn the page.

“He’s my son, Alf. He’s a good kid,” explains Martha. “He just made a lot of bad choices.”

Yet it looks like his poor choices continue in 2021, as the promo shows Kieran’s anger coming out in dramatic fashion.

We see Kieran punching a tree, which happened at the end of last year after Jasmine rejects his request for an immediate interview for the Summer Bay Fit position.

It seems that burst of anger wasn’t a one off. The trailer appears to show a brawl in the Surf Club, with Alf and Roo left shocked by what they see. 

“You know nothing about me,” Kieran tells Roo as he storms past her.

Later on in the trailer, he’s dragged from his car by a police officer. Just what will Kieran do?

Ari’s ex comes back to haunt him

As we revealed last week, Ari Parata is in for a surprise when his ex girlfriend and her daughter arrive in Summer Bay.

He’s kept his past a secret since he arrived in the bay at the end of 2019, but we’re set to delve a little more into his history as the year progresses.

His ex girlfriend Mia is set to arrive in town, along with her daughter Chloe. While it’s plain sailing for Chloe, who quickly hits it off with Ryder and re-ignites her friendship with Nikau, it looks like sparks are set to fly between Mia and Ari.

With Ari currently dating Mackenzie, we suspect she won’t be best pleased when one of his exes rocks up. What’s more, the promo shows the pair getting flirty as they wash a truck, with Ari spraying Mia with the hose as she chucks a bucket of water over him.

Is this the end for Ari and Mac?

Justin’s health continues to deteriorate?

It looks like his latest operation doesn’t spell the end to Justin Morgan’s health troubles. A brief scene from the new promo shows him collapse to the floor of Summer Bay Auto, suggesting either he’s pushing himself too hard in his recovery, or that his carcinoma could well be growing back.

As we wrote earlier last year, he’s set for another scare later in 2021 as he gets into trouble surfing and needs to be rescued. Scenes filmed at Palm Beach in October saw Justin film a dramatic drowning scene. The confident surfer was pictured surfing as normal, before losing control.

He manages to use one flailing arm to attract the attention of the life guards. Thankfully, he’s spotted in time, and the rescue team speed out to bring him in.

Hopefully there’ll be some happiness for poor Justin at some point in the year?

A river boy returns

It wouldn’t be a Home and Away 2021 promo without the biggest news of all. We’ve known since August that Heath Braxton is set to make a comeback, and those scenes are now just weeks away.

We know his return has something to do with the Paratas, but we don’t yet know what part he’ll play, or how long he’ll be sticking around for. But we don’t have long to wait…

The promo also shows a devastated Bella on the edge of the pier – perhaps having heard some bad news about Colby’s condition?

It also previews romance for Lewis and Jasmine…

…and John and newcomer Susie McAllister, played by McLeod’s Daughters star Bridie Carter. How will Marilyn react to seeing John happy with another woman?

Want to know more…?

We’ve got an extensive article covering everything we know about Home and Away in 2021, so click through for a much more in-depth look at everything previewed in the new promo.

For all the gossip on Ari Parata’s ex Mia and her daughter Chloe, check out this article from last week.

If you missed the promo itself, you’ll find it at the top of this article.

Home and Away returns to Seven, at 7pm on Monday 1 February.