Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[H&Alover]

That conversation was a tad awkward, but was some thawing which I guess was avoiding any mention of the A word. Their talking about Brody and his reporting in at the cop shop become apparent later.  Tori breaks the new rule by turning to Ash for help to find Brody which of course he does. 

It looked like Brody was finding it tough being back at home, even if it was for such a short while, getting flash backs of when he was going through withdrawal the last time. His hearing Salt had been sold to Kath didn't help, wasn't Tori's fault, she really thought he knew.

Ziggy did do well to hold out as long as she did, but being threatened with a gun would make anyone cave in. So how is overdosing Brody and Ziggy going to help Zannis get away, being done for drug dealing is one thing but double murder kicks it up several notches. Wonder what Zannis would have done if Brody had taken Irene's advice and ignored her message, phoned him himself and told him what he'd do if he didn't show?

How handy then Irene was at the scene when Kat got the message Brody hadn't shown up at the cop shop so she was able to give Kat the heads up as to where he may be.  Is that the first time we've seen the front of that famous motel where everyone in the bay stays at some point?

Will Kat be calling for backup once she's assessed the situation or do a Nick and try and handle it herself until it arrives? Robbo, going by the trailer, looks like he can handle himself in hostage situations which raises more questions as to what his past history is.  Now I may be way, way off here, but when Scarlett and Kat were  discussing the photo Robbo had of her, Scarlett suggested he may have been hired by someone, the name Dylan flashed through my mind.

I'm on the other side I don't like Nick, I'm not sure his blocking the pier improvements/renovations was more to do with Maggie doing her job and suspending Jenny than him doing his job as councillor(?)/concerned citizen  by revealing the pier and it's surrounds had a Heritage listing, first we've heard of it seemed news to Alf as well.  I can see why Ben automatically jumped to the conclusion it was Alf and Alf did well in keeping his temper, he soon convinced Ben it was nothing to do with him. So Ben can't do any improvements that would affect the outside look of the diner/bait shop/flat, except for necessary repairs, like the piling.  That could have the knock-on effect of anything Alf or Leah may have wanted to do. Obviously this Nick Dutton person has been around awhile but TPTB have just decided to pop him and his daughter into the storyline.

Maz was being Maz, hates to see anyone alone and looking helpless.  It can't be good for Robbo just sitting around not doing anything, fretting about what his background is, will he remember who he is?  I had to laugh when Robbo took his shirt off at the surf club and John turned a nice shade of green when Marilyn was clocking Robbo's hot (in more ways than one) torso.  If it was on surf club grounds making it private land there would be no problem with John testing if Robbo can drive, be very unusual if he didn't remember he was able to drive, though the way they were all arguing and John was shouting at him would unnerve anyone so no surprise he reversed into Kat's car.  Even if it had shown he was a good driver no way could he suddenly just jump in the bus and drive, you need a special licence/insurance, maybe whatever the equivalent of a DBS check is to cover you for carrying passengers (I'm overthinking it, aren't I?) and as yet the guy we know as Robbo doesn't even have an ordinary  licence so I'm not sure how that would affect John's insurance.

[Red Ranger 1]

Alf's episode count last week:Three.

Had six episodes to catch up on but got there in the end.And yes, it seems my opinion of Ben as a Neanderthal was pretty much spot-on.He gets aggressive with Alf and Leah without checking his facts, bullies and manhandles Brody and instantly went back on his decision to stop treating Ziggy like a child by doing exactly that.I might be more understanding of his attitude towards Brody if he didn't treat everyone like that.After all, he's coming from a similar viewpoint to Mason, who's refusing to listen to the excuses: As he said, whether Zannis was there or not, Brody caused the accident and brought Zannis into their lives in the first place.The route leads back to him, as it did with what happened to Ziggy...who suddenly seems willing to go along with Ben's instructions, although that didn't last long last time.And we suddenly get vague references to something that happened to Maggie, which may involve Ziggy...It was kind of a relief to see Ziggy acknowledge she's a horrible sister, because she really does cross the line at times to the point of coming out with stuff worthy of Jennifer (her unknowingly goading Coco into throwing up last week, for example).So, seems Zannis is finally gone for good, after continuing to display his ability to sit a few feet away from Justin unnoticed.

I guess Nick isn't going to be a proper love interest for Leah since he turned out to be the bullying father of the latest school terror.(Mind you, that's how John started out!) I'm also assuming he hasn't been in town for very long given that no-one seems to know him.Still, he did what Alf and Leah failed to do and got the Astonis' renovations shut down.And, bonkersly, the guy delivering the news was the lawyer John dispensed with in favour of Morag earlier in the year! Guess he's gone up in the world...On which subject, the credits seem to be going a bit insane lately.We had Wally's wife listed as Claire King instead of Claire Burns in her first episode, and then Nick was credited as being played by Julian Garner (the guy that plays Wally!) instead of Jacob Allan.And that's just the ones I noticed!

When Wally offered Hunter the money to stay away, I found myself wishing Zac and Leah had done that when he first turned up.Meanwhile, the show struggles to find anything to do with Raffy.Moving her out of the crowded Morgan house and in with John and Marilyn feels like lumping all the characters with no purpose together, and she gets made best friends with first Ellie and then Coco, neither of which are actually the same age of her but hey, they're girls and go to Summer Bay High and apparently that's enough.Now, instead of bringing in characters her age, they actually seem to be coming up with a plot reason for her to hang out with the wrong age group! (Confirmation Coco and Jennifer are in the same year, by the way.)

Yeah, Ash and Tori's two-faced behaviour has frustrated me as well.It's pretty obvious that Ash is lining her up as a replacement in case things with Kat don't work out, while she laps up the attention.We get more of Robbo playing the hero, and as someone pointed out a while back, it feels as though this is solely to give Kat someone so we won't mind if Ash hooks up with Tori.Ash has pretty much given up any pretence of respecting Kat's feelings, inviting Tori round for a flirt.(By the way, I liked the brief bit of VJ and Ash looking like Luc's two daddies, although the show's clearly struggling with what to do with VJ now.Getting rid of Billie still feels like a mistake.)

[Ludub]

12 minutes ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

(By the way, I liked the brief bit of VJ and Ash looking like Luc's two daddies)

Don't tempt me, Red! You know what I'm like with same-sex couples in my fanfic! Lol! 

[pembie]

13 minutes ago, Ludub said:

Don't tempt me, Red! You know what I'm like with same-sex couples in my fanfic! Lol! 

If it works for the story I say go for it Ash isn't having much luck with the women at the moment. But its kind of wrong for VJ to date Billie's brother haha

[Slade]

Well that episode just made me end up hating Ben.  Firstly the way he accused Leah of being in cahoots with Nick.  Even if she was so what?  He and Maggie deserve it (I'm actually happy for Nick to continue to make things difficult for Ben and Maggie as long as Jen backs off Coco).  Then there was the way Ben went round to the Morgans and had Brody up against the wall.  I was hoping Justin would have reacted a bit quicker than he did or at least confronted Ben afterwards.

Given that Brody tried to apologise to Ziggy and she told him never to contact him again, the fact that he is a recovering drug addict and Ben's warning I do now think he should stay away from her unfortunately.  At least for the time being.

Robbo was impressive taking Zannis and his two henchmen out commando style.  Perhaps he was part of the Australian equivalent of Special forces as he clearly knew how to handle the gun and clip the magazine out to stop Zannis from shooting someone.  I found the conversation with Ash and Kat in the Diner quite interesting.  Ash saying he wishes he'd been there and Kat responding to that by claiming even if he had what could he have done.  Almost like Robbo succeeded where Ash failed as when he faced off against Zannis all that happened was that he got badly beaten up and had a trip to the hospital.  As I suspected it really looks like the writers are going to break Kat and Ash up and pair them with Tori and Robbo respectively.

I think I know what I find annoying about the way Maggie talks.  She drags a lot of her words out.  Arrrgghh.  Anyway, whilst I felt bad for Ziggy and she obviously didn't deserve what Zannis put her through I didn't feel any sympathy for Maggie and Ben for what they went through.  Just out of curiosity I am interested to know what happened to Maggie exactly though.

[Red Ranger 1]

Well...To be honest, Ash and Kat have had so many break-ups that despite the apparent finality of this one, I wouldn't be all that surprised if they end up back together in a month or two.(Certainly it seems to be what Tori's expecting!) Hard to have any sympathy for Ash with his disingenuous claim to have cut ties with Tori, neglecting to mention the fact that he invited her in for a spot of happy families the previous night.But Kat's angsting and speed to rebound is hard to empathise with either, and the speed with which Robbo moved in doesn't say much for him.Not sure how far things went: I'm guessing not very, given that they still had most of their clothes on, but I wouldn't be surprised if we suddenly get told they slept together next week.At least Scarlett got a lecture from Alf on the spirit of Summer Bay!

Really really don't care about Hunter and Wally, with Olivia serving the role of an utterly pointless Greek chorus.I'd be happy for Wally to cut his losses and get going since Hunter's not really the type that anyone but the terminal bleeding hearts of Summer Bay would accept into their bosom.(Which may contradict my previous paragraph but there are limits: Bashing someone over the head because you're concussed, amnesiac and scared is forgivable, firebombing your presumed father's house because he won't spend time with you less so.)

Not sure if I like Beth or not.This is another case where the wronged party is treated like they're in the wrong for not toeing the party line.Mason has had to pay the price for Brody's bad choices and I found Tori and Justin laying on a guilt trip and telling him to cheer up and get over it supremely annoying.It's only been a couple of weeks and it's not like he's wallowing, he's just understandably feeling a bit sorry for himself and having a short fuse with people who seem to be demonstrating a decided lack of sympathy for him.So I'd rather he'd had someone give him a sympathetic ear rather than some loon make it her mission in life to bully him into enjoying himself.Even if it did seem to work.Bit of mystery as to who exactly she is after all that.But then apparently anyone can disguise themselves as a member of staff with a bit of effort.They must just leave the appropriate clothes out for anyone to steal.

[Slade]

I thought when I saw the preview at the end of last week that Kat would actually cheat on Ash so I'm glad that didn't happen but I just didn't find Kat finishing with him like that not very plausible.  Not after the way she was when Nate finished with her.  And I find it especially unbelievable given that she told him she loved him and then made out with Robbo later on even though I suspected that she liked Robbo (I'm assuming Tori interrupted them from engaging in full on intercourse).  Have to admit I loved the part when Ash shouted at her and told her to get out.  Not because I have anything against Kat but I always find it highly amusing when Ash loses it like that.  And he just happened to bump into Tori right afterwards.  I actually wasn't convinced  she was sorry they'd broken up when Ash told her initially as not only could she be friends with him again but there was also a chance for a lot more now.  And I couldn't tell from her facial expression when Ash walked off but when she went round to see Kat she did actually seem genuine.  So I'm assuming she cares enough about Ash to want him to be happy.

I'm guessing by the way Beth was eavesdropping on the conversation with Mason and Justin when he threw his "hissy fit" and that fact that she is intrigued by him that she probably fancies him.  I don't understand how she or anyone can find him remotely interesting.  Awful, awful character.  I'm finding him pretty insufferable atm and when he's not he's like watching paint dry.

Does Olivia have to be involved in absolutely everything concerning Hunter?  Regardless, I do have to admit, I laugh at their reactions, facial expressions and awkwardness during and after every meeting he has with Wally.  Hunter literally acts like he's pulling teeth out and he would rather be somewhere else.  I buried my head when Wally overheard Hunter say what he really thought of him.  Felt a bit sorry for him too.

Scarlett understandably still doesn't trust Robbo.  Although Alf firmly seems to be team Robbo now.  Can't figure out if she offered to dig into his background because Alf genuinely talked her into giving him or chance or if she finds out who he is and his memory returns he is more likely to leave the bay.

[H&Alover]

Yes Ben has a short fuse and like Alf, amusingly said, the only exercise he gets is jumping to conclusions, but at least with him what you see is what you get.  But Nasty Nick is a different proposition, all charming on the surface when he wants to get people on his side, but I suspect if he doesn't get his way he could turn very nasty. Something about him I just don't like, he's too smooth. He's already threatened Maggie just for doing her job and having the nerve to suspend his daughter.  It seems he's on this committee  that is responsible for the Heritage listing so maybe not a new bay resident just been there but never seen or mentioned.  From Ben's point of view Brody was responsible for Zannis kidnapping Ziggy, if they weren't friends and had been seen together she wouldn't have been picked out.  It seems, for now at any rate, Ziggy has decided for herself to distance herself from Brody as what happened really scared her, she didn't understand at all how vicious Zannis could be.  Maybe that little snippet of when Maggie mentioned that she had gone through something similar could explain Ben's over protectiveness.  I did like those scenes between Ziggy and Coco proved what I said earlier they may fight like a lot of sisters and 'hate' each other at times, after all as I think Ziggy said it's the hand book, but essentially they love each other, wonder how long this truce will last? Wonder what that 'something bad' was that Ziggy hinted at but then clammed up? Nothing to do with Nasty Nick putting the kibosh on the improvements but what happened to Ziggy putting things into prospective and that there are more important things to worry about.

Handy that Robbo just happened to be in Kat's car on the way to the station when they called in at the motel. She didn't do a Jack (not Nick) and put herself at risk, she had no reason to suspect anything was wrong.  Zannis was getting more and more desperate and btw he did a rubbish job of tying Kat up. Brody and Ziggy did a good job by trying to warn Kat was going on by shouting that warning so she was able to protect herself somewhat.  Thug no.1 just saw another person sitting in the cop car so he would assume it was another cop, hence the calling in of thug no.2. Robbo reacted well by not reacting straight away, but waited to see how it panned out.  Thus he was able to get the drop on the two minions without alerting Zannis. He certainly knew what he was doing, and surprised both Zannis and Kat by the way he tackled him, those were lightening quick reactions. As he said later he acted on instinct, something  in his subconscious kicking in.  Kat suspects he could be a cop or ex cop, wouldn't that have shown up somewhere when the initial search was done. I do have to say he has a good bod, Marilyn liked the look of it as does Kat and Scarlett though she wouldn't admit it.  Apart from him and Ash having that pushing each other about stint, he hasn't done anything to make anyone think he's a bad guy, keeping himself to himself, done two good deeds, saving Raffy from that yobbo and now saving Kat, Brody and Ziggy.  Maybe Scarlett has her own reason for doubting him,  but although Kat's instincts have been flawed in the past, Alf likes him and he's not easily taken in.  I liked his advice to Scarlett to give him a go, not sure how she can help when Kat and the police couldn't?

Zannis finally behind bars at long last where he belongs, charged not only with drug dealing, kidnap, assault and attempted murder and I guess as he hasn't any money no smart lawyer to get him out of it. Ash was jealous when he got to the hospital to see how Kat was and saw Robbo there, but he did have the decency for thanking him for saving Kat. No reason Ash should blame himself for not being there for her, he wouldn't have intended to but he could have made it worse nor having Robbo's instincts.

Kat and Ash's break up has been a long time coming, she did try and make it as painless as possible and I think deep down Ash knew she was right but went on the defensive.  Tori was always going to be an issue whether she meant to be or not, though that's only part of it.   Btw I thought she invited herself round the night before, saying she was looking for Kat, true Ash needn't have asked her in, but he acts first and thinks later. There is definitely a spark between Robbo and Kat though Kat didn't want to admit it. I think the unanswered reply to Robbo's questions about who she wanted him to be was 'a good guy'. I hope that was just a sympathy snog and did get interrupted by Tori before it went too much further.  Kat had been drinking and was hurting and wouldn't be fair on Robbo as whoever he is he deserves more than a rebound romance.  Of course Kat has to come out with one of soaps clichés 'It won't be happening again' no of course it won't.

  The look on Tori's face when Ash told her he and Kat had split spoke volumes,  I could almost hear the wheels turning - 'how long should I leave it before I make my move so it doesn't look like it I've been waiting for this moment'  'Don't want a rebound romance so should leave it awhile'.

Olivia is Hunter's wingwoman and there needs to be a third person to enliven the rather stilted conversations that Hunter and Wally seem to always have, he always to be very uptight as if fun is an alien concept.  There really is no common ground between them, I didn't hear what Wally actually sells but it didn't get Hunter's juices flowing and Wally was very dismissive of Hunter's plans though they were a bit vague.  Zac would have backed Hunter's idea to train as a basketball coach even if he had thought it wouldn't be easy. Hunter is only 18 and Wally's proposition wouldn't appeal selling whatever it is Wally sells. Oops that was a bit awkward Wally walking in when he did though it could be a good thing rather than having Hunter and Wally struggle on trying to connect.

Mason is having a good wallow and his family urging him to buck up and still trying to get him to forgive Brody won't help, he'll just dig his heels in more, well he would if he could - sorry.  This Beth person was taking a risk moving Mas from his bed into that chair, she obviously knew how to handle him as she could have caused more damage and put him back further.  Tori has a good memory knowing who's a nurse and who isn't to realise Beth isn't a nurse, like that idea Red of there being spare uniforms lying around for the wandering stranger/patient to pick up and wear.  The guy who drugged Nate was wearing greens to blend in.

[Red Ranger 1]

7 hours ago, H&Alover said:

like that idea Red of there being spare uniforms lying around for the wandering stranger/patient to pick up and wear.  The guy who drugged Nate was wearing greens to blend in.

Ranae found it worryingly easy to get hold of a disguise at the start of the season as well!

So, goodbye Wally it seems.I guess the message that a few strands of DNA, as Wally put it, doesn't a family make is very much in keeping with the show's spirit.Just a shame that it was forgotten about during all the "VJ will never be Luc's father" nonsense, while Hunter gets a surrogate family he doesn't really deserve after everything he did to them.I really wasn't keen on the "No looking back" speech, which really did feel like the show saying "This means you're supposed to forget about everything Hunter's done and like him, okay?!"

It was nice to see Mason and Olivia get scenes together in an episode where he's actually conscience (even if she was soon back being shoehorned into Hunter and Wally's farewell scene which really didn't need her).So, it seems Beth is a patient at the hospital and apparently one in a not particularly good way if she's needing regular oxygen treatments.It almost sounded like she's stuck there permanently.Mason's tendency to falls for girls very quickly still seems to be present and correct...

I don't know what it is about Marilyn but just about everything she's done recently has annoyed me.I really wasn't keen on the way she spoke to John and Roo, even though I didn't entirely disagree with her stance.I'm also not sure why her definition of "do this properly" involved a bunch of random people sitting at a table, rather than actually involving Maggie as implied or indeed Raffy's family.Seriously, why is such a big decision about her future apparently down to the two random people she's staying with rather than her legal guardians?And how long is she going to be there anyway?She moved in because Brody was struggling to get off the drugs and they didn't want her around while they dealt with it: That's now apparently done and yeah, there's problems, but there's no danger and if they're waiting for things to be perfect before she moves back in they'll be waiting forever.Anyway, I can see good points on both sides of the argument.It's true that Raffy shouldn't be forced to move up a year if it's just going to make her miserable, but it's also true that there's no point keeping her in Year 9 if she's just going to be bored and underachieve.

[Slade]

It wouldn't surprise me if Beth is terminally ill.  I can just picture the storyline, Mason after being unlucky in love on numerous occasions finds the girl of his dreams, only to discover out she's dying.

I found I actually agreed with Marilyn regarding Raffy.  Roo and John were putting way too much pressure on her.

So Hunter and Wally decide to go their separate ways.  Shame although at this current time it's probably the best thing for both of them.