2025 Season - UK Episode Discussion

[c120701]

7 hours ago, H&Alover said:

1 hour ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

Yes, Irene mentioned last week that she'd heard alcohol abuse can lead to Alzheimer's, but I guess there's no way of knowing for sure. We do, however, now know for sure that she's got Alzheimer's.

Irene had looked up various causes of Alzheimer's and alcoholism was one which of course she focused on, but there are so many  reasons why people develop it.  TPTB will be able to say, hopefully, what may have brought it on and put her mind at rest. 

Yes, but I think the show could have very firmly laid the blame on her past drinking and imagine just how even more heartbreaking that might have been had she either not had the relapse or we’d seen her recent rehab fully play out on screen. I feel like an Alzheimers story could be given to any of the cast, but a diagnosis of Alcohol Related Dementia would have been a story they could only truly tell with Irene.

[H&Alover]

I'm supposing Irene may have been too stunned having her Alzheimer's confirmed to ask if it could be related to her alcoholism, maybe something to come back to.  Alzheimer's can be genetic but I suppose she wouldn't know her family medical history that well.   John has been so lovely with her but I can understand  why she doesn't want people to know as they would look at and treat her differently,  watching her every move thinking any mistake she makes is down to her Alzheimer's and it's her choice when she tells people. Has she told  Finley, Nat and Damien yet? It's the same as Debbie in Corrie because as soon as told her family knew they treated her differently.    John covered for her well when she forgot that she told Leah she was seeing Finley and he had to cover for himself as to why he was also in the city. Poignant her looking at those photos and saying to John how long it would be before she forgot who they were. There was Bianca and Heath,  Tasha and Robbie, who  were the third couple? 

  Justin was very sharp there, twigging that 'friend' John mentioned was Irene and being there for him.   John, quite rightly asked Justin not to say anything to anyone not even Leah who as we saw knew Justin was hiding something and started nagging him to tell her.  They have that agreement that there should be no secrets between but it's not his secret to tell. But as we saw Irene did tell Leah and of course she is going to blame herself for not realising that something was wrong.  Maz, Roo and  Alf are going to be devastated.  Alf will likely think why Irene and not him but age has got nothing to do with it. 

David did chose the right items going by the way Lacey was looking at them and remembering how long she had had them and the memories they brought back, loved teddy, we and Theo found out more about her early life and that she was  a very promising student in her day.  Bit cheeky of him to ask did the RB's know how bright she was. The ballet shoes especially brought good memories back and the fact she had got one over on Jo, typical sister behaviour.  It did push her into meeting up with David and it was going well, she even understood why he couldn't stay at 'their' home any more and remembering the good times, but then he made the mistake of mixing up the sisters which brought it to a screaming halt. I may have got the time scale wrong but didn't he get that call at 8.45 yet it looked like late afternoon when they met up going by where the sun was?

Like Remi  Eden is also feeling lost now there  is no more Lyrik,  it was a  big part of her life even if it had been pushed into the background, it was still something to pick up again, so good Cash was there for her, supporting and not being too pushy in what she could do.  Theo took up repairing and selling older motors as a way not playing with Lyrik  but look where that idea went.  Btw will he be doing it again or has he got enough to do with surf lessons and he garage. 

[Red Ranger 1]

That was a nice nostalgic moment with Irene looking at the photo album, and the little flashback of Chris (with bonus Sasha). I did laugh at the rather random collection of Smith children publicity shots with what were hardly their main love interests: Will with Dani? Nick with Kirsty? (I wondered if they were all from the same era, but the Hayley/Noah one looked a bit later.) The references to Selina and Chloe, her OG waifs and stray, were welcome. I froze it on the albums but didn't see much that wasn't obvious from the first look through other than a page of April(!). (Actually, I tell a lie, there was one of Irene with Ailsa and Fisher that I didn't spot first time round.) I should probably take a closer look at the ones on the table some time, I swear I saw one of Irene with Roman.

As for the present day stuff, well, for the second episode running it was a long wait for a final beat that we've already seen in yesterday's promo (does tomorrow's episode end with Remi trying to kiss Bree?), but at least there's the promise of some decent Irene/Leah stuff next episode.Irene had some nice scenes with John before that and Justin was doing his best caught between a rock and a hard place.

Harper's back and trying not to be as awful as she was before she went away.Despite grumbling about Tane the moment she stepped in the door, apologising to him and letting him have Archie overnight were steps to make up for things. And Dana, continuing to revel in her unfamiliar role as the more together sister (shades of Flick again!), did a decent job of giving her some home truths. I continue to find Jo more likable in her friendship scenes with Dana than in her family stuff.

5 hours ago, H&Alover said:

There was Bianca and Heath,  Tasha and Robbie, who  were the third couple? 

Aden and Belle.

[Dan F]

33 minutes ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

Will with Dani? Nick with Kirsty? (I wondered if they were all from the same era, but the Hayley/Noah one looked a bit later.)

The Nick and Kirsty pic had Seb and Jade chopped off and was from Chris Egan's final day of filming in 2003 - the Noah/Hayley one was their wedding pic from the following year. There was one of Peta and Gypsy in the album too, and weirdly enough what appeared to be Nate and Sophie's wedding picture. Didn't see one of Irene and Roman, perhaps it was the Irene/Lou one you caught?

[Red Ranger 1]

10 minutes ago, Dan F said:

The Nick and Kirsty pic had Seb and Jade chopped off and was from Chris Egan's final day of filming in 2003 - the Noah/Hayley one was their wedding pic from the following year. There was one of Peta and Gypsy in the album too, and weirdly enough what appeared to be Nate and Sophie's wedding picture. Didn't see one of Irene and Roman, perhaps it was the Irene/Lou one you caught?

I identified Noah and Hayley's wedding photo but would not have guessed that was Nick's farewell, I assumed it was from c.2001 when they were a couple. The partly visible one next to Noah and Hayley seems to show Sally as a bridesmaid: I'm guessing Vinnie and Leah's wedding? Yes, you're right, there's one of Peta and Gypsy together on the next page we see, from Peta and Edward's farewell judging by the banner in the background (next to a photo of Tasha). You could be right about that being Lou rather than Roman, it's the one on top of the picture of Leah that Irene picks up.

[Dan F]

1 hour ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

The partly visible one next to Noah and Hayley seems to show Sally as a bridesmaid: I'm guessing Vinnie and Leah's wedding?

Close, it was Leah and Dan's wedding, with Hayley next to Sally. 

1 hour ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

You could be right about that being Lou rather than Roman, it's the one on top of the picture of Leah that Irene picks up.

Yep, that's the dead shelf pic of Lou.

[James Martin]

Next week's episode previews are on the site.  For those aware of what is to come...

Spoiler

Ada recently revealed on the Aussie pace social media that the scene where Irene signs the Diner over to Leah was actually Lynne's final scene, as like all soaps, the show is recorded out of sequence.

Am I right in saying we see that scene next week on 5?

 

[H&Alover]

You do tend to forget  how many people  Irene took in, not just kids but older people too, I lost track of how many there had been.   Lovely 'seeing' them again, nice touch to see Chris Harrington played by the late Jonny Ruffo, I guess TPTB asked his family if they could use his image.  Good John was there again for her.    Then it was business as usual when Harper burst in and Irene momentarily forgot who Archie was.  

Aside from the Irene story and TPTB did keep us dangling - it was more about Harper, Tane, Jo and Dana.  Harper admitting she did make a mistake taking Archie with her on her work trip and going to see Tane and letting him have him overnight, he is such  a cutie - Archie that is - and telling Tane she had overreacted when she saw him with another woman and it wasn't anything to do with her if he saw anyone new, though Archie would come first. Tane playing it down and saying he was not into dating.

Jo and Dana are getting on well now with Jo moaning about her 'new' guy and how this 'mad' woman interrupted their 'date'  when she went onto to say it about this guy having a child  and the description of the 'mad' woman that Dana joined  up the dots after all there aren't any other guys of Tane's age that have a  baby in the bay.  She was very wise not to own up said 'mad' woman is her sister.   Very sisterly conversation between them later which Harper took on board.  

I  Justin for keeping John's - well  Irene's secret to himself despite getting the third degree from Leah, she and Maz know something isn't right with Irene but all he did say it definitely wasn't booze. He did  try and deter her from going to Irene's, Leah back to being annoying and sticking her bib in,  but she got short shrift from her and got thrown out along with John.  Irene did have second thoughts hence that "We need to talk" text to Leah.  That was a moving scene when she broke the news and they hugged.   Be a relief in a  way that Irene  can talk to someone else about it and it will take the pressure off John too. Pretty sure Leah will forgive Justin for keeping that secret to himself.  

[Dan F]

6 hours ago, James Martin said:

Next week's episode previews are on the site.  For those aware of what is to come...

  Hide contents

Ada recently revealed on the Aussie pace social media that the scene where Irene signs the Diner over to Leah was actually Lynne's final scene, as like all soaps, the show is recorded out of sequence.

Am I right in saying we see that scene next week on 5?

That scene is the following week. Though it was known long before Ada mentioned it. It's also not usually that out of sequence, it was a scene that was originally scrapped but they then decided they wanted it after all, several weeks down the line. 

[Red Ranger 1]

Alf's episode count this week:Three.

Wow, not only was the last scene of the promo not the last scene of the episode, it wasn't even the last scene of the storyline! Very tentative steps forward from Remi and Bree then, I guess they've been together a long time on and off and aren't quite willing to ditch it just yet, and once Bree relaxed a bit and stopped critiquing Remi's choice of conversation topics they actually seemed to get on quite well.

Abigail only seemed to be in the episode to say the worst thing at the worst times.She's been a bit premature about Mackenzie and Levi's baby making more than once now.So, with nothing apparently wrong with Levi (sorry, Oz pace fans!), it's time to turn to their family history for a worrying parallel. I can't make my mind up whether IVF is a good idea or not, it was the way for Mackenzie's parents to have her but presumably they'd been trying a lot longer than this before going down that route?

Harper seemed to be on an apology tour to make up for her crazy jealous ex routine.But it seems that being told the bold facts was even more off-putting to Jo than Harper turning up mid-date to shout at Tane.

All of which added up to a rather full episode that didn't leave much time for Irene and Leah, who quickly accelerate into trying to carry on as normal. (Alf's comedy grumbling wasn't entirely in-keeping.) It feels like now Irene knows she has Alzheimer's, she's attributing every slip of memory to it: I often can't remember if I've done something or not either! But one disastrous shift later, she's apparently decided she can't stay working at the Diner.