2025 Season - UK Episode Discussion

[Medea Fleecestealer]

Leah chasing after Sonny again.  Not answering her calls/texts, but when she finds out about the gig in Broken Hills she's coming too.  Justin should just turn around and tell her all the complimentary tickets are gone already so no, she can't come. 

[Red Ranger 1]

David definitely seems to have backed off from not long ago when he was head cheerleader for Team Eddie. Not only did Lacey's comments probably have an effect, but so did Eddie's unwittingly blowing the secret that Jo and Tane were together for a bit. Ironically, this is right as Jo is trying to convince herself that she can let go of Tane and commit to Eddie. I feel like David could have given Eddie his blessing to propose while making it clear that it's up to Jo whether she accepts or not, but he wouldn't even do that.

So that's both Tane and Dana who've switched from desperate that Kerrie shouldn't see Archie to just grumbling a bit while letting Harper do what she likes.

Yep, Leah is continuing to obsess about Sonny and has now decided to follow him to the festival. Marilyn's moralising was typically hypocritical: How many husbands who were good men has she turned her back on? Two? Three? (Marilyn has officially turned into one of those long-serving characters who can't pass judgement on anything because they're bound to have done it themselves at some point.) Remi seemed to be being a stresshead but hopefully won't go as far as last time.

[James Martin]

Heads up for Virgin Media viewers, the episode labelling has gone arse-about-face again.  Tuesday's episode (part 1 of the season finale) is labelled as Series 37, Ep 42, complete with a synopsis from April 2024.

That version is the HD version, it's also available where you'd expect to find it (Series 38, Ep228 Pt1) but as an "off-air" capture from 5 Star and therefore SD.

[H&Alover]

We did see David catching Jo and Tane together,  raising his suspicions after what Eddie had told him  but they were just talking.  I did have to smile when David told Eddie they, Jo and Tane weren't that involved, he doesn't know what we and Lacey  know. 

The idea of Justin's not to have those flyers for the train not to be given out at the Diner didn't go to plan as Leah saw them at the Surf Club.  Anyways someone could have  picked one up and taken it into the Diner where she would have seen it.  She did catch Justin out on his lie but I can't say I blame him for not telling her the truth.  It means a lot to Remi to have this Music Festival go right 

Maz, like others, have been trying to get Leah to see  it from Justin's side and get over her obsession with Sonny but it didn't work and then she stomps off  leaving Maz to run the place on her own.  Leah could have still  turned up at the station and hassled Sonny and Justin. 

Sonny did admit to Justin that Leah had been ringing/texting him but had ignored them. 

Mayhap Tane and Dana are trusting Harper to keep her word  not to  let Kerrie be alone with Archie. 

Mali's secret plan to take Abi  away for the weekend doesn't go to plan.  Nor does Eddie's proposal. 

 

 

[Red Ranger 1]

Seriously, what is wrong with Sonny? There's being too nice for your own good, and then there's being too much of a coward to do what's right instead of what's easy, and that's where he is now. Justin can see it, Dana can see it, yet Sonny's happy to just go on taking the easy way out and playing along with Leah's delusions. It's lucky that Lacey inadvertently provided some straight-talking honesty, or she'd be on that platform tucking his shirt in for him. It feels like we've had several false dawns with regards Leah taking a look at herself, but it's nearly the end of the season, so maybe this one will stick?

Mali learns the problem with arranging a surprise for someone: They don't know you're doing it. He looks pretty self-satisfied every time he convinces Abigail he doesn't want to do anything with her, but the result was her going out and getting hammered because she didn't know there was a reason not to...although waking up in the middle of nowhere probably wasn't planned. So much for having tickets then, if they'll just let anyone on the train!

It was nice to see everyone letting their hair down, aside from Remi demanding everyone network. Him off Neighbours makes a brief but notable appearance as one of the party goers.

[CaptainHulk]

20 hours ago, James Martin said:

Heads up for Virgin Media viewers, the episode labelling has gone arse-about-face again.  Tuesday's episode (part 1 of the season finale) is labelled as Series 37, Ep 42, complete with a synopsis from April 2024.

That version is the HD version, it's also available where you'd expect to find it (Series 38, Ep228 Pt1) but as an "off-air" capture from 5 Star and therefore SD.

Alf: You're Kiddin'!

1 hour ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

Seriously, what is wrong with Sonny? There's being too nice for your own good, and then there's being too much of a coward to do what's right instead of what's easy, and that's where he is now. Justin can see it, Dana can see it, yet Sonny's happy to just go on taking the easy way out and playing along with Leah's delusions. It's lucky that Lacey inadvertently provided some straight-talking honesty, or she'd be on that platform tucking his shirt in for him. It feels like we've had several false dawns with regards Leah taking a look at herself, but it's nearly the end of the season, so maybe this one will stick?

Mali learns the problem with arranging a surprise for someone: They don't know you're doing it. He looks pretty self-satisfied every time he convinces Abigail he doesn't want to do anything with her, but the result was her going out and getting hammered because she didn't know there was a reason not to...although waking up in the middle of nowhere probably wasn't planned. So much for having tickets then, if they'll just let anyone on the train!

It was nice to see everyone letting their hair down, aside from Remi demanding everyone network. Him off Neighbours makes a brief but notable appearance as one of the party goers.

Hmmm rumblings suggest our friend Lach Miller (better known as Richie "I dated MacKenzie in High School" Jeeve) may be a bigger factor than previously thought....

*ruffles beard*

[c120701]

As much as Leah is being insufferable at the minute, I think it’s easy to forget that as well as grieving her nephew, she’s essentially grieving the loss of her best friend & business partner too, or at least the Irene she knew. 
 

I can’t help thinking that she could really do with Colleen right now, and I think the show could too. It’s been a heavy few months.

Edited 23 hours ago by c120701

[James Martin]

Well that was a decent finale, bringing together many of the arcs that dovetailed by off the (intended) UK finale.  It was all a bit "blink and you miss it" at the end though, I know they don't have the budgets the British soaps do but if you look at the Corrie tram crash, or the very similar "party train" stunt Hollyoaks did a few years back, it didn't have the same sense of spectacle.  But that's the problem with H&A; you can't do a stunt that "wounds" an exterior central community location in the way Corrie's tram crash or Emmerdale's plane crash were able to.  AI probably will be able to pull off a tsunami in time but you can't then convincingly water damage half of Palm Beach in the aftermath.

I know the Promo's big plot hole got pointed out when it aired in Australia, but WTF is David and the Yabbie Creek team doing there so quickly after an incident, errrr, out of area?

It will be interesting to see how the Sonny arc plays out - the last time I heard "I can't feel my legs" on a soap was Chris Tate in Emmerdale with either half the Woolpack or an aeroplane, not sure which, on top of him.  Fair play to Yorkshire TV they saw that one through right until the actor left a decade later, no miracle cure.

Anyway, thanks 2025 it's been emotional.  See y'all in the 2026 thread when it appears!

As Dan points out over in 2026, 6:30pm is the new 1:45pm and the one "press are expected to follow" (so I assume the soap mags are working to the new format?) so if you're still wedded to 6pm and don't want who dies (we hope it's not Sonny or Justin, given it can't be Leah) be mindful of that over the weekend.

[H&Alover]

Sonny has been a bit of a softie regards Leah, him telling her in a gentle way to back off didn't work but I don't think it's his way to be brutal about it.  Lacey's talking to her followed on from Alf's comment about getting she's mourning someone she's lost but that she should remember who she's still got. Lacey's comment about how Theo would want her to carry on living  and how he'd want her to go to the Festival for him.  It did make her change her mind about going to the station and harassing Sonny and finally admitting to Alf she had got it all wrong. No surprise Justin was ignoring her calls, at least it was him she was ringing and not Sonny.  Alf had the right ide to ring him, maybe to suggest he answer her call? 

I wonder what Irene would have made of it all and if she could have made Leah see it from Justin's side and that she isn't alone. Leah did have the good grace to apologise to Maz for her recent behaviour. 

That is indeed the problem with surprises, if the person it is being sprung on doesn't know about it, they would want to do their own thing.  Abi seemed to have  forgotten it was a year since she and Mali got together until Mac filled her in.  It looked like she was in a completely different  part of the train when she woke up as she had to dash from one carriage to where the Party was. I'm guessing Abi was meant to get off before the train left.

Eden, despite her insistence, did seem wistful she wasn't on the train, still the Bloody Mary made up for it. 

Soaps, any soaps, had a lot more money back in the day but due to cut backs they have to wing it and make stunts like that as realistic as they can.  The most recent for us in the UK was the one in the Corriedale episode, it was  a night shoot which also, I guess, makes it easier with bodies, wreckage.  The train crash was in a  tunnel so also dark.  All we saw were various shapes of bodies lying around.  

Is there a railway station in the Bay because Abi asked which the next station was and told it was Yabbie Creek where David works out from.  It did look by from what we saw the  scenery outside  they has been travelling a while, yet David and Cash seem to be able to get to the bay pretty easily.  The emergency crew did get here pretty quickly but I suppose they would be quick on their toes if an emergency  like that  happens. The Graffitti artists did seem surprised to hear the train, they must some clue how many trains run on it. Them dumping their bikes caused the crash then. 

Isaac's  lighthearted flirting with Mac came to an abrupt end when she told him she had a boyfriend and  was hoping to have a baby.   My have been my eyes but it looked like he had reversed after walking off and resumed his walking. 

Jo hasn't said no to Eddie's proposal but hasn't said yes either, leaving him in limbo. Her explanation being, quite rightly, that they have only just got back together so need  to reacquaint themselves as a couple.  He was disappointed to say the least.   I did have the wicked thought that David may slip into Cash mode and do some digging on what Eddie has been up in the two years he and  Jo had split up. 

Ah the old 'who dies' problem that TV mags like teasing us with.  Headline reading 'Jo/Sonny/Remi/whoever Dies' Everyone thinking 'they' know who  of the regulars it is.   I do know something about Holden, Isaac's mate,  but  keeping schtum.  

Hope I'm not jinxing it but surely Remi can't be put through anymore injuries, beaten up by that guy who stole his guitar, his hand smashed up by Jacob, then run off the road by those crazy guys in their van. I know "Don't call you Shirley". 

Did the main cast/guest actors/actresses actually travel on a train or was it just  a carriage being rocked about in a  studio? 

Kind of good news we will only be a month behind OZ now. 

Edited 9 hours ago by H&Alover

[Medea Fleecestealer]

Seems Leah's turned a corner at last.  Pity she's pissed Justin off so much he doesn't want to talk to her now.  

I know Abegail was drunk, but would she really have gotten on board the train for a kip?  

And why would kids be putting graffitti in a tunnel?  You want your "artistry" to be seen and that won't happen in there.  And how would they even ride their bikes into the tunnel?  Would they want to bounce over the rail supports?  Would be a pretty bumpy ride.  Bad story writing again.