2025 Season - UK Episode Discussion

[CaptainHulk]

As much as I sympathise with Leah, I felt like the serve from Cassandra was a taste of her own medicine and thought "Not Nice, is it?" but not a malicious way. 

[Medea Fleecestealer]

Yeah, Theo gone from the opening credits now.  

[Red Ranger 1]

22 hours ago, James Martin said:

I think you've watched the 5 Star episode there

H&Alover has a confusing tendency to talk about scenes from the promo in detail as if they were part of the actual episode.

Well, yes, Cash and Eden are presumably the last people to be told about Theo. I'm not sure why Alf thought anyone would want to disrupt their honeymoon to tell them. I feel like Abigail should have told Eden about the miscarriage, even if she was already cut up about Theo. David's reaction to Eden turning up with pizza was the most human he's ever been about that sort of thing. Maybe he's appreciating the fact that Cash came in on his day off to help out. The promo implies that Cash's hunch is right, talk about that more when we get there.

It was interesting seeing Mali supporting Levi like that: Who'd have predicted that when he and Mackenzie first got together? He advised him against tipping off Dean but Levi went ahead and did that, so I guess we'll see if there are any repercussions. I suspect that giving Mackenzie her space and trusting her to come home is the best way of handling it. It's hard to say whether Levi is blotting things out as much as Mackenzie is. When Abigail came home and found him blissed out, I initially wondered if he was drunk or something.

I feel like I want to sympathise with Leah more than I do. It's obviously devastating for her, Theo was like a son to her, and her last words to him are obviously haunting her, but even when she's acknowledging that she could have handled things better, it's still all filtered through the prism of her insisting Lacey is the devil incarnate. Maybe the show's pandering to the audience, since I rarely see a positive comment about her from Oz pace fans, but I like Lacey, and I wish Leah would realise they've got more in common than she wants to think. Justin shouldn't have pushed the idea of counselling but I wonder if it might be an idea to book it for himself. He's chosen to stay strong for Leah, and there's nothing wrong with that, but he needs to let his own grief out somehow. (Then again, waiting until he's on his own and having a cry isn't the worst way of handling it.)

[James Martin]

11 hours ago, CaptainHulk said:

It's not unusual for stunt/crew members/other cast members dd to  stand in for others in long shots or closeups, tbf.

 

Yes, this is very commonplace in film & television.

[H&Alover]

No I didn't watch the 5 Star episode.  I was only commenting of what we saw Alf telling Eden and Cash in the promo, don't know it was supposed to be a secret. 

As far as we know Kirby hasn't been  told yet and she was a love interest of his.  Anyways as been said it was rather out there that Alf would think it would be a good idea that someone would  tell them by phone/text  that Theo had been killed.  He could have told by their faces and the fact they looked so happy they hadn't been told.  Eden didn't get any answer from Remi when she called him so I may have been right that he's taken off on his bike to process the news.  

It would have been a tough choice for Abby to make, maybe she will when Eden has got her head round the news about Theo .  Wonder if Levi will tell her, he doesn't know she doesn't know?  Mali gave David good advice about tipping off Dean and Ziggy and it seemed he had listened but did it anyway.  Dean isn't the most discreet  of people but Ziggy may handle it  better.  I can only guess here but she may treat Mac's visit as just that to see the new babe, but 'sense' something isn't right. I got the same feeling about Levi's laid back attitude and that he'd had a few. 

New week so new opening credits sans Theo. 

David was very circumspect when Justin saw him in Salt, just said Theo's mum and Leah had a heated discussion and that he should speak to Leah about it.  I suppose it's not that much of a surprise that Cassandra would want Theo to be buried in the city as he  would have other family there.   Early on it was suggested he had  brothers/sisters but then they got air brushed out. 

I think Leah was having a case of misremembering, yeh OK she stopped Lacey running away, but then she told Justin that maybe she shouldn't have so Theo would just forget about her and move on, but we know Theo's mind doesn't/didn't work like that and he would have found her and followed her.   Then there was that debacle of when Theo was in hospital and she banned Lacey from contacting him, when he found out he banned Leah from visiting.  Next up was when he wanted to move out and she had the right strop and he did it anyway and still wouldn't talk to her, it took Justin to make her see she was doing the wrong thing by trying to control him.  He was an adult after all and she should know by now the more you tell your kids not to do something they'll do it and you risk losing them. Cassandra should also know that about trying to 'control' your child once they become a teenager/adult.

Btw didn't Leah  do exactly the same thing by running away from her arranged marriage?   Her dad wasn't happy and it took a long while before they were reconciled. 

it was heart breaking seeing Justin collapse in tears like that, he's doing the usual bloke thing of being strong and wanting to be there for Leah, but who's there for him? It isn't a bad thing, but Leah hasn't realised he is also suffering and they should be supporting each other.

That was a reverse of David's usual thinking by letting Eden bring in pizzas for the guys and gals trying to track down Wendell. It was good thinking by Cash, sometimes you need fresh eyes/ears to suggest a new idea.  Confused.com a bit some seem to know who run Theo down while others don't, is it to prevent speculation and the Bayer's bringing out the pitchforks and flaming torches?  

 

[Medea Fleecestealer]

If David and Cash had really thought about it what they should have done was join the procession until all the cars parked up and then quickly hemmed Wendell inside his car by blocking both front doors.  But no, we had to have a chase scene which wasn't that well filmed tbh.  And as for David doing the interview with Wendell, that surely couldn't be used as part of the prosecution material since he has a very big conflict of interest.  

So Cassandra couldn't even be bothered to find out from Justin who Theo's friends in the Bay were and invite them to the funeral?  Given the number of years he spent in the Bay that's a bit coldhearted of her.  But then the writers would have had to think up some other way to start Leah getting over the loss.  

Edited December 2 by Medea Fleecestealer

[Red Ranger 1]

6 hours ago, H&Alover said:

don't know it was supposed to be a secret. 

Not a secret, it's just confusing when you talk as though it's already happened. But maybe that's just me and my tendency to compartmentalise.

6 hours ago, H&Alover said:

Wonder if Levi will tell her, he doesn't know she doesn't know?

He does know she doesn't know and said he'd tell her?

So, because Leah can't go to the funeral, no-one else can, because everything revolves around her? I had a really big problem with that. I'd like to think that people who weren't in the episode like Mali and Abby were there, but I doubt it. I noticed that, despite telling Mali he'd let him know the funeral details, Alf didn't seem in any rush to spread the news here, which feels a lot colder than Cassandra (who doesn't know them) not sending out invites. Even worse, Lacey isn't invited to Leah holding court over who is and isn't allowed to remember Theo and how, and yet David doesn't say a word to her about the funeral being in a few hours. (Okay, to be fair, he knew the previous night, so possibly they've already had that discussion.) I'm not seeing any sign of Leah moving on, she's still consumed with this blind hatred of Lacey which seems to have extended to her entire family (is she going to start sniping about Jo next?). And while I can see why they did it, everyone pussyfooting around her and enabling her delusions isn't helping. I can understand why Lacey didn't want to keep things from Leah, but rocking up the way she did was never going to get any other reaction. I hope people rally around her now, having her disappear for a week wasn't the best way of handling it.

So Cash and David catch Wendell, who seemed to put up a surprising amount of fight for a slightly portly middle-aged bloke, in order to give David an excuse to half-throttle him. I'm not sure if there is conflict of interest on this show unless the storyline needs it: It's a small town, police officers interview people they know all the time. It has to be said, whilst Wendell turning up to Kristina's funeral when no-one knew who he was is one thing, he'd have to be pretty suicidal to turn up to Theo's funeral when he must know the police are looking for him and could have circulated a description.

Still no word on where Remi's living beyond Eden speculating he's rented a penthouse. We haven't seen or heard from Bree recently, so I'm wondering if she's still in the city talking to the medical people and there's space free at the flat. Then again, where would Remi sleep, Bree's room or Theo and Lacey's?! Seems despite what I thought I heard yesterday, he has paid Cash and Eden's rent for a year, not the rest of the year.

Edited December 2 by Red Ranger 1

[Dan F]

4 hours ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

Seems despite what I thought I heard yesterday, he has paid Cash and Eden's rent for a year, not the rest of the year.

You didn't hear wrong, Eden did say 'the rest of the year' first time around, at which point I thought the same as you in that it only equated to a couple of months!

 

[James Martin]

Thought that was a really strong episode. Surprised that Wendell wouldn't have a solicitor to begin with, in the UK if you're arrested you have the right to a solicitor - even a "duty solicitor" that you don't have to pay for - and the Aussie legal system as far as I can tell (changes to trials going through here notwithstanding) is based on ours.

[H&Alover]

Leah -  and I guess  - Justin as we know weren't invited but couldn't  the others not just turn up, they all knew him even if Cassandra didn't? Were they supporting Leah and again Justin by attending this impromptu gathering to remember Theo? Did Alf know where and what time the funeral  was?  It was a bittersweet memorial, talking about Theo and how he came into their lives.  It was mentioned about how Cash was the first to 'meet' him when he stopped him for speeding.  Justin got a bit choked up when he said how he - Theo - enjoyed surfing.  When Alf talked about the antics Theo and Ryder got up to with the online challenges reminded me if Alf has told him ditto John and Irene?  If I remember correctly  John protected Theo when his dad got aggressive with him in the Surf Club.  Eden and Remi recalled how nervous he was when he first started playing with them, but once he was on stage he wowed the audience was also a good moment. Sonny did say he would have liked to have been involved in the Ryder/Theo's video games.  Hardly surprising Lacey wasn't invited to the do/memorial.   Her rocking up with that news wasn't going to go down well, Leah wasn't in the mood to listen to anything she said. 

Theo was a bit of  a butterfly in what he got interested in, first the garage, then the band which he ditched his mechanical course  in favour of, then when Remi was laid off, it was back to the garage, then into teaching surfing, then doing up old cars to sell which lead to his involvement with the RB's.  To be fair to Leah she did look after Theo,  took him in, defended him to Justin when they clashed, but on the minus side she didn't let him be the  man he was.  He also fell in love very quickly, Chloe, Valerie, Kirby and now Lacey.

I think it was Eden who asked where  Remi would be living, the Diner's flat would not be a good idea.  

I'm supposing Cash and David had to stop Wendell entering the cemetery with the others, that would not have been right or decent.  I know Cash had the thought he would I think even he was surprised when he did.   I'm guessing David had to contact the city's local force as it's their 'patch' to be able to apprehend Wendell?  Also being  allowed to take him  him back to the bay. He was a pretty good runner for as said an older, unfit guy, but that is where adrenalin kicks in.  He could also be charged with assaulting a police officer as he struck out at Cash.  David did show a lot of restraint by not throttling him. Besides if he was innocent why would he run?  It was mentioned they had found his car so forensics  will be all over it. 

Yes, that interview, it was being recorded and another police officer was there.   David handled it very professionally and as Sargeant he is the senior officer, but has also been said it is a conflict of interest as it was his daughter who was the intended target.  Maybe the next interview when it happens an officer from outside the bay will take over.  Wendell was quick enough to get his lawyer to  shut  down any other interviews before  David wanted to conduct so where is he this time? He would have been offered the chance to contact his lawyer.  Wendell did say one thing, that she - the witness -  was lying which David picked up on.