Home and Away’s Brax clashes with the next generation of River Boys

This week on Home and Away in Australia, Brax hands over the evidence that could clear Tane’s name, before he clashes with the next generation of River Boys as he returns to Mangrove River.

Tane (Ethan Browne) headed to Western Australia ready to spending the rest of his life in hiding, but his encounter with Brax (Stephen Peacocke) and Ricky (Bonnie Sveen) has ended up proving his innocence.

Tane moved onto Brax and Ricky’s remote cattle ranch having decided to skip bail and go on the run after being framed on drug charges by Kerrie Matheson (Sara Wiseman).

In the end, it didn’t take long for Cash (Nicholas Cartwright) and Jo (Maddison Brown) to catch up with Tane and convinced him to return to Summer Bay to face his day in court.

Tane’s willingness to face the consequences of his actions got Brax thinking, and he soon told Ricky that he wanted to return to Summer Bay and clear his own name once and for all after a decade on the run.

After a quick trip to the station and a session in front of the magistrate the following morning, it was confirmed – Brax was now officially a free man!

Then, the actions of their 10-year-old son Casey (Austin Cutcliffe) ended up unearthing the vital evidence to prove Tane’s innocence!

Last week, Casey stumbled upon a baby monitor in Archie’s room, and turned it on to discover a video showing Kerrie planting the drugs under Archie’s bed as she enacted her plan to frame him.

Despite Tane’s house being thoroughly searched by Yabbie Creek’s finest, neither the police nor Harper ever thought to check the baby monitor, which Archie’s parents had been using to monitor their son as he slept.

Unfortunately, Casey then fumbled the monitor and dropped it on the floor. When he picked it back up, he found that it would no longer switch on.

Meanwhile, Brax was at Salt, having got chatting to Mackenzie (Emily Weir) about Dean’s (Patrick O’Connor) attempts to help track down ‘Uncle Fred’, the man who had supplied Kerrie with drugs.

Dean had put the River Boys on the case, and Mac was waiting for someone to arrive with all of the details. While Brax wasn’t across it, he assured Mac that “if the boys say they have something, they always come through.”

However, when a tattooed River Boy by the name of Sterlo (Dave Hoey) turned up, he wasn’t quite what Mac or Brax expected.

Sterlo made it clear that he expected Mackenzie to sleep with him in exchange for information on Fred, and Mac’s attempts to put him in his place fell on deaf ears.

Meanwhile, Eden (Stephanie Panozzo) was busy filling Brax in on the River Boys’ latest dodgy activities, but Brax refused to believe that his old gang were anything but “rough around the edges.”

However, when he caught wind of Sterlo’s inappropriate behaviour towards Mac, he realised Eden might have been right.

He grabbed the young River Boy before kicking him down the stairs of Salt, making it clear that “that is not the way we treat women” and that “we are better than that.”

Sterlo asked him why he kept saying “we,” before realising that Brax was himself a River Boy.

“[Since] day one, you muppet,” Brax clarified.

As a drunk Brax later returned to Tane’s place, only to be kicked out of the bedroom by Ricky, he found a note on the table explaining that Casey had broken the baby monitor and that he needed to fix it.

It only took a small screwdriver to solve the “issue,” as Brax pushed the displaced batteries back into place in the base unit.

Replacing the screen, it just took a single tap for it to wake back up – and within seconds, Brax was watching the video of Kerrie planting the drugs in Archie’s room!

This week, armed with the new evidence that Tane was indeed framed, Brax goes straight to Cash to pass on the key piece of information.

“You might have just bought Tane his freedom,” Cash exclaims upon hearing the news, as Brax pops round to his former home, which is now home to Cash and Eden.

“We need to talk,” Cash tells David as he rushes over to Northern Districts police station armed with the baby monitor.

“This is the evidence that proves Tane’s innocent,” Cash excitedly reveals, but while David tells him that it’s “great news,” he reminds Cash that “we have to do this right.”

Teaser spoilers for upcoming episodes reveal that “Cash delivers good news” in Monday’s episode, as he heads to the prison to visit Tane, who’s been struggling to come to terms with the idea of potentially spending years behind bars.

Will Cash’s big news be enough to cheer him up?

Yet in Thursday’s episode, Cash “braces to visit Tane in prison” a second time, suggesting that the new evidence won’t see Tane’s immediate release.

Will David’s plan to “do things right” mean that Tane will have to endure further time behind bars, despite the baby monitor proving that Kerrie was the one to plant the drugs?

Or will his escape from custody mean and jaunt to WA mean that he’ll be facing time behind bars regardless?

Next Monday, “Tane is losing patience,” suggesting that he’s far from out of the woods.

Meanwhile, Brax takes Ricky and Casey on a trip to his old stomping ground this week, as they head back to the infamous Mangrove River, where the River Boys’ journey first began. 

Ricky isn’t so sure that it’s a good idea, questioning Brax on why they’re there, but Brax explains that he wants Casey to see where they grew up.

However, it’s clear that in reality, he wants to find out what the River Boys are up to these days, having realised that they no longer play by the rules they did back in his day.

They take in the sights and sounds of the dodgy town, including the ‘Population 2800-2’ sign, which was graffitied by Dean when he and Colby (Tim Franklin) they left the town for the final time back in 2018.

Before long, Casey spots two men sporting ‘Blood and Sand’ tattoos, the same slogan that his dad just so happens to have emblazoned across his chest.

Casey has no idea of his dad’s chequered history as part of the surf gang, so immediately asks why the guys have the same tattoo as him.

“You’ve seen the place; let’s go before Casey has any more questions,” Ricky urges after Brax manages to avoid giving away too much.

Yet not long after, they come across the latest recruits once again, who don’t take too kindly to the sight of an OG River Boy on their turf.

Brax races over after spotting Casey talking to Sterlo, the same River Boy who harassed Mackenzie last week.

“Reckon you’ve picked the wrong place for a day trip,” Sterlo warns when Brax asks him if there’s a problem.

“This joker thinks he can tell me what to do in my own town,” Brax replies with confidence.

However, as numerous River Boys line up behind him, Sterlo retorts: “Except it’s not your town any more, is it? What are you gonna do about it?”

Knowing that he needs to put his violent past behind him, Brax does the right thing and backs down.

“He feels obligated to [the River Boys],” Stephen explains to Aussie magazine TV Week. “They’re the reason that he has been able to disappear and raise a kid that doesn’t have to worry about any of the stuff he and Ricky had to worry about growing up. He doesn’t forget that.”

However, as he heads back to Summer Bay, he soon gets chatting to Leah (Ada Nicodemou), who he and Ricky briefly reunited with at the Surf Club last week.

During their chat at the end of last week, Eden told Brax that if he needed any proof that the River Boys weren’t the men he thought they were, he should ask Leah what happened to her nephew.

For those who need a refresh, Theo was hospitalised after nearly being crushed under his own car by the River Boys’ then-leader Gage (Tom Wilson), after Gage discovered that Theo had been hooking up with his then-girlfriend Lacey (Sophea Pennington).

When Brax finds out about the incident, he races back to Mangrove River to have it out with the boys once and for all.

Ricky soon realises that Brax has gone awol, and jumps in the car with Casey to stop her partner from doing something stupid.

She finds Brax in the midst of a brawl with Sterlo, with the rest of the River Boys circling him.

She manages to break up the fight before anyone does anything they regret, but with Casey having seen the whole thing, he’s got plenty more questions.

“Brax is very protective of Casey and wants him to have the upbringing he didn’t have, so he’s slotted into being an upstanding member of the community,” Stephen continues.

How will Brax explain his past to his son?

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Here’s the full spoilers for this week’s Home and Away episodes in Australia:

Monday 13th April (Episode 8696)

Brax takes a trip down memory lane.

Cash delivers good news.

Jo’s guilt spirals.

Tuesday 14th April (Episode 8697)

Mackenzie is vindicated.

Dana’s too busy for Harper.

Brax and Sterlo go head-to-head.

Wednesday 15th April (Episode 8698)

Brax is torn.

Sonny reclaims some independence.

Lacey’s caught in the crossfire.

Thursday 16th April (Episode 8699)

Jo is consumed by guilt.

Cash braces to visit Tane in prison.

Lacey sees the weight Mali is carrying.

Brax joins Alf for a spot of fishing.

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