Sonny Baldwin

Sonny was an old friend of Remi’s. He had lived next door to Remi’s family but his own family lost their money in bad investments. While Sonny’s parents decided to opt out and become hippies, Remi sold his bike and gave Sonny the money to go travelling. He ended up in Summer Bay after hearing Remi’s trust fund had matured, turning up in the share house shower and declaring his intention to spend Remi’s money. He also renewed his friendships with Kirby and Eden, having been around in the early days of Lyrik. He started off by buying everyone in Salt drinks with Remi’s money; Remi was happy to indulge him and gave him his own credit card. He met Remi’s other former bandmate, Theo, giving him advice on buying cheap car parts, and queried Kirby working at the board shop, suspecting she was still into music. He brought Angela Woods, a woman he had met in Salt, home and slept with her in Remi’s bed, since Remi was asleep on the couch. This led to Bree coming home and finding Angela in Remi’s bed, leaving Sonny to explain. Finding Remi and Eden at odds over Eden’s relationship with Cash, he tried to bring them together by throwing a party.

Sonny hired out an arcade but was unable to convince Theo and Remi to join him there. He instead hung out with Theo and Justin at the garage, reminiscing about his father’s classic car collection. His bitterness towards Remi began to surface with him complaining to Theo how things always went right for Remi. He helped Theo out with a cleaning job at the caravan park, refusing to take any of the money, thene tried to kiss Bree, prompting Remi to throw him out and leave him sleeping in his car until Theo let him move into his. He met with Gage Reynolds, who offered him and Theo money for mechanic work, and found Remi had cancelled his credit card so convinced Theo to take up Gage’s offer. It turned out Gage was with the River Boys, involved in fixing up cars for street racing. Sonny agreed with Theo that they should leave but they ended up staying when Theo took a liking to Gage’s girlfriend Lacey Miller. Theo gave Sonny a share of his earnings which he used to start paying back Remi. Remi’s suspicions over where he was getting the money from led to further tensions and he flirted with a newly single Dana. He was frustrated to learn Lacey and Theo were hooking up. After failing to convince Theo to distance himself from the River Boys, he moved out to a motel.

Bree brought him and Remi back together and he told them the whole story. He offered himself to Gage as a driver in place of Theo and spoke to Lacey, who admitted Gage might know about her and Theo, giving her his number. He then went to Cash and told him everything but was still left to handle things alone when Lacey messaged him saying Theo was in trouble. He found Theo tied up underneath a car ramp but was dragged outside by a River Boy, Spanner, and beaten up before he could intervene. By the time he came round, the River Boys were gone and the car had been lowered onto Theo. He managed to summon help and needed medical care himself for the beating. He gave a statement to Cash but hadn’t seen who hurt Theo, only being able to identify Spanner as his attacker. Justin blamed him for what had happened but later apologised.

With Sonny set to give evidence, Remi put him up in a motel with bodyguards. Dana, who had looked after him in hospital, visited him with a hamper and they shared a kiss but he sent her away afterwards. When Theo was also discharged, Bree arranged for him and Sonny to stay at her flat with security. Dana continued to visit him and decided to accompany him to court. However, they were ambushed by the River Boys, who kidnapped Sonny and Theo and dumped them in the bush. Sonny found Lacey’s phone and called for help, with Cash and Tane rescuing them just as the River Boys returned to kill them. Afterwards, Dana decided to distance herself from Sonny.

Sonny helped bring Kirby and Remi together after a row over her album and both he and Theo arranged to move in with Bree permanently. He approached Dana who ended up following him back to his flat and sleeping with him on the pretext of having closure. Despite this, they soon slept together again and he found himself interrogated by Harper about his intentions. He convinced Dana to go home and sort things out with her, after which they accepted they were in a relationship and he tried to console her when she lost out on a cardiothoracic post at the hospital. He helped Justin set up Kirby’s album launch and was sent to find Remi, who had the final mix of the album. Sonny found Remi passed out from drugs and managed to get both him and the album to the event. Next day, he seemed set to tell Bree but was pushed to the ground by Remi.