Episode 6848

Extended Summary

Dean finds Willow coming out of his caravan, having made him breakfast. He was expecting her to be angry with him for not telling her about Colby. Willow thinks he’s an idiot but also admits she was scared when he was ill. Later, Dean reminds Willow she has to go to work. Willow is reluctant to leave him but Dean assures her it’s not like last time. After Willow has gone, Dean notices Jasmine going back to her van and asks her how Ash is doing. Jasmine says it’s still touch and go.

Meanwhile, Tori is frustrated that Robbo fired his lawyer without even giving her a chance to meet her. Robbo says Lisa wasn’t right and didn’t care about the medical stuff. Tori thinks the insanity plea has merit but Robbo says he loved Kat and did it to protect her. Colby comes home wondering what the fuss is and Robbo storms out telling him to ask Tori. Tori explains and they head down to the Diner to chat. Tori notes that she doesn’t want all the chaos but it feels like Ash and Robbo will fall apart without her. Colby offers to get in touch with Legal Aid. Roo turns up, having just arrived back in town, and is greeted by Alf, John and Marilyn. She says she didn’t find Martha.

Maggie tells Ben she’s going to go into school to check on the repair work, since she’s been told most of the area is safe. She is intending to reopen the next day. Ben is less than happy, saying the place will be a germ fest while her immune system is low, but Maggie tells him not to wrap her in cotton wool. Later, she is on the phone and tells Ben that it’s going to take longer than the contractor said: The department hired a local firm but she knows Ben would have done it better. Ben shows her some flyers he’s had made up, since he’s restarting his building business.

Tori and Robbo are waiting at Salt for a lawyer Colby has found. A large scruffy man sits down at their table and introduces himself as Kurt Adams, taking a large drink of Tori’s coffee and noting she looks at him the same way his ex-wife did. He says he’s been out all night celebrating the successful defence of a client who was clearly guilty but the system’s broke. In a stage whisper, Robbo says he might be better off pleading insanity. Kurt says it’s an idea but he can do better. Noting their uncertainty, he says Robbo’s up at Supreme Court on charges including murder in two weeks and no other lawyer will touch him, meaning his choices are Kurt or thirty-five years in jail. Tori and Robbo retreat to the bar to confer: They agree to give Kurt a shot. They ask him why he’d want to take the case and he explains that it’s high profile, meaning it could get him big money clients and upset his ex-wife when she sees him in the papers. He says he has an old colleague at the DPP who owes him a favour after making a pass at his second wife, so he’ll get the case details from him.

Roo explains that she showed Martha’s photo around Merimbula and the surrounding towns but it’s thirty years old and no-one recognised her. Marilyn cheerily calls it a setback but John retorts that it’s a wall and Roo agrees she has no other leads to follow up. Alf suggests she move back home and Roo agrees. Later, Ben is putting up a sign advertising his business, saying he ran one in the city for fifteen years. John says he doesn’t need a builder because he’s a master handyman. Marilyn adds that she’ll call Ben next time John demolishes the house. Seeing Roo, Ben welcomes her back and gives her a flyer. Roo asks about Maggie and wonders who the substitute principal is. Ben explains Maggie’s checking on the school herself now.

Maggie is being shown around the school by the contractor, who turns out to be Baz. He says that either the school stays closed for longer or they carry on working while the students are there, which he thinks would be safe. Roo turns up and Maggie quickly realises Ben sent her. She says she has to focus on the world outside her illness. Meanwhile, Willow is finishing off a class outside the surf club when Colby approaches and asks her about Dean, wondering if he’s all right for money. Willow says Dean lost everything because of the crash: He was in a wheelchair for months and lost his AFL trial. She says it should have been Colby in jail and refuses to talk to Dean for him.

After she’s gone, Dean appears and he and Colby retreat to a quiet spot. Colby says he wouldn’t have left if he’d known how badly hurt Dean was. Dean asks if Colby even bothered to check if they were alive; his silence suggests he didn’t. Colby says he ran off because he needed to catch “them”, then when he couldn’t find them he went back but the police were already there. Dean says they would have looked after him but he turned traitor by joining the police. Colby says he grew up and the River Boys weren’t a family but a gang. Dean walks away, unimpressed by Colby’s version of making things better.

Robbo and Tori discuss Kurt at the flat, calling him eccentric. The man himself turns up with a copy of the DPP’s evidence and a list of their witnesses. He says Robbo’s confessed to murdering Novak, which he considers a mistake, but says it helps that he was a scumbag. He notes the police have CCTV footage of his escape and assault on Ash, and that he’ll get Beckett Reid’s file soon. He asks Robbo to give his version of events.

Roo arrives home and Alf asks her about her search for Martha, suggesting a private investigator and offering to pay. Roo says she’s going to put it on the back burner for now: She’ll find Martha when she’s meant to but for now she has her new career, her friends and Alf to concentrate on. Meanwhile, Ben finds Maggie working on timetables and accepts that she’s going back to work. He presents her with a survival kit to avoid germs: A personal coffee mug, sanitary wipes, cutlery, a water bottle and surgical masks.

Willow finds Dean sitting by a fire in the caravan park. She is concerned that he is drinking again but he says it’s regular stuff, not home brew. He says Colby apologised but thinks he’s a liar and wouldn’t change anything. He sadly notes he’d once have done anything for him and walks away. Willow finds Colby on the balcony at Salt and asks if he came back just to stuff Dean up again. She wants him to go to his superiors and tell the truth about the crash. Colby considers it in the past but Willow wants him to go to jail and lose everything, and says if he doesn’t go to the police she will.