Episode 6975

Extended Summary

Willow and Dean run into each other down on the beach after she’s finished a class and she notes that he’s the town hero. Dean says Justin doesn’t think so and Willow says he was just worried about Raffy. Dean notes he has community service in the afternoon, which Willow didn’t know about. He dismisses it when she asks about Karen. At Salt, Justin tells Brody the stove is beyond repair. At that moment, Stephen the blogger comes in and Ziggy goes to keep him busy while Brody, Justin and Maggie retreat into the store room for Brody to change. Brody considers apologising to Stephen and sending him away but Maggie points out he’d get a bad review anyway. Brody thinks hard and concludes he could cook nearly everything if he had a stove. He sends Justin away so he doesn’t distract him.

Justin runs into Willow downstairs. He explains about Brody and she explains about the community service, suggesting he go home to shower and they meet later. Justin unknowingly passes Karen as he leaves; she sits down at a table, looking inconspicuous. Willow asks John about the community service and he says she’s not rostered on, since Dean has more hours than her. She leaves and Karen follows. Justin is at home when Willow turns up and explains, suggesting she join him in the shower. They head into the bathroom together. Karen walks into the house and hears them giggling. She smiles and helps herself to a bottle of wine and two glasses.

Brody briefs Ziggy to take Stephen’s order, telling her he can manage anything apart from the duck. Stephen gives Ziggy a long list of dishes…inevitably ending with the duck. Ziggy tries to dissuade him but he persists, saying it’s what he came for and they raved about it on their post. Brody ends up stepping in and telling him there’s no problem, but once out of earshot Ziggy reminds him he can’t cook the duck at home: He needs an industrial-strength stove. Maggie has an idea. She and Brody go to the Diner where Marilyn lets them use the stove. Brody realises he doesn’t have time to oven cook the duck but can steam cook it in the wok. He tells Maggie to start chopping for the other dishes.

Justin emerges from the bathroom to go get a drink only to find Karen there; both demand to know who the other is and Karen is confused to hear it’s Justin’s house. When Willow also appears, Karen accuses her of cheating on Dean. Willow says she and Dean aren’t together and tells Justin to call him. At that moment, John’s group are exiting the surf club and he tells Dean to turn his phone off. Justin tells Willow that he’s not answering so Willow tells him to go and get him, quietly explaining that Karen is Dean’s mum, she has mental health issues and they need to keep her calm. After Justin has gone, Willow and Karen look awkwardly at each other until Willow decides to go and put some clothes on.

John tells the “miscreants” that he wants the whole area cleared before they take a break. Justin turns up and tells Dean about Karen being at the house and Willow being with her. The two of them head off despite John’s protests. Back at the house, Karen tries to understand how Dean and Willow broke up if he followed her there. Willow says them both being there was a coincidence. Justin and Dean return and Karen happily greets Dean, saying he said he wanted to see her. Dean is more guarded, saying he saw her screw up the note, wondering if the man he saw her with was a new boyfriend and pointing out she ignored his messages and hung up on him. Karen dismisses it all and tells him to give her a hug. She ends up giving him one herself and he quietly admits he’s missed her.

Stephen asks Ziggy where the duck is and she tries without success to get him to finish one of the other dishes first. She rings Brody and Maggie at the Diner, explaining that he’s only taking one bite of everything and is asking about the duck. Brody protests that it isn’t cooked yet and Ziggy says if it goes on much longer they’ll be making meatballs out of Stephen’s corpse. Maggie tells Brody it’s now or never.

Karen is filling Dean in on her first meeting with Justin. Dean says Justin’s his boss and Willow explains Dean’s going to do a mechanics apprenticeship. Karen tells him she’s proud of him and asks for another glass of wine after she’s been to the bathroom. Dean thinks things are going well but Willow warns him Karen might outstay her welcome. When Karen returns, Dean tries to suggest they go but Karen protests and ends up yelling aggressively at Willow when she says the same, having to be quickly mollified. Later, Karen accompanies Dean to the surf club where he leaves her to talk to John. He says he had a family emergency but John says he’ll have to report him if he doesn’t get a proper explanation. Karen cuts in, saying his mum’s visiting. Dean asks her to leave it. John tells him he can’t just make up the hours and to rejoin the group.

Ziggy is trying to stall Stephen when Brody and Maggie arrive with the duck. They all watch on tenterhooks as he takes a photo of the duck, starts eating it (with Brody praying for it to be cooked)…and then pushes it away. Brody concludes he hates it. Later, the three of them are glued to their phones waiting for the verdict. They all ate the duck and think it was fine. Stephen then posts his verdict: The waiting staff leave a lot to be desired but the food is excellent. Comments are soon pouring in.

Justin and Willow are clearing up and Justin says he’s beginning to understand why Dean’s been behaving strangely lately. Willow says Karen’s toxic and wants to check on Dean. She explains she first met him when he was ten and she found him hiding in their shed because Karen said she wanted him to die. She says Karen’s fun but can becomes dangerous in a second, yet Dean’s always loyal and refuses to leave her. She also tells him that Dean went to see Karen as soon as he got out of jail, even though she never visited him, and she tried to stab him: She’s dangerous, although she did seem all right earlier.

John finds Dean moving the rubbish into one pile after the end of his session but reiterates that he can’t just make the hours up and needs to give a proper explanation for leaving. Karen suddenly drives at John; Dean knocks him out of the way and Karen crashes into the rubbish bags. She looks over her shoulder at them then drives off. Dean accompanies John to the surf club, offering to get a doctor. John says Karen’s the one who should be reported. Dean suggests she was trying to help him by making sure John wasn’t able to report him. He gets a call from Willow and dashes off. He finds her with Karen, whose car hit the kerb when she rounded a corner too fast, causing her to hit her head. Dean tries to reassure her.