Episode 8559

Extended Summary

Dana is standing with Archie’s pram as Harper takes part in a training session with Tane on the beach. Dana calls out the wrong numbers as Tane counts down to the end of class. Tane and Harper have a brief conversation about when they’re going to see each other again. Dana thinks the move has gone well but Harper says she and Tane can’t manage anything more than polite chit-chat and she’s waiting for Archie to learn to talk in order to get conversation.

At the farm house, Levi catches Mackenzie looking up the date of their next IVF appointment, but when he knows when it is, he has to admit that he looked earlier. Mali comes in and tells Abigail he just stood on her earrings. He complains about her having knocked them off by leaving her cereal bowl on the dresser. Mackenzie wonders why Mali’s only just noticed that Abigail’s messy. Mali calls Abigail a slob and she calls him a neat freak.

Alf arrives at the Diner, telling Leah and Justin he’s been kicking a ball with Cohen, and he and Roo are catching up with Adrian later. Justin asks if he’s seen John. Alf and Leah both think Justin is wrong to be worried. Justin wants to check in on him. Leah has to remind him that they’re supposed to be having lunch. At the surf club, John is looking at Irene’s latest photo and sends a text about Cyprus being beautiful. Justin approaches him, saying he listened to what John said about spending more time with mates. John convinces him to have a coffee with him.

At Salt, Harper and Dana order coffees and Harper specifies drinking in, since she doesn’t want to take takeaways home. She asks about living with Sonny, and Dana says he brought her pancakes this morning (which were burnt) and about the party last night. Harper wishes she’d had an invite to get her out of the house. John and Justin come up. John invites the pair to join them and Harper says they’ve ordered takeaways. John tells Justin that in Paris they sit watching the street in cafes, and avoids talk of Irene with an anecdote of a French navy mate that they called Snails (because he was slow).

Harper and Dana arrive back at the Parata house. Tane is about to go out with Archie. He and Harper make stilted conversation about what they’re going to do for the rest of the day. Dana is aghast and says it was like they didn’t even know each other.

Mackenzie and Levi discuss having a day off together and how they should spend it. They are interrupted by Mali and Abigail arguing about her leaving a wet towel on the bathroom floor. Abigail protests that it was a bath mat and walks out. Mali tells Levi and Mackenzie about Abigail never stopping being messy since he’s been back, to the point that he stopped making their bed nearly two weeks ago to see if she’d notice. Later, Mali and Abigail draw up outside the surf club in her car. Mali points out that it’s full of discarded food packages and says she used to want to keep it pristine. Abigail says she’ll keep her car how she wants and doesn’t have time to freak out about it.

At the surf club, John shows Alf something. Alf asks if it’s an invoice for last night before saying it was a generous gesture. It’s actually the schedule for a special extra committee meeting. Seeing it’s full of things like shower maintenance and timetables, Alf says he doesn’t need a meeting for that and to put it in an e-mail. Meanwhile, Justin arrives back at the Diner and tells Leah he thinks John’s lonely, since he spent all his time avoiding talking about Irene and asking people to join them. He asks if they’ve still got time for lunch but Leah decides to invite John. Justin asks to keep him off the navy thing.

Harper apologises that Dana didn’t get to spend time with Archie. Dana wonders about Tane. Harper points out that living with an ex is bound to be problematic. Dana says Harper and Tane were friends before their relationship. Harper agrees, saying one day she walked downstairs from Salt and everything changed. Dana says she needs to learn to be friends again.

Tane has taken Archie round to see Mackenzie and Levi. He talks about how he and Harper are either awkward or have nothing to say, but it’s worth it to have Archie in the house. Since Harper only moved in because she didn’t have anywhere else to go, he’s worried she’ll use any excuse to move out if he brings it up.

John joins Leah and Justin at the Diner, commenting on getting two invites in one day. Justin says he got the date wrong for his and Leah’s lunch. They suggest meeting up regularky; John suggests weekly and Justin knocks it down to monthly. Leah asks about Irene and how he must be missing her. John begins to suspect this is a pity invite and ends up leaving. Leah tells Justin they should have gone for the navy thing.

Tane is saying his goodbyes to Levi and Mackenzie and says he’ll bring Archie round to see them whenever things get tough. After he’s gone, Mackenzie and Levi admit it was hard being around a baby. Meanwhile, Harper gets a text from Tane saying they’re on their way home and tells Dana they should go out. Dana suggests going to an arcade so she can beat her at Dance Revolution. Harper admits she misses living with her before ushering her out for cocktails.

At the surf club, Abigail asks John where Mali is, since she’s lost her car keys. Justin and Leah turn up and tell John they didn’t mean to come over as they did. Leah suggests a barbecue and John suggests a trivia night. Leah volunteers Justin and Justin volunteers the rest of the guys. John says he’ll bring dips.

Harper and Dana arrive back at Salt. Dana says Harper can’t go for a cocktail to avoid Tane all the time. She suggests a shared hobby or they start dating other people since friendships can form by gossiping about love interests. Harper doesn’t think they can be friends again. Dana suggests getting Cash to be home more but Harper doesn’t think there is a solution.

Abigail finds Mali vacuuming her car. She admits she did notice he wasn’t making the bed since she likes the way he tucks the sheet in. Mali offers to start doing it again and Abigail accepts she could do more around the house. Mali says to just start with hanging her towels up.

Harper arrives home, moments before Tane emerges from the bathroom wearing only a towel. He says Archie’s asleep. Harper says they need to talk about the awkwardness. Tane tries to downplay it and asks if he can put his pants on first. Harper agrees.