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Why does Irene appear to have a full cast photo (which era, I’m not sure) on her sideboard near the dining table?

Maybe Joey lives there with him! Channel 5 are using ‘The history-making event all of Australia will be watching’ tagline for Irene’s impending departure that Australia used. Guess Australia are getting those VPNs enabled ready to stream it on 5. I wonder if the UK will watch?

Sonny is rapidly replacing Mali in the character I like for no particular reason other than being a nice enough guy camp. It probably helps pairing him with Dana who is probably one of my favourite characters in the show right now. The postcard scene with Irene today was lovely. Sonny’s scenes with Irene are a joy and I’m appreciating seeing glimpses of old Irene coming through in the material Lynne’s being given. I wish the show could be of this quality across the board.

Looking back at the London book launch the promotional art was square rather than landscape (which I vividly remember the book being now you’ve said it). I wonder if they used that to recreate the book. I’m appreciating the effort they’re making though.

Lovely that they’ve raided the props cupboard to find A Letter to Byron, I actually wondered if it was actually living in the cupboards under the stairs on the Beach House set all these years for them to find it. Nice to have a mention of Donald Fisher and Hayley, along with Will, Bella & Maddie. They could have shoehorned in a reference to Byron being Marilyn’s som for newer viewers, but glad they didn’t. I wonder if Marilyn still has her copy? It actually made me realise that Maz is actually loosely connected to Roo & Alf with Byron being the half-brother of Alan, Rebecca & Bobby, which I’d never really thought about, or at least since Marilyn left Don.

You can be a teacher or an instructor which is basically someone who has a teaching/coaching qualification in their field but not an education qualification, so someone like Tane could become a PE instructor (although would be treated as a teacher).

I did think she’d have been better to write them on the back of the frame somehow. Maybe even more than their name as if she forgets the faces, will she really remember her connection to the likes of Heath & Bianca just by the name? It’s long in soap terms, but not in real life. Lots of people take longer as they want a Summer Wedding or a certain date or venue or to make sure everyone can make it. I’d say a year is more typical of any wedding I’ve been to recently, I’m usually told the date, then sent an official save the date often around 9-10 months before and finally an invite about 6 months before.

I agree it’s be good to have more teens and the school again, not inundated, but so the show had a good mix of age groups. Even with the extras it doesn’t look like there’s anyone below 20 in Summer Bay and the only people who are recently are Cohen & Archie. I really loved the brief period where we had the three ‘Mums’ of kids the same age/school year - Ailsa, Irene & Shelley - and they made a deal out of them being connected by Nick, Jade & Kirsty (Mitch/Hayley/Dani/Will too).

I’m not sure what the show gained from splitting John & Marilyn up other than the much more recent John & Irene friendship. The two of them could’ve been great foster parents long term. I think the problem is bringing someone new into Summer Bay House and have them foster seems forced, but with Roo, Leah & Marilyn it seems/would seem natural as it’d be more about them giving up children or for Leah not being able to have more. I’d much rather one of them than shoehorning it in.

It’s also the first time since 2001 that the Diner has been in sole ownership, I did think briefly that it was the first time in it’s history, but there was that spell between Ailsa’s death and Theo Snr buying Leah’s share. Shane & Angel’s Wedding was an odd one to be in there, but then Irene & Angel were quite close when they worked at the Diner together. I always find it a little odd that there are none of her kids, but I assume that’s to not draw attention to there being none of her kids as they are today. Maybe they’re in her bedroom. I loved the clips of Irene’s various wards. I wonder when Alf will ever get a scene with Irene. Does Ray batch scenes in advance or something? You’d be forgiven for thinking that he and Lynne don’t get on.

As was Roo’s first husband… It’s not unexpected but a reference to that or a “do you know… this house used to be full of foster children?” would be a nice tie in and might even help Cohen as Cash has that he’s not alone in going through this.

They probably did at the time they were on screen and it’s been archived or lost.

I agree RE: Harper. I think having a Social Worker in the cast really works alongside the fostering theme, it’s nice that Harper isn’t the looming threat that “The Department” were in the past. Having former foster children in the adult cast helps too. Cohen pronouncing Mr Stewart as Mr Stoowart is really jarring.

I wonder if the plan is for Marilyn to be the love interest for David? She’s the closest to his age. It seems to be playing as him being Roo’s intended right now, but it’d be nice for it to he Marilyn.

I did wonder if Sonny’s description of Irene as “Dana’s Landlady, Irene” was more representative of Remi’s lack of interaction with her rather than Sonny being new to the Bay. Remi’s spent most of his time at the Surf Club/Salt or the Lyrik house, I guess. The only Lyrik member other than Theo that’s had much to do with the Diner was Kirby.

I agree, but as we’ve seen with the Coffee Cart order, whenever she’s questioned on something she’s done Irene’s doubting now doubting herself. It did come across a little weird, but Leah’s willingness to paying full market price made it seem like it was the right decision and also down the track, Leah’s not likely to have Fin, Damien or Nathan wondering if she’s conned their mother, despite her spending more time with her than they ever have.

Natalie Davison is one of the most pointless characters the show has had. I’d actually forgotten she’d existed until Channel 5 made some episodes available again one Christmas and even then couldn’t remember her.

I think Home and Away are the longest now. Doctors used to be about 6 months between Production & TX at times, I think.

The flashbacks of the Diner were nice, and maybe it’s because the Pier Diner is the Diner that Irene established, but it would’ve been nice to show that Irene had worked in all of it’s incarnations for those who didn’t know. It worked though that this Diner was Irene’s baby from Day One, not even Leah’s.

Wow, they scrapped it and then inserted it weeks earlier than it was originally intended to appear? That must have took some work to make everything after make sense.

It’s interesting to see the episode length on the 5 app as 35 minutes. I checked listings and 5 has the show airing for 35 minutes, 5 Star is 30. Is it just an extra 5 minutes of ads? 5 Star used to have more ad breaks than 5, maybe it’s switched?

Irene had looked up various causes of Alzheimer's and alcoholism was one which of course she focused on, but there are so many reasons why people develop it. TPTB will be able to say, hopefully, what may have brought it on and put her mind at rest. Yes, but I think the show could have very firmly laid the blame on her past drinking and imagine just how even more heartbreaking that might have been had she either not had the relapse or we’d seen her recent rehab fully play out on screen. I feel like an Alzheimers story could be given to any of the cast, but a diagnosis of Alcohol Related Dementia would have been a story they could only truly tell with Irene.

Given Irene’s suspected diagnosis of Alzheimers I wonder if they thought of going down the road of Alcohol Related Dementia, but thought her recent relapse may lessen the impact as imagine how this would play had Irene given up the drink, turned her life around for 30 years (aside from the relapse 10-15 years or so ago) only for it to take her life anyway. I guess the grog is still at play, but they don’t seem to be explicitly stating it.

The last renovation was when the new kitchen was installed and the back part of the set was lowered (no step up to the bedroom & bathroom), which I think was around 2016.

Kirby certainly got one of the best farewells in years, but I did laugh at Sonny seemingly having to drag her case all the way from the house and if so then the house having changed from being away from the lighthouse to towards it (based on Jesse reminding Flynn he was running the wrong way home when he moved from there to the Caravan Park). Also thought the same on the cases not going in the boot.