c120701

I think that might have seemed a little too forced.

I think Marilyn's amnesia story was such a missed opportunity for Pippa to return. When Leah/Roo called for backup, the obvious choice given Alf & Irene not being reachable/in the country was Pippa, so I was a little disappointed when Irene turned up, despite it giving us the Irene & Marilyn scenes we'd hoped for since Maz's return.

Was it just me or did Evie call Zac, Dad? I heard "Do you want a drink or something, Dad?"

First spot of the new windows on the 4th wall of Summer Bay House.

Is Irene meant to have had more than one Charger? It had changed colour between the photo she showed Claire being taken and it appearing on screen.

It's currently appearing in the Early Years as The Bayside Diner.

I couldn't help but laugh that it would now fit having the room at the bottom of the stairs that they've just got rid of.

The beach house made sense as an onscreen name when it was a share house. I'm not sure when Summer Bay House started being used more online, but I think it was after the house burnt down in real life. It's much like Leah's, which was referred to by Alf a few times as The Old Nash House, which stuck, but on screen it was otherwise just Travis's or Leah's.

Josh was in hospital during most of that, so I assume no one's told him.

Damien is Irene's eldest now? I'm assuming that isn't taking into account the actual eldest which would be the child she had before Nathan.

If Claire isn't Irene's daughter, what a waste of a casting. She could be Lynne McGranger's daughter, well, sister, but Irene was meant to have had her young.

So is Detective Carter's Dad, the other Detective Carter? There were a few lines where Morag was trying to reassure Leah or one of the kids that really didn't seem very Morag like to me, even in her last stints, she'd never make promises, or even reassurances, it would just be "we've got a strong case" or "it depends on..."

Thanks Dan.

Anyway, back to Irene. I've been thinking about her alcoholism and how she stayed sober for so long, which was probably helped by the lack of a licensed premises in the show's regular sets. From what I gathered it was a fair way to the nearest pub, which does make you wonder why so many tourists came to Summer Bay really, as most adults like a drink on holiday. It really does highlight a key difference between Home and Away of the 90s and now. In the 80s, Alf had his bottle shop and throughout the show we'd see people having a beer and occasionally wine or champagne for weddings, but I always thought it was strange that Home and Away never had a pub or bar which was a staple of other soaps. The show would have alcoholics though and I wonder if they deliberately didn't include one because they wanted to show Summer Bay as a safe haven for the foster kids, away from their troubled parents, with many having had drink problems. It's only since 2004 that we've had a regular bar set, although since Angelo's opened it's been primarily a restaurant, but we see people more often now turning to alcohol to resolve their problems.

Maybe it's an April Fools joke.

That doesn't sound like it would be Lynne & Alan, at least not taken in the context you've mentioned - as I recall they're old friends and Lynne used to use Fletch for her headshots. EDIT: I'm not sure where I got the headshot thing from, so maybe I'm confusing her with someone.

I noticed today there's a painting of what looked like The Blaxland hanging in the hall at Summer Bay House which is a nice touch.

Well done Chris, I think he summed up everything we all think about Hannah - sleeping her way around the bay.

So Leah couldn't go to Denny's funeral because she couldn't get to the City and back in a day? That didn't sit right in itself, but then Phoebe mentioned to Ash & Billie that Hannah was working that night and she'd gone. Kat was working that night too, so I wonder if she went. Don't get me started that none of the Braxtons seem to have gone, Phoebe not going is a bit odd, but I can understand her supporting Ash & Billie.

The reason off-screen was that it was that the bleach was killing Lynne's hair, she's mentioned it in a couple of interviews.

Straight away they go and ruin it by Leah declaring that Zac is the love of her life... So what were Vinnie and Dan, chopped liver? Charlotte's wedding crashing scene was great, I do love it when someone points out the hypocrisy of a town which welcomes visitors, then quickly closes ranks to protect their own from a troublemaker/bad egg when half of those being protected have dark secrets of their own. Irene looked awful before she had a drink. I think she must have been drinking when she did her eye makeup, or let Chris do it for her. It was fine on interior scenes, but on location at Summer Bay House it was terrible. Another reference to the rules of Irene's house! So whose was the hidden bottle of wine that Irene found if Chris is sticking to the rules? Nate's? It wasn't hers.

Today's episode was easily one of my favourite episodes in years, it wouldn't have seemed out of place in the 90s, the only thing it needed was more underscore and fewer commercial tracks. The scenes at the end with the residents of Summer Bay House preparing for the wedding, particularly Leah & Evie, Alf & VJ, Zac & Hunter and Leah & VJ were very strong scenes, but they would've been really powerful with some strong score.

I thought they stopped ages ago as they had them to download from the website.

Evelyn's bedroom has moved back to the correct position off the landing it seems, which just begs the question of whether VJ was coming out of his bedroom or the bathroom wearing the towel. If it's his bedroom it means they're in the original positions. Of course that means that Tank jumped out of the wrong side of the house.

Oh, I just saw the exterior in the ep after I posted that. It made more sense then. I wasn't sure if it was meant to be the attic room at first until I saw outside the bedroom door.